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Title: An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland by H. Paul Jeffers ISBN: 0-380-97746-X Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pub. Date: 30 May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (21 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: What We Need Now
Comment: This work by H. Paul Jeffers is one of two recent accounts of Grover Cleveland's spectacular life. President Cleveland was the only elected Democrat between the Civil War and the first World War. He was a conservative in that he advocated fiscal responsibility, but was a liberal in that he advocated reform. He worked hand in hand with Republican reformers like Theodore Roosevelt who wanted clean government regardless of the political costs. He advocated a strong defense without the bullying aspects that McKinley and Roosevelt followed. He worked hard for consolidation between broken southern dreams and Unionist aspirations. He sought unity in all things especially in labor disputes which marred his presidency. He was not a puritan. He was responsible for a child out of wedlock, but he took responsibility for that and provided for the child's well-being. He enjoyed his cigars and his alcohol, but his sobor guidance made this country a better place to live in as he took on corruption wherever he faced it. His two divided terms never stopped his desire to accomplish building a newly growing America. This book is written for the common man who wants a slice of life in the gilded age. Cleveland's gold was however his personality and his dedication to honesty in government. He's a rare jewel in America's politics in this degraded age. We were lucky to have him and he made the country a better place. Can we say that about our current leaders? We need a Grover Cleveland now.
Rating: 3
Summary: Painless Backgrounder
Comment: Jeffers provides a painless background on one of the least-remembered Presidents for those who need to fill in the blank spots of their US history timelines. The writing is fluent and the narrative moves quickly. But the book is not for scholars. Important issues of the times, including the Financial Panic of 1893, the free-silver movement, Hawaii and the imperialist impulse, and the growth of organized labor are covered in a few passages or pages. I especially found the discussion of Cleveland's racial attitudes and civil rights policies insufficient; for a President governing during the implementation of Jim Crow, more than a few paragraphs about the issue were warranted. For detailed discussions of those important historical issues, the reader will have to go to more specialized sources.
Rating: 2
Summary: Too Reverential
Comment: Something is missing from this picture -- a two-time president, three-time presidential nominee and former New York governor who "never, ever" trimmed his sails for expediency, was "always" honest and consistently stuck to his convictions no matter the political cost? Not credible. To read this book one would think that Grover Cleveland was literally the second coming. The portrait is overly worshipful, completely one-sided, and ultimately unpersuasive. In particular, attempts at comparison to Bill Clinton and "Zippergate" (as the author calls it) fall totally flat and are completely gratuitous. There is little real analysis here, and too much regurgitation of what prior biographers have written.
I don't doubt that Cleveland was a unique politician, a man well-positioned in his time to take advantage of the public's increasing distaste for the spoils system and the fractional and petty squabbles that marked the Republican party from 1868-84 (Stalwarts vs. Half Breeds, Conkling vs. Blaine, Garfield vs. Conkling, etc). The early chapters on Cleveland's meteoric rise from an obscure sheriff to mayor of Buffalo to governor of New York to president in a few short years are fairly interesting. But Cleveland the man, particularly during his two presidential terms, comes across as a wooden, cardboard figure; no real flavor or insight into his personality and character emerges. Some biographies are too heavy on psycho-babble, maybe this book could have used some of that.
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Title: Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris Jr. ISBN: 0743223861 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: William McKinley : (The American Presidents Series) (American Presidents) by Kevin Phillips, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069534 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves ISBN: 0945707037 Publisher: American Political Biography Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1991 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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Title: Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman by Kendrick A. Clements, Kendrick, A. Clements ISBN: 1566632676 Publisher: Ivan R Dee, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans L. Trefousse ISBN: 0393317420 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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