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adardinger24's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.25
This was too complex and overly assumptive.
k80uva's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely held my interest, but I don't finish this book convinced that Wendell Willkie was as important as the author asserts. It feels like there's something a little off about the pacing--maybe too much time devoted to pre-1940, while the 1940 campaign and Willkie's post '40 career, which is maybe the time where he is most notable, is relatively short. There's so much coverage of Republican operatives and their schemes to nominate or stop Willkie that you sometimes lose a sense of the larger American climate. There are also a few editing issues--3 instances I can remember where a quote is repeated at different points in the book.
frenchhornhero1995's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.75
I've always said some of the greatest men are those who came up short of achieving the permanence in history they fully deserve. Wendell Willkie is definitely one of them. Certainly a man with many faults, many eccentricities and many contradictions (he was an uncompromisingly fierce advocate of civil rights yet a hardcore fan of Woodrow Wilson), but a man with convictions and a man as Levering Lewis so eloquently portrays was a man who fought for true equality and nothing short of it. As a result, Levering Lewis makes a compelling case why the man who's work in Racial Equality among many pursuits was the namesake of the NAACP's first building is one of our history's most underrated figures, but also should be considered an essential one as well. If you're into obscure political or historical figures this biography on the great Wendell Willkie is worth picking up especially by as compelling a biographer as David Levering Lewis.
homosexual's review against another edition
2.0
I had to read this for a class so I’m very biased against this book. It was obviously heavily researched so if you REALLY care about the guy, you’ll find tons of info on him in this book.
However, for all intents and purposes I felt like it was too long. Like double what it should be. So often we’d get long tangents of random people’s life stories, and tangents involving Willkie that just felt out of place. But also I never felt like I had a good grasp on “how” he changed the Republican Party or how he “conceived a new world order”. And he randomly does a policy flip during his run for president that just... never gets talked about or acknowledged. Or at least not enough for me to notice/mark it. He was anti-isolationism and then during his Presidential debates switched hard into isolationism and it’s just not acknowledged.
It was obviously well-researched and the author cared a lot, so 2 stars instead of the 1 I feel in my chest.
Also this book made me even angrier at how the rich can just get away with anything and how they’re ALL interconnected silver spoon-fed bastards. Let’s bring back the guillotines.
However, for all intents and purposes I felt like it was too long. Like double what it should be. So often we’d get long tangents of random people’s life stories, and tangents involving Willkie that just felt out of place. But also I never felt like I had a good grasp on “how” he changed the Republican Party or how he “conceived a new world order”. And he randomly does a policy flip during his run for president that just... never gets talked about or acknowledged. Or at least not enough for me to notice/mark it. He was anti-isolationism and then during his Presidential debates switched hard into isolationism and it’s just not acknowledged.
It was obviously well-researched and the author cared a lot, so 2 stars instead of the 1 I feel in my chest.
Also this book made me even angrier at how the rich can just get away with anything and how they’re ALL interconnected silver spoon-fed bastards. Let’s bring back the guillotines.
persilou's review
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Aside from being slow, I found the history to not be engaging or brought into relation with American History
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