Customer Reviews

"Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?": A Short History of the Gop

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're either a Republican or a political junkie, you'll enjoy John Calvin Batchelor's "Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?" While it doesn't dig deep into the personalities and issues that have defined the GOP, it provides a wonderful study of the party and its robust history. After finishing the book, you'll have not only a greater understanding of the Republican Party, but perhaps a greater appreciation as well.

It's also well-worth the time for the use of political cartoons from throughout the years. Batchelor uses these wonderful treasures effectively, providing not only appropriate art but a study of the art of political cartooning and how it has changed over the past 150 years.

Guiding us through countless elections, John Calvin Batchelor brings history alive in describing the triumphs and trials of the Republican Party. A must-read for any history buff or anyone wondering exactly where the "most successful revolutionary party in history" came from

A thoroughly enjoyable history of the greatest revolutionary party in the history of the Republic. Very readable. However, I was irked by several factual errors, which, in my opinion, are inexcusable in a history book. (For example, former GOP Minority Whip Bob Michel was from Illinois, not Indiana. Richard Nixon died in 1994, not 1993. There are several others that struck me while reading but that I cannot recall now.) One my consider such factual mistakes as "no big deal." However, I cannot help wondering what other errors there are that I am just not aware of.

Aint You Glad You Joined The Republicans, is the finest book I have read about our GOP. It is engaging and does a good job telling the history of our party. It is insightful and even handed in it's treatment of the GOP's storied past, from Lincoln to Bush, it is an enjoyable read!

"Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?" tells the story of the Republican Party from its founding in the 1850s up through the GOP landslide in the 1994 midterm election. It recalls the conventions, winning and losing nominees, Republican presidents and the issues that they faced, and the party's accomplishments, such as the abolition of slavery and victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. There are also illustrations of the key figures in GOP history and outstanding political cartoons from the last century and a half.

This book might have been a good short history of the party, but there are a shocking number of errors that were not caught, which is why I cannot recommend it. Just a few of the errors are as follows:

* The book states that Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated in 1868 (he was inaugurated in 1869).
* It states that Woodrow Wilson's 41.8 percent of the vote in 1912 was the smallest obtained by any Democrat since Douglas (Alton B. Parker received 37.6 percent in 1904).
* It states that FDR carried 48 states in 1936 (he carried 46).
* It states that Richard Nixon lost to Harold Brown in 1962 (he lost to Pat Brown).
* It states that Adlai Stevenson was the grandson of William Jennings Bryan's 1896 running mate (he was actually the grandson of Grover Cleveland's second vice-president and Bryan's 1900 running mate).
* It states that Barry Goldwater won four Deep South states in 1964 (he won five).
* It states that Jimmy Carter's middle name is Earle (it is Earl).
* In maybe the most egregious howler in the book, it refers to the sports arena in New Orleans as the Sugardome (it is the Superdome).
* It states that as a result of the 1994 elections, the GOP had 56 senators in the 104th Congress (there were 53 Republican senators then).

I found several more errors, but will not list them for brevity's sake. If a layman like me could find errors of this number and type, I cannot imagine how many more errors a bona fide, credentialed expert in American history would have found.

Perhaps several years from now, someone else will write a more worthwhile history of the party that includes tonight's huge Republican victory and, hopefully, the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare.

Not unlike the mess his radio show has become, this book, while entertaining, is full of mistakes that the publisher, editor or researchers should've caught before going to print a few times. With so many mistakes, how do you believe the ENTIRE work, it's lost its credibility as "historical" and "factual".