PositiveThe Wall Street Journal... a chronicle that makes the most of its abundant sources and proves worthy of its subject. Mr. Gaddis captures the full range of Kennan\'s life and career and reveals the complicated inner personality behind the public mask ... It is one of the few weaknesses of Mr. Gaddis\'s biography that he deals with Kennan\'s output in this later period too brusquely ... Mr. Gaddis\'s admiration for Kennan is obvious, but it does not stop him from portraying his subject\'s flaws ... a major achievement. One senses that Kennan himself, at his best a bold truth-teller, would have been pleased.
James Lacey
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Lacey’s summary judgment, coming near the end of this superb book, is a fair one: \'World War II challenged Americans to rise to greatness. . . . Roosevelt led the way and stood at the pinnacle of events.\'
Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalThe authors are clearly admirers of Kennedy’s but not hagiographers ... The Road to Camelot succeeds nicely in recounting a political campaign yet does not quite capture the appeal of its major character. Kennedy made several campaign appearances in New York. As a Columbia University graduate student, I went down to lower Manhattan to see him speak on the steps of City Hall. Many local dignitaries arrived to polite applause. After a brief wait, an open car came down the street with the candidate and his beautiful wife. As it passed, the crowd surged powerfully. Kennedy’s words that day were not particularly memorable, but his tone of determination and the urgency of his manner were stirring. He was, at his best, charisma in action.
Joseph Lelyveld
PositiveThe Wall Street Journal...a careful, somber and sometimes harrowing account of FDR’s last 16 months ... Mr. Lelyveld tells us little that other biographers have not discovered, but his full and disciplined investigation of an important theme makes a significant contribution to FDR scholarship.
