From his entrance into Democratic leadership circles in the 1950s through his years in the Kennedy administration and up until his last days, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., was always at the vital center of American politics. For more than half a century, the master historian recorded his experiences and opinions in journals that together form an intimate chronicle of life at the highest levels of American politics and culture in postwar America. This extraordinary volume contains his candid thoughts about the signal events of our time, from the Bay of Pigs to the devastating assassinations of the 1960s, from Vietnam to Watergate, and from the fall of the Soviet Union to Bush v. Gore. Filled with Schlesinger?s trademark acerbic wit and tremendous insight, Journals is a fitting tribute to a most remarkable American life.
Journals: 1952-2000
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The beloved cultural and political commentator Schlesinger (1917-2007) formed his left-leaning worldview during FDR's New Deal; a liberal scholar and historian, Schlesinger produced more than 25 books (his last was 2005's War and the American Presidency), won two Pulitzers and became a powerful force in shaping liberal political thought. Taking readers through Schlesinger's diaries year by year, the book begins with Schlesinger's first encounters with presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, for whose (unsuccessful) campaign he would become a speech-writer; fortunately, off-years pass by quickly (1953-1959 take up fewer than 30 pages), picking up again in 1960, when Schlesinger became special advisor to President Kennedy. With characteristic candor, Schlesinger weighs in on both: of Stevenson, "probably even more conservative than I had thought"; of JFK, "he has most of FDR's lesser qualities. Whether he has FDR's greater qualities is the problem for the future." Subsequent years bring the expected: Vietnam and LBJ, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Nixon and Watergate, the rise of Reagan and the fall of the Soviets, the first Gulf War and the second George Bush, all viewed through Schlesinger's singular perspective. Interspersed between an endless, engrossing parade of lunches with luminaries such as Henry Kissenger and Jackie Onassis, Schlesinger discusses his own work and a few personal details ("Another year; another house... spent most of the month getting settled at 118 East 82nd Street with my beloved Alexandra"). Most of the memoir, however, is a pleasingly understated whirlwind of big names and bigger issues. Rich in insight and cagily observed history, Schlesinger's weighty memoirs will mesmerize political junkies; even lay-readers will be charmed and fascinated by Schlesinger's take on the 20th century's last half.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Over a career that spanned more than half a century, two-time Pulitzer Prize winnerâ€"The Age of Jackson (1945) and the biography A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965; it also won the National Book Award)â€"Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., knew as much about the inner workings of government and society as any person alive. Schlesinger’s sons, both scholars, have painstakingly pared their father’s prodigious output (critics comment that the year 1999 is, oddly, missing from the final product, though Schlesinger died in 2007) into a document that should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the social and political forces that drove postâ€"World War II America. Journals is an important artifact, a "moving and monumental 48-year chronicle" (New York Times), and an insider’s playbook to a rich historical period.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Everyone loves gossip. Especially if it's true. Well, "Journals" has the dish. The author was there. When he talks about the Kennedy brothers, for example, we get more information than we've ever had before. It's not the old rehash. Yes, we hear about Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy testosterone. But there's lots more here too.
This is about cafe society. The author was at the center of it for so many years. Much of what he tells us, he heard at private dinner tables and parties. So the stories are not well-known if known at all. That's one thing that makes this book so special and such a good read. Where else could you get this sort of information?
About the Kennedy administration the author pens, "I cannot banish from my mind the picture of these brave men, pathetically underequipped, dying on Cuban beaches before Soviet tanks" and "J.F.K. was in superb form at lunch."
This Washington insider gives us a look at the people in power that's not been generally known. It's fun and yet it's a bit scary when we discover how utterly ill prepared some of them were (and perhaps are) to deal with the major affairs of governing.
Nonetheless, this is a good book and I recommend it to you.
This is about cafe society. The author was at the center of it for so many years. Much of what he tells us, he heard at private dinner tables and parties. So the stories are not well-known if known at all. That's one thing that makes this book so special and such a good read. Where else could you get this sort of information?
About the Kennedy administration the author pens, "I cannot banish from my mind the picture of these brave men, pathetically underequipped, dying on Cuban beaches before Soviet tanks" and "J.F.K. was in superb form at lunch."
This Washington insider gives us a look at the people in power that's not been generally known. It's fun and yet it's a bit scary when we discover how utterly ill prepared some of them were (and perhaps are) to deal with the major affairs of governing.
