Although unlikely to share Merry’s very high opinion of McKinley, most readers of this intelligent biography will agree that...
A fresh biography of the short-lived presidency of William McKinley (1843-1901), “an unlikely figure to be presiding over the transformation of America.”
This is not the first attempt to rehabilitate McKinley, who served from 1897 until he was assassinated by an anarchist in September 1901, but former Congressional Quarterly CEO Merry (Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians, 2012, etc.) makes a persuasive case that he was not just an amiable Ohio governor, protégé of Cleveland businessman Mark Hanna, but a canny, ambitious statesman. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1877, he remained until 1891. There followed two terms as governor and an easy win for the 1896 Republican presidential nomination. Once elected, McKinley found himself involved in what might be called Operation Cuban Freedom (parallels with recent events are irresistible). Cubans were miserable and oppressed, and the American invasion was widely supported. Victory was easy, but given freedom, Cuba showed little gratitude. Merry clearly admires McKinley, arguing that, “though not a man of vision, he was a man of perception who saw clearly the major developments of his time.” Some ideas, such as reciprocal trade agreements, were ahead of his time. No apologist for big business, he was more liberal than his overrated predecessor, Grover Cleveland. The author maintains that McKinley, not his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, ushered America onto the world stage and jump-started the progressive movement. McKinley also showed excellent taste in appointments, which included Elihu Root, John Hay, George Cortelyou, Philander Knox, Charles Dawes, and William Howard Taft. Roosevelt became vice president in 1900 when he discouraged party leaders who opposed him. Merry believes McKinley was preparing to launch an aggressive trust-busting program when he was assassinated.
Although unlikely to share Merry’s very high opinion of McKinley, most readers of this intelligent biography will agree that he was an astute politician and strong leader.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2544-8
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.
In her first nonfiction book, novelist Grande (Dancing with Butterflies, 2009, etc.) delves into her family’s cycle of separation and reunification.
Raised in poverty so severe that spaghetti reminded her of the tapeworms endemic to children in her Mexican hometown, the author is her family’s only college graduate and writer, whose honors include an American Book Award and International Latino Book Award. Though she was too young to remember her father when he entered the United States illegally seeking money to improve life for his family, she idolized him from afar. However, she also blamed him for taking away her mother after he sent for her when the author was not yet 5 years old. Though she emulated her sister, she ultimately answered to herself, and both siblings constantly sought affirmation of their parents’ love, whether they were present or not. When one caused disappointment, the siblings focused their hopes on the other. These contradictions prove to be the narrator’s hallmarks, as she consistently displays a fierce willingness to ask tough questions, accept startling answers, and candidly render emotional and physical violence. Even as a girl, Grande understood the redemptive power of language to define—in the U.S., her name’s literal translation, “big queen,” led to ridicule from other children—and to complicate. In spelling class, when a teacher used the sentence “my mamá loves me” (mi mamá me ama), Grande decided to “rearrange the words so that they formed a question: ¿Me ama mi mamá? Does my mama love me?”
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6177-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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