The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff [Hardcover]

Vicki Jo Anderson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 413 pages
• Publisher: Zichron Historical Research Institute; 1st edition (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964252406
• ISBN-13: 978-0964252400
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,747,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great premise, great content, not so great writing & editing, July 13, 2002

By 

Shaun Brown (Liberty Lake Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff (Hardcover)

I loved the concise history of these men who did so much to make the world a better place in the 1700 & 1800's. The author shares pieces of history that you never learn in school and made me want to find the books these men had written, find the paintings they had painted, and walk the lands they had walked.

I felt that the editing of this book must have been a hurried job, and occasionally that the writing style made the details a little unclear. For example, discussion of a man and his parents and grandparents confused me once or twice because the pronoun references were unclear.

Nevertheless, if you're interested in learning about the valient men who lived before the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored, and then asked to receive their own temple blessings as soon as it was possible after their death, you will want to own this book.

I look forward to the sequel on the women.
Shaun Brown

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Such a great subject..., December 1, 2002

By 

bixodoido (Utah, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff (Hardcover)

I was very intrigued by the subject of this book. I really wanted to learn about all these men, and thought that this work would supply me with a basic overview of the lives of these great men. I was wrong. Not only is the writing very poor (more on that in a minute), there is very little historical value in this book. Some of the assertions the author makes are nearly impossible to swallow. An example: Anderson describes the meeting of Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds as "one of the cornerstones of English history." I'm sorry, but that's a little much for me.

Anderson seems quick to add any little rumor or hearsay as fact in the biographies. To me, saying something is "looked upon today" or "said to" or "known as" is not very convincing. I'm sure there are mountains of speculation about most of these men, but I don't need to know about them. Instead of saying a man was the "father" of this science or that industry, show me how and why. Then I'll look upon it my own way.

One of the most frustrating things about this book for me was the allusion to so many parts of history the average person is not familiar with. Most, if not all, of these biographies make mention of battles, revolutions, sculptures, people, or events, yet many of these things, important as they may be in the person's life, are not explained. This is very difficult for me--knowing the name of a particular event without knowing anything about it is essentially meaningless.

As I said before, the writing is poor, both grammatically and organizationally. It is always difficult to read a poorly-edited book, and this is no exception. The organization is annoying in that the biographies are ordered in a way that is downright confusing--Anderson frequently jumps from one period of someone's life to the next and back again in the course of a page. This makes it very hard to follow the point.

I gave the book two stars because the subject is great, and Anderson obviously dedicated herself very much to it. For this, she deserves to be commended. I really admire her zeal for the work--I just don't feel it's very informative. If you want an interesting look at the men concerned in this book, I suggest you get a list and look for individual biographies on them.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great information, December 26, 2010

By 

lani girl* - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The other eminent men of Wilford Woodruff (Paperback)

The author did a fireside and explained so much about the situation surrounding this event. I was so impressed by the fact that only men and women who had made a significant contribution to peace and freedom were allowed to ask Pres. Woodruff. She even discussed some of the men who do not ask and the research she did on their lives. The fireside was amazing! She also talked about some of the women including Marie Antoinette - she did extensive research to discover how Marie incredibly changed the ideas of motherhood in France. After that, I had to get the book. I was hoping this book would discuss these incredible women, but unfortunately it doesn't. Hopefully she'll write another book on it. Anyhow, this piece of work is a great historical and spiritual book.