Nonetheless, this is a good book and I recommend it to you.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Arthur Schlesinger died in February of 2007 at the age of 89. In 2006, already ailing, he requested that his sons go through some 6,000 pages of unedited journals in which he had jotted done his daily observations and musings of the last 50 years. The pared down version is still a doorstopper at 894 pages. It is virtually a who's who of politics, literature, art, and academia of the last half century. Schlesinger's journal is reminiscent of Gore Vidal's memoirs and some of Truman Capote's works in that they are written in the chatty upper-crust Manhattan society banter of an earlier time. As in Vidal's and Capote's books, this one also contains lots of name-dropping and juicy bits gossip.
Schlesinger was a man of many talents: He was a great historian, a leading spokesman of liberalism, and he was the in-house intellectual of the Kennedy White House, the role for which he is most well-known. Kennedy was his contemporary and his hero, for he embodied the kind of liberalism that Schlesinger believed in deeply. Contrary to what many believed, Kennedy was very astute politically. Kennedy was quick to grasp political complexities and was able to skillfully turn them to his advantage. Schlesinger's tour of duty at the White House was undoubtedly the defining moment of his career. Although he was already an accomplished historian with important books on Jackson and Roosevelt, he was for the first time actually living and making history. This "proximity to power" remains a constant theme in these journals.
After Kennedy's assassination, Schlesinger stayed for a short time with the Johnson administration. This relationship did not last long since Johnson's temperment and style were antithetical to Schlesinger's. Johnson was a product of Congressional dealmaking, who did not have the vision component that Schlesinger saw as an essential for presidents. Schlesinger claims that Kennedy would not have let the country become mired in Vietnam nor allowed the Democratic Party to succumb the infighting, which paved the way for the election of Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon, along with Henry Kissinger, are two figures that appear throughout these journals as well as Schlesinger's life. In 1979, Schlesinger was surprised to find out that Nixon had moved in a townhouse in Manhattan a few doors down the row. His observations of Nixon bring back the uptight person we always knew he was. Apparently Nixon sunbathed in his backyard in a shirt and tie. This small detail is emblematic of his entire presidency.
In 1981, Schlesinger accompanied Nixon, Kissinger, Carter, and Ford to the funeral of Anwar Sadat. Kissinger confided that Nixon was still his old self "trying to manipulate everybody and everything, dropping poisonous remarks, and doing his best to set people against each other. Ford had said that, "Sometimes I wish that I had never pardonned that son of [...]."
Schlesinger had a love-hate relationship with Kissinger, for they had known each other since their early days at Harvard. Although they were genial toward each other, Schlesinger was always wary of Kissinger's duplicity. He writes that, "I like Henry very much and respect him, though I cannot rid myself of the fear that he says one thing to me and another to, say, Bill Buckley."
His his later years, Schlesinger continued to live the charmed life in the celebrity circles of Manhattan, always with copious amounts of fine food, martinis, and Cuban cigars. With the financial demands of his social life it is not difficult to see why he was "perennially broke." It is, however, difficult to see how he found the time to produce a big book every few years to pay the bills. This work is a testament to the energy and tenacity of one of our greatest historians and bonvivants.
Schlesinger was a man of many talents: He was a great historian, a leading spokesman of liberalism, and he was the in-house intellectual of the Kennedy White House, the role for which he is most well-known. Kennedy was his contemporary and his hero, for he embodied the kind of liberalism that Schlesinger believed in deeply. Contrary to what many believed, Kennedy was very astute politically. Kennedy was quick to grasp political complexities and was able to skillfully turn them to his advantage. Schlesinger's tour of duty at the White House was undoubtedly the defining moment of his career. Although he was already an accomplished historian with important books on Jackson and Roosevelt, he was for the first time actually living and making history. This "proximity to power" remains a constant theme in these journals.
After Kennedy's assassination, Schlesinger stayed for a short time with the Johnson administration. This relationship did not last long since Johnson's temperment and style were antithetical to Schlesinger's. Johnson was a product of Congressional dealmaking, who did not have the vision component that Schlesinger saw as an essential for presidents. Schlesinger claims that Kennedy would not have let the country become mired in Vietnam nor allowed the Democratic Party to succumb the infighting, which paved the way for the election of Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon, along with Henry Kissinger, are two figures that appear throughout these journals as well as Schlesinger's life. In 1979, Schlesinger was surprised to find out that Nixon had moved in a townhouse in Manhattan a few doors down the row. His observations of Nixon bring back the uptight person we always knew he was. Apparently Nixon sunbathed in his backyard in a shirt and tie. This small detail is emblematic of his entire presidency.
