Editorial Review

A compelling chronicle of a nation and its leaders during the period when modern America was created. With an uncanny feel for detail and a novelist's grasp of drama and depth, Doris Kearns Goodwin brilliantly narrates the interrelationship between the inner workings of the Roosevelt White House and the destiny of the United States. Goodwin paints a comprehensive, intimate portrait that fills in a historical gap in the story of our nation under the Roosevelts. ... Read more

Reviews (97)

One of the very best books ever written!
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a marvelous writer. She combines real history and real people in a way that is non-judgmental, educational and very redable. All of her books are a MUST.
Wonderfully Portrayed History
Excellent book. Unfortunately educational textbooks only give a surface version about the lives and interaction between Franklin and Eleanor. This book peels layer by layer about their relationship (negative and postive) and the reality of what the United States went through pre-war, during and post-war.
Worthy of its Pulitzer - Biography at its best.
Goodwin takes a really interesting approach here to what is essentially the biography of a couple.Doing a biography of a couple is fairly unique as a starting point, but Goodwin gets more creative, using the time period of the Second World War as a magnifying glass to really bring the traits of her subjects into focus.The result is amazingly well done.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Historical - General    6. Historical - U.S.    7. Presidents    8. Presidents' spouses    9. United States    10. United States - 20th Century    11. United States - 20th Century/WWII    12. World War, 1939-1945    13. American history: Second World War    14. Biography: historical    15. History / General    16. Inter-war period, 1918-1939    17. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    18. Second World War, 1939-1945    19. USA   

Reviews (73)

History Comes Alive and in Such Amazingly Unexpected Ways!
In just over 60 chapters, this gifted author exposes a long series of various types of scandals, plots and curious events that have occurred throughout most of recorded (European) history. The stories are weaved in carefully crafted prose that is also very cleverly tongue-in-cheek. This combination, along with the fact that chapters are only a few pages long, makes the book very entertaining and extremely difficult to put down. The first thing you know is that you've finished devouring the book, only to find your appetite craving for a couple more just like it. This is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Great Book-Interesting People
This book is very interesting if you are into history. The people covered in the book range from Roman Emperors around the time of Christ, to bad Popes, to French English Russian German Kings and Emperors. Such examples of these being the family of Napolean, the descendents of Isabella and Ferdinand, the "War of the Roses" the many wives of Henry VIII and their children, and the children of James II.There are many more people and so much iformation, but they are all worth the read

ROYAL GOSSIP
This book is a very fun read.I especially liked the story on Louis XIV's brother, he must have been a hilarious spectacle.Honestly you wonder how these people were allowed to rule, they were so hedonistic and debauched, but frankly that's what makes this book so amusing.Though this book is quite good, the benchmark on these type of books is Royal Babylon, that book is fantastic, it has more stories and is more explicit, but honestly, I recommend them both, although they cover some of the same ground, they compliment each other. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Conduct of life    3. Europe - Great Britain - General    4. Heads of state    5. Historical - General    6. History    7. History: World    8. Kings and rulers    9. Royalty    10. Scandals    11. Biography: royalty    12. History / Social History    13. United Kingdom, Great Britain   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (252)

One of the best you will ever read
This is an easy to read book, which managed to make profound points about life, pain, and fate.I enjoyed reading the first part of the book and learning about what it was like to be in such a hellish place (a concentration camp), and yet still being able to be positive about life.What more can I say than its an excellent book?

I learned: All the Auschwitz survivors, including the author, had something significant yet to do with their lives!
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
fascinating!
this is simply a must read for those interested in the human experience.Some of the positions concluded in this book may not be the only way to think on the issues involved, but still, this book is a great psychological workout with deep insights. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Historical - Holocaust    2. Holocaust    3. Psychology    4. Psychotherapy    5. Psychotherapy - General    6. History / Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. 1901-1966    2. Animators    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Disney, Walt,    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    9. General    10. Historical - U.S.    11. Individual Directors And Producers    12. United States    13. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (2)

Camilla & Charles:A Selfish Love Affair
While I felt that this was an interesting read I felt the author painted an unfair portrait of Diana.She portrayed Diana as a crazy, unstable shrew and yet it was Charles refusal to end his relationship with Camilla that caused Diana to be so unhappy and angry.I don't think there are very few women on this planet that would be happy and accept the fact that their husband has a mistress for 20 years that he refuses to give up after marriage.It proved to me at least, that Diana was justified in her ending her marriage and giving up the throne.The author paints Charles and Camilla as 2 poor lovers who go through hell just to be together.I felt no sympathy for either of them.But it is an engrossing book none the less.

