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[Hayes] Hans L. Trefousse,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. (Henry Holt, 2002). American Presidents Series, edited
by Arthur M. Schlesinger. 208 pages.
~~~ The disputed election of 1876
between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden, in which Congress set up a
special electoral commission, handing the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, brings
recent events to sharp focus.Historian Hans L. Trefousse explores Haye's new
relevance and reconsiders what many have seen as the pitfalls of his presidency.
A great intellectual and one of our best-educated presidents, Hayes did much in the
way of healing the nation and elevating the presidency.
$22.00
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[Garfield] Ira M. Rutkow,
JAMES A. GARFIELD. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. (Henry Holt, 2006). American Presidents Series, edited
by Arthur M. Schlesinger. 181 pages.
~~~ James A. Garfield was one of the
Republican Party’s leading lights in the years following the Civil War. Born in a log cabin,
he rose to become a college president, Union Army general, and congressman—all by the age
of thirty-two. Embodying the strive-and-succeed spirit that captured the imagination of
Americans in his time, he was elected president in 1880. It is no surprise that one of his
biographers was Horatio Alger.
~~~ Garfield’s term in office, however, was cut tragically short. Just four months into
his presidency, a would-be assassin approached Garfield at the Washington, D.C., railroad
station and fired a single shot into his back. Garfield’s bad luck was to have his fate placed
in the care of arrogant physicians who did not accept the new theory of antisepsis. Probing
the wound with unwashed and occasionally manure-laden hands, Garfield’s doctors
introduced terrible infections and brought about his death two months later.
~~~ Ira Rutkow, a surgeon and historian, offers an insightful portrait of Garfield and an
unsparing narrative of the medical crisis that defined and destroyed his presidency. For all his
youthful ambition, the only mark Garfield would make on the office would be one of wasted
promise.
$20.00
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[Garfield] Russell H. Conwell,
THE LIFE, SPEECHES, AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES A. GARFIELD,
TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS
ASSASSINATION, LINGERING PAIN, DEATH, AND BURIAL . Good.
Top of spine considerably damaged. Thin strip missing from bottom of spine. (see enlarged photo). Corner & edge-wear. Heavy foxing to frontispiece --
interior otherwise clean. Binding tight. (Portland, Maine: George Stinson & Co, 1881). First Edition.
Introduction by His Excellency John D. Long, Governor of Massachusetts. Illustrations (including
steel plate portraits of President & Mrs Garfield), maps, 384 pages.
$55.00
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[Arthur] Zachary Karabell,
CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. (Henry Holt, 2004). American Presidents Series, edited
by Arthur M. Schlesinger. 192 pages. ~~~ From Kirkus Reviews:
An unmemorable president earns a fitting biography. Freelance historian Karabell
has the unenviable task, in this latest in Arthur Schlesinger's American presidents
series, of chronicling the life and times of Chester Arthur (1829-86), who "belongs
to two select, and not altogether proud, clubs: presidents who came to office
because of the sudden death of their predecessor, and presidents whose historical
reputation is neither great, nor terrible, nor remarkable." Arthur was indeed a strong
supporter of his predecessor, James Garfield, felled by the bullet of a disgruntled
jobseeker; although by no means charismatic or even interesting, he was useful to
Garfield as an entree to and liaison with the powerful Republican leadership of
New York. Arthur seems to have sought elected public office only reluctantly, and
for good reason: as an appointed customs official in New York City, he earned
more than $50,000 annually in the 1870s, an astonishing sum of money that owed
to an astonishing level of official corruption, though Arthur himself seems to have
been honest enough. Though popular precisely because he represented a moderate
balance between two competing wings within the GOP, Arthur ran afoul of
powerful rivals, including Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. Grant, and James Blaine,
the last of whom essentially forced Arthur out of the White House after he served
out Garfield's term. Arthur's tenure was not without its accomplishments, Karabell
dutifully writes, including a thoroughgoing reform of the civil-service system to
professionalize the government and reduce favoritism. On the negative side, Arthur
oversaw an immigration exclusion act aimed against theChinese, which he vetoed at
first but then surrendered to; on this and other issues he stepped away from his base
of support within his party, and, as Karabell notes, alienating his allies after having
"earned the near-permanent distrust of competing factions and of the opposing
Democrats."A dry life of a dry man, with a few intriguing glimpses into the Gilded
Age.
$20.00
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[Harrison] Charles W. Calhoun,
BENJAMIN HARRISON. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. (Henry Holt, 2005). American Presidents Series, edited
by Arthur M. Schlesinger. 192 pages. ~~~ The scion of a political dynasty
ushers in the era of big government Politics was in Benjamin Harrison's blood.
His great-grandfather signed the Declaration and his grandfather, William Henry
Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States. Harrison, a leading Indiana
lawyer, became a Republican Party champion, even taking a leave from the Civil
War to campaign for Lincoln. After a scandal-free term in the Senate-no small feat
in the Gilded Age-the Republicans chose Harrison as their presidential candidate in
1888. Despite losing the popular vote, he trounced the incumbent, Grover Cleveland,
in the electoral college. In contrast to standard histories, which dismiss Harrison's
presidency as corrupt and inactive, Charles W. Calhoun sweeps away the stereotypes
of the age to reveal the accomplishments of our twenty-third president. With
Congress under Republican control, he exemplified the activist president, working
feverishly to put the Party's planks into law and approving the first billion-dollar
peacetime budget. But the Democrats won Congress in 1890, stalling his legislative
agenda, and with the First Lady ill, his race for reelection proceeded quietly. (She
died just before the election.) In the end, Harrison could not beat Cleveland in their
unprecedented rematch.With dazzling attention to this president's life and the social
tapestry of his times, Calhoun compellingly reconsiders Harrison's legacy.
$20.00
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[McKinley] Kevin Phillips,
WILLIAM McKINLEY. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. (Henry Holt, 2003). American Presidents Series, edited
by Arthur M. Schlesinger. 208 pages.
~~~ A bestselling historian and political
commentator reconsiders McKinley's overshadowed legacy. By any serious measurement,
bestselling historian Kevin Phillips argues, William McKinley was a major American president.
It was during his administration that the United States made its diplomatic and military debut
as a world power. McKinley was one of eight presidents who, either in the White House or
on the battlefield, stood as principals in successful wars, and he was among the six or seven
to take office in what became recognized as a major realignment of the U.S. party system.
Phillips, author of Wealth and Democracy and The Cousins' War, has long been fascinated
with McKinley in the context of how the GOP began each of its cycles of power. He argues
that McKinley's lackluster ratings have been sustained not by unjust biographers but by years
of criticism about his personality, indirect methodologies, middle-class demeanor, and tactical
inability to inspire the American public. In this powerful and persuasive biography, Phillips
musters convincing evidence that McKinley's desire to heal, renew prosperity, and reunite
the country qualify him for promotion into the ranks of the best chief executives.
$20.00
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