It is hard for anyone to say anything new about the people about whom William Chafe writes--Martin Luther King, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, John and Robert Kennedy, Hillary and Bill Clinton. But in this compelling book, one of the finest historians of our time reveals their unfamiliar shadows, showing us their deep and complex humanity and, at the same time, showing us much that we need to understand about American political life. A joyful and heartbreaking book.
-- Linda K. Kerber,author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship
The strength of this work lies in the intelligent way Chafe draws on the most recent scholarship to formulate an argument about the relationship between political leaders' "character" and the decisions they make. Each chapter offers a fresh, insightful take on the crucial life experiences that influenced political figures from the Roosevelts to the Clintons.
-- Richard Polenberg, Cornell University
Rarely has one book provided so much insight into the personal convictions, tragedies, and demons that have shaped the careers of America's greatest political leaders. William Chafe writes about his subjects with passion, lucidity, and an appreciation for the mix of moral strength and carnal weakness, soaring vision and paralyzing paranoia, and sincerity and artifice that both elevated our leaders and brought them down. A gripping read from beginning to end.
-- Gary Gerstle, author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century
[Chafe's] collection succeeds as an engaging series of political portraits that condense a tremendous amount of historical material into short, opinionated essays. His depictions of Joe Kennedy's influence on his sons, LBJ's manipulations of power and Nixon's paranoia offer insight into their agendas and decision making, but it is the final essay on the Clintons that best exemplifies the blurry distinction between private and public.
-- Publishers Weekly
Engrossing and informative, this book brings 20th-century U.S. history alive.
-- Jack Forman Library Journal
Private Lives/Public Consequences pinpoints the events and influences that helped 10 prominent 20th-century Americans become the people that history knows.
-- Jonathan Yardley Washington Post Book World
In eight well-paced, well-written chapters, Chafe sketches portraits of 10 influential modern Americans: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the Clintons, Hillary and Bill. These 'interpretive historical and biographical assessments' tackle one of the great human mysteries: 'What is there in the personal profile of a leader that predisposes him or her to make a decision in a certain direction?'...Showing us how such pivotal early moments shaped many of these leaders later in life--when it counted--makes these familiar figures feel fresh...Intellectually honest, vivid and creative, this book represents an important retreat from the intellectual abstractionism and parlor Marxism bewitching historians.
-- Gil Troy News & Observer
Chafe's sketches of both the private and public lives of some of the most influential Americans of the 20th century are fascinating reading. In his customary elegant style, he provides a vivid series of concise biographical sketches laced with revealing vignettes and anecdotes. Written by one of the doyens of 20th century American history, this book deserves to be widely read.
-- Dan Cornford San Francisco Chronicle
This book is an enjoyable recreational read, with some wonderful quotations and anecdotes, often by famous people, with a sense of immediacy on the possible relationship of personality to some majornational crises (e.g., the Cuban missile crisis) and national political developments (e.g., civil rights).
-- Frank Farley PsycCritiques