Robert H. FerrellRezensionen

I read this to find out more about what my great-grandfather endured in World War I when his Thirty-fifth Division lost 50% of its infantry due to commander incompetence as they pushed into the Meuse-Argonne. It's a dry read, but fortunately a short one, and it does a good job of describing the circumstances around the horrendous losses for the Kansas-Missouri soldiers. Really, I marvel that my great-grandfather survived and that I even exist.

This is an excellent biography of an almost forgotten first lady. Grace Coolidge was one of the most popular ladies in the United States during her husband's presidency. Everything she did was copied and discussed. However, today, she is hidden behind the more well-known occupiers of the office of First Lady of the United States.

Grace Coolidge was a perfect foil for her notoriously "Silent" husband. She was energetic and outgoing. She made a real effort to be likeable and relatable in the press. Children loved her and wanted to meet her. However, much of her personality was stifled by her husband. When he died, Grace Coolidge came into her own and lived life on her terms.

Mrs. Coolidge's early life is very elusive. Hardly anything, apart from stories told and retold time and again, survives. Documentation of her life didn't really begin until her husband held public office. This book is a worthy installment in the Modern First Ladies edition of biographies, and Grace Coolidge's life is certainly well-worth reading. What a charming lady!

I vaguely remember George W. Bush, when asked how he thought history would judge his Presidency, saying time will tell, and made reference to Truman's transition from a low regarded President immediately after his term ended to being considered a great President after time has passed. I'd heard that before, and know of Truman's unpopular decisions to send troops into Korea, to relieve General Douglas MacArthur as commander during the Korean War, to use the Atomic Bomb at the end of World War II, etc., and was curious to learn more.

In that regard, I found Robert Ferrell's book, "Harry S. Truman: A Life" to be informative and interesting. Ferrell detailed much of Truman's pre-political life, his background on the farm, as a clothing store owner, a judge, and his entry into Politics. And while that background was informative, and provided a good understanding into what drove Truman and how he became the person he was, I felt there was an overemphasis on that portion of his life over his years in the White House. Nonetheless, the major decision points of his Presidency are well covered, and I enjoyed learning more about Truman, as a man and as President.

This is a large, though not complete, collection of the surviving letters from Harry Truman, at first his future wife and then his wife, from fairly early in their courtship to a few letters after he left the presidency. Most of the early letters are entirely about minor personal affairs. For me as a Freemason, the fairly frequent mentions of Harry's masonic activities (he was master of a lodge and an active ritualist) are the most interesting parts of these early letters. They are followed by his letters during World War 1 when he was serving in France and giving quite vivid descriptions of the French countryside and the lifestyle of the American soldiers. (He quotes someone as saying "The Germans fight for territory, the English for the seas, the French for patriotism and the American for souvenirs." --he sent home a few knickknacks made from shell casings.) Even then, he was thinking he might run for local office. When he did become a 'county judge" (commissioner) I realized for the first time (despite having read several biographies of him) that Jackson County where he served actually included all of Kansas City -- I had thought of it as the rural outskirts only. He was in fact quite a major cog in the Prendergast machine. When he went on to the US Senate, he worked hard tough investigations, especially of the railroad corporations, producing what the book calls the 'Truman-Wheeler Transportation Act --another aspect of his career I had not been very aware of. He does give quite a lot of comments to his wife about his very mixed opinions of his fellow senators, major railroad and stock exchange officials, and New Deal officials. There are only a few comments on his selection as VP in 1944, though I had not realized how hard he campaigned that year. When he became president. he seems in his private letters to be a bit overconfident (contrary to some statements he made more publicly) , and throughout the presidential years he keeps telling his wife how complimentary people have been about his speeches etc. It is clear, though, that he did continue to work hard and did the best he could. The letters tend to peter out after 1947, apparently because Mrs. Truman later burned them. The book is seriously under-edited; many people and events mentioned need more explanation. In one case the note speaks of Truman attending the Yalta Conference when in fact he was attending Potsdam. A final thought --if he had had a Twitter account, he would have been in serious trouble.

A semi-biography and a semi-historiography of the Harding presidency and the Harding legacy. The main thrust of the book, broken down topically, is that everything you know about Harding just ain't true and is instead the product of malicious lies and innuendo spread by people who did not like him or his politics. In the Nan Britton chapter, Ferrell never quite comes out and says she's lying, but you get the gist that she is probably exaggerating. Of course, we now know (post-August 2015) that Nan Britton and Harding were lovers, and did spawn a love child. I still believe that you can't wholesale trust everything said in her memoir. The book is good at showing how liberal historians can shape the discourse of history for decades to come.

