Roger Bishop

NonfictionMilitary HistoryHistory

Keeping the dogs of war at bay

Review by Roger Bishop

In 1952, with the Cold War beginning and a hot war raging in Korea, American voters sought a leader whose foreign policy could bring peace and security. Toward that end, they elected war hero Dwight Eisenhower as their president. With an escalating nuclear arms race, Ike found he was the first person in history with the power to destroy the world. As Evan Thomas demonstrates in his riveting Ike’s Bluff, the new president’s single most important preoccupation was avoiding war. How he did it, with subtlety and a pragmatic approach, is the focus of the book.

At the heart of Eisenhower’s strategy on nuclear weapons was confidentiality—he was the only person who knew whether he would drop the bomb. His ability to convince the enemies of the U.S. as well as his own supporters that he would use nuclear weapons was, Thomas writes, “a bluff of epic proportions.” To do this required extraordinary patience and self-discipline.

As Thomas points out, “Eisenhower’s critical insight was that nuclear warfare had made war itself the enemy.”

Thomas shows that Eisenhower’s approach to nuclear weapons would have worked only for him, a highly respected and popular military hero. As Thomas writes, “Ike was more comfortable as a soldier, yet his greatest victories were the wars he did not fight.”

In 1952, with the Cold War beginning and a hot war raging in Korea, American voters sought a leader whose foreign policy could bring peace and security. Toward that end, they elected war hero Dwight Eisenhower as their president. With an escalating nuclear arms race,…

NonfictionHistoryBiographyAmerican History

The victories and failures of our sixth president

Review by Roger Bishop

In 1825, when John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States, he appeared to be as well prepared for the job as anyone could be. A son of the nation’s second president, he was well educated at Harvard; as secretary of state, he wrote what became known as the Monroe Doctrine; and as a U.S. senator, he broke with his party and supported the Louisiana Purchase. Despite this illustrious background, he proved to be the most ineffective president in early American history.

His presidency failed in part because of his own missteps (his inability to relate to the ordinary citizen) and partly by the efforts of his political opponents (primarily supporters of Andrew Jackson). Still, his independence and political courage were remarkable, especially his post-presidential opposition to slavery. Harlow Giles Unger captures the many sides of Adams and his era in the superb John Quincy Adams. A key source is the diary that Adams kept from the age of 10 until his late 70s—14,000 pages in all.

First elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1802, Adams was regarded as such a nuisance in his home state that his colleagues elected him to the U.S. Senate to get rid of him for at least six years. Instead, Unger writes, Adams began to shock “the nation’s entire political establishment with what became a courageous, lifelong crusade against injustice.”

On his first day in the House of Representatives (the only president who went on to serve in that body), Adams presented 15 petitions calling for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. It was a stunning breach of decorum in a body forbidden by its rules to speak of abolition. In a famous case, he later defended 36 Africans who had been prisoners on the slave ship Amistad.

Eloquent, irritating and fiercely committed to his work, John Quincy Adams lived an extraordinary life, and Unger tells his story convincingly in this compelling narrative.

In 1825, when John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States, he appeared to be as well prepared for the job as anyone could be. A son of the nation’s second president, he was well educated at Harvard; as secretary of state,…

NonfictionMemoir

Through the eyes of Churchill’s daughter

Review by Roger Bishop

Winston Churchill played many roles during his extraordinary life. In addition to being one of the 20th century’s great leaders, he was also the father of five children. The youngest and only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, Mary Soames, now almost 90, takes us into their rarefied world and gives us an intimate view of her parents and their times in A Daughter’s Tale.

Soames describes in rich detail the “lovely life” of her childhood at Chartwell, the family home, where she kept many animals—cats, dogs, lambs and goats, among others. A highlight of those years were the elaborately staged Chartwell Christmases, which usually ran over into the new year. Prominent public figures were frequent visitors; one of Soames’ favorites was T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).

Soames bonded with her father over their love of animals and the outdoors. But he was not deeply involved in what she calls the “small print” of her life. Her parents were often absent from home or otherwise engaged. Soames notes that there was a “tug-of-love”; Winston loved his children but always wanted Clementine to be with him. Still, the author demonstrates the love between parents and daughter in charming letters between them.

Instead of being presented at Court in 1941, as her mother had predicted, Soames enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She was involved in serious defense work and her father was proud of her for it.

This absorbing memoir gives us glimpses of Mary’s opinions about such public figures as Franklin Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle. But she also tells us a lot about people who were important to her but are lost to history. This wonderful memoir would be of interest not only to those who want to learn more about the Churchills, but to anyone who wants to read an engaging memoir about an impressive young woman.

