Books and Ideas (1)

Books and Ideas

I read for ideas. What follows is my attempt to summarize the main ideas of books I have read.

Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years. Carl Sandburg.
Abraham Lincoln grows up. Many anecdotes. Vivid re-creation of his times, personality, and sense of humor.

Abraham Lincoln: War Years. Carl Sandburg.
Abraham Lincoln was the real commander of the Union forces and Robert E. Lee underestimated him.

Act One. Moss Hart.
A playwright tells how he learned to write successful plays.

Adirondack Country. William C. White.
History of the Adirondacks: the mountain peaks, the lakes, the guides, the natives and the tourists.

Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain.
Novel. A combination of hilarious scenes and a deep, deep understanding of the tragedy of slavery. A study in conscience.

All the King’s Men. Robert Penn Warren.
Novel. The complexity of a politician’s motivation: does he perform good acts for the sake of doing good or does he do good for political profit?

All Too Human: A Political Education. George Stephanopoulos.
Behind-the-scenes view of Bill Clinton’s Presidency. He was a “good president who should have been a better man.”

American Humor: A Study of the American Character. Constance Rourke.
Two types of American humor: the Yankee and the backwoodsman.

The American Presidency. Clinton Rossiter.
Thoughtful view of the powers and limitations of the American Presidency.

The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Daniel J. Boorstin.
The seeds of American culture were sown in the Colonial period.

The American Seasons. Edwin Way Teal.
Traveled through the seasons across America.

Anthem. Ayn Rand.
Novel. An antidote to the culture of melding the individual into the group.

The Art of Teaching. Gilbert Highet.
There is more to teaching than simply standing up in front of a classroom and telling students what to do.

As I Lay Dying. William Faulkner.
Novel. Faulkner uses words to help the reader visualize the character, mood and even the weather in the South after the Civil War. A disastrous funeral trip that is, in the end, hilarious.