Jim Newton

This is the most tedious political biography I have ever read. It was so uninteresting that about three-quarters of the way through, I started wondering (purely for narrative purposes and not due to any dislike for the man) if Brown might die in some tragic way before the end and make things more interesting. But no, the subject is still with us and might do all sorts of things worthy of note yet (although the writer has clearly written him off as too old.) Biographies are best written when the subject has shuffled off this mortal coil, obviously.

I received an ARC of this book free from the publisher for review.… (mais)

After 70 years, Eisenhower remains a respected president with a mostly positive influence. Not only did he lead the Allies to victory in World War II, but as president, he also organized the world for a lasting peace. He continued to develop the American economy so that over time, America would win the Cold War against communism while not annihilating the world in the process.

Newton analyzes these issues in careful detail, but he tends to be overly sympathetic with his subject. He does criticize Eisenhower on civil rights (Ike’s obvious weakness) and is consistently critical of Nixon. However, on almost every other issue, Newton sides with Eisenhower without much criticism. Sometimes, this is helpful – as when Newton uses Eisenhower to critique the directions of the 1960s conservative movement as well as the modern Republican party. Overall, it still appears that Newton identifies with Eisenhower too much.

Eisenhower’s greatest legacy in American history remains his deep mastery of international politics. Newton makes this clear and shows how much care Eisenhower brought to the task. The sophisticated nuance of Ike’s “middle way” stands to teach much to modern Republicanism, and Newton is not shy in bringing this out. Further, Eisenhower’s sense of balance would likewise benefit the modern Democratic movement as well – which is why Ike was also recruited by Democrats to run under their banner in 1952.

At their best, presidential biographies contain much to teach readers about national politics. The illuminate social trends that impacted the country over long swaths of time as brought out by the leader. They also teach the limits of any one person to impose their will on American politics. As Newton hints at, JFK was a reaction to Eisenhower’s lack of focus on domestic issues. America consistently remains larger than the presidential office.

This book has appeal to those who want to learn from American history first. As with study of Teddy Roosevelt, modern Republicans can pick up a deeper tapestry of their party from the history of their standard bearers. Reading this book can help readers to avoid an all-consuming grasp on the politics of the present. Further, it can teach all politically interested Americans about the care and nurture required to calm the international order.

Reading this book certainly made me long for a leader with as much practical wisdom about the world as Ike. Like all leaders, each American president has individual shortcomings, but reading books like Newton’s bring out the beauty of their strengths. Eisenhower’s eight years certainly secured with care the direction of the post-World-War-II order for a more peaceful world.… (mais)

4 1/2 stars: SUper, couldn't put it down.

From the back cover: Jerry Brown is no ordinary politician. Like his state, he is eclectic, brilliant, unpredictable, and sometimes weird. And, as with so much that California invents and exports, Brown's life story reveals a great deal about America. With the exclusive cooperation of Governor Brown, Jim Newton has written the definitive account of Jerry Brown's life. THe son of Pat Brown, who served as governor of California in the 60s, Jerry would extend and also radically alter the legacy of his father through his own service in the governor's mansion. As governor, first in the 70s and again 28 years later in his remarkable return to power, Jerry Brown would offer an alternative menu of American values: the restoration of the California economy while balancing the state budget: leadership in the international campaign to combat climate change, and the aggressive defense of California's immigrants, not matter how they arrived. It was a blend of compassion, farsightedness, and pragmatism that the nation would be wise to consider.

The story of Jerry Brown's life is in many ways the story of California and how it became the largest economy in the US. Man of Tomorrow traces the blueprint of Jerry Brown's offbeeat risk taking: equal parts fiscal conservatism and social progressivism. Newton also reveals another side of Brown, the once promising presidential candidate whose defeat on the national stage did nothing to diminish the scale of his political, intellectual, and spiritual ambitions.

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When Brown was reelected governor in 2010 I went looking for a biography of him. There was only one (there's since been another published) and it was written nearly 30 years prior. I did read it, but certainly it was outdated. I was *thrilled* to discover that one of my favorite biographers, Jim Newton, had published a work on Brown. I picked it up immediately. (Aside: they did a livestream presentation together at the 2020 COVID virtual Festival of Books. Newton answered my question, about what he would write about next!).

I was buried in this book. I only gave it one star off, because it didn't go to the very next level of making me laugh or think about it extensively outside of my read. It was very engaging and gave a very balanced portrait of Brown. It covers some California history, most of which was a rehash for me. I learned a lot about Brown, and about his relationships with his father, his spirituality, and ultimately his wife.