Winston Churchill played many roles during his extraordinary life. In addition to being one of the 20th century’s great leaders, he was also the father of five children. The youngest and only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, Mary Soames, now almost 90, takes…

HistoryAmerican History

Summer ‘Snow-Storm’ highlights Washington’s racial divide

Review by Roger Bishop

During the period from 1800 to 1835, what was then called Washington City underwent significant social change with regard to slavery. It came to offer more opportunities for free African Americans than any other place in the country, with the possible exception of New Orleans. In 1800 when the city was established, enslaved people outnumbered free blacks by four-to-one. By 1830, free blacks outnumbered those enslaved. Of course, this was also the national capital for slaveholders, and slave trafficking was a thriving enterprise.

In 1829, Beverly Snow, a recently freed slave with extraordinary talents, arrived from Lynchburg, Virginia. He had exceptional cooking skills and a friendly, outgoing manner of wit and charm. After several years of hard work he realized his dream to own and operate his own elegant restaurant, Snow’s Epicurean Eating House. A keen business sense and an amazing ability for promotion helped the restaurant to become an incredibly successful venture. His customers included some of the nation’s most influential people, and the restaurant offered a convivial atmosphere for people of both races.

Snow’s story by itself is fascinating to read, but it is only a small part of a deeply disturbing series of events that occurred in 1835 and involved in key roles the lyricist of “The Star Spangled Banner” and the president of the United States. Jefferson Morley masterfully tells the story (it is really several stories) in his absorbing Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835. This book reminds us how deeply entrenched proslavery forces were in the nation’s capital and what a struggle it was for African Americans to receive justice and for abolitionists to be heard.

Arthur Bowen was an 18-year-old slave owned by Anna Thornton, the widow of William Thornton, who had been architect of the U.S. Capitol. One night in August, Arthur, intoxicated and influenced by talk about freedom, carried an ax into a bedroom where Mrs. Thornton, her mother and Arthur’s mother were asleep. Although the women were awakened when the door opened and no one was harmed, Arthur was arrested and tried for attempted murder. Within days, Reuben Crandall, a white man with a medical background, was arrested for “exhibiting and circulating dangerous and insurrectionary writings.”

These arrests led to the beginning of what became Washington’s first race riot when a mob, composed primarily of poor white men and boys, took to the streets. They were unable to get inside the jail to lynch the prisoners, but the next day, after spreading an unverifiable, unflattering rumor about Snow, they focused on trashing his restaurant. This explains the use of “Snow Riot” or “Snow-Storm” to describe the mob’s actions. As Morley points out, the rioters chose their targets carefully. Their anger was directed toward the small group of black men who were doing the most to change the slave system.

The prosecutor in both criminal cases was Francis Scott Key, who served for seven years as the city’s district attorney. He had grown up on the family plantation with many slaves. He was personally incapable of brutality and freed seven of his own slaves. Key saw himself as a humanitarian and early in his career defended African Americans in court. But he regarded them as inferior people who could not cope with freedom. He was a founder of the American Colonization Society, which believed that African emigration would end slavery here. An important aspect of his job as district attorney was to keep white men from losing their human property. It should be noted as well that Key’s brother-in-law and one of his best friends was Roger Taney, who as chief justice of the Supreme Court is best known for his role in the 1856 Dred Scott decision.

Anna Thornton, the alleged victim in the incident that helped spark the rioting, stands out as a courageous person who went to great lengths to see that as much justice as possible under the circumstances was done. A respected socialite who owned other slaves, she used every means she could to save Arthur’s life, including appeals to President Andrew Jackson.

Morley, the Washington correspondent for Salon, was both an editor and reporter for The Washington Post and The New Republic, among other publications. He is also the author of Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA. His important and well-told story of the “Snow-Storm” is an enlightening account of racial tension in pre-Civil War America.

During the period from 1800 to 1835, what was then called Washington City underwent significant social change with regard to slavery. It came to offer more opportunities for free African Americans than any other place in the country, with the possible exception of New Orleans.…

HistoryAmerican History

A dramatic tale of politics, morals and slavery

Review by Roger Bishop

The 10-month struggle in the U.S. Congress in 1850 to resolve questions about the status of the new territories gained in the Mexican War and the future of slavery in present-day New Mexico and Utah could have turned out differently. In reading the officially reported speeches given by a quite diverse group of senators, who felt passionately about their beliefs, one feels that secession by Southern states and the war with the North was imminent.

Three legendary figures in American history—Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun (who was in ill health and died during the session)—participated in the debate. Clay’s leadership was crucial. His Omnibus bill, as it was most often called, proposed eight resolutions that, taken together, he said, represented “a great national scheme of compromise and harmony.” But Clay’s approach unraveled, and Senator Stephen Douglas adroitly saw that the larger proposal was divided into individual bills on which congressmen could vote (or abstain) based on their political interests.

