Summer Reading - the thick books

I try to use the summers for reading those “big” books which for me means those that are so heavy that I don’t want to carry them around in my bag. You know the 600 page plus ones. The ones you don't want to lug plane to plane.

And my second bias for summer reading is to choose Leadership Biographies usually presidential or British Prime minister affairs.

This year I have indulged in several and will post a full blog post on one later. I will also share some comparisons to those read last summer.

The primary read in the past few weeks was Michael Kourda’s – Ike, the biography of Eisenhower. Kourda’s book was one of the most readable of the long format biography’s but spent most of the pages in the time leading up to World War II and the long sections on the war. Ike’s presidency and post presidency got short shrift. The longer post later will share some lessons from reading that one.

It's now in paperback so lighter to lug around.

I also finished Roy Jenkin’s noted Churchill biography. It is longer, denser and very detailed. I have read several over the years and I would label this one as the most complete but also the hardest to follow. If you want to enjoy a Churchill biography, do Martin Gilbert’s one volume one instead.

David McCullough’s Truman I actually listened to unabridged on tape on a recent long car trip with the family. We all enjoyed hearing the author read his story of Truman. While I think the author tells a good story and there were some enlightening thoughts about Leadership in succession, I didn’t pick up as many significant learnings as from the others.

Conrad Black’s Roosevelt I read about this same period of history. I read this one a few years ago. It is over 1000 pages but I think very thorough, readable and gets a sense of Roosevelt. I will say that after reading it I wanted to visitHyde Park,New York and the other sites associated with this president.

Roosevelt was an odd leader though. I guess we can learn from negative lessons as well as positive. It’s now out in paperback but this is one heavy book.

Other presidential bios in previous summers included the Edmund Morris books on Theodore Roosevelt, one of the forgotten presidents that really shaped the foreign policy views of our country at the turn of the last century.

I will comment on one common thread throughout all the books. Much of the writing is based on the diaries of the leaders. They used these diaries to bear their souls and frustration about their times, their colleagues and enemies. I am sure that while many political leaders at the highest level may still keep diaries, most of us do not.

I don’t think our blogs will capture things as well as our diaries. Diaries, by their private nature, help us to express more intimate thought.

 The other tool the biographers use is the voluminous letters that were written among friends in those days. I know today we tend to use email but much of that will be lost to historians.

Comments

[stephen shields]

dave, I *loved* morris' 2 books on TR; I thought they were just fantastic. I'm currently enjoying Nasaw's recent work on Carnegie and recently finished Gabler's wonderful book on Disney and Walter Issacson's treatment of Einstein. All highly recommended. But by far the best biography I've ever read is Caro's ongoing multi-volume masterpiece on LBJ. Hopefully, his 4th and final volume will come out soon.

[LW]

Don't miss the two volume bio of George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore. Best bio I've read.