Think of England
An even and informative tale about Camilla Parker-Bowles, a poor little rich girl who may someday get her prince.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1947-    2. 1948-    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Camilla,    7. Charles,    8. Duchess of Cornwall,    9. Great Britain    10. Great Britain - History - 20th Century    11. Historical - British    12. Prince of Wales,    13. Princes    14. Relations with women    15. Charles    16. Parker Bowles, Camilla    17. Sociology, Social Studies    18. United Kingdom, Great Britain   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Constitutional history    6. Historical - U.S.    7. Political    8. Politicians    9. Statesmen    10. United States    11. United States - Revolutionary War    12. Virginia    13. American Revolution; Constitutional Convention; Republicanism; Anti-Federalists; Gunston Hall; Virginia Declaration of Rights; Bill of Rights; Fairfax Resolves; British taxation; James Madison; Thomas Jefferson;    14. American history: c 1500 to c 1800    15. Biography & Autobiography / Political    16. Biography: historical    17. USA    18. c 1700 to c 1800   

Reviews (9)

Well Researched & Written
This is perhaps the best biography of an American ever written.Manchester juxtaposes the good MacArthur (the military genius and patriotic family man) with the bad MacArthur (the megalomaniacal general whose lapse led to his entire air force being destoryed on the ground at Leyte; not even his wife called him "Douglas").MacArthur is still one of the most polarizing figures in American history; I have spoken to WW2 and Korean veterans who either love him or hate him.This book is a study of greatness.No matter your opinion of MacArthur, one cannot deny the fact that he graduated from West Point with one of the highest averages ever, or how his post-war control of Japan shaped that nation's history.An excellent look into the life of an American Hero/Villain.

history or prophecy
I bow to my colleagues who have observed Manchester's acquired taste for the MacArthurian mystique and the apparent failures of historians (not just Willam M.) on getting it right regarding The General's ego and its fallout in combat. Yes this stuff is significant, but all this overlooks one outstanding reality, that Manchester includes but does give the proper emphasis: Doug MacArthur wanted to be president, very, very badly.He truly saw himself as a caesar-like figure in history and positioned himself in returning to the Philipines, administering post-war Japan, and taking the baton in Korea (at the age of 70) for a return to the US in "triumph."Instead he bowed out after being fired by Truman, who had nothing to lose by relieving him.
exceptional
This is a masterful biography of Douglas MacArthur, a pivotal 20C figure. He is outlined in all his complexity (good and bad) with the record of his accomplishments.
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Subjects:  1. 1880-1964    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. General    7. Generals    8. Historical - U.S.    9. MacArthur, Douglas,    10. Military    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / Military    13. Biography: general    14. MacArthur, Douglas   

Editorial Review

When the editors of the Read more

Reviews (385)

Intriguing!
This book is great in that it's both a very personal story about Minor (the "madman") and Murray (the "professor") but also about what went into making the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). For the most part, I was more interested in the latter because of the detail and, surprisingly, community that went into creating The Dictionary. It was certainly not the work of a few posh men sitting in an attic; rather, the entire nation (as well as the United States) were involved in scouring works in the English language to contribute samples to go in the OED. That to me was the most fascinating part.
And you thought dictionaries were boring!
Winchester takes an academic subject and makes it read like a Victorian thriller.He weaves together the lives of two strange and complex men to tell a story that has touched the entire English speaking world-- the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary: THE authority on the progression of the English language over the past millenium.If you love history, language, literature, and tragedies this is a book for you.Beware, this book will make you want to run out and buy your own OED -- well, a full set will run you at least $1000!There are compact and CD-ROM versions available for under $200.I guess I'll just add it to my amazon wish list and hope....