Fergus M. Bordewich brings this dramatic Washington, D.C., setting—as well as California, Texas, New Mexico, New York and Cuba, among other places—to illuminating life in America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union. The difficulties of the Congress became apparent when it took 63 roll call ballots to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the Senate there were both proslavery and antislavery Whigs and Democrats and slave owners who were Unionists. At one extreme, Jefferson Davis said that human bondage was fully justified by the Bible, validated by the U.S. Constitution and a blessing for the slaves themselves. William Seward, on the other hand, declared there was a “higher law than the Constitution”: God’s law that commanded Christians to disobey laws they considered unjust, in particular those that upheld slavery. Bordewich notes that in the 20th century, civil disobedience on moral grounds would become familiar, but in 1850 Americans on all sides thought such behavior would lead to anarchy.

The author also focuses on the two presidents who served during this period. Zachary Taylor agreed to run as the Whig candidate for president with the understanding that he would be independent of party demands. He refused to campaign at all or to express views on perennial issues. As president, it developed that he was opposed to a compromise. But he died on July 9, and his successor, Millard Fillmore, was in favor of the compromise. Bordewich sees Fillmore as the “most elusive” of all the central figures in the debate. His political base in New York state was a center of Underground Railroad activity and he detested slavery. He saw it, though, as a political problem rather than a moral one and thought the federal government did not have the authority to be for or against it.

Fillmore immediately signed all of the bills that were part of the Compromise except for the Fugitive Slave Act, a drastic overhaul of what many in the South regarded as the ineffectual 1793 law of the same name. He hesitated and perhaps agonized over it for two days before signing it into law. It may have been as much a political calculation as anything else, as he planned to run for the presidency in 1852 and had to consider whether it would be wiser for him to offend the North or the South. As events went forward, Bordewich notes that the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill “would have a more far-reaching impact on the nation’s slavery crisis problem than any other facet of the compromise.”

At the end of the day, California was admitted to the Union as a free state, the New Mexico and Utah territories were created with the issue of slavery to be resolved by popular sovereignty, a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute was settled in favor of Texas, slave trading was ended in Washington, D.C., and there was the harsh Fugitive Slave Law, which the author considers “the single most intrusive assertion of federal authority enacted during the antebellum period.” And, of course, the Compromise held until the Civil War.

Bordewich, whose other books include Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America and Washington: The Making of the American Capital, has written a rich work that transports us back to a time when leaders realized that only compromise would hold the Union together.

The 10-month struggle in the U.S. Congress in 1850 to resolve questions about the status of the new territories gained in the Mexican War and the future of slavery in present-day New Mexico and Utah could have turned out differently. In reading the officially reported…

Biography

LBJ at the helm: ruthless and masterful

Review by Roger Bishop

When Lyndon Johnson was a teenager, in a family of modest means, he predicted that some day he was going to be president of the United States. In the fourth volume of Robert Caro’s superlative multi-volume biography, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, this one titled The Passage of Power, Johnson reaches that office but only because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Caro’s narrative grabs us from the beginning and, with his meticulous research and insight, shows how the two hugely ambitious and competitive politicians dealt with each other in a town where gaining and using power is the name of the game. Although there are forays into other areas, the author tells essentially two stories. The first story deals with the period from late 1958, when Johnson began to think seriously about gaining the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination for himself, and ends when President Kennedy is killed. LBJ agreed to be JFK’s running mate, although, pragmatist that he was, he remained on the ballot in Texas as a candidate for his Senate seat. He endured three years of humiliation and embarrassment as vice president. The second story begins when Johnson masterfully takes charge and details his presidential leadership, including very significant legislative achievements, in particular a historic civil rights bill, during the first seven weeks after he became president. The period covered in this volume is no doubt one of the high points of Johnson’s career.

Political biography doesn’t get any better than what Caro does. When I interviewed him for BookPage in 1990 on the occasion of the publication of the second of his LBJ volumes, Means of Ascent, he said he would cover his subject in four volumes. But as his research, including interviews with many participants, has continued, Caro has uncovered important details that make his books indispensable to anyone interested in how LBJ gained and used political power, and he wants to share them with his readers. With the rest of the 1961-1965 presidential term to be completed, the 1964 presidential election triumph, the Vietnam War and his decision to not run again, there may be more than one additional volume to be written.

Caro always shows us the many sides of LBJ. He could be “crude, coarse, ruthless, often cruel” and had a penchant for deception and secrecy. But he could also be cool and decisive under pressure, as he demonstrated in the weeks following the assassination. He was definitely a political genius, a legislative strategist and tactician of the highest order. This book is filled with examples of his mastery in this regard, but it is especially shown by LBJ’s approaches to senators Harry Byrd and Everett Dirksen when he needed their help in moving legislation forward. While Caro is well aware of how power can corrupt, he also believes it is equally true that power reveals a politician’s deepest commitments. In LBJ’s case, this led, despite his friendship with Southern senators who were opposed, to his vigorous effort to pass the 1964 civil rights bill. LBJ went on to introduce other groundbreaking progressive legislation, including the War on Poverty.

