CHARACTER ABOVE ALL: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush [Paperback]

Robert Wilson (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1997

Based on the lecture series given at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 1995, this collection of essays provides a fascinating look at the men who have led our country during the past five decades. Well-known scholars and presidential observers examine the elusive relationship between character and leadership and reveal the sometimes surprising factors that determine presidential popularity, as well as each man's success or failure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A collection of essays in which noted historians and journalists explore the relationship between character and presidential leadership.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When the issues are too complicated to comprehend or take too much time to sort out, voters can be expected to fall back on the personal qualities of the candidates when they go to the polls. Communications executive and producer Wilson sets out to find the qualities of character of the modern presidents from FDR to George Bush. To do so he brings together some of the most respected historians (Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Robert Dallek, and Stephen Ambrose), journalistic heavyweights like James Cannon and Richard Reeves, Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan, and The New Yorker's Hendrick Hertzberg. While Wilson is seeking the relationship between character and leadership effectiveness, he fails to provide some unifying definition of the word character. It seems most of the articles deal with style and world view rather than ethical matters that "character" might imply. Nevertheless, this should be of interest to both academic and general readers.?Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684827093
• ISBN-13: 978-0684827094
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,040,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing and interesting insight, June 24, 1999

By 

Jack Lechelt "Jackyred" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush (Hardcover)

Some of the best biographers/historians/speech writers put together one very well written book. My favorites were McCullough's Truman piece, Doris Kearns' FDR section, Ambrose's Ike selection, and the section on Carter. While most of the authors are a bit biased towards their president/topic, they write well and make many good points. The book is a fast read. Noonan's piece on Reagan, also incredibly well written, simply bipasses the Iran-contra scandal with but a mention of what Reagan tried to do for the Contras. That is all well and good but it is difficult to read something about a president's character and the biggest scandal of that president's administration is conveniently left out. That would be like discussing Nixon's character and never bringing up Watergate or mentioning Clinton and not the Lewinski scandal. Fact is, those events are integral parts of a president's tenure. Such is life; still incredibly fun to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ten presidents, ten fine writers, ten fine essays, December 19, 2008

By 

Donald M. Bishop (Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: CHARACTER ABOVE ALL: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush (Paperback)

"Character" is the focus of this book's biographical essays on the ten presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush. "In a president, character is everything," wrote Peggy Noonan in her essay on Ronald Reagan. "A president doesn't have to be brilliant; Harry Truman wasn't brilliant, and he helped save Western Europe from Stalin. He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever. White Houses are always full of quick-witted people with ready advice on how to flip a senator or implement a strategy. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can't buy courage and decency, and can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring these things with him."

Here are three anecdotes from the book that throw character into relief:

1912: West Point Cadet Third Class (sophomore) Dwight Eisenhower dressed down a plebe (freshman). "Eisenhower added sarcastically, 'You look like a barber.' The plebe's face went red. He replied softly, 'I was a barber, sir.' It was Eisenhower's turn to go red with embarrassment. Without a word, he returned to his room, where he told his roommate, 'I'm never going to crawl [haze] another plebe as long as I live.... I've just done something that was stupid and unforgivable. I managed to make a man ashamed of the work he did to earn a living.' Eisenhower never hazed again, and as an adult he never shamed a man." (Stephen Ambrose)

Sometime in the 1930's: "When the young Gregory Peck stood on the dock that day and saw [President Franklin] Roosevelt being carried off the boat like a child, he was so stunned that he started to cry. But then, Peck recalled, Roosevelt instantly put everyone at ease. As soon as he was placed in his chair, he put his hat on his head, placed his cigarette holder in his mouth, waved to the crowd and smiled his dazzling smile, and suddenly, Peck said, 'I started clapping and everything was fine. He seemed with every gesture to be saying, 'I'm not pitying myself, so why should you worry about me?"'" (Doris Kearns Goodwin)

1943: After the sinking of the PT-109, Lieutenant John Kennedy gathered the battered crew on the shore of a nearby island, making plans to signal their location. Another officer said, "'Boy, you kill me. We're beat, we're burned, we're given up for dead, we're living on green coconuts and no water. We're surrounded by fifteen thousand Japs and you think the odds are with us.' ... Kennedy says, 'it's a flaw in my character.' Well, it was in his character. Kennedy had an iron will." (Richard Reeves)

Editor Robert Wilson gathered the essays by ten presidential biographhers -- all men and women of letters, all with gifted prose styles. There's a fine mix of telling personal anecdote, responses to the great challenges, and large conclusions.

Writing something short and concise is always harder than writing something long, and these essays are compact gems. For instance, if you're unlikely to get through the 1120 pages of David McCullough's full biography of Harry S. Truman, his essay in this book delivers the high points in 21 pages.

"Character Above All" is an excellent starting point for the study of character and its effect on history -- and can well encourage more reading on the lives of great men.

-30-

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facinating! informative!, February 11, 2005

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush (Hardcover)

As the title implies, this is a collection of biographcial essays on each of the 10 presidents from FDR to Bush 1 by 10 different authors who are either expert historians or knew the President while in office. The thing that ties them all together is that each essay is supposed to look at each man as president and find that one part of his character that made him the type of president he was. Each essay is about 30 pages and it makes for interesting reading.

A good sample would come from Doris Kearns Goodwin's look at Franklin Roosevelt. She asserts that the most valuable component of his personality was his self-confidence. I thought this quote from FDR makes the point wonderfully: "I'll tell you...at night when I lay my head on my pilow, and it is often pretty late, and I think of the things that have come before me during the day and the decisions that I have made, I say to myself - well, I have done the best that I could, and turn over and go to sleep."

The essays are wonderful - some inspiring, such as Gerald Ford's, some disturbing such as JFK's. However, all are well-written and this is a fantastic collection. I give this book an: "A+".