An excellent story excellently told
Some readers, I know, dislike Simon Winchester's conversational, discursive, sometimes off-on-a-tangent narrative style, but I for one find it richly rewarding. I first discovered it in "Krakatoa," his book about that Indonesian volcano where it's even more in evidence than it is in this title. But even here, reading Winchester is like settling into a chair, or around a fire, to listen to a talented storyteller weave an entrancing tale. If your taste in history runs to deliberate, just-the-facts reportage, then Simon Winchester probably isn't for you. But if you're willing to trust the author and follow where he's leading you, I predict you'll find reading "The Professor and the Madman" a most satisfying experience.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Historical - British    5. Historical - General    6. Historical - U.S.    7. Lexicography    8. Linguistics    9. Literary    10. Specific Groups - Special Needs    11. Biography & Autobiography / Historical   

Reviews (149)

The Truth About War
All the barroom heroes, the bellowing "patriots," and those who are willing to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood...likely wouldn't learn anything from this book.However, for the great majority of humanity, including those who may have been seduced by the "glory" of war, this book would prove most instructive.More than any other book I have read describing personal experiences during war, this one provides a comprehensive, detailed, and compelling picture of its reality.The author spares neither himself nor anyone else, in showing the cruelty, fear, and insanity that both explain and indict battlefield conduct.He describes as "packs of wolves" the groups of starving soldiers walking for days across frozen stretches of land, who desolate whole villages in their search for food.War crimes are commonplace and as understandable as they are deplorable...and mixed in with this are the unexpected mercy, personal misery, and always the desperation of men who expect to die, but don't want to...usually.
MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT
Before reading this controversial book, I did some research into the argument that Sajer's memoir is or is not authentic and came away from it sitting on the fence. I had to read this book and judge it for myself, having read more than a few memoirs from the German side previously. Although it has been claimed that Guy Sajer is a real person who did fight in the Wehrmacht, my sources relate that Sajer did not defend the book as a meticulous eye-witness account of the battles he was in or of the time frame in which they were fought. Essentially, Sajer says that his book is more about feelings than about facts. It is an impression of war and not a history book, so fact and accuracy take a back seat to the author's purpose of creating a mood.
Remarkable
The Forgotten Soldier is an amazing read, one that will invoke a variety of emotions within the reader.The stark and horifying landscape painted by the author places the reader right at the Eastern Front.If one wants to "feel" the experience of a soldier at battle, this is one of the best books ever written to gain that experience.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Europe - Germany    5. Historical - General    6. Military    7. Military - World War II    8. Biography & Autobiography / Military    9. Biography: historical    10. European history: Second World War    11. Germany   

Reviews (4)

A Man Greater than the Myths
In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".
A Concise, Readable Study of our Greatest President.
If you're interested in understanding what the man Abraham Lincoln was like, this is the book for you. This short, well-documented study of our sixteenth President cuts through the myths and the utter nonsense that have been written about Lincoln to expose the real hero behind these tales. This work shows Lincoln as the driven, courageous yet fallible man who never gave up on his dream of freedom for all men. Highly recommended!

It did not elaborate on the question of Lincoln's parentage.
As an amateur genealogist I discovered that I was a sixth cousin, five times removed to President Abraham Lincoln through the Lincoln and Holmes families. On page 21 ( Abraham Lincoln, The man Behind The Myths )Mr. Oates wrote that there was a mistaken belief that Thomas Lincoln wasnot Abraham's real father rather it was a Senator John C. Calhoun or aHenry Clay. If this was true it would mean that I was not related toPresident Abraham Lincoln. How would such a rumour start ? Is there anydocumented evidence that Nancy Lincoln had an affair with one of these menwhile being married to Thomas Lincoln.At the time I am trying tolocate Stephen B. Oates so I can get this matter cleared up. Sincerely, Mr. Blair E. Bartlett, 87 Shillington Road, Saint John, NewBrunswick, Canada, E2J 4K7 1-506-696-6175 ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1809-1865    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Historical - U.S.    6. Lincoln, Abraham,    7. Presidents    8. Presidents & Heads of State    9. U.S. History - Civil War And Reconstruction (1860-1877)    10. United States    11. United States - Civil War    12. American history: c 1800 to c 1900    13. Biography & Autobiography / General    14. Biography: historical    15. Biography: political    16. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    17. USA    18. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (1)