After Johnson retired from the presidency, he said, “The one thing I feared from the first day of my presidency” was that Robert Kennedy would announce “his intention to reclaim the throne in memory of his brother.” Caro details the LBJ-RFK relationship, based on mutual distrust, disdain and hatred. The author notes the opposition by some liberal groups and their disappointment at the 1960 Democratic convention to Johnson’s nomination as JFK’s vice presidential choice. But he discounts Robert’s contention that his brother did not really want Johnson on the ticket. JFK’s close aide and speechwriter Theodore Sorensen acknowledged that Kennedy had “gambled” on LBJ and the “gamble paid off.” The presidential race was so close that, without Johnson as his running mate, Kennedy would have lost the election to Richard Nixon.

Caro concludes that in the seven weeks after assuming the presidency, Johnson did much more than give the country continuity and reassurance. He achieved those objectives masterfully. But in addition, he used the momentum brought on by JFK’s death to launch what he envisioned as the transformation of American society, a pivotal moment in the history of the United States, a time to launch a crusade for social justice on a grand new scale.

There is much more to come. We eagerly look forward to Caro’s next volume.

 

When Lyndon Johnson was a teenager, in a family of modest means, he predicted that some day he was going to be president of the United States. In the fourth volume of Robert Caro’s superlative multi-volume biography, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, this one titled…

NonfictionBiography

Two men who helped shape our postwar nation

Review by Roger Bishop

During the pivotal immediate post-World War II period—the beginning of the Cold War and the dawn of the age of nuclear weapons—the U.S. was led by two quite different presidents from the Middle West. Their decisions during the nearly 16 years of their presidencies affected the lives of millions of people for decades to come. William Lee Miller, perhaps best known for his two acclaimed Abraham Lincoln volumes, Lincoln’s Virtues and President Lincoln, compares and contrasts the public and private lives of these two men in his well-researched and wonderfully readable Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World.

The interweaving between Miller’s two subjects, their similarities and differences, makes for fascinating reading. A scholarship to West Point took Dwight Eisenhower away from Abilene, Kansas; eventually he found great success as a commander in World War II. A lack of money kept Harry Truman from attending college. But unlike Eisenhower, who remained in the United States during World War I training officers and learning much about tank warfare, Truman left the family farm near Grandview, Missouri, and volunteered for the army. He served with distinction as a captain in a field artillery unit in France, and his service in the war became the foundation for his leadership of a Senate committee investigating war production abuses. Truman was a lifelong politician and a candidate eight times at the county, state and national levels. Eisenhower disdained politicians and, as far as we know, did not vote in any election until he was almost 60 years old. That refusal to vote was a tradition among the army’s officer class.

At the same time, both men had Franklin Delano Roosevelt to thank for their elevated roles at key moments in history. When James Roosevelt, FDR’s son, asked his father why he had chosen Eisenhower to command the D-Day operation, FDR replied that “Eisenhower is the best politician among the military men,” a “natural leader” who could convince others to follow him. Miller writes that Eisenhower’s performance at that time was the supreme moment in his career, much greater than anything he achieved as president. As for Truman, FDR had several other options for his running mate in 1944, but he dropped his sitting vice president, Henry Wallace, from the ticket, passed over Senator James Byrnes, who was regarded as the likely choice, and, after meeting with Democratic Party leaders, agreed to their consensus selection of Truman.

Until the presidential campaign of 1952 the two men appeared to have a positive working relationship. But during that campaign, the relationship soured. Candidate Eisenhower criticized foreign policy positions that he had helped to develop during the Truman administration, and in a campaign appearance, he was convinced, for political reasons, to delete from a speech a paragraph praising General George Marshall, Truman’s former secretary of state, who had been instrumental in advancing Ike’s career. Truman believed that the omission was a “shameful” and disloyal decision.

Miller has an especially insightful chapter on the subject of race. His conclusion is that Eisenhower finished what Truman started with regard to integrating the federal workforce and the armed forces. When the latter established his extraordinary Committee on Civil Rights, the first such body in American history, in 1946, its report recommended actions that were to come in the next 20 years. Miller also considers public perceptions of the two men’s legacies. A chapter on judging the two presidencies notes that despite his incredibly low public opinion ratings when he left office, Truman continues to be ranked among those past presidents now termed “great,” while Eisenhower has been steadily gaining ground, showing up now among the “near great” occupants of the office.

In Two Americans, Miller’s masterful ability to combine biography, history and analysis is consistently compelling and a delight to read.

