A Life in the Twentieth Century : Innocent Beginnings, 1917 - 1950

Rating:
Summary: Schlesinger's America
Review: A Life in the 20th Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 is the first volume of the memoirs of the noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The book examines much of the nation's history in the first half of the twentieth century as well the author's anaylsis of public policy and his impressions of an extraordinary group of writers, politicians, intellectuals, and decision makers. Schlesinger is a name dropper extraordinaire in this volume and his vignettes on the people who crossed his path are interesting and inciteful and at times irreverent and caustic.

The book is a little long (557 pages). The parts concerning his early boyhood, books read, movies seen etc. can get tedious. However, his account of his trip around the world at age 16 with his father, also a noted historian, is facinating.

Schlesinger is an unabashed anti communist, New Deal style liberal. His first great book, The Age of Jackson, won the Pulitzer Prize. In it, as in later works, his sympathies, along with Jackson, lay with the working classes as opposed to the bastions of capital, aristocracy and monopoly. Schlesinger sees a pattern of similarity of reform between the Jacksonians, the Progressives of the early twentieth century, and the New Dealers. (His later books on FDR and JFK are exceedingly sypathetic treatments of his subjects as liberal realists.) This well researched and well written book is still used in college classes today. I read it in a graduate course on the age of Jackson in the late sixties.

After World War II, Schlesinger became one of the leaders of the non -communist left. His book, The Vital Center, written in 1949 was an appeal to liberal democracy, in opposition to the twin totalitarian systems of fascism and Stalinism. At the close of the present book, he states that his philosophy is still consistent with The Vital Center and he would make few changes in it even after fifty years.

In short, A Life in the 20th Century is a good read for history junkies. Schlesinger has been at the forefront of history and history makers and his insights on people and events are always enlightening and entertaining. I look forward to the publication of the second volume.

Rating:
Summary: Schlesinger's America
Review: A Life in the 20th Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 is the first volume of the memoirs of the noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The book examines much of the nation's history in the first half of the twentieth century as well the author's anaylsis of public policy and his impressions of an extraordinary group of writers, politicians, intellectuals, and decision makers. Schlesinger is a name dropper extraordinaire in this volume and his vignettes on the people who crossed his path are interesting and inciteful and at times irreverent and caustic.

The book is a little long (557 pages). The parts concerning his early boyhood, books read, movies seen etc. can get tedious. However, his account of his trip around the world at age 16 with his father, also a noted historian, is facinating.

Schlesinger is an unabashed anti communist, New Deal style liberal. His first great book, The Age of Jackson, won the Pulitzer Prize. In it, as in later works, his sympathies, along with Jackson, lay with the working classes as opposed to the bastions of capital, aristocracy and monopoly. Schlesinger sees a pattern of similarity of reform between the Jacksonians, the Progressives of the early twentieth century, and the New Dealers. (His later books on FDR and JFK are exceedingly sypathetic treatments of his subjects as liberal realists.) This well researched and well written book is still used in college classes today. I read it in a graduate course on the age of Jackson in the late sixties.

After World War II, Schlesinger became one of the leaders of the non -communist left. His book, The Vital Center, written in 1949 was an appeal to liberal democracy, in opposition to the twin totalitarian systems of fascism and Stalinism. At the close of the present book, he states that his philosophy is still consistent with The Vital Center and he would make few changes in it even after fifty years.

In short, A Life in the 20th Century is a good read for history junkies. Schlesinger has been at the forefront of history and history makers and his insights on people and events are always enlightening and entertaining. I look forward to the publication of the second volume.

Rating:
Summary: Innocent Beginnings is a (Worldly-)Wise Read
Review: Arthur Schlesing is one of the great thinkers of the 20th century -- a skillful historian, an energetic intellectual, an accomplished writer. He's a man who could have coined the phrase "been there, done that." If you want to see America's century through enlightened eyes, you'll want to read this book . . and share it with a friend!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent memoir (with a little history thrown in)
Review: As a Schesinger fan, I found this book a delightful insight into the life of the best living historian. The book was very well written, and as a current college student, I found his account of his college years particularly interesting.

I would especially recommend this book to anyone interested in either twentieth century history or twentienth century American culture.

Rating:
Summary: A rather long opener.
Review: I first came across Schlesinger when, as a boy, I read with fascination his story of the Kennedy White House, "A Thousand Days". Even then however, I felt that his style was long winded and somewhat self serving. I do not mean to carp, but to judge from what is only the first installment of his memoirs, it looks as if things haven`t changed much since.

