Customer Reviews

Ron Paul: A Life of Ideas

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This is a great biography of a great man. Unlike the kleptocrats regularly paraded before us on the nightly news, Dr. Paul is a real human being who has displayed a consistent, conscientious devotion to a set of core principles, and this book does a great job of capturing that.

The authors trace Dr. Paul's life, his commitment to family, and the development of his political philosophy. Each section highlights a different time in Dr. Paul's life, and I was pleased to find that his younger years weren't just skipped through to spend more time on 2007-2008; as exciting as that time was, it's been covered pretty heavily by others. I've been following Dr. Paul for quite some time, and a lot of the information in this book was new to me--the authors obviously did their research.

Overall, this is an engaging examination of Dr. Paul's life and philosophy and well worth the read.

I first heard of RP back in May '07, and was on board with the revolution big time the whole rest of the election. I was excited when I heard about this book (preordered it in July) because I wanted to find out more about his life story: his circumstances growing up, what he studied in school, how he came to his political philosophy, etc.

This book gives kind of a skeletal account of all that, but it is so rife with stupid errors--misspellings, grammar mistakes, sentences that just don't make any sense, times when the author lapses into a first-person voice--as to really be a disservice to the good doctor. Besides all these elementary school writing problems, it is written in a very childish style. When discussing the political climate of Ron's childhood, for example, it is extremely and unnecessarily combative about New Deal policies, making wide and generally unfounded castigations about Roosevelt, liberalism, whatever else you want. While I disagree with FDR's policies, this stuff has no place in a quality biography of RP. When it comes to discussing RP's childhood, you get the feeling all the research they did was to interview Ron and Carol.

Another thing, for some reason the type is extremely small. I don't know why they did this.

I still would like to know more about this subject, and I believe another, better biography will come out some day, which I will certainly get. My recommendation on this book: if you want to know more about his life and the full span of his career, this book covers that moderately well. I got it and was disappointed.

This book is a real treat for anyone who has been following Ron Paul's career. It's basically a deep, probing look at his life and the political philosophies he developed along the way. Every philosophy has a particular way of viewing events, and this book reflects the last 70-80 years of US history through the eyes of a libertarian. It's interesting to see Ron Paul's particular take on the major movements that have brought us to where we are today. The book is not perfect, but the whole effect is powerful especially near the end.

I was at Chapters on Saturday and haphazardly came across a Ron Paul book of which I hadn't heard. I managed to find, Ron Paul: A Life of Ideas.

The book is styled as a biography, but I would use that term loosely. Rather, it's a collection of essays. Each essay, or chapter, begins and ends with some tidbits from Ron Paul's life. But the majority of each chapter is occupied with Paul's philosophy of government and political stances on a number of issues (e.g., sound money, fiscal policy, foreign policy).

If you can make it through the book (a 200+ page read with a font size, strangely, of 9 or 10 point), you'll realize that Ron Paul is one-of-a-kind. He has a fully-formed belief system and his actions are the consistent outworking of this system. As Jon Stewart once said to Paul: "You seem to practice what you preach and you seem to preach it consistently. Even though people might disagree with the message, they can't argue that you're a man of consistent principles." (p. 190) Due to his hatred of big government, for example, Paul refused to accept federal payments when practicing medicine. (He's delivered over 4,000 babies.) He also refused to allow any of his children to take out government-funded student loans when they were going through college.

Ron Paul is a lover of freedom and thinks government exists to protect us from each other, not ourselves. And he's also an adamant supporter of the Constitution. The rule of law - not the lawless rule of politicians - is what he has been calling America back to for years now. In that respect, Paul is somewhat of a prophet.

I recommend the book if you have a strong desire to catch a broad overview of Ron Paul's political philosophy.

Books like Revolution by Ron Paul are great, but I found even more enjoyment reading this book. I learned more about Dr. Pauls youth and his life before politics. For once you get to see the personal side of Congressman Ron Paul. You also get to see the formation of his ideas and more details about where he stands on various things. You also get more details on controversial events that have popped up surrounding his political life. There are great human interest stories relayed to us in this wonderful reporting on the life of this great American. In Conclusion, I would say that this book is a hidden gem that more people should be exposed to and definately read. I was greatly enriched and inspired by this well written book. It covers Ron Paul from birth to after the primaries of 2008. This is a must read for everyone interested in politics today.

This is not a biography.

It's an interpretation of Ron Paul's past in light of the r3V01ution that was to come: his entire childhood and adolescence is imbued with ridiculous inevitability relative to this becoming - as if he never had one or as if it existed solely for this end! I understand Ron Paul is a reticent man - that's where a biographer's, or even a reporter's, keen and introspective questions would have begun to make this memorable man's life a memorable biography. What unique source work there is, from several interviews with members of Ron Paul's family, e.g., is left hanging, severed of its biographical potential due to lack of insightful probing.

Mostly, it's political history and explication, more or less loosely focused on Ron Paul, by a group of individuals seeking to capitalize on the Ron Paul Revolution. Unfortunately, their product went to market too hastily, severely impacting its quality as a biography. Most of the information revolves around and comes from news (that you've probably already seen, read, or heard, if you're politically involved) and basic libertarian political theory (that you're probably already familiar with, if you're interested in reading a Ron Paul biography). The 'biography' part is notably lacking. I understand Ron Paul is a politician, and some dealing with the topic is necessary; it is not sufficient, however.

In short, this is as much a biography of Ron Paul as a list of films and plays with a birthplace and sibling or two thrown in is a biography of Audrey Hepburn. Save your money or dedicate it to Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty [...].

This book does a great job of detailing Congressman Ron Paul's ideology of freedom, liberty, civil rights, and free trade.

This book stolen 'ideas' proves just how much Paul hates the United States of America. He does this by stating, without having the courage to say so, that he will risk your life and those of ALL of your relatives to 'play nice' with foreign governments and terrorists that HATE us. This very sorry excuse for a book is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. This may be the worst book ever written as it makes no sense and his 'research' is amateurish, inconclusive and/or just plain wrong. I can only hope he was a better doctor than he is an author. Again, the ramblings of a very angry, crazed and very sick madman.