Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush

Essays on ten United States presidents include Doris Kearns Goodwin on FDR, David McCullough on Truman, Stephen Ambrose on Eisenhower, Richard Reeves on Kennedy, and Peggy Noonan on Reagan. 35,000 first printing.

In this collection of perceptive and entertaining original essays, noted historians, biographers and journalists explore the relationship between character and presidential leadership. Doris Kearns Goodwin (No Ordinary Time) argues that FDR's ego was his greatest strength. David McCullough (Truman) concludes that HST was "honest almost to a fault." Stephen Ambrose (D-Day) calls Ike "the president with the most admired and admirable character." Richard Reeves (President Kennedy) admits that JFK "would fail most of the current political tests of character." Robert Dallek (Lone Star Rising) portrays Lyndon Johnson as a contradiction whose grandiosity both served and undermined him. Tom Wicker (One of Us) defines Richard Nixon as a shy, introverted loner struggling with feelings of inadequacy. James Cannon (Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History) emphasizes Ford's integrity. Hendrick Hertzberg (executive editor of the New Yorker) portrays Jimmy Carter more as moral than as political leader. Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter, contends that Ronald Reagan's emotional detachment was balanced by his "almost Lincolnian" kindness. Finally, Michael Beschloss (The Crisis Years) discusses the role George Bush's father played in developing his son's character. Editor Wilson has his own communication company in Dallas.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When the issues are too complicated to comprehend or take too much time to sort out, voters can be expected to fall back on the personal qualities of the candidates when they go to the polls. Communications executive and producer Wilson sets out to find the qualities of character of the modern presidents from FDR to George Bush. To do so he brings together some of the most respected historians (Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Robert Dallek, and Stephen Ambrose), journalistic heavyweights like James Cannon and Richard Reeves, Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan, and The New Yorker's Hendrick Hertzberg. While Wilson is seeking the relationship between character and leadership effectiveness, he fails to provide some unifying definition of the word character. It seems most of the articles deal with style and world view rather than ethical matters that "character" might imply. Nevertheless, this should be of interest to both academic and general readers.?Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The authors of these essays are all historians who have written impressive biographies of presidents. After Kearns on FDR, there's McCullough on Truman, Ambrose on Ike, Reeves on JFK, Dallek on LBJ, Wicker on RN, and on. Their assignment: to define their man's distinctive character in an original essay, and they all show the driving personal qualities that carry presidents to the top of the "greasy pole," followed by traits the nation projects onto the man once in office. Ike, for example, was a segregationist who took decisive steps toward integration; Nixon, elected as the fiscal conservative, put the welfare state on fiscal autopilot. The two writers who stray from balanced appraisal were, coincidentally, speechwriters to their presidents: Hendrick Hertzberg for Carter and Peggy Noonan for Reagan. Despite these two instances of partisanship, every essayist abounds with arch style and cogent insights. Expect interest from the MacNeil-Lehrer crowd. Gilbert Taylor