During the pivotal immediate post-World War II period—the beginning of the Cold War and the dawn of the age of nuclear weapons—the U.S. was led by two quite different presidents from the Middle West. Their decisions during the nearly 16 years of their presidencies affected…

Biography

A new look at the ‘father of the Constitution’

Review by Roger Bishop

James Madison remains one of the most important political thinkers in American history. His eloquently expressed opinions and leadership were indispensable to the development of the young republic and remain crucial and relevant to our lives today, yet some of his many contributions in a long career are often misunderstood or even forgotten. Fortunately, Kevin R. C. Gutzman, relying for the most part on primary sources, gives us an authoritative, vivid and wide-ranging exploration of Madison’s public career in James Madison and the Making of America.

Madison is often called “the father of the Constitution,” and he certainly was a major figure in its drafting and ratification by the states as well as its implementation. Gutzman makes all of this activity come alive in such a way that it is easy to imagine you are watching it firsthand. Before the 1787 Philadelphia Convention Madison engaged in research, reading deeply in ancient, medieval and modern writings on history and politics, and was the chief note-taker for the proceedings. Considering that he was a leader, thinker and orator who spoke more than 200 times himself, this last role seems almost impossible. A delegate from Georgia, who was neither his ally nor his opponent, described Madison as a combination of a profound politician and scholar and the best-informed man in every debate. But Madison himself was not enthusiastic about the prospects for the Convention before it started and remained ambivalent about its value after it was over. In a letter to his close friend Thomas Jefferson recounting the entire session, Madison described how difficult it had been to reconcile different views, by far the most difficult being how to resolve the division of powers between the federal government and the states. He felt that without a federal veto of state laws and with members of the Senate elected by state legislature, the Constitution was bound to fail.

Despite Madison’s major role with the Constitutional Convention, Gutzman thinks that his greatest accomplishment was his work with Jefferson on the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Madison felt strongly about the separation of church and state, writing that for legislators to overstep the bounds of their authority and try to regulate religion would make them “tyrants.” Gutzman emphasizes that freedom of religion, freedom to emancipate one’s slaves and free trade were critical elements in Madison’s overview of society and government.

Gutzman gives a careful analysis of Madison’s major contributions to The Federalist Papers and a riveting account of the debate for ratification in Virginia. Madison had never felt the necessity for a bill of rights as part of the Constitution. When he finally did propose what evolved into the Bill of Rights, there was contentious legislative activity, but its adoption seemed far less momentous than we regard it today.

A perfect example of the high esteem in which Madison was held came right at the beginning of the new government. It was Madison who drafted his friend George Washington’s first inaugural address. Madison also drafted the House response and then the Senate’s response to that address—and he also drafted Washington’s responses to the House and Senate.

Gutzman points out that “Madison was at his best in mastering large bodies of data, in synthesizing extensive bodies of information, in wrestling measures through parliamentary assemblies.” As Jefferson’s secretary of state and as president, Madison did have some successes, but his most significant achievements had come earlier as thinker and legislative strategist. Madison’s presidency is usually remembered for the British burning of the White House and the Capitol during the War of 1812.

James Madison and the Making of America is a solid and insightful biography that should appeal to both those readers who know a lot about Madison and those who want an introduction to him.

James Madison remains one of the most important political thinkers in American history. His eloquently expressed opinions and leadership were indispensable to the development of the young republic and remain crucial and relevant to our lives today, yet some of his many contributions in a…

NonfictionBiography

Ike for the ages

Review by Roger Bishop

Who was Dwight Eisenhower? His extraordinary leadership of the Allied forces in Europe led to victory in World War II. Under his presidency the nation enjoyed eight years of peace and prosperity. Yet several years after his death, when his widow Mamie was asked whether she felt she had really known him, she replied, “I’m not sure anyone did.” Jean Edward Smith, whose last book was the best-selling FDR, explores the public and personal life of the man he regards, second to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as the most successful U.S. president in the 20th century in his absorbing Eisenhower in War and Peace.

Eisenhower wrote of himself: “I’m just folks. I come from the people, the ordinary people.” Smith goes behind such statements and perhaps comes as close as a biographer can in capturing those qualities of personality and judgment during his military career that so impressed his superiors. His affability and common sense enabled him to deal effectively with such strong personalities as Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, his longtime friend George Patton, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. Early in his career, Eisenhower worked with General John Pershing and General Douglas MacArthur; the latter found Ike so indispensable to him in Washington as a speechwriter and in other ways that he requested that he go with him to duty in the Philippines.

