Journals: 1952-2000 - Hardcover
A landmark event in the history of American letters: the publication of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s extraordinary, revelatory, never-before-seen journals.
For more than a half century, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., has been at the vital center of American political and cultural life. From his entrance into political leadership circles in the 1950s through his years in the Kennedy administration and up to the present, he has been that rare thing-a great historian who has enjoyed an extraordinary eyewitness vantage on history as it has been made. On intimate terms with many of the most prominent political, cultural, and intellectual figures of the last fifty years, he is a man whose proximity to power has never obscured his appreciation for the reality of those who don't have it. For that capacity for empathy and for much else, he has been called American liberalism's greatest voice.
For nearly fifty years, from the early 1950s through the late 1990s, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., recorded his experiences and opinions in his journals. Edited by his two oldest sons into a beautifully packaged two-volume work, the journals offer remarkably fresh and lucid observations on a half century of public life and a rare and privileged view into the mind of one of America's most distinguished men of letters. They form an intimate history of postwar America, from Schlesinger's days working on both of Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaigns and his years in the Kennedy White House through to the Clinton administration. These are not personal journals of the "where I had lunch" variety; this is one of twentieth-century America's greatest moral and intellectual forces chronicling the big stories of his and our time, usually from the inside out. Their publication is truly a landmark event and a fitting opportunity to celebrate a most extraordinary American life.
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About the Author:
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., is a renowned American historian and social critic and the prolific author of numerous books, including, most recently, War and the American Presidency. He has twice won both the Pulitzer Prize, for The Age of Jackson and A Thousand Days, and the National Book Award, also for A Thousand Days as well as for Robert Kennedy and His Times. In 1998 he was awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medal.
From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. The beloved cultural and political commentator Schlesinger (1917-2007) formed his left-leaning worldview during FDR's New Deal; a liberal scholar and historian, Schlesinger produced more than 25 books (his last was 2005's War and the American Presidency), won two Pulitzers and became a powerful force in shaping liberal political thought. Taking readers through Schlesinger's diaries year by year, the book begins with Schlesinger's first encounters with presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, for whose (unsuccessful) campaign he would become a speech-writer; fortunately, off-years pass by quickly (1953-1959 take up fewer than 30 pages), picking up again in 1960, when Schlesinger became special advisor to President Kennedy. With characteristic candor, Schlesinger weighs in on both: of Stevenson, "probably even more conservative than I had thought"; of JFK, "he has most of FDR's lesser qualities. Whether he has FDR's greater qualities is the problem for the future." Subsequent years bring the expected: Vietnam and LBJ, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Nixon and Watergate, the rise of Reagan and the fall of the Soviets, the first Gulf War and the second George Bush, all viewed through Schlesinger's singular perspective. Interspersed between an endless, engrossing parade of lunches with luminaries such as Henry Kissenger and Jackie Onassis, Schlesinger discusses his own work and a few personal details ("Another year; another house... spent most of the month getting settled at 118 East 82nd Street with my beloved Alexandra"). Most of the memoir, however, is a pleasingly understated whirlwind of big names and bigger issues. Rich in insight and cagily observed history, Schlesinger's weighty memoirs will mesmerize political junkies; even lay-readers will be charmed and fascinated by Schlesinger's take on the 20th century's last half.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherPenguin Press HC, The
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 1101418532
- ISBN 13 9781101418536
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages928
- Rating
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