Adversary in the House [Paperback]

Irving Stone (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Paperback Library (1947)
• ASIN: B0011MVUAU
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Grandfather's Namesake, August 30, 2003

By 

Scamp Lumm "Littlesorrel/christian zionist" (Perseus-Pisces cluster, ~100Mpc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adversary in the House (Hardcover)

Eugene V. Debs is the only prisoner who ever ran for president of the U.S.!!
He got about a million votes too! He was convicted by the U.S. government under the espionage act and sentenced to 10 years.

The title is very telling and I interpret as being a fulfillment of scripture even if Mr. Stone didn't intend it to be. Read Daniel Chapter 2, especially verses 40-45. Daniel is able to interpret a dream by Nebuchadnezzar which no one else could do. Read verse 43 especially. Many peoples would intermix through marriage. Marriage is a great medium through which one can prey upon their enemies. Yes, I wished Debs would have married Gloria, his childhood sweetheart.

I've read several of Irving Stone's books and loved every one of them. He, like Michener, will not only tell a good story but will educate you in the process. Both authors go to GREAT lengths to research their subjects. At times, their books can be tiresome, at least to me, because of so much information that is unfamiliar. But I am a slow reader who will not skim past the details.

The book is dear to my heart because both my paternal grandfather and greatgrandfather were railroad engineers. My grandfather was born in 1894 and given the name Charles Debs Lumm. Most railroaders absolutely loved Eugene V. Debs. He was a tireless worker, defender of worker's rights. He helped establish the 8 hour work day and managed to organize the railroad workers so that they would no longer be subject to the railroad companies' whims. Many engineers and firemen were disabled for life or tragically killed in train wrecks in the early days of rail. The cost, financially, for the families so affected, so many, many times, would utterly impoverish them. Debs laid the groundwork for unions and insurance practices from those circumstances. However, I'm not so sure he would approve of the current state of those businesses today.

Debs' socialism was probably not the same as the socialism of today. At the turn of the century, there were populist/socialist movements all over the world.

Railroad, for good or ill, transformed American society. This book is a good one to read about a significant man who lived during an interesting chapter of railroad history, who may have composed most of that small chapter himself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of Eugene Debbs, March 16, 2008

By 

Patti Padgett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adversary in the House: A Biographical Novel (Hardcover)

I read this many years ago and it has remained with me ever since. It is a fascinating recounting of Mr. Debbs' lifelong battle for better treatment of workers, especially with the Pullman company, which was evil in its total disregard for the health and welfare of its workers. He ultimately formed the first union. He also was the first Socialist to run for president. The Adversary of the title was his wife who hated what he did and fought him every step of the way. I couldn't put it down.

5.0 out of 5 stars Lest We Forget..., June 9, 2010

By 

Cranberry (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adversary in the House (Paperback)

This book is an excellent reminder of what we owe to those who led the early labor movements, and what our lives might have been like if they had not the foresight and fortitude. Debs was a saint. Coincidentally, I next read The Last Station by Jay Parini. I could not help thinking what great friends Tolstoy and Debs would have been and how they both blazed a trail of thought that changed the world for the better.