Smith emphasizes that Ike was not a battlefield commander, nor a great soldier, but outstanding as a theater commander and military statesman. He also had exceptional ability as an executive and knew how to assume ultimate responsibility and yet delegate to others. Among the many achievements of his life, Smith discusses his crucial role in the formation of NATO, his presidency at Columbia University and his “behind-the-scenes” approach in dealing with Senator Joe McCarthy’s abuse of power.

One clue to Eisenhower’s successes comes from his belief that his mother had by far the greatest personal influence on him and his brothers. All four of his remaining brothers (another had died as a child) agreed that Ike was the most like their mother. In contrast to their rather distant father, she was the constant presence who organized their lives, soothed them if necessary, praised their achievements and could often see the humor in virtually every difficult situation. When General Dwight Eisenhower was hailed as an international hero at the end of WWII, a newsman asked her if she was proud of her son. “Which one?” she responded.

As president, Eisenhower was a fiscal conservative, but he was not an ideologue of any kind. He was for a balanced budget but also aware of the need for such significant public works projects as the St. Lawrence Seaway and the interstate highway system, the largest public works project ever attempted. Among other initiatives, he expanded Social Security in 1954 to provide coverage for an additional 10 million self-employed farmers, doctors and others; he established the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and he approved funds to provide the Salk polio vaccine to the nation’s underprivileged children. He said that the decision to send federal troops to Little Rock to enforce the law regarding integration of the schools was the hardest he’d ever had to make except for the decision to go ahead with D-Day.

Meticulously researched, Smith’s book gives us a fresh and insightful understanding of the many aspects of Eisenhower’s full life.

Who was Dwight Eisenhower? His extraordinary leadership of the Allied forces in Europe led to victory in World War II. Under his presidency the nation enjoyed eight years of peace and prosperity. Yet several years after his death, when his widow Mamie was asked whether…

NonfictionHistory

America’s cornerstone debate

Review by Roger Bishop

When Roger Williams was born in England, probably in 1603, the feudal system was dying, capitalism was being born and there were rivalries with other countries. Religion did not offer solace. The interpretation and understanding of the Christian faith was a major source of conflict. Within a 25-year period, England went from Catholic rule to Protestant, then back to Catholic and back to Protestant. To guarantee loyalty, Parliament required all officeholders, all priests and all university students to swear an Oath of Supremacy to the monarch as “the only supreme Governor of the Realm . . . as well as in all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things.” Parliament’s Act of Uniformity required all subjects to attend weekly worship at their parish church. Failure to attend worship or refusing to participate in the full liturgy was a crime and a subversive act.

Widely praised historian John M. Barry, author of the best-selling The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, states at the outset of his magnificent new book that it is “a story about power.” Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty is the absorbing narrative of the personal and intellectual journey of the scholarly and pious Puritan minister who became a tireless advocate for the separation of church and state. Exiled into the wilderness for his beliefs and his refusal to keep his dissent private, he established Providence as a haven for those persecuted for their religious beliefs and created the world’s first democracy.

Barry details the lasting influence on Williams, in quite different ways, of Sir Edward Coke and Sir Francis Bacon and the rarefied circles in which they moved. Coke, perhaps the greatest jurist in English history, was a mentor to the much younger Williams, whom he hired to take notes in shorthand. Coke held an extraordinary number of key offices and made seminal contributions to the law that we take for granted. He displayed the courage to challenge even the Crown if he believed it to be wrong. Williams would not forget Coke’s strong emphasis on the rights of the individual, best recognized in one of his judicial decrees: “Every Englishman’s home is as his castle.” Coke and Bacon were bitter political rivals, and the latter’s influence on Williams was quite different. From him Williams learned the importance of reaching conclusions based on evidence from the real world, a valuable insight in a society where many were guided more by religious beliefs or preconceived notions.

Barry uses extensive excerpts from the writings of Williams and his contemporaries to illustrate their various points of view. He shows, for example, how conformity was in many ways at the heart of John Winthrop’s famous sermon that refers to “a citty [Winthrop’s spelling] upon a hill.” Massachusetts was a purpose-driven society and its purpose was to advance God’s interests on the earth. If not a theocracy, the community was theocentric. Before any major decisions were made, the governor and other leaders listened to the opinions of the leading ministers. Massachusetts tolerated private dissent but it demanded public conformity to the perceived will of God.

It is important to emphasize that Williams and Winthrop shared the same theology, a belief that the Bible was the Word of God, and the same devotion to Christ, and they believed that Christ would be coming back to the earth soon. But Williams was not one to conform; he believed a society could not advance without asking questions. As a serious biblical scholar, he was able to correct and reinterpret passages of Scripture to counter the arguments of his adversaries.

What was new in Williams’ greatest work, The Bloody Tenent, was the break between the material world and the spiritual world and the conclusions he reached about politics and religion. He proposed not just “Soul Libertie,” the essence of individual freedom, but went beyond that to a theory of the state that leads to a democratic society. This was written at a time when neither church leaders nor members of Parliament were advocating democracy. In the same book Williams made his original and revolutionary claim that it was the people who were sovereign.