Favourite book of the nouveau Bombshell
Marilyn Monroe confessed to being swept away by Thomas Paine..late for the Misfits because she was reading Common Sense. Craig Nelson sweeps you away with his provocative insights. Boy o' boy. His book is historical va-va-voom!
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Subjects:  1. 1737-1809    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography And Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Historical - General    8. Historical - U.S.    9. Paine, Thomas,    10. Political    11. Political scientists    12. Revolutionaries    13. United States    14. United States - 18th Century    15. United States - General    16. Biography & Autobiography / Historical   

Editorial Review

The condition of exile is an exaggeration of the process of change and loss that many people experience as they grow and mature, leaving behind the innocence of childhood. Eva Hoffman spent her early years in Cracow, among family friends who, like her parents, had escaped the Holocaust and were skeptical of the newly imposed Communist state. Hoffman's parents managed to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s, where Eva was old enough to feel like a stranger--bland food, a quieter life, and schoolmates who hardly knew where Poland was. Still, there were neighbors who knew something of Old World ways, and a piano teacher who was classically Middle European in his neurotic enthusiasm for music. Her true exile came in college in Texas, where she found herself among people who were frightened by and hostile to her foreignness. Later, at Harvard, Hoffman found herself initially alienated by her burgeoning intellectualism; her parents found it difficult to comprehend. Her sense of perpetual otherness was extended by encounters with childhood friends who had escaped Cracow to grow up in Israel, rather than Canada or the United States, and were preoccupied with soldiers, not scholars. Read more

Reviews (20)

a classic
I loved this book when it came out and I love it still many rereadings later. Thisportrait of the Wandering Jew as ayoung girl begins with Hoffman's childhood in Cracow, Poland just after the second world war; moves to Vancouver, British Columbia when she is thirteen; continues on to Texas and Massachusetts for her university years; and ends in New York, where she becomes a writer and an editor at the New York Times Book Review. It encompasses many themes: the defining power of language; the cost of changing cultures, the construction of personal identity, and the consequences, for many Jews, of the Nazi and Communist regimes. Hoffman was born in the summer of 1945. Like many Jews in post-war, Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe, the Hoffmans observed Passover and had home-baked challah, on shabbat but Eva was culturally Polish, reading Sienkiewicz's nationalistic novels, playing Chopin etudes, attending church with her friends, receiving gifts on St. Nicholas's Day. After emigration, she adapts to North American culture, first Canadian, then Texan, then New York. This is a memoir squarely in the Jewish immigrant tradition but one in which the immigrant is a graduate student at Harvard, and relates her situation not only to Mary Antin but to contexts laid out by Sartre and Nabokov, Jung and Freud. Lost in Translation contains stories and essays, phrases to ruminate on, ideas to consider. It is a demanding read that challenges its reader to consider her own autobiography, her own childhood, her own assumptions. Having compiled an internationalbibliography of Jewish women's non-fiction books with poet Irena Klepfisz (available on my website) , I can say this is one of my favorites.

Intriguing, brilliant read
As a senior Literature major, there are many things I am required to read that make my college experience rather painful. This book, however, was not only relevant to the class I was taking but was also the most intriguing book I have read in years, maybe ever. Eva Hoffman's memoir is beautifully written and constructed, and is a must-read for anyone who appreciates great literature.

