MixedNPRThe Vagabonds is ostensibly a book about...vacations. But the road trips themselves, alas, are not very compelling. They were exhaustively documented by that army of reporters, and exhaustively researched by Guinn, but all the pandering to the watching press starts to feel a little redundant after a while. The appearance of two sitting presidents barely livens up events ... Guinn...offers a fascinating snapshot of some of the less-famous years of American history, including the xenophobic turmoil of 1919 and the depression of 1920 ... Woven into the backdrop of the story is a portrait of America\'s burgeoning love affair with the automobile ... Those threads are all well worth the read. But Guinn himself seems most interested in charting the rising and falling personal and business fortunes—and in the case of Ford, political ambitions—of the two men. And it\'s here that the book falls short. The Vagabonds portrays all Ford and Edison\'s flaws, from minor peccadilloes to monstrous bigotry, in the warmest possible light ... The entire book lays...positive attributes on heavily, and shies away from \'unfortunate flaws\' ... It\'s the kind of laudatory coverage you\'d expect from the adulatory press of the Vagabonds\' own era. But it\'s a century later. Can\'t we admit that \'great men\' are far more interesting with their baggage than without?