Robert Farrell's contribution to the excellent "Presidency" series of the University Press of Kansas offers a clear-eyed but sympathetic portrait of the thirtieth president. Coolidge today is remembered only as "Silent Cal" (if he is remembered at all), the Vermont stoic who presided over the nation from 1923 (on the death of Harding) to 1929. Farrell brings him back to life, and demonstrates that he was a man of greater depth and abilities than he is usually given credit for. But the fact remains that he was a champion of small government (the Tea Party is bound to discover him any day now) and his executive style was much like Eisenhower's - appoint a capable cabinet and leave day-to-day management of public affairs to them, intervening only when necessary.

Fortunately for Coolidge (and the nation), most of his term in office coincided with a long period of peace and prosperity, and there appeared little need for a strong executive. On the other hand, however, his final two full years as president (1927-1928) witnessed runaway growth in the stock market and a massive expansion of speculative investment (otherwise known as a bubble) that ended with a loud crash in October 1929, after Coolidge had left office. In retrospect he was criticized for being asleep at the wheel while the American economy ran off the tracks into severe and prolonged depression. Farrell concludes that "the economy was the greatest problem of the moment, and Coolidge understood it less than some of his contemporaries. If he failed in the presidency, this was his major failure...Somehow, one wishes that during the last presidential year or two, the bright, hardworking, slightly cynical, simple (in the right sense of that adjective) man in the White House had fixed his mind on the nation's fragile economy. One wishes that he had gathered the best minds...and asked them what to do, and then, although the task would have been difficult, sought to do it."

It's easy to share Farrell's wish, which was written in 1998, but in light of the economic crisis that befell the nation in 2008, it's difficult to blame Coolidge, who lived in an era of limited economic data and minimal government regulation, for failing to recognize and respond to the same kind of irrational exuberance that George W. Bush and Alan Greenspan recognized but ignored.½

Unlike a biography, autobiography, memoirs, or letters this compilation of other papers gives a refreshing insight to Truman's thinking. It affirms his practical nature. I really liked this book.

In my opinion this is a slanderous book, poorly and deliberatly slanted in terms of the author's referenced supporting materials, lacking in detail concerning topography, and with extremely poor maps. Ferrell omits positive evidence supporting MacArthur's role in this battle and he also lacks any understanding in the elements of command, obedience to orders, the role of mission-type orders, and initiative.½

Not just an atlas, this is an excellent short US history. There are some wonderful photographs as well as maps. I especially like the one of 4 president's smiling...of course Reagan with the best...Reagan,Nixon,Carter, and Ford. It not only covers US maps but also the country maps where we have fought...Europe, Korea, Vietnam.

2761 Woodrow Wilson and World War I 1917-1921, by Robert H. Ferrell (read 21 Jun 1995) This is an excellent volume in The New American Nation series published in 1985. It is really good and I found it told me much I did not know or had forgotten. It leaves it plain that Wilson was far too stubborn over the League--if he had accepted reservations it would have been for the best. The book is excellent in its documentation and it has a good bibliography. This was a most interesting book.

3582. Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944, by Robert H. Farrell (read May 17, 2002) This is a great and excellent book. Having been an absorbedly attentive listener to the 1944 Democratic Convention, it was fascinating to read this behind the scenes account of the momentous decision in regard to FDR's running mate. With the benefit of hindsight, I found myself having to assure myself that it would come out all right--a position very different from the one I had when I was listening as a callow youth, when I was avidly for the renomination of Henry Wallace

This is an odd little book. On one hand, Ferrell has many useful things to say about how the 35th Infantry Division was badly prepared for battle, about Pershing's style and limitations as a commander, about the stresses generated when Regular Army officers are given operational command of volunteer troops, and about the general question of whether the division went to war with the right operational doctrine.

On the negative side, Ferrell allows himself to become bogged down in the seemingly interminable conflict that afflicts the US military between regulars and part-time soldiers. This allows Ferrell to berate some regular officers who probably deserved to be cut down to size, but it's still a bit of a historiographic cul-de-sac.

Had Ferrell stuck to examining the experience of the 35th Infantry Division as a failure of doctrine this would have been a more useful study.

This is not to mention that this is a short enough work that Ferrell could have probably cut it down to a journal article. Which leads me to wonder who this book was written for; undergrads in the Missouri and Kansas state university systems perhaps? Or maybe it's a question of an old established academic getting a chance to air some of his pet peeves.

"An unexpected and Delightful iInsight into One of the Most Interesting Men of THis Century" Atlanta Constitution.

A story told in letters to his wife by Harry s, Truman. Excellent. Book Jacket has only two photographs.½

1984 Published. Many excellent photographs and well done text.

biography, history, presidents