American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace

Rating:
Summary: Yes...but
Review: I enjoyed this book as a well-written biography and a tale of Americana and issues still relevant. I was amazed, though in re-reading McCullough's Truman, following reading Culver and Hude's
Wallace, how much they had simply picked up and reprinted from McCullough. Most of the Democratic convention in Chicago of 1944 is right out of the Truman biography - not that there was a great deal more to report, but word choices and whole phrases seem cribbed. Too bad, for most of the rest of the Wallace book is highly original and worth reading. Wallace is by now (2002) largely forgotten; too bad. He had a lot to offer and his life is both encouraing and is a cautionary tale. Let's just thank our lucky stars Harry Truman came along at the right time - Wallce as President would have been an idealist in a shark tank
and it would have been a disaster!

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Smith goes to Wasington ... and wins
Review: I enjoyed this detailed account of the life of Henry Wallace. The book does read like a work by David McCullough, but is enhanced by a deep understanding of the culture of Washington. The book gives valuable insights into the practical political forces that shaped the New Deal and the beginning of the Cold War.

The underlying premise of this book as that an idealistic dreamer can make a huge difference in the creating and shaping policy in the United States. The co-author of this work is a former Senator from Iowa named John C. Culver. He served one-term in the 1970's. Through Henry Wallace, the authors mount a formidable defense of the ideals of American liberalism.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Smith goes to Wasington ... and wins
Review: I enjoyed this detailed account of the life of Henry Wallace. The book does read like a work by David McCullough, but is enhanced by a deep understanding of the culture of Washington. The book gives valuable insights into the practical political forces that shaped the New Deal and the beginning of the Cold War.

The underlying premise of this book as that an idealistic dreamer can make a huge difference in the creating and shaping policy in the United States. The co-author of this work is a former Senator from Iowa named John C. Culver. He served one-term in the 1970's. Through Henry Wallace, the authors mount a formidable defense of the ideals of American liberalism.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptionally well-done
Review: This book does an excellent job of telling of a an amazing life. Henry Wallace was born in a farm house near Orient, Adair County, Iowa, without benefit of doctor or midwife. He went on to a life extremely beneficial to the American farmer, especially the corn farmer. When he was picked to become FDR's Secretary of Agriculture, many American farmers were encouraged, and he went on to be the greatest Agriculture Secretary ever. His career became much more controversial when he became Vice-President. This book's account of the 1940 and 1944 Democratic Conventions is extremely informative, and no one who lived through those times, or who has an interest in those momentous events, will fail to be appreciative of the good work the authors of this book have done in telling the story of those amazing political events. The account of Wallace's aberational seeking of the Presidency in 1948 is full of interest, and one is relieved that by 1950 Wallace's political insight was restored. This is a great book to read, full of insight into a complicated but amazing man.

Rating:
Summary: Facinating Account of the Man Who Was Almost President
Review: This exceptionally well done biography of Henry Wallace tells the story of an unusual man who nearly became president of the US. As Vice-president during FDR's third term, Wallace could easily have become president as Roosevelt's health steadily worsened. Back-room dealings at the Democratic convention in '44, were all that prevented Wallace being VP during FDR's final term.

Wallace was a brilliant complex man. Early in his life he developed and promoted hybrid corn that improved the productivity of American (and subsequently world) farmers. He was the real drivers of the recovery of American agriculture during the Depression. Wallace made difficult, often unpopular choices, that had the long term effect of improving the country's agrarian strength.

As a politician he was simultaneously naive and crafty. His ability to move controversial New Deal legislation through Congress showed how skilled he could be. His run as a third party candidate for president in 52 demonstrated both his naivte and vanity (a quality he developed late in his life).

My only quibble with this book is that it tells very little about what happened to Wallace following his quixotic presidential run. While the remaining 17 years of his life were hardly as eventful as what came before, it certainly merited greater coverage. Don't let this small matter detract from reading this otherwise excellent biography.

After reading this biography, one reaches two conclusions: 1) it's probably best that Wallace never became president; as an idealist, he was too often unable to settle for the "good" instead of his view of the "perfect;" 2) despite his flaws, Wallace's brilliance and dedication make him seem much greater than anyone on the current political scene regardless of party.

Rating:
Summary: Not Just Stalin's Boy
Review: This is a proverbial "long overdue" biography of Henry A. Wallace and his brilliant yet eccentric Scottish-American family. I did a Web search of Wallace a few years ago and was amazed at the scant result. This rectifies that.

Beyond the coverage of his political innocence there is a good recounting of his actual science work. Few politicians actually "do" things beyond speechifying, getting reelected and becoming millionaires at the public trough. Henry, Henry C. and Henry A. Wallace were exceptions. Their philosophic designs for the farmer and state policy were important and Henry A.'s genetic work truly revolutionary.

The world would be a different place without it.

Not much popular press has been written about American agriculture, I guess because building cars, fighting Hitler, dropping atomic bombs and oral sex in the oval office are more exciting.

This book is a good primer in America's great farming history of triumph. To simplify, the American farmer through hard work, good soil and some science grew too much product for his own good...prices essentially fell from 1890 into the 1930's. (World War I was a boom period, but wild fluctuations don't lend themselves to good planning. Under such conditions, planning was about as effective as mule husbandry.) Naturally this hurt most farmers and destroyed more then a few of them. Through government intervention theorized by the Wallace family's agricultural journal and then championed to be public law in Washington by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. under Harding, then Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. under FDR, this anomaly was reformed.

An obvious and wonderful irony is that Henry A. during this fight for state policy, was genetically engineering hybrid corns (and other crops) which hugely increased acre yield! In other words, American farmers were destroying themselves by being too successful and Wallace made them more successful...and viable.

I was thrilled too with the description of Henry C.'s Washington sojourn in the 1920's. Historians breeze by that period, summarizing it as: womanizer, feckless Warren G. Harding; indolent, pickle puss Calvin Coolidge; and Depression maker, Let-Them-Eat-Cake Herbert C. Hoover. Obviously no administration sets its goal as venality, so it refreshing to see Harding to be portrayed as a sympathetic proponent of Henry C.'s policy goals and Coolidge to be an activist opponent of them. Hoover simply comes off as a lunk-headed player who was wrong and enamored with his personal successes.

Historians have wrongly treated conservative governments as do-nothing when in fact doing nothing often takes as much effort as signing every bill regurgitated by Congress.

And Roosevelt was duplicitous, Henry A. believed in mysticism and was a parlor red who would have ruined the country had FDR croaked a year earlier...but that I knew before I read this book.

This is a good book about a classic American type.