Cup of Coffee, 9 Sep 22: Booking

I have been making some pretty good progress lately on my quest  to read one book on each president. Currently on #22 and #24, Grover Cleveland.

36 thoughts on “Cup of Coffee, 9 Sep 22: Booking”

  1. After languishing 170 pages into the book on James Buchanan for six months, I finally mustered the will to finish it in early August. I've knocked out 6 more since then. My thoughts:

    President James Buchanan: A Biography, Philip Klein: Silk purse, sow's ear, etc. This Klein fellow tried really hard to paint Buchanan as anything other than a miserable failure. To do that, he had to gloss over Dred Scott, tell an alternate story to the whole Bleeding Kansas affair, and justify his actions after secession started by saying that Lincoln adopted his policy. Sure, and it was a low point of Lincoln's presidency. Written in 1962, it suffers some from the era in which it was written, but good God, to conclude that in quieter times Buchanan might have been a great president? The next guy was handed an even worse hand and he did a little better. For completists only.

    A. Lincoln, Ronald C. White: Pretty great book, but at 902 pages, you feel like there was another 1000 pages to the story. This book did a really good job of detailing his life before the presidency, but (understandably) his treatment of the presidency was 100% about the Civil War. Not much at all on Mary Todd Lincoln or anything else in his time in the White House. Really good book, will want to read more about Lincoln when I'm done with this project.

    Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy, David O. Stewart: Unlike every other book I have read, this was not a cradle to grave biography, which is what I have been aiming for. But, it is a really good, exciting book about the amazing story of Johnson's impeachment (the articles were written after the vote!) and the trial. The author has an interesting conclusion about the trial, one that I've not seen elsewhere. Johnson was a disaster and he was hand picked by Lincoln (actually that was the low point of his presidency) because Lincoln feared a loss in the 1864 election.

    Grant, Jean Edward Smith: I have Smith selected for at least two more presidents and if those books are as good as this book, I'm in for a treat. The Grant story is simply unbelievable. Drummed out of the military after the Mexican War and forced to sell firewood in the streets of St. Louis to provide for his family, he becomes one of the maybe top five most important Americans of the 19th Century, winning the Civil War and being the biggest champion of Civil Rights post war. But, he also has perhaps the most corrupt administration in US History. Fascinating to contempt his story.

    Rutherford B. Hayes: And His America, Harry Barnard: This book was published in 1955 and I feared that it would be a tough read, since the only books that I have read that were written prior to, say, 1990, were tough slogs. There is certainly a renaissance of presidential biographies in the last 20 or so years. However, this is actually a pretty interesting book. Hayes was elected in what was probably the most closely fought election ever (1824 was up there, 2020 pretends to be up there) and cries of foul dogged Hayes his entire term. He was a great war hero and a decent governor of Ohio. His presidency was pretty forgettable, but he did try and tackle civil service reform. Not much in this book about his presidency, the election and aftermath play a much more prominent role.

    Garfield, Allan Peskin: Not much on his presidency in this book, either, but that's because he was shot less than four months in and he died about three months later. This was a long book, though and pretty good. Written in 1978, the book is engaging, but I read it on Kindle and it was obviously scanned in because there were *lots* of weird spelling errors. Garfield was a political officer in the Civil War and he wasn't a great officer at all. Nine terms in the House and he was tainted by a few scandals. He was not exactly steadfast in his beliefs and came across as a typical politician. A dark horse candidate, he beat Grant at the 1880 Republican convention, denying the old hero a chance at a third, non-consecutive term. In the process, he tamed the NY state political machine, who got a consolation prize in Chet Arthur, perhaps the most corrupt politician in the US as the VP. His only political job was as an official at the NY port and he was fired by Hayes because he was corrupt. But, hey, Garfield was a young healthy man, so picking Arthur as VP seemed inconsequential.

    The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur, Scott Greenberger: He didn't want to be president and he knew that he was not really up to the job. Still scheming with the NY bosses as VP against the sitting president, he found himself holding the top job. He turned out to be a better president than most thought he would be and he struck a blow against his NY party bosses. Lost his bid for re-nomination because he decided not to contest it vigorously at the convention. Arthur burned most of his papers before dying. He was pretty inconsequential as president and had no real political career before the vice presidency. So, the book is pretty thin. At 242 pages, it is one of the shortest books I've read and most of it is about people around him. A decent book, given the limitations that the author had, but if you want a comprehensive look at his life, you are gonna be disappointed.

