Historical Biographies

[DoctorJones24]

I read McCullough's John Adams this spring and really enjoyed it. What are some of the key biographies of some other figures? I tried Hannibal recently, but it was a more novelized account, I realized too late, and I didn't get very far.

Which is the best Jeffereson bio? Is there a good one on Paine?

[Dr. Wankler]

Is there a good one on Paine?

Well, I just asked the guy who teaches colonial history and a course on the Revolutionary war, and he says that between Eric Foner's Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, (which isn't a full-scale biography, but which provides a lot of material on "the times" aspect of the usual "life and times" of a figure), and John Keane's Tom Paine, A Political Life, you'll pretty much have him covered. He says that there's a new Paine book coming down the pike, but couldn't recall the author or press, but that he saw the galleys at a conference last month.

EDIT: It must be this: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine,
which doesn't sound much like a normal bio in this description:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582345023/qid=1129034609/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-1275818-7904632?v=glance&s=books

[DoctorJones24]

Foner, huh? I got sent a couple of his books last year, but they seemed more geared towards high school classes. Kind of "Zinn lite" it looked like to me. I'll check it out, thanks.

[needs]

Foner, huh? I got sent a couple of his books last year, but they seemed more geared towards high school classes. Kind of "Zinn lite" it looked like to me. I'll check it out, thanks.

His recent stuff is very geared toward use in high school/college survey classes (that said, his "Story of American Freedom" is a great book about how freedom's meaning has changed over the nation's history and incredibly useful to get students to see how history and ideas intersect. I use it all the time in my classes and recommend it to anyone looking for a quick survey of American history). It's more complex by far than Zinn.

His earlier work is very important scholarship. The Tom Paine book is very good but may be dated, since its pretty old IIRC. His Reconstruction is the synthesis that everyone works off. His Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men was pathbreaking in setting the terms by which Republicans rose to power in the 1850s. It would be hard to construct a orals list in American history without at least the last two on it.

[Nogra Rover]

Richard Zacks' book Captain Kidd is worth reading. He challenges the idea that Kidd was a real pirate. Interesting for its discussions on slavery, early NYC, and William of Orange as the new (Dutch-born) king of Englad.

[John Galt]

I really enjoyed Doris Kearns Godwin's No Ordinary Time. Technically it's not a biography since it's about both FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, but it's far more of a duo-graphy than just a history of the time.

I was very bored reading Edmund Morris's Teddy Roosevelt biography, though supposedly he's the guy with the most detail on T. Rex. McCullough also wrote Mornings on Horseback about Teddy, but having read his John Adams AND Truman bios, I was worried about getting only one author's point of view, so never read it.

Caro's trilogy (quartet?) on LBJ is a completely fascinating page turner. In Pursuit of Power is where I left off, so I've got a book to read.

Parting the Waters is (I think) the MLK biography that first broke the news of King's marital infedilities. Notwithstanding whether I'm right on that, it's a great read on the Civil Rights Movement.

[nicephoras]

Caro's work on Robert Moses is integral for anyone who wants to understand why New York is what it is, although it suffers from too much detail about superflous events and people at multiple moments. There's a certain limit to my interest in Moses's cronies.

[Real Ray]

Ian Kershaw's 2 volumes on Hitler are good.

I also would suggest John Lee Anderson's, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life as well.

[Dr. Wankler]

Caro's work on Robert Moses is integral for anyone who wants to understand why New York is what it is, although it suffers from too much detail about superflous events and people at multiple moments.

Too much detail, in a Caro biography?

[Real Ray]

Two more that come to mind that I liked were Richard Reeves JFK book, and Tom Wicker's book on Nixon.

[needs]

I really enjoyed Doris Kearns Godwin's No Ordinary Time. Technically it's not a biography since it's about both FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, but it's far more of a duo-graphy than just a history of the time.

I was very bored reading Edmund Morris's Teddy Roosevelt biography, though supposedly he's the guy with the most detail on T. Rex. McCullough also wrote Mornings on Horseback about Teddy, but having read his John Adams AND Truman bios, I was worried about getting only one author's point of view, so never read it.


My favorite read about TR is Gail Bederman's Manliness and Civilization. While it's not really a biography (it's a cultural history analyzing discourses of, well, manliness and civilization used by TR, G. Stanley Hall, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and someone else ... Edgar Rice Burroughs?), it does have great detail about his makeover from someone a political opponent once accused of (and this is a direct quote) "sucking the head of the ivory cane" to an exemplar of manliness.

And yes, the entire point of this post was to find a way to include that quote. But it is a good book.

[Nogra Rover]

Foner, huh? I got sent a couple of his books last year, but they seemed more geared towards high school classes. Kind of "Zinn lite" it looked like to me. I'll check it out, thanks.

Foner's Story of American Freedom and Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men are both excellent. He is one of the most important historians of 19th Century America (expecially Civil War and Reconstruction) out there.

[kopiteinkc]

McCullough wrote Truman bio

While certainly the most popular biography about Truman, McCullough's book is not as historically accurate as Hamby's "Man of the People".

McCullough's is certainly an easier read and Hamby more of a slog, but I prefer accuracy to style.

[johan neeskens]

I like Gita (I believe that's what her first name is) Sereny's biography of Albert Speer, it was based on conversations with him after he got out of prison and mainly concentrates on how responsible he feels about what the nazis did. Fascinating read.

[Karl K]

I am about halfway through Ron Chernow"s Alexander Hamilton.

Sensational.

[NER_MCFC]

I am about halfway through Ron Chernow"s Alexander Hamilton.

Sensational.
I just finished this. The rest of it is sensational too.

[DoctorJones24]

Has anyone read Vidal's Burr? Is that a bio, or a novel?

[gildarkevin]

I just finished this. The rest of it is sensational too.

That's what I'm reading right now...and probably for the next 6 months, given the size. Very good though. I also liked the "Duel" book that was essentially a biography of Hamilton as well.

I'm a big fan of the Reeves JFK biography mentioned above because so much of it is simply transcript of actual conversation or reprint of letter and other documents.

[grandinquisitor28]

Really is a great read isn't it? Just makes one wonder all the more why he isn't covered more heavily in American History courses at the college, and at the High School level. There's a book I read that traced the rise and fall of his reputation and in some way's did a good job of explaining why he's been so difficult to get a handle on throughout the years since his death, and why his reputation is constantly on the up or downswing but I forgot the writer. I'll dig around for it. While Joseph Ellis has seen his reputation go straight into the toilet following the "Vietnam" scandal, "Founding Brothers" and his biography of Washington are really as readable and interesting as virtually any biography or Revolutionary History piece I've come across in recent years. Anyone read either of those?

[DoctorD]

Between the Hamilton and Adams biographies, I hope Jefferson's rep goes downhill. Another grandlioquent Southerner who didn't mind owning slaves and blamed his financial problems on those heartless Northerners and their tight fiscal policies.