Some quotes I liked:

"The result was not just the most highly regarded public education system on earth, but also a profound commitment to egalitarianism. Californians, regardless of means, could count on their state for education. No one need fear the denial of opportunity on that basis. "The campus is no longer on the hill with the aristocracy but in the valley with the people. "

"I was interested in freedom and boundaries" Brown said. "[Martin Buber] talked about the utopian Socialists,...and about how, outside of government, people organize themselves." For Brown, those models would create a limiting principle around his vision of government, distinguishing him from more conventional liberals by his refusal to regard government as a solution to many social and societal ills.

A Section of the Clean Air Act... explicitly gave California permission to adopt more rigorous standards than those applied to the rest of the country, an acknowledgement of the smog that had become a defining feature in the Los Angeles basin.... The auto industry screamed in protest but so many cars were sold in CA that the states standards became those for the nation.

Brown never denied rumors of his homosexuality, later explaining privately that he saw those rumors as neither damaging to him -- it would have been hurtful for him to suggest that it was somehow wrong to be gay -- nor worthy of a reply.

Discussing criminal justice issues: "Humanity has a strong instinct for punishment."

Brown famously turned down [political] gifts - though his Proposition 9 had created an exception for books -- and his attacks on the influence of money in politics established him as a critic of government corruption.

Illich sent Brown an extended reflection on suicide in 2000, one that Brown would consult when he, as governor, considered a right to die measure near the end of his tenure. For Illich, then himself gravely ill,the question of how to address suicide was one of friendship "not poison but a sign of unconditonal trust."

[Discussing GOP moderate Pete Wilson's support of Prop 187]. Wilsons' was a costly victory. It shattered his reputation as a moderate and alienated a generation of Latinos from the Republican Party, first in California then beyond. ... Wilson never liked Trump, but he supported the idea of a wall. Wilson's 1994 gubernatorial campaign, at least with respect to immigration, beame the playbook for Trump's 2016 presidential bid. Both succeeded in the short run; both did incalculable damage to their party in the long run.

Initially, Brown's efforts in California complemented a growning non partisan awareness of climate change and its implications for mankind. As such, he attracted attention but not much controversy. That would soon change. As the politics of Washington were upended in the following couple of years, the contours of the debate would adjust, as would Brown's place within it. He would graduate from state leader to international icon. He took office as a young maverick interested in solar energy and space exploration. By the time he finished, he would be recognized around the world as the nation's most prominent defender of the earth itself.

For Brown, the big picture - an existential threat - would always prevail over the smaller demands of party loyalty and partisan advantage. He could be shrewd and transactional, but he would not alter his fundamentals. He would not criticize Trump for seeking a relationship with Putin. He would, however, challenge Trump on almost every other aspect of his character and presidency.

In 2018, he weighed the merits of hiking California's minimum wage and found compelling arguments on both sides. Economically, he fretted "minimum wages may not make sense." They may displace some workers, as companies pay higher wages to fewer employees. That gave Brown pause. BUt he recognized another dimension, less quantifiable but deeper. "Work is not just an economic equation. Work is part of living in a moral community. And a worker is worthy of his or her hire, and to be worhty is to be able to support a family." That tipped the scales for Brown. He signed the bill raising California's minimum wage and allowing for it to increase annually going forward.… (mais)

4 stars: Very good

From the back cover: America's 34th president was belittled by his critics as the babysitter in chief. This new book reveals how wrong they were Dwight Eisenhower was bequeathed the atomic bomb and refused to use it. He ground down Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism until both became, as he said, "McCarthywasism". He stimulated the economy to lift it from recession., built an interstate highway system, and turned an 8Billion deficit in 1953 into a $500 million surplus in 1960. Ike was the last president until Bill Clinton to leave his country in the black.

The President Eisenhower of popular imagination is a benign figure, armed with a putter, a winning smile, and little else. The Eisenhower of Jim Newton's rendering is shrewd, sentimental, and tempestuous. He mourned the death of his first son and doted on his grandchildren but could, one aide recalled, "peel the varnish off a desk" with his temper. Mocked as shallow and inarticulate, he was in fact a meticulous manager. Admired as a general, he was a champion of peace. In Korea and Vietnam, in Quemoy and Berlin, his generals urged him to wage nuclear war. Time and again he considered the idea and rejected it. And it was Eisenhower who appointed the liberal justices Earl Warren and William Brennan and who then called in the military to enforce desegregation in schools.