This rich work by a master historian enlightens on every page.

When Roger Williams was born in England, probably in 1603, the feudal system was dying, capitalism was being born and there were rivalries with other countries. Religion did not offer solace. The interpretation and understanding of the Christian faith was a major source of conflict.…

Biography

A diplomat and an intellectual in the Cold War

Review by Roger Bishop

An admiring Henry Kissinger noted in 1979 that “George Kennan came as close to authoring the diplomatic doctrine of his era as any diplomat in our history.” The origins of what became known as America’s Cold War policy of “containment” began with Kennan’s “long telegram” from the U.S. embassy in Moscow in February 1946 to his superiors in Washington. A much larger audience read his essay dealing with the same subject, in which the author was identified only as “Mr. X,” in the June 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs.

The 5,000-word telegram was provoked by a speech by Josef Stalin. The Soviet dictator congratulated his army, party, government, nation and, by implication, himself, on winning World War II. He only briefly mentioned his British and American allies and talked of increasing industrial production in his country because of capitalism’s tendency to produce conflict, as, he said, it had in 1914 and 1939.

Kennan, officially second in command at the embassy, was temporarily in charge as Ambassador Averell Harriman had departed and a new ambassador had not yet arrived. A keen observer of events in the U.S.S.R., steeped in Russian history and literature, as well as Marxist-Leninist ideology, Kennan’s telegram contained a brilliant analysis of where the U.S.S.R. government stood and what strategy could be devised to combat it peacefully. What came to be known as the “containment” policy was interpreted in different ways by others over the years. In his memoirs Kennan lamented that it had been applied to “situations to which it has, and can have, no proper relevance.”

The telegram was only one aspect of an incredibly long and productive life. Among other achievements, Kennan played a key role in the formation of the Marshall Plan and later served as U.S. ambassador to both the U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia. As a policy strategist at the highest levels of government, he often disagreed with his colleagues. Later, as what we would today call a public intellectual, he was often critical of U.S. foreign policy and American culture. One of the lingering paradoxes of Kennan’s life was that he understood the Soviet Union better than he did the United States.

With such a distinguished career as a diplomat it may come as a surprise that, at least as early as 1934, Kennan wanted to become a writer. As noted Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis points out in his outstanding and surely definitive biography, George F. Kennan: An American Life, when Kennan was a student at Princeton University, “Literature, inside and outside of class, sparked [his] greatest interest, especially contemporary American novels.” Just as he was graduating, The Great Gatsby was published and, Kennan said later, “it went right into me and became part of me.” Kennan did go on to become an acclaimed author with two volumes of memoirs and works of history such as Russia Leaves the War. He received two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards and the Bancroft Prize for his literary works.

Gaddis began working on this book almost 30 years ago. He conducted many interviews with Kennan, who lived to be 101 and died in 2005, members of his family and former colleagues. He was given access to Kennan’s papers, including his diaries, even a diary of Kennan’s dreams. Poetry by Kennan is included. Kennan understood that the book would not be published until after his death.

Kennan was a complex personality, and Gaddis does a masterful job of sifting through diaries and letters and recollections of those around him to establish what his true feelings may have been at any particular time. The biographer singles out three aspects of Kennan’s character which began to take shape when he was a young diplomat and would be retained for the rest of his life. One was his professionalism, both as a diplomat and as a historian. Secondly, there was a cultural pessimism (could what he regarded as “Western civilization” survive the challenges to it from outside forces and its own internal contradictions?). Thirdly, there was personal anguish and self-doubt. Gaddis also discusses his subject’s personal religious faith and is very good at showing what a stabilizing force Kennan’s wife, Annelise, was in his sometimes tumultuous life.

This excellent work brings us as close as we are likely to get to the life of an important American foreign policy strategist and historian.

An admiring Henry Kissinger noted in 1979 that “George Kennan came as close to authoring the diplomatic doctrine of his era as any diplomat in our history.” The origins of what became known as America’s Cold War policy of “containment” began with Kennan’s “long telegram”…

NonfictionBiography

Ten tales of Manifest Destiny

Review by Roger Bishop

Robert Morgan is keenly aware that there are many ways to interpret the westward expansion of the United States of America. He concedes that much of it was tragic, yet, he recognizes the poetry of the westward vision of Thomas Jefferson and others who advocated for exploration and settlement of the West. In telling this complex story, Morgan follows Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “There is properly no history; only biography.”

