Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush edited by Robert A. Wilson

Fascinating! Informative!

Published in 1996.

As the title implies, Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush is a collection of biographical essays on each of the 10 presidents from FDR to George H.W. Bush (Bush 41) by 10 different authors who are either expert historians or knew the President while in office. The thing that ties them all together is that each essay is supposed to look at each man as president and find that one part of his character that made him the type of president he was. Each essay is about 30 pages and it makes for interesting reading.

A good sample would come from Doris Kearns Goodwin's look at Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She asserts that the most valuable component of his personality was his self-confidence. I thought this quote from FDR makes the point wonderfully: "I'll tell you...at night when I lay my head on my pillow, and it is often pretty late, and I think of the things that have come before me during the day and the decisions that I have made, I say to myself - well, I have done the best that I could, and turn over and go to sleep."

The essays are wonderful - some inspiring, such as Gerald Ford's, some disturbing such as JFK's. However, all are well-written and this is a fantastic collection.

This book can be found on Amazon here: Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush   

I rate this book 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.
 
Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

Exceptional Clearance by William J Caunitz

 

An OK Thriller

Published in 1991

Synopsis

There have been a series of violent murders involving women with no known connection having their throats slashed with a some kind of weapon that the NY City coroners have never seen before. A special task force is set up to catch the mysterious killer and Lt. John Vinda, a tainted cop is placed in charge of the investigation - partially because he's that good and partially because he will be easy to pin the blame on since he is already damaged goods.

My Review

Exceptional Clearance was an enjoyable read, but it was kind of like eating a handful of candy - it was fun while it was going down but there wasn't much to it. There was an interesting twist to the manhunt in that the cop and the serial killer have both suffered similar losses. It is interesting to see how the serial killer has warped himself into a monster while Vinda has buried himself in his job to avoid his pain. In reality, he's not dealing with his loss that much better than the killer.

Caunitz (1933-1996) was a retired NYPD detective so the language and scenes ring true and it is fun to watch the chase unfold. I dropped the rating for this book a bit for a couple of the more contrived scenes
 
I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Exceptional Clearance  

Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

The Life and Times of the Apostle Paul by Charles Ferguson Ball

Enjoyable

Published in 1996 by Tyndale House Publishers

Synopsis: Like the cover says, The Life and Times of the Apostle Paul is "a colorful retelling of the world's most famous mission story."

Ball is an amateur expert on the 1st century Roman empire and has personally led tour groups throughout the cities that Paul visited during his mission trips to Asia Minor and Greece. He covers Paul's life from early childhood in his work so it must be considered historical fiction since so many details of Paul's life and his trips that are included in this book  are not actually covered in the book of Acts or in his epistles.

It is an enjoyable book - not a great work by any means but I enjoyed reading it and felt that I learned a little something along the way as well. The details on the life around the Jerusalem temple and about the cities Paul visited make it worth reading, even if you are not a great fan of Paul.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Life and Times of the Apostle Paul  

Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

Wild & Scenic Indiana by Rich Clark and Scott Russell Sanders

240 beautiful, beautiful pictures

With an introduction by Scott Russell Sanders ("This Piece of the Earth We Call Indiana") Wild and Scenic Indiana is a beautiful collection of more than 240 pictures of all parts of (mostly) rural Indiana taken by professional photographer Rich Clark.

Clark moved to Indiana from Colorado and, as he puts it, is "amazed at how alluringly beautiful my chosen state is." (pg. 7) Clark has mastered capturing what he calls "Indiana's demure beauty" (pg. 7) and he proudly shows them off on the oversized 12 in X 12 in full color pages.

The book is broken up into chapters based on the physiographic map of Indiana. This means it is based on the major geographical zones of the state. It is an odd way to organize the book, but it does have a certain sense of logic to it.

This is a beautiful coffee table book, one that any Hoosier would be pleased to flip through.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Wild and Scenic Indiana.
Reviewed on July 7, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With (You Wouldn't Want To...series) by David Stewart

Published by Franklin Watts in 2007.

I discovered this series earlier this summer and I've been looking at a few of them. My 4th grade daughter and I both love the series

That being said, You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With is not quite as good as the rest of the series, which means it is merely the cleverest, funniest, most interestingly illustrated book that a child aged 9-12 or so can pick up concerning King Tut. I like the series because kids learn without having to read some of the more tedious books out there (such as the great majority of the history textbooks out there!)

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on July 7, 2009.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled with

History of the United States (Kindle book) by Charles A. Beard and Mary Ritter Beard

Originally published in 1921.