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I first read Jim Newton's biography on Earl Warren, after hearing his speak at the Festival of Books. At fest, he mentioned that authoring the Warren book piqued his interest in Eisenhower, so he then tackled that subject next. I'm glad he did. I had little knowledge of the man, the president, or even more than his name as general.

I loved how the book was structured. A pet peeve of mine in biographies, is taking 300 pages to even get to the event/ time period that I as the reader am interested in. Not this book. Newton immediately names 8 people who were main influences: "...the lessons from his mother, the patience of his wife, the gallantry of George Patton, the patient tutoring of Fox Conner, the negative example of Douglas MacArthur, the serene leadership of George Marshall, and the wise political tutelage of Herbert Brownell." Newton then spends approximately 50 pages covering Eisenhower's life and relationships with the above 8 people, until we land at his decision to run for office. This was a tight, informative section which provided me the insight into the character to read the rest of the biography---without bogging me down with every meeting, anecdote and dinner conversation of the first 50 years of his life.

Some quotes I wanted to remember:

[Running against Adlai Stevenson] "Ike's friend George Allen felt Stevenson's inexperience in the area of foreign affairs and his intellectual distance from America's working people. He was stirring, yes, but also aloof and cerebral. For Stevenson, the campaign was an opportunity to educate; for Eisenhower, it was a battle to win. So while Stevenson formed arguments and theses, Ike turned to short advertisements and jingles. It struck some as trite, but by election day no adult American had not heard "I like Ike". The 1952 campaign not only created a winner; it changed the character of American politics."

In the height of McCarthyism, Eisenhower gave a speech at Dartmouth. This was his first public censure. of McCarthy. "Near the end of his speech, however, Eisenhower departed from his text. 'Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book as long as any book does not offend your sense of decency. That should be the only censorship'."

From the famous "military industrial complex" speech: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people."

Proposal to the UN: "The nuclear nations, he suggested should each make contributions of uranium and fissionable material to a UN agency, which would then apply that material to problems of agriculture, medicine and other peaceful activities. The argument for such a sharing of material was two fold: it would apply the fruits of development to peaceful purposes, and it would shrink the global supply of fissionable material available for destruction. It was a genuinely new idea in the still-nascent politics of the Cold War, through which Eisenhower was improvising a fragile peace. Morever, it reflected Ike's delicate triangulation of the conflict's forces: American defense, Soviet containment, and the thread of nuclear war."

"Faced with the awesome implications of the Soviet Union's ability to wage nuclear war, Eisenhower changed. The nuclear enthusiast of 1953 had become a more sober leader by 1956. .. Ike was haunted by images of wrecked society across Europe and America, of the Northern hemisphere so damaged it would "virtually cease to exist". He began to question the meaning of military victory in the modern world. Even as his top advisers planned for small nuclear wars in which America would use tactical weapons to contain Communist expansion, Eisenhower veered in the opposite direction. Military leaders were often appalled by his new approach, but he had nothing to prove to them. "

[when Khrushchev visited the US]. "Eisenhower urged Khrushchev to enjoy the American people and appreciate their commitment to peace, their disinterest in world domination. 'I assure you they have no ill will toward any other people, that they covet no territory, no additional power. Nor do they seek to interfere in the internal affairs of any other nation. I most sincerely hope that as you come to see and believe these truths about our people there will develop an improved basis on which we can together consider the problems that divide us'."

[Upon his imminent departure from office]. "During my entire life, until I came back from WWII as something of a VIP, I was known by my contemporaries as 'Ike'. Whether or not the deep friendships I enjoy have had their beginnings in the ante or post-war period, I now demand, as my right, that you, starting January 21, 1961, address me by that nickname. No longer do I propose to be excluded from the privileges that other friends enjoy."

In the acknowledgements section, Newton discusses the myriad news reports, published transcripts, and much more, of the era. He goes on to discuss the Oppenheimer letters and McCarthy transcripts. He says "Devotion to chronicling society in all its serious complexity was an article of faith for American society in all its serious complexity was an article of faith... the stewards of American journalism at its apex understood that it was expensive and difficult, that it was a job for serious, seasoned people, not amateurs, poseurs, or profiteers. They spent lavishly and constructed a vital business as well as a sustaining culture. It is a lesson that no engaged citizen should forget but that sadly, many have."… (mais)