Rating: 
Summary: A Miss and a Hit
Review: As one who has long admired the life and work of Grover Cleveland and long lamented that he has been largely ignored by modern historians, I welcomed the arrival of this piece. As it turned out, my excitement was tempered by the fact that there is very little new in this work and overall, I found the book thin. The author relies almost entirely on previous compilations and can make no claim to original scholarship. In this sense, it is a much inferior work to the definitive 1932 biography by Allan Nevins. To the extent, however, that Jeffers seeks merely to introduce a mostly unaware public to one of the truly unsung giants of American politics, the book is not without merit.
Rating: 
Summary: Grover Cleveland light
Review: Being from Buffalo and following a good experience with another Cleveland-centered work ("City of Light"), I picked up this biography at the local library.Jeffers offers a light, breezy read. He sticks to highlights and readily acknowledges and quotes the several more historic, academic and detailed Cleveland biographies. He makes some facile comparisons to Bill Clinton, some of which work and others that are a bit of stretch. Unlike Clinton, Cleveland was honest and not terribly schooled or bright. Both men worked and played long hours. Like Clinton, Cleveland was a large man, with a huge appetite for food (Cleveland liked sauerkraut and sausage, a fair predecessor to Clinton's Big Mac attacks) and -- and here it gets murky -- women. Cleveland, nearing fifty, first married his recently college graduated ward. But the story of his child out-of-wedlock many years earlier almost did him in. Unlike Clinton, and perhaps becuase he was a bachelor, he did not deny fatherhood, even though it was not clear that he was the father. Cleveland's political ascent was remarkable: in five years he was elected mayor of Buffalo, governor of New York, and then president of the United States, only to lose his second run for the presidency and to come back and win on his third try. His concern over public office as a public trust, over the gold standard and tariffs, offer some insights into today's currency and free trade arguments. An interesting and not terribly complex man, Cleveland was a much better president than Clinton, whose greatest legacy was to turn over the White House and Congress to the Republicans and to turn the public spotlight on private sexual matters.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not outstanding
Review: Grover Cleveland has always been one of our more obscure presidents, not quite as unknown as Fillmore, Buchanan or Pierce, but not as well-written about as Washington, Jefferson or Lincoln; he is certainly the most obscure of presidents to serve two full terms. In fact, the most well-known fact about Cleveland is that he is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms; the more trivia-minded may also know that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after his daughter. This biography shows Cleveland as a man of great integrity who was motivated more by principle than by partisanship. Cleveland comes off as a generally likeable person but not a very imaginative or visionary president. This could explain his relatively minor place in American history. Jeffers has written a generally admiring biography but does not neglect Cleveland's flaws. At times, his writing comes off a little too casual, such as when he refers to Cleveland constantly as "Grover," which seems out of place in a serious biography. Nonetheless, there are few enough biographies of Cleveland available, and this one is good enough to introduce a student of American history to this little-known president.
Rating:
Summary: Biography of a Great Man
Review: Grover Cleveland has largely been ignored by historians, which is a pity: not only was he a good president, he was an outstanding human being. In an era where cynical distrust of politicians has become the norm, reading about a man who was trustworthy is refreshing, though one may feel some regret that they don't make 'em like Grover Cleveland anymore. The book itself is not a particularly weighty book, but it does whet the appetite for more information about President Cleveland, and does it in style. A good introduction, in other words - hopefully other scholars will follow Mr. Jeffers in studying this subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic, Superficial Biography of a Good President
Review: Grover Cleveland is portrayed in this book as an unbendingly honest and upright individual while many of the most significant "compromises" which he made during his two non-consecutive terms in the Presidency as well as his overall inefficiency and inflexibility are overlooked. Jeffers glides by the wholesale firing of tens of thousands of Republican office holders and replacement of them with "good Democrats" in a Spoils System run wild during 1885 and 1893, and also Cleveland's undiplomatic handling of the gold/silver issue which divided his own party and secured Republican control of the Presidency for 16 years following his terms. Jeffers swallows the self-promotional image of "unshakable integrity" put forth by the Cleveland Administration to unsophisticated voters of the day, but neglects to give sufficient attention to Cleveland as an effective, deal-cutting politician who manage to get his party's presidential nomination three times in succession. Even more ludicrous is the silly attempt by Jeffers to sanctify Cleveland at the expense of Bill Clinton without giving the slightest attention to the vast differences in the respective eras and the overall results of their two term administrations. --- At best, this is a pleasant "coffee table" book which draws almost exclusively from secondary, published sources and is not recommended for serious research and study. Cleveland was a good and important president. He deserves attention such as that provided in Richard E. Welch's excellent piece of scholarship entitled "The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland" (1988, University Press of Kansas).
