DEAR YOUNG FRIEND: The Letters of American Presidents to Children [Hardcover]

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Rodelle Weintraub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

6 x 9 Never-before-published letters from more than thirty American presidents. Rare insight into the personalities of leaders and the issues that affected them. Presidents since Washington have written to children. In a less hectic era, presidents even went through White House mail themselves, choosing which letters to answer and often confiding in young people in ways they rarely would to peers. The letters span a broad emotional spectrum: from James Polk's heartwrenching letter informing his nephew of his mother's death to Teddy Roosevelt's lighthearted "picture letters." How each president, from Washington to Nixon, responded to his young constituents often revealed an unusual view of the private man. Taken together, the letters offer a glimpse of how the presidency has evolved. This is the Weintraubs' fifth book. Rodelle Weintraub is now a travel consultant; Stanley Weintraub is a biographer and historian, now Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at the Pennsylvania State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811704890
• ISBN-13: 978-0811704892
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,083,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sneak Peak, December 7, 2000

By 

Susan Hamilton (Carmichaels, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: DEAR YOUNG FRIEND: The Letters of American Presidents to Children (Hardcover)

It is wonderful to be able to see the real personalities of the presidents, without the coverup that is seen today. The book allows the reader to see how the earlier presidents responded to their children, especially when they were not up to the standards. The letters of the later presidents are charmingly witty. It is a great book to read, especially when you only have a few minutes, you can stop at the end of each letter. Great to go to bed with.

5.0 out of 5 stars " Dear Children...", September 7, 2009

By 

a gentle sound (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: DEAR YOUNG FRIEND: The Letters of American Presidents to Children (Hardcover)

You wonder if the current problems connected to Presidential address might be well handled by a Presidential letter. Of course we are no longer in the days of letters, really preferring the electronic immediacy and all too often the one way blog. I found this book to be entertaining, and more than a little bit timely given the mess placed upon teachers in an upcoming Presidential address to children. My sister -in-law states she most resents "the schools" in her area, not a new complaint ( her refrain since the day she placed her kids into them) although her children in Fairfax went to the finest schools in the nation. Gratitude, I'd like to hear some for once from her mouth, for getting hers into great schools and into good lives, for safe, happy rooms, marvelous lessons, well trained teachers, ah well. I went and observed in the school a long time ago and it was bar none the best instruction I ever saw- as she at home tore the place to shreds with no idea of what she spoke and despite that the teachers still treated her kids as they were-great humans. Something she could never demonstrate mired in her politics and religion. She resents the schools that didn't even think of the idea of a Presidential Address and didn't ask for it. Though I doubt we'd turn one down, and now these schools struggle to consider if an "opt out" isn't a gratuitous political special interest agenda or a worthy thought.And watch how wimpy so many are in their response because their schools are political entities entirely now. In the few moments of workspace allotted to react, many are on their knees. And for that Obama ought to champion something.

Once when my class was touring the Reagan Library I read a fascinating letter sent child to President and then President to child. He shared a little about the job,his childhood, ups and downs in a style as ever utterly in his wit. I would imagine writing to our children as a leader a most interesting and important task. As is speaking to them, talking to them about saying no, rockets to the moon, national campaigns for the environment, library emphasis and so many things I've seen over my years as child and as teacher. I recall First Lady's often helping to function in the role of defining good things to start off school years considering.Read these to see how children are given thoughts. something now apparently not to be allowed.

Of course right now in CA children are often sitting in over crowded rooms, horrible changes due to the economy and a stimulus used to force a specific "face" to the agenda of schools, losing materials, massive teachers losing jobs, assemblies gone, opportunities more limited than ever, slashes to higher ed of unbelievable proportion....and facing the privatization into charters as demanded nationally, as we see in the failed scheme that had underlying false presumptions of 100 passing tests not designed to pass 100 % produce what they can call "failure" Soon it'll all be failure, by design and we will all be like my sister in law, perennially sure the teachers were awful, looking at no evidence otherwise. We have the agendas of politicians and the messes of not figuring out how it might all work, nor getting how it does work. But, that's embroiled in many layers of mud.

I bet these letters would edify you and inform a great many people about how Presidents dealt with kids. If information matters this might be a piece of the puzzle worth getting right now.