What a great book
This book was in excellent condition.It was a really good read and I read it straight through.I would recommend this book and any related material such as biography and autobiography of Eva Hoffman. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1945-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Children of Holocaust survivors    7. Historical - Holocaust    8. Hoffman, Eva,    9. Immigrants    10. Jewish Studies    11. Jews    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Poland    14. United States    15. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    16. Hoffman, Eva   

Reviews (87)

A Positive Portrait of Genghis Khan
Nomads and non-European conquerors do not fare well at the hands of Western historians. Genghis Khan fares about the worst of all.Weatherford sets the record straight. Genghis and his Mongol conquests were enormous and pieces of the empire he established endured in one form or another for seven centuries, the final coup de grace being the English outster of the Moguls in India in the 19th century.Rather than being a simple-minded raider the author portrays Genghis as a man ahead of his time in many ways: the art and science of war, religous tolerance, the creation of a meritocracy, and the overthrow of aristocracy. That Genghis Khan was brutal and violent is also brought out although the Mongols could hardly have been more cruel than their contemporaries in Medieval Europe, the Crusaders.
Interesting,but with a surprising number of factual errors
For the most part, I enjoyed this book.I discovered a great deal about the Mongols and I believe that the author proves his basic case that the Mongol Empire provided an unprecedented flow of goods and ideas between East and West.
Humanizes Genghis Khan, while detailing the avarice & brutality
I first encountered stories about the Golden Horde and the 13th century Mongol domination of the Russian principalities during my graduate studies on Russian history.Reflecting on how Russia, China, Turkey, Persia and many of the nations of the Arab world reached the 20th century in an apparently underdeveloped, and authoritarian, state, relative to the nations of Western Europe, I often thought that this could be traced back to the unfortunate intercession of the Mongols in each of these nations history 700 years ago.
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Subjects:  1. Asia - General    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Historical - General    5. History    6. History: World    7. Kings and rulers    8. Medieval    9. Mongols    10. ASIA    11. Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 500 to c 1500    12. Biography: historical    13. History / Asia    14. c 1000 CE to c 1500   

Reviews (27)

Gen. Manstein's Own Account of His Amazing Victories across WWII Europe
By the end of WWII, General von Manstein was widely recognized by most German soldiers as the Wehrmacht's most brilliant strategist, a man of honor, and easily the most obvious choice for the Wehrmacht's Commander-in-Chief. Manstein was responsible for formulating most of the strategy that won Germany its great early victories using blitzkrieg tactics in Poland, France, and the Crimea. From Fall 1942 - Spring 1944, Manstein's heroic efforts against hugely overwhelming odds consistently frustrated every attempt to cut off and destroy Germany's armies in the Ukraine.
Not for everyone
The five stars is for what it is supposed to be-- a detailed military memoir by an exceptional leader of German armed forces. Manstein was by any judgment a first rate staff officer, who excelled with troops and shone in use of combined force tactics and strategy on a large scale. His impact in WWII was immense -- on both the Western and Eastern Front.
The Best of the Best
It is generally recognized that the greatest military mind produced by any nation during World War II belonged to Erich von Manstein. His qualifications for such a laurel are numerous, and include the detailed plan which lead to the conquest of France in six weeks in 1940, the conquest of the Crimea in 1942, and Germany's last major victory on the Eastern Front, the recapture of Kharkov in 1943. It is Manstein's record as a "defensive" general, called in to restore the collapsing southern wing of the Eastern Front after Stalingrad, however, which cemented his reputation. Any general can win brilliant victories with first-rate troops, air superiority and unlimited supplies, but it takes a very special type of brain to be able to repeatedly fight off a numerically superior enemy who enjoys all these advantages. As von Moltke the Elder once commented, when told by an admirer that he was destinted to go down as one of the greatest marshals in all history: "No, for I have never conducted a retreat." Manstein did, under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, and in doing so probably saved the whole southern wing of the German army in Russia from annihilation.
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Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Europe - Germany    3. Historical - General    4. History: World    5. Military - World War II    6. Military History - World War II    7. Biography: general    8. European history: Second World War    9. Germany    10. History / Military / World War II    11. Warfare & Defence   

Reviews (2)

Lex vs. Rex
John Cooke, who held progressive views of the law that were well ahead of his time and who was a key actor in the trial of King Edward I, is rightly rescued from the dusty corners of English history by the very knowledgeable Mr. Robertson.The heretofore forgotten Cooke emerges a fitting hero to all who believe in the rule of law.
What subject can give sentence on his king? . . .
And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?