In 1981, Schlesinger accompanied Nixon, Kissinger, Carter, and Ford to the funeral of Anwar Sadat. Kissinger confided that Nixon was still his old self "trying to manipulate everybody and everything, dropping poisonous remarks, and doing his best to set people against each other. Ford had said that, "Sometimes I wish that I had never pardonned that son of [...]."
Schlesinger had a love-hate relationship with Kissinger, for they had known each other since their early days at Harvard. Although they were genial toward each other, Schlesinger was always wary of Kissinger's duplicity. He writes that, "I like Henry very much and respect him, though I cannot rid myself of the fear that he says one thing to me and another to, say, Bill Buckley."
His his later years, Schlesinger continued to live the charmed life in the celebrity circles of Manhattan, always with copious amounts of fine food, martinis, and Cuban cigars. With the financial demands of his social life it is not difficult to see why he was "perennially broke." It is, however, difficult to see how he found the time to produce a big book every few years to pay the bills. This work is a testament to the energy and tenacity of one of our greatest historians and bonvivants.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly edited, surprisingly mean-spirited, yet fascinating in the end
November 11, 2007
By G. S. Thomas
Format:Hardcover
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was a fixture in American politics for a quarter-century and a passionate observer for at least two decades beyond that. This book is fascinating for anyone interested in the post-World War II history of America. Schlesinger was on a first-name basis with most of the period's giants, and he offers equal doses of inside information, analysis and just plain gossip in his Journals. The sad thing is that this dispassionate historian, this acclaimed author who wrote with such style and insight about Jackson and FDR, was so surprisingly close-minded and sometimes mean-spirited about the leaders of his own period. He was especially myopic about the Kennedys, believing they could do no wrong, and accepting their major mistakes while excoriating other Democrats and Republicans for smaller transgressions. The professor, in fact, comes off as much the snob, hailing only those of either party who were born to wealth and/or attended Ivy League schools. The other drawback with the Journals is that Schlesinger's sons edited the book so poorly. Typos abound, and dozens of names are misspelled, both in the text and in the index. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner certainly deserved better.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Arthur Schlesinger's diary gives us key insights into political...
This is an excellent buy and I highly recommend it. One thing I learned from this book is how often CFR member Arthur Schlesinger had lunch with CFR member Henry Kissinger:... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert P. Morrow
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Journals
THE JOURNAL: 1952-2000 by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. is a nuanced compliment to the Jackie Kennedy Memoir released in 2011. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Boomer~O~City
2.0 out of 5 stars
A View to Another World
You read a book like this for the same reason you read "The Star" in the supermarket checkout line. Who doesn't enjoy a fleeting glimpse into the lives of the rich and powerful? Read more
Published 22 months ago by Labamigo
5.0 out of 5 stars
journals 1952-2000 -arthur schlesinger
I was born in late 1937; so, I was about 14 in the era that this book begins. I loved getting "an inside scoop" on the personalities, beliefs, issues, problems, solutions.... Read more
Published on February 2, 2011 by joan
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Intellectual Adventurer's Romp through the Latter Half of the...
Man, I cannot remember the last time I digested a non-fictional work with such gusto. Schlesinger's journals are an intellectual adventurer's romp through the latter half of the... Read more
Published on January 25, 2011 by C.P.M.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great insight from a great historian. But way to short!
This is a great look back at the time, people and events that shaped the 50's, 60's 70's and beyond. Read more
Published on January 14, 2011 by Mike Pierce
5.0 out of 5 stars
But was it worth all the effort?
I have to say I enjoyed this work thoroughly, but probably for all the wrong reasons. I have never been a fan of Schlesinger the historian, he comes off more of courtier than a... Read more
Published on August 8, 2009 by M. A Newman
2.0 out of 5 stars
Albedo 10
In my city is a suburban weekly that publishes the names and photos of the local beautiful people as they make the rounds of social events. Read more
Published on June 28, 2009 by Fairleigh Brooks
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Book!
I couldn't put this book down. The people Schlesinger knew and the company he kept was incredible. I wanted more!
Published on April 15, 2009 by P. Davies
1.0 out of 5 stars
self-serving nonsense from a political goon
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s career can arguably be described as an abudance of talent gone to waste and ruin. He devoted himself and his life to being the ultimate political hack. Read more
Published on March 28, 2009 by Mark bennett
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
