November 14, 2003
NO ONE ASKED, BUT...:
Ten American Biographies Everyone Should Read (Human Events, Nov 14, 2003)
HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 21 distinguished scholars to help us develop a list of Ten American Biographies Everyone Should Read.We asked them first to nominate biographies or autobiographies of anyone who had been a native-born or naturalized American citizen since 1776. Then they listed their top ten choices from the entire roster of nominated titles. A book received 10 points for each No. 1 vote it received, 9 points for each No. 2 vote, and so on. The title with the highest aggregate score was rated the No. 1 American biography everyone should read.
This would be ours:
-Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943) (Albert Jay Nock 1872-1945)
-The Power Broker : Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974) (Robert Caro)
-Jonathan Edwards: A Life (George Marsden)
-What it Takes : The Way to the White House (1992) (Richard Ben Cramer)
-Whittaker Chambers (Sam Tanenhaus)
-Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2001) (Rick Perlstein 1969-)
-Lindbergh (1998) (A. Scott Berg)
-The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Edmund S. Morgan, 1916-)
-The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X, 1925-1965)
-Ulysses S. Grant : Soldier & President (1997) (Geoffrey Perret)
-Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (Robert W. Creamer)
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 14, 2003 5:48 PMAh, Robert Moses
The man who literally *built* New York state.
Posted by: John J. Coupal at November 14, 2003 9:23 PMNot Grant's Memoirs?
Posted by: David Cohen at November 15, 2003 1:07 AMPerret rescues Grant's post-military career too.
Posted by: oj at November 15, 2003 1:11 AM"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." Brilliant book.
Posted by: JW at November 15, 2003 2:32 AMHow about Hackworths memoir? Or strictly bio's?
Posted by: Neil at November 15, 2003 10:17 AMThe memoir of William Tecumsah Sherman was tough to put down.
Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at November 15, 2003 11:46 AMDoesn't J. Edwards violate the 1776 rule?
My list would not be as political, but biographies that made me change the way I think about America include:
Rexford Tugwell's own memoirs and his biography of FDR.
Steele's life of Walter Lippmann (for what it revealed about Wilson)
"Quiet Warrior," about Adm. Spruance
Watson's "Double Helix" combined with H.F. Judson's biography of Watson in his book about DNA (whose title escapes me just now).
"Perjury," Weinstein's biography of Hiss
Booker T. Washington, "Up From Slavery."
Malone's life of Jefferson
Swanberg's "Citizen Hearst"
A biography of Jay Gould by an author I cannot now recall.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 16, 2003 4:26 PM