...it's an extremely engaging narrative from start to finish. Rumsfeld credits a great many helpers in his Acknowledgments, but the final product not only reads smoothly but also reads with Rumsfeld's voice ... Rumsfeld seems to have been everywhere at all times, and as a result his book brims with colorful character studies ... When the Center Held is designed to be a celebration, and it is certainly that ... a personal, detailed look inside one of the least-studied most-important presidencies of the modern era.
Rumsfeld has written a kind of modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress about a good and godly man who enters the Slough of Despond (Washington, D.C.), is tried and tempted, but ascends to Celestial City with his virtue intact. That the narrator is a figure who has been likened in some quarters to Beelzebub makes the story more interesting, or at least curious ... It would have been easy enough to cast the earnest, well-meaning Ford as a bit of a chump, but Rumsfeld portrays him as an honorable and brave man ... he offers us a reassuring morality tale of virtue if not immediately rewarded, then ultimately redeemed.
Mr. Rumsfeld begins his narrative by effectively recalling incidents from the year 1974 that place the political challenges the new president faced in their cultural context ...numerous amusing and informative anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book ... Rumsfeld reminds the reader how fortunate the nation was to have Gerald Ford as the nation's 38th chief executive.
Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Ford’s chief of staff and then defense secretary, has now written a slight but worthy book praising him and his short tenure ...The 128 weeks of Ford’s presidency served up less excitement than a 128-minute tweetstorm by Trump. Though this was a virtue of the Ford presidency, it is a downside for a book about it ... Rumsfeld exacerbates this problem by seeming content to plumb the shallows of Ford’s policies rather than trying to go deep ... Nevertheless, Ford’s basic goodness sweetly suffuses this book and makes it a welcome tale and worthy parable.
Because of their friendship, Rumsfeld makes clear from the outset that his view of Ford is not impartial, and his book is not intended to be an objective biography. Rather, it is his attempt to 'give a sense of what it was like to be there, during one of our nation’s most tempestuous times, at Gerald Ford’s side.' Despite that caveat, the book is a fine work of presidential history, as evidenced by the dust-jacket endorsements from Pulitzer winner Jon Meacham and Pulitzer finalist Jean Edward Smith ... As Rumsfeld persuasively demonstrates, despite these deficiencies, Ford did an outstanding job in bringing both Watergate and Vietnam to an end, and also in turning around the nation’s economy by working successfully with Congress on legislation that reduced inflation and unemployment ... Rumsfeld’s book should inspire historians to look beyond charisma and eloquence in ranking presidents and reevaluate their assessment of his late friend’s presidency. After all, during his 895 days at the nation’s helm, Gerald Ford succeeded in bringing stability and trust back to the Oval Office at a time when our country needed it most.
In his latest book, the author convincingly argues that Ford successfully restored trust in the presidency and held the country together ... Rumsfeld occasionally confuses dates, and he oversells several of Ford’s accomplishments. A few flaws aside, this is an engrossing and informative tribute.
...a personal look behind the scenes of his close friend’s short presidency ... While other writers with more distance may offer a more nuanced take, Rumsfeld provides a useful introduction to a brief but consequential presidency.
