“His Excellency, George Washington”
My appreciation for George Washington rose after reading Joseph Ellis' book His Excellency, George Washington (which was actually his title during the Revolutionary War. The book is an attempt to reveal the character and the man of George Washington. In my opinion, it succeeded. One of the central questions it asks we take for granted now: why didn't George Washington make himself king after the war? It's a weird question, because of course we have mythologized him so much, it would be sacrilege to consider. But some people were afraid he would attempt to do so in the early 1780s. Read more…
Bill Clinton: The Survivor
The Survivor, by John Harris, has been one of the best of the presidential biographies I've read. I read recently that it was considered one of the most accurate books about what it felt like and what happened inside the Clinton White House by by some of his insiders. The book re-shaped many of my views of Clinton, with some wild swings in both directions. The Survivor is not like Woodward's "tick-tock" accounts (a phrase I learned in the book to describe the precisely chronological storytelling. Rather, it tackles topics by chapter, with the timeline roughly in place but with Read more…
The Getting-Things-Done President
it looks like Obama is having a checklist presidency. Yes, his agenda is being passed, but much of it feels compromised. The president appears to be delegating far too many details to Congress in order to keep Getting Things Done. via thebigmoney.com This article goes after Obama for being too focused on passing legislation than on passing “good” legislation. I think that that argument has some merit, so what I really want to say is that the article is a misreading of GTD. The goal of GTD is not to just cross things of the list. It’s to have something Read more…
Roosevelt on the River of Doubt
I just finished "The River of Doubt," a history of Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the unknown River of Doubt (since renamed Roosevelt River). A really great history! After reading McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, I now have an interesting sense of Roosevelt. I've read his biography up until he was 27 or so and started to come onto the national stage, and then a biography of him after he failed to be re-elected in 1912. Judged by everything but his Presidency in the middle, he's a magnetic character. Incredibly likable, he has traits I sincerely admire, most notably what McCullough calls Read more…
Woodward’s Plan of Attack
I just finished Bob Woodward's in-depth chronology of the lead-up to the Iraq War, Plan of Attack. The book starts in 2001, shortly after a meeting on Afghanistan when Bush asks Rumsfeld to start looking at the current Iraq war plan, and ends on the first day of the war in March of 2003. It's based on documents, confidential sources, and interviews Woodward with Bush and Rumsfeld. Chronology really is the right word for it, too, as it's pretty matter-of-fact, with little embellishment. According to Wikipedia, in 2004 when the book came out, the Kerry campaign recommended the book as Read more…
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