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| Journals: 1952-2000 | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 93909
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 1594201420
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.91092
EAN: 9781594201424
ASIN: 1594201420
Publication Date: October 4, 2007
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Product Description
A landmark publication in the history of American letters, and a unique opportunity to celebrate the legacy of the one of the great public intellectuals of our time.
For more than a half century, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was at the vital center of American political and cultural life. From his entrance into political leadership circles in the 1950s through his years in the Kennedy White House and up until his very last days, he was that rare thing, a master historian who enjoyed an extraordinary eyewitness vantage on history as it was being made. On intimate terms with many of the most prominent political, cultural and intellectual figures of the last fifty years, he was a man whose proximity to power never obscured his appreciation for the reality of those who have none. For that capacity for empathy and for much else, he was often called American liberalism's greatest voice.
For most of his adult life, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. dutifully recorded his experiences and opinions in journals that, until now, have never been seen. Edited by his oldest sons, they offer remarkably fresh and lucid observations on a half century of public life, and a rare and privileged view into the mind of one of America's most distinguished men of letters. Frank, revelatory, suffused with wit and humanity, these entries offer an intimate history of postwar America, from his days on Adlai Stevenson's campaign team to his years in JFK and RFK's inner circle, through to the election of George W. Bush. They contain his candid reminiscences about many of the signal events of our time - the Bay of Pigs, the devastating assassinations of the 1960s, Vietnam, Watergate, the fall of the Soviet Union, Bush v. Gore. These journals also offer an extraordinary window into the lives of the wide range of politicians, intellectuals, writers and actors who were his friends - from the Kennedys to the Clintons, from Henry Kissinger to Adlai Stevenson, from Norman Mailer to Lauren Bacall. Together they form an astonishingly vivid portrait of American politics and culture in the second half of the 20th century - one that only a man who knew everyone and missed nothing, could provide.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was one of America's greatest moral and intellectual forces, and the publication of his journals is both itself an epic event in the history of American letters, and a fitting opportunity to celebrate this most remarkable American life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 There is no kindness in this book. October 4, 2007
44 out of 76 found this review helpful
No doubt about it, this book is well-written and entertaining. It has to be, given the catty gossiping throughout. But it also is tiresome. The author, it seems, never cared to have a conversation with anyone who was not wealthy, powerful and snide. He himself comes off as a hardcore snob, elitist and effete while professing to be a "liberal". However, no heart is in evidence here, except he loved the Kennedys, was charmed by "Fidel", abhored Nixon to the point of pathology, and worried mightily about his standing with the mercurial Mrs. Onassis whom he sensed secretely held him in haughty disdain. There is little humanity here, all pretense and vanity. This book is the memoir that a heterosexual Truman Capote could have written except that Capote's book would have been funny.
 Here's the dish October 7, 2007
26 out of 29 found this review helpful
Everyone loves gossip. Especially if it's true. Well, "Journals" has the dish. The author was there. When he talks about the Kennedy brothers, for example, we get more information than we've ever had before. It's not the old rehash. Yes, we hear about Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy testosterone. But there's lots more here too.
This is about cafe society. The author was at the center of it for so many years. Much of what he tells us, he heard at private dinner tables and parties. So the stories are not well-known if known at all. That's one thing that makes this book so special and such a good read. Where else could you get this sort of information?
About the Kennedy administration the author pens, "I cannot banish from my mind the picture of these brave men, pathetically underequipped, dying on Cuban beaches before Soviet tanks" and "J.F.K. was in superb form at lunch."
This Washington insider gives us a look at the people in power that's not been generally known. It's fun and yet it's a bit scary when we discover how utterly ill prepared some of them were (and perhaps are) to deal with the major affairs of governing.
Nonetheless, this is a good book and I recommend it to you.
Fifty years of American political and cultural life- an insider's view October 7, 2007
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s great literary regret was that he did not complete his historical project on the Roosevelt years. The three volumes he did publish , along with important works on a variety of subjects- the Jackson years, the cycles of 'Conservative and Liberal' power in American history, the first thousand days of the Kennedy Administration, the conception of the 'vital center' in American politics, the dangers of multiculturalism -made him both in professional and public mind one of the most important American historians of the century. It would be thus quite ironic if the volume he is most remembered by is one he never intended to publish, this volume of his journals.
This close to nine- hundred page work was selected and edited by Schlesinger's two older sons from a manuscript five times its size. It is by all accounts not only a valuable historical document but an insightful and often highly entertaining look into the doings of the political and cultural elite of America. Schlesinger Jr. loved the good life, the best restaurants the best parties the most important and interesting people.
While he came to prominence first in the academic world he readily made the transition to the rough- and- tumble of White House politics when called to the flag by President Kennedy. And in fact the Kennedy years are the time of insider - Schlesinger's most passionate and vivid writing. He had true admiration for the intellect, the keen political instinct , the leadership qualities of President Kennedy. He was even more closely connected with Bobby Kennedy whose compassion for the outsiders of this world, and ability to learn from tough experience were appreciated by Schlesinger.