In his fascinating, magnificent Lions of the West, Morgan, the author of such powerful fiction as Gap Creek and the acclaimed bestseller Boone: A Biography, gives us a fresh view of 10 men who, depending on one’s perspective, were heroes, villains or both. Besides Jefferson, the others are Andrew Jackson, David Crockett, James K. Polk, Sam Houston, John Chapman (aka “Johnny Appleseed”), Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, John Quincy Adams and Nicholas Trist. Drawing on his careful research and his exceptional gifts as a storyteller, Morgan writes with an enviable clarity that makes personalities, issues and events come alive on the page.

Thomas Jefferson, more than any other leader or thinker of his time, understood that the future of the nation would come from the westward movement—a view not shared by the Federalists, who felt that bringing in the Western territories would degrade the quality of the young nation. Morgan notes that settling the West diverted the country’s attention from the enduring and tragic dilemma of slavery. Jefferson, a prominent slave owner, idealistically reflected that if slavery were diffused over a greater area, perhaps it would die a natural death.

Morgan deftly interweaves the stories of his primary subjects as they interacted with one another and with others who played key roles in claiming the West. Old Hickory, as Andrew Jackson was called, was a mentor to James K. Polk, known as Young Hickory, a consummate politician. Obsessed with secrecy, considered duplicitous and spiteful, Polk saw westward expansion as a measure of the country’s greatness. By declaring war on Mexico in 1846, he would not only change the shape and size of the U.S., but “he would change the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch forever.” Another person close to Jackson was Sam Houston, the only man in American history to be governor of two states as well as president of another country, of whom Morgan writes, “Probably no major leader in American history ever veered more dramatically between extremes of failure and humiliation and victory and glory.”

One of the most compelling portraits is of the little-known Nicholas Trist, who married Jefferson’s granddaughter, Virginia Randolph, and served as private secretary to Jefferson, Jackson and James Madison. Intelligent and well educated, he was considered a failure at most things he attempted and is not remembered for the one great undisputed achievement of his life: He single-handedly negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the war with Mexico and gave the nation a third of the land that makes up the contiguous United States. Negotiating the treaty in the midst of war was difficult, but Trist earned the trust of the Mexican negotiators. His problems came instead from his own government. President Polk, for political reasons, had set the mission up for failure from the beginning and then officially recalled Trist just as the treaty was almost completed. But Trist decided to stay on and complete his work.

This authoritative and enlightening book engages the reader from the first page and holds our attention until the last.

Robert Morgan is keenly aware that there are many ways to interpret the westward expansion of the United States of America. He concedes that much of it was tragic, yet, he recognizes the poetry of the westward vision of Thomas Jefferson and others who advocated…

NonfictionHistoryArts & Culture

Extra! Extra! Breaking news on a newspaper dynasty

Review by Roger Bishop

Joseph Medill was one of the great journalists of 19th-century America. A fervent abolitionist, confidant of Lincoln and mayor of Chicago, his last words were reportedly, “What is the news this morning?” His descendants continued that tradition, playing extraordinary roles in shaping and transforming newspapers and other media well into the 20th century. As Megan McKinney demonstrates in her compulsively readable The Magnificent Medills, their achievements were accompanied by fierce competition, disappointment and tragedy, including alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide.

Joseph Medill moved to Chicago in 1855 to be part owner of the Chicago Daily Tribune and the paper’s managing editor. Many years later, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, three of his grandchildren, Cissy Patterson, Joseph Patterson and Robert McCormick, controlled the newspapers with the largest circulations in three of the country’s most important markets: New York, Chicago and Washington. They were carrying on their grandfather’s way of personal journalism—although they were leading their readers in different directions.

Joseph Patterson became a socialist, as well as a notable novelist and playwright. At the Tribune, he was responsible for the well-received Sunday edition and the development of the modern comic strip. He went on to create a new kind of newspaper, The New York Daily News, which became the most successful newspaper in the country’s history. He was a rock of support for his sister Cissy throughout her glamorous, though often troubled, life. First widely known as an international socialite, much later she became editor and publisher of the Washington Herald, in a city where she was well connected. Colonel Robert McCormick, meanwhile, remained at the Chicago Tribune. Almost alone, he designed the structure of the Tribune Company of his time, which thrived and allowed him to promote his very conservative political views.

Despite their different paths, the three grandchildren had much in common. McKinney describes each of them as “complex and eccentric, a product of atrocious parenting. The collective childhood of the cousins had created demons that would mature with time, leaving each with an insistent—and ultimately fatal—need for alcohol.”

With its backdrop of wealth and power, The Magnificent Medills reads almost like a rich historical novel. It just happens to be true.

Joseph Medill was one of the great journalists of 19th-century America. A fervent abolitionist, confidant of Lincoln and mayor of Chicago, his last words were reportedly, “What is the news this morning?” His descendants continued that tradition, playing extraordinary roles in shaping and transforming newspapers…

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