MixedThe Spectator (UK)The Idealist is Samuel Zipp’s idealizing and less than ideal account of how Willkie briefly captivated the American imagination ... Zipp...might be overestimating the powers of cultural memory. The bulk of Willkie’s impressions are naïve and generally forgettable ... Zipp’s able and even account rarely intrudes on its subject ... Willkie caught the zeitgeist by the tail, only to have it slip away. The philosophically inclined and the serious student of American history might not be satisfied by The Idealist.
