Books - Biography

Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. Gordon, Robert. New York: Back Bay Books, 2002. "...as colorful as the tones of Muddy Waters' voice and as much an essay on the foibles and triumphs of human nature as are the lyrics to Muddy's best songs.... It's full of crisp, brightly written tales of knifings and shootings, swindles, adultery, and illegitimate births, drugs, and alcoholism, and then there's the music – the steaming cauldron of Delta acoustic blues and urban rhythms and amplification from which rock and roll emerged."
In The Footsteps Of Churchill. Holmes, Richard. New York: Basic Books, 2005. Winston S. Churchill's childhood, troubled times at school, family life, capture and escape in the Second Boer war, other military experiences in India and Africa, and service in Parlaiment and roles from Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies through Prime Minister.
It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business. Grodin, Charles. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. This "is a serious portrait of a dedicated actor, writer and director moving forward in the face of overwhelming setbacks. This witty and entertaining memoir ... is a book for everyone who has ever found a professional struggle suprisingly difficult. But primarily it is the story of the highs and lows, the applause and rejections, the joys and tribulations, that make up all lives in show business."
Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait Of A President. Dallek, Robert. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. This is an abridgement, which still runs to nearly 400 pages, of the author's two-volume biography of Johnson. He paints a picture of Johnson's life and political career, with insight on how LBJ's upbringing in rural Texas colored his outlook on issues like poverty, segregation, voting and educational rights, housing, employment and medical care, resulting in real desires to improve the quality of life for those with various disadvantages. Certainly Johnson was also a politician's politician, and another strong theme which went hand in hand with these goals was his wish to provide the South more political and economic clout, but the author shows there to have also been compassion behind his Great Society Programs. Unfortunately, the war in Vietnam, while ultimately bringing down his presidency, was also influential in the reduction of funds available for his administration's social programs. Still, while Johnson's dreams, plans and creations were not all fully realized, much progress was made.
Nixon And Kissinger: Partners In Power. Dallek, Robert. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. "More than thirty years after working side-by-side in the White House, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger remain two of the most compelling, contradictory, and powerful men in America in the second half of the twentieth century. ... Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified archives, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger's tumultuous personal relationship and the extent to which they struggled to outdo each other in the reach for achievements in foreign affairs." China, détent with the USSR, war in the Middle East, Chile, India and Pakistan, and Watergate are all explored.
Scotty: James B. Reston and the Rise and Fall of American Journalism. Stacks, John F. New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2003. "This is an analytical biography of a man who was the nation's preeminent journalist for a generation...a lively, instructive account of the way power is reported in America, and how the turbulence of the civil rights era and Vietnam changed the rules. The rise and fall of James B. Reston charts the value, dangers, and demise of trust between the most powerful political journalists in the U.S. and the men and women who run the nation."
That Man: An Insider's Portrait Of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jackson, Robert H.; Barrett, John Q., Ed. Oxford University Press, 2003. Robert Jackson was a personal friend and advisor to FDR, served as Solicitor General and then Attorney General, Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials and finally as a member of the US Supreme Court. This book is was put together from his notes and from manuscripts written in the early 1950s that were discovered fifty years later. It provides a fascinating look at Roosevelt behind the office and the headlines - the Roosevelt of poker games and fishing trips and other personal encounters.
Theodore Roosevelt. Auchincloss, Louis. New York: Times Books, 2001. "...recounts the significant contributions of TR's career and administration: his pioneering conservationism and trust-busting at home as well as his escapades and misaventures around the world."
Warren G. Harding. Dean, John W. New York: Henry Holt, 2004 From the author's Indroduction: "Warren G. Harding is best known as America's worst president. A compelling case can be made, however, that to reach such a judgement one must ignore much of the relevant information about Harding and his presidency. ... My undertaking has not been to challenge or catalogue all those who have gotten it wrong about Harding, only to get it right. Yet when assembling my narrative, I found myself often addressing, and flagging, the distorted and false Harding history, not because I want to write a brief for Warren Harding, but rather because I was curious to discern as best I could the truth of who he was, how he was elected, and how he operated and performed as president of the United States."
Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. Clements, Kendrick A. Boston: Twain Publishers, 1987. A study of Wilson's successes and failures as President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey, and two-term US President during the Progressive Era, on whose watch The Great War engulfed the world.

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