Schlesinger was close to many different major figures at many different times. His character sketches of numerous celebrities are outstanding. His anecdotal power is great, as is his openness and ability to surprise. He in the course of knowing Presidents from Truman provides his evaluations. Though FDR remains for him the great figure of the century, the man who saved the world for Democracy he gives very high marks to Kennedy and also appreciates Lyndon Johnson's overpowering political skill. His most scathing remarks are reserved for President Carter who Schlesinger saw as incompetent.
Schlesinger was a person of the Liberal Left with a strong non- isolationist conception of America's central role in the world. There are important inside looks at the decision- making process, including one in which Schlesinger was the lone dissenter, the failed Bay of Pigs operation.
Some of the most quotable remarks in the book come from his good friend Henry Kissinger, with Kissinger often making himself a bit more liberal than he truly is. Kissinger may also be made uncomfortable as will others by Schlesinger's direct quotations. The fact that the book was published posthumously without requiring Schlesinger's approval means he gets off the hook here for having 'betrayed' friends by telling publicly what they said to him in private.
In any case this is a book which bring a lot of pleasure and insight to its readers. It may well achieve textbook- status in courses on American political history.
My guess is it will be an enormous bestseller. And in this case justifably so.
Camelot's Court Historian October 29, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Arthur Schlesinger died in February of 2007 at the age of 89. In 2006, already ailing, he requested that his sons go through some 6,000 pages of unedited journals in which he had jotted done his daily observations and musings of the last 50 years. The pared down version is still a doorstopper at 894 pages. It is virtually a who's who of politics, literature, art, and academia of the last half century. Schlesinger's journal is reminiscent of Gore Vidal's memoirs and some of Truman Capote's works in that they are written in the chatty upper-crust Manhattan society banter of an earlier time. As in Vidal's and Capote's books, this one also contains lots of name-dropping and juicy bits gossip.
Schlesinger was a man of many talents: He was a great historian, a leading spokesman of liberalism, and he was the in-house intellectual of the Kennedy White House, the role for which he is most well-known. Kennedy was his contemporary and his hero, for he embodied the kind of liberalism that Schlesinger believed in deeply. Contrary to what many believed, Kennedy was very astute politically. Kennedy was quick to grasp political complexities and was able to skillfully turn them to his advantage. Schlesinger's tour of duty at the White House was undoubtedly the defining moment of his career. Although he was already an accomplished historian with important books on Jackson and Roosevelt, he was for the first time actually living and making history. This "proximity to power" remains a constant theme in these journals.
After Kennedy's assassination, Schlesinger stayed for a short time with the Johnson administration. This relationship did not last long since Johnson's temperment and style were antithetical to Schlesinger's. Johnson was a product of Congressional dealmaking, who did not have the vision component that Schlesinger saw as an essential for presidents. Schlesinger claims that Kennedy would not have let the country become mired in Vietnam nor allowed the Democratic Party to succumb the infighting, which paved the way for the election of Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon, along with Henry Kissinger, are two figures that appear throughout these journals as well as Schlesinger's life. In 1979, Schlesinger was surprised to find out that Nixon had moved in a townhouse in Manhattan a few doors down the row. His observations of Nixon bring back the uptight person we always knew he was. Apparently Nixon sunbathed in his backyard in a shirt and tie. This small detail is emblematic of his entire presidency.
In 1981, Schlesinger accompanied Nixon, Kissinger, Carter, and Ford to the funeral of Anwar Sadat. Kissinger confided that Nixon was still his old self "trying to manipulate everybody and everything, dropping poisonous remarks, and doing his best to set people against each other. Ford had said that, "Sometimes I wish that I had never pardonned that son of [...]."
Schlesinger had a love-hate relationship with Kissinger, for they had known each other since their early days at Harvard. Although they were genial toward each other, Schlesinger was always wary of Kissinger's duplicity. He writes that, "I like Henry very much and respect him, though I cannot rid myself of the fear that he says one thing to me and another to, say, Bill Buckley."
His his later years, Schlesinger continued to live the charmed life in the celebrity circles of Manhattan, always with copious amounts of fine food, martinis, and Cuban cigars. With the financial demands of his social life it is not difficult to see why he was "perennially broke." It is, however, difficult to see how he found the time to produce a big book every few years to pay the bills. This work is a testament to the energy and tenacity of one of our greatest historians and bonvivants.
Poorly edited, surprisingly mean-spirited, yet fascinating in the end November 11, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was a fixture in American politics for a quarter-century and a passionate observer for at least two decades beyond that. This book is fascinating for anyone interested in the post-World War II history of America. Schlesinger was on a first-name basis with most of the period's giants, and he offers equal doses of inside information, analysis and just plain gossip in his Journals. The sad thing is that this dispassionate historian, this acclaimed author who wrote with such style and insight about Jackson and FDR, was so surprisingly close-minded and sometimes mean-spirited about the leaders of his own period. He was especially myopic about the Kennedys, believing they could do no wrong, and accepting their major mistakes while excoriating other Democrats and Republicans for smaller transgressions. The professor, in fact, comes off as much the snob, hailing only those of either party who were born to wealth and/or attended Ivy League schools. The other drawback with the Journals is that Schlesinger's sons edited the book so poorly. Typos abound, and dozens of names are misspelled, both in the text and in the index. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner certainly deserved better.
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