Rating:
Summary: A readable biography of an underrated president
Review: H. Paul Jeffers presents an exceptionally interesting biography of an often overlooked president. Cleveland suffers in part from the anonymity bestowed upon presidents who served in the "Gilded Age". For presidential legacies it is an advantage not a curse to serve in "interesting times". Jeffers correctly points out that the two Cleveland administrations were in actuality quite "interesting". During the two Cleveland administrations we had the Pullman strike, the second worst depression in our nation's history, and problems to deal with in Venezuela and Hawaii. Cleveland who is generally considered by historians, at best, as an "above average" president suffers from not being involved in a war. Of our wartime presidents, only Madison and McKinley are not consistantly ranked higher. Jeffers does an excellent job at describing his meteoric rise from private citizen to the presidency within three short years. He also describes Clinton's audacity in comparing himself to Cleveland. After reading this book, it would be difficult to think of two presidents who were more different. Cleveland was not overly ambitious and entered the presidency as a bachelor. Clinton is ambitous to a fault and married to a woman who is more ambitious. Cleveland gained his popularity through principle. Clinton places more importance on opion polls. Cleveland admitted to both fathering an illegitimate child and paying a surrogate to take his place in the Civil War. Clinton faced similar issues with lies and half truths. My only criticism of the book was the fact Jeffers could have been more critical. Except for his handling of the Pullman strike, there was little disapprobation. At times, I felt that Jeffers would not mind celebrating his birthday as another national holiday or putting a fifth head on Mt. Rushmore. What separates Cleveland from the truly great presidents is leadership ability and his reluctance or inability to better articulate his philosophy of government. He was unable to sell congress on his ideas of lowering tariffs or even lead his own party in regard to the gold standard. In action, he actually did more to limit government than Jefferson, but we are left to discover his philosophy of government inductively in that he primarily laid down his thoughts issue by issue. In summary this was a book that I could not put down and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Could use some beefing up
Review: H. Paul Jeffers' biography of Grover Cleveland is really a great read. If you're interested in American history, you'll enjoy this book about a fascinating and remarkable figure in U.S. politics who is largely ignored by modern writers. If your knowledge of the American "Gilded Age" is limited to your high school or college classes, you'll do yourself a favor by reading this book. Jeffers does a good job in bringing the era and personalities to life, but his writing of Cleveland's years as president often seems to be merely listing his official schedule of activities. Don't let this criticism dissuade you, however; my test for any book while reading it is "when can I get time to read more?" This book definitely passes the test.
Rating:
Summary: An Brief Overview
Review: H. Paul Jeffers's biography of Grover Cleveland is readable, but I found myself thinking of the famous Walter Mondale phrase, "Where's the Beef?" Checking in at a brief 350 pages, made all the shorter by the interspersion of photographs throughout the text, this book is a good bare bones account of Cleveland's life in which the reader never really gets to know the man. Cleveland is a vastly underrated President, mostly because didn't serve at a time of great national crisis. So the recent interest in him (no less than two biographies published in 2000) is a good thing. Jeffers's book did much to enlighten me, but left me wanting more. I also found a couple of glaring factual errors. Overall, Jeffers's book is a good introduction to its subject, and that's probably all most casual readers will want to know.
Rating:
Summary: A bit thin, why are we talking about Clinton?
Review: I liked the story in the book. It painted a very flattering picture of Grover Cleveland. However, I found myself wanting more information about the issues and events of the day to better judge Mr. Cleveland's actions. Most topics were not fully developed. I think there must be more behind the story of a relative unknown reaching the White House in such a short public life. The worst fault in the book is the author's diversions to compare Cleveland to Bill Clinton. This comparison would have been best left to a prologe or epilog, so that it did not detract from the biography. I bought the book to learn about Cleveland, not to have present day political fodder be introduced. Believe me, I'm no fan of Clinton. The author would be more effective as a biographer or as a politco if these topics were separated in the 2nd edition.
Rating: 
Summary: At last, a book about an obscure American President.....
Review: Imagine my surprise when I discovered this long-awaited biography of our 22nd and 24th president! As a release from the hundreds of redundant titles about Lincoln or Washington that are produced each year, this book provided me an opportunity to visit with a man too many ignore or misunderstand. The author provides a clean, concise account of his life (usually hitting only the high points rather than indulging in endless detail), and provides a fair, balanced description of his presidency. Still, it was most fascinating to read about Cleveland's rapid ascent from obscurity to the White House. Here was a man, who within three years (1881-1884), went from mayor of Buffalo to become a successful presidential candidate against powerful Republican James G. Blaine. As a politician, whether on the local or national level, Cleveland took controversial stands, challenged established members of his party, vetoed popular bills (risking always an override), and revealed private, potentially harmful information in the name of truth an openness. The author by no means paints a picture of perfection (his decisions as president are up for historical debate), but whatever position he took, Cleveland never betrayed his sense of duty and loyalty to the social good. That sense might have been wrong on several occasions (his handling of the 1894 Pullman strike, for example, which pushed the envelope of federal intervention in state matters), but he never compromised out of fear or a desire to cater to party officials. While there are many accounts of Cleveland's happy marriage to Frances (almost thirty years his junior) and their children (one of whom was, in a first, born in the White House), the book is an important contribution primarily because of its reassessment of his political life. Additionally, the author gives us a vivid representation of the late 19th century itself (as all presidential biographies must); a time rife with labor wars, economic crises (the Panic of 1893 was one of the nation's worst depressions), racial conflict, immigration debates (Cleveland signed the Chinese Exclusion Act yet vetoed a bill forbidding illiterate immigrants), imperialism abroad, and impending war with Spain. While the author resorts to a few cheap shots against President Clinton in the end (I suppose no contemporary book about politics would be complete without it), the book maintains a satisfactory level of detachment throughout. While books such as these will never light up the bestseller lists, I am thankful that they are written. Mr. Jeffers should be applauded for tackling a forgotten man while always keeping it accessible, appealing, and worthy of the subject.
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