Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life - Hardcover

Cannon, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472116045 ISBN 13: 9780472116041

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2013

Synopsis

“Not since Harry Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt twenty-nine years earlier had the American people known so little about a man who had stepped forward from obscurity to take the oath of office as President of the United States.”
—from Chapter 4

This is a comprehensive narrative account of the life of Gerald Ford written by one of his closest advisers, James Cannon. Written with unique insight and benefiting from personal interviews with President Ford in his last years, Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life is James Cannon’s final look at the simple and honest man from the Midwest.

About this title

About the Author

James Cannon was a journalist, serving notably as a war correspondent in Korea and vice president of Newsweek, as well as Domestic Policy Adviser to President Ford and Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. He published several books, including an authorized biography of Ford, Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History (University of Michigan Press, 1998).

Reviews

When Ford took the office of president following the resignation of Nixon, he was not a well-known political figure outside of the House of Representatives, where his highest ambition had been to be speaker. Cannon, a journalist and former domestic policy advisor to Ford, offers an examination of Ford’s life in politics and how he came to be the nation’s unelected president during the tumultuous Watergate era. He recounts Ford’s early life, law-school years, military service, political career, and marriage as all along he garnered a reputation as a solid, honest person. Cannon chronicles the tense political atmosphere as the Watergate scandal unraveled, Nixon struggled with the decision to resign, and Ford wrestled with the decision to pardon the disgraced president. All the drama of Watergate is here, along with the major players, and Ford is at the center as a sometimes enigmatic figure, acknowledging that he never squarely asked Nixon about his guilt and remained ambivalent about that decision. Cannon portrays a man who, despite the shadow of the Nixon pardon clouding his presidency, maintained an honorable reputation in the often unsavory business of politics. --Vanessa Bush

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472116045
• ISBN 13: 9780472116041
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512