That is not to say that this isn`t a useful memoir, merely that it could have been a lot shorter. He has some great anecdotes to tell, particularly from a trip aroung the world he took with his parents when he was fifteen or sixteen. However, even at this early stage one gets the impression of a precocious pain in the backside. One wonders if a great deal of change occurred in the intervening period. In fairness to him, he does acknowledge this side of his personality when he tells us that he once told his mother(!) that she had no right to her opinion as she didn`t know what she was talking about.

Aside from a few well told anecdotes, the best and most rewarding sections of this memoir are those dealing with the writing of "The Age of Jackson" and the struggle in the post war years for control of the moderate American left. Even here, unfortunately, the detail becomes wearying. He winds up with a passionate re-enunciation of the priciples of his book "The Vital Center". This is interesting stuff and could have used a bit more elaboration at the expense of some of the earlier sections of the book.

In the end it is probaly these early sections that are in need of most pruning. One wonders, for example, why he thought it necessary to tell the reader in great deatail about his childhood reading or the movies he watched as a teenager. He even quotes a few of his adolescent attempts at movie and theatre reviewing. He does a little better when dealing with the war years, though here again, the constant name dropping and the at times supercillious attitude get in the way.

Put simply, this volume is way too long and in places rather tedious. Half the length and half the talk of innocent beginnings, and this would have been a much more readable memoir.

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Arrogance Too Little Substance
Review: I learned very little by reading this book. It is not a book about history in the first half of the twentieth century but rather a personal commentary of the opinions of the author. The reader becomes so soured by the importance of being "Harvard" that little else seems to matter. Liberalism, to which I subscribe, is promoted extensively but, in my view, Schlesinger misses numerous opportunities to justify liberalism in circumstances during 1917-1950 when it was needed most. Schlesinger appears obsessed by the need to be "accepted" as if it were necessary to obtain the upper hand in each of his discussions, arguments or reviews of his "Jackson". I understood the real meaning of the word inane when I read Henry Kissinger's comment that, "This book will surely be regarded as the definitive history of the first half of the twentieth century". Were I teaching an advanced course in modern history at a college or university, my students would question the purpose of recommending this book.

Rating:
Summary: a fascinating read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Schlesinger's autobiography.He gives us an inside look at a most remarkable life and does so with wit and style and grace.Highly recommend to anyone interested in the great affairs of 1900-1950.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable
Review: I was really cought up by this book, as the eminent historian (his The Age of Jackson was the best book I read in 1987)tells of his ancestors and his early liefe. I found his account of his growing up, the books he read, the things he did, the world he lived in vividly described and I could not put the book down. His account of his trip around the world at age 16-17 was very well told, and I thought it could have been expanded with benefit. His account of his years as a student also held high interest, and his time in World War II, like most accounts of "my war" are high in attention-holding. The book begins to pall a little in the account of the time from 1945 to 1950, maybe because it is better known to those of us who lived thru the time and knew of the author's activities during those years--tho his political views and mine I must admit coincided then and still do. So that helps. It is true that he name-drops but I was fascinated by the people he knew and by how many "dear friends" he has. If he knew me I would be glad to read about what he thought of me--and most of what he has to say is not bad. I think this is a great book, and his next volume, which will include his years with Kennedy, will also be great reading, provided they tell us something not told in A Thousand Days--tho, since I read that book in October of 1966, he can no doubt depend on my not remembering too much of what I read then, and so some repetition is in order.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent memoir (with a little history thrown in)
Review: Schlesinger writes a book of personal recollections that reads much like a grandfather relating his rich and rewarding life onto his next generation. It is not a hard facts history book, and it will not be remembered as such (regardless of Dr. Kissenger's overly optomistic review on the dust jacket).

There are high points and low points to this book. His experiences at Harvard, worn torn Europe, and the ideological battles between communists and liberals over control of the American left were fascinating. However, we are also privy to every movie, play, book, and cocktail dinner that schlesinger ever attended. It's interesting to gain this perspective, but it gets tedious. This book could have used substantial editing.

I'm a Schlesinger fan, but I skimmed through many pages. Despite these shortcoming, Schlesinger still imparts his genious.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book from an interesting man
Review: Schlesinger writes a book of personal recollections that reads much like a grandfather relating his rich and rewarding life onto his next generation. It is not a hard facts history book, and it will not be remembered as such (regardless of Dr. Kissenger's overly optomistic review on the dust jacket).

There are high points and low points to this book. His experiences at Harvard, worn torn Europe, and the ideological battles between communists and liberals over control of the American left were fascinating. However, we are also privy to every movie, play, book, and cocktail dinner that schlesinger ever attended. It's interesting to gain this perspective, but it gets tedious. This book could have used substantial editing.

I'm a Schlesinger fan, but I skimmed through many pages. Despite these shortcoming, Schlesinger still imparts his genious.