    1. I've heard somewhere that Lincoln is the most written about person in history in terms of the number of books of which he is the subject (and I assume that'd also equate to page count as well).

      I'm not sure where I heard it or the veracity of it, but it certainly feels possible

    2. But, he also has perhaps the most corrupt administration in US History

      Eye-popping ranking in light of recent history.

      I once heard a friend refer to his & my uncle’s neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis as “Shitty Presidents Row.” Imagine what this country might have been like with fewer mediocre Reconstruction-era presidents. Overcoming systemic racism & personal prejudice is a difficult job, but things could have gone so much better.

      1. And Grant seemed to be completely oblivious to a lot of the corruption. And he defended his guys when things went pear-shaped. I am inclined to believe that Grant truly did have an enormous blind spot to the corruption. He ended up penniless after being in the White House because he got caught in various shady investment schemes. Late 19th century grift was on another level.

    3. One really weird detail about the Arthur book is that the book has a lot of detail about the clothes that Arthur was wearing at different events. It seems oddly specific. I eventually realized that the 19th century newspapers probably described a lot of that kind of detail. With little else to go on in terms of source material, a lot of that found its way into this book.

      1. Same thing in the Truman book; they describe what he's wearing at almost every event; e.g. powder blue suit and polka dot tie and a cowboy hat...

    4. On page 835 of McCullough's Truman, with 157 left to go. I already read his John Adams and Path Between the Seas. Next on my list for him is The Great Bridge, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

    5. Still curious about how you're going to handle Teddy. It's hard to do him justice in just one book.

  2. Followed up our reading yesterday at the National Museum about OPERATION ANTHROPOID by visiting the cathedral and crypts of Sts. Cyril and Methodius today. I saw there's also a movie, which I'll have to check out now, too.

    1. I've been where Heynrich was killed, or at least very near it, in Liben (Prague 8). The 1, 3, 6, 8, 14, 24, 25, or 90 Tram will get you there (stop Vychovatelna)

      1. Neat...although Mrs Runner pointed out technically he died a few days later.

        I think we'll wander the Jewish section tomorrow, before rain shuts us down (again). You really can walk anywhere here; we're sore.

        1. Fair enough. I've been where the attack occurred

          The Jewish Quarter (Josefov) is very cool. I taught a class at the Law School (Pravnicka fakulta) right there along the river just north of the cemetery

  3. Aquinas turns 13 tomorrow. We've got a busy day up in the cities, so won't be doing too many specific things for him, but had contemplated hiding 13 of various objects around the house. Dollar bills... and, that's all I've got so far. So I'm soliciting items that are approrpriate to mark the teenage years and/or fun. Thoughts?

    1. Probably too late to get for tomorrow, but we bought a bunch of small, plastic hands as stocking stuffers last Christmas (something like these), and spent the next few weeks hiding them around the house. They are kind of creepy when not expected, but fun.

      1. A little off topic, but remember those Columbia House mailers with the little album pics on postage stamp-like stickers? I would hide them throughout the pages of a college buddies books. I remember the big laugh I had many years later when I got an envelope in the mail from him and dumped out a handful of them!

    1. Going to take some adjustments.

    2. I'm happy with the pitch clock and fine with the larger bases. Not sure about defensive positioning but not upset about it.

      1. I don't think defensive positioning is going to have the positive impact on offense they're hoping it will. I used to be purist about this but I've grown to be fine with it.

      2. Defensive positioning rule is the one that bothers me most. The other two are going to benefit speedier baserunners...let's see, how do the Twins' base stealers compare to the rest of the league? Yeah, me neither.

  4. Oh, forgot to post earlier that my Dad paraded in front of the Queen in Winnepeg with the Air Force (before I was born).

  5. Hey Zoomxi had mentioned I’d be by the joint today but I whizzed by Alec at 10:30 so I was too early. I was looking forward to dropping by and right now I’m starving.

    1. Dang... it's been something like 15 years since I met you in St. Paul (I think) at a mini-caucus. Another day, my friend!

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