 As a classroom history teacher, I realize that I am out of my league in reviewing this book. Charles and Mary Beard are "name brand" historians. There are precious few historians that make it to that level, and for me, a classroom teacher, to deign to review the work of a historian that has an entire school corporation named for him (in his hometown of Knightstown, IN) takes some professional chutzpah on my part. It's the equivalent of a local bar band writing a criticism of the Beatles or a piano student evaluating Chopin.

Well, here's to chutzpah!

On a general level, the Beards' History of the United States is an excellent textbook. Two general themes of the Beards are:

1) economics is a dominant driver of history.

2) America is a story of expanding rights - more groups of people are securing their rights as time goes on.

The book focuses on social issues such as how things were manufactured and societal hierarchy rather than battles, wars and strategies. For example, the Battles of Lexington and Concord (the "Shot heard 'round the world") get four sentences, none describing the battle itself. This makes it rather unique in history textbooks, although most don't dwell on the battles for long, they do mention tactics, changes the war brought to technology, etc.

The book is well-written. It has two authors and does not suffer from the stifling over-editing of most modern history texts that render them sterile, dry and boring.

Some commentary based on notes I took while reading:

-A strong section on the colonies

Charles A. Beard (1874-1948)
in 1917.

-An especially well-written, if brief, commentary on the Declaration of Independence.

-From their commentary on a series of inventors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: "...these men and a thousand more were destroying in a mighty revolution of industry the world of the stagecoach and the tallow candle which Washington and Franklin had inherited little changed from the age of Caesar." 

-Charles A. Beard is a big proponent of the theory that underlying economic issues (industrial/small farms vs. large-scale cash crop agricultural) caused the Civil War, not slavery. I think that is an unreconcilable position in that slavery was the basis for the South's wealth - so slavery is the root. Beard lets his dichotomy stand unchallenged in his comment: "While slavery lasted, the economy of the South was inevitably agricultural." (location 5008)

-There are two large comments on immigration that show that the worries we have nowadays are no different than those in the past.

-Native Americans (or Indians, if you prefer) are almost totally left out of the book.

-They skim over the backroom deal to end Reconstruction in the Tilden-Hayes Presidential election. They are more sympathetic to the plight of the defeated Southerners than newer textbooks are.


Mary Ritter Beard  (1876-1958)
in 1914

-Very good section on Women's rights. First-rate and better than anything I've seen in a current textbook.

The Beards are proponents of history being driven by economics, but they allow that their theory is not exact nor perfect. They note that the 13 Colonies were quite prosperous and secure just before the Revolutionary War. Despite the fact that their fortunes would be at risk, the Founding Fathers took the road to Independence. They note: "...mere economic advantage is not necessarily the determining factor in the fate of peoples."

It suffers from age a bit, which is to be expected from anything produced in 1921. First of all, it is missing over 100 years of history which, of course, cannot be helped. There are a few spelling differences and some different uses of language, such as referring to nationalities as races (the Irish race, etc.). There are understandable non-PC words, such as the use of the word "Negro", which are used without any intended bias, but an inexplicable repeated use of the adjective "savage" to describe the Indians (or Native Americans, if you prefer).
 
I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.
 
Reviewed July 14, 2009. This book can be found on Amazon here: History of the United States.

Note: Updated on January 5, 2025.

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

Originally published in 2002 by William Morrow.

On September 11, 2001 the United States closed its air space in reaction to the 9/11 attacks because it was unknown if there were more attacks planned. While this certainly made sense it created certain problems for the planes that were inbound. Where would they go if they did not have enough fuel to return to their aiports of departure?

It turns out that Gander, Newfoundland had a ready-built solution for 38 planes carrying 6,595 passengers - a gigantic Cold War era runway that was big enough to be an emergency landing runway for a space shuttle.

Jim DeFede

Upon landing, the problem ceased to be a technical problem and quickly became a human problem - what do you do with 6,595 people in a relatively poor town of barely 10,000 people?

Jim DeFede relates the story of church groups, community groups, schools and local businesses rising to the occasion and welcoming strangers from all over the world for 6 days. They slept in their schools, churches, community centers and even in people's homes. Cars were loaned out, homes were left open for anyone to take a shower and people from all over Newfoundland brought food, blankets and towels to share.

This book re-opened the trauma of 9/11 for me but these simple acts of caring demonstrated by the people of Gander, Newfoundland also brought tears to my eyes multiple times. To quote page 7, "If the terrorists had hoped their attacks would reveal the weaknesses in western society, the events in Gander proved its strength."

Highly recommended.

I rate this book an enthusiastic 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

Reviewed on December 22, 2010.