<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: An illustrated journey from Washington to Clinton
Review: I got really excited for a moment when I say that this DK Eyewitness Book on the "Presidents" was written by James Barber, because I thought this would be James David Barber, the reknown Presidential scholar. Instead it turns out to be James G. Barber, who does a nice job of bringing out the details for all of the Presidents from Washington to Clinton. The book talks about Clinton's impeachment but does not get as far as the 2000 election (the year the book was published). My expectation was that this book would look at the office as well as the men, but the organizational structure is a strictly chronology. Young readers get a sense for the relative importance of each President whether or not they get a "chapter" to themself and if they get just one or a pair of two-page spreads. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt all get four page spreads (and they are the ones on our coins). Theodore Roosevelts gets three pages with William Howard Taft getting the four in the "chapter," which makes perfect sense once you know their history. Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton all get two pages apiece, which shows an understandable bias towards the Presidents of our lifetime. The format, as everyone who has enjoyed these DK Eyewitness books knows, is to provide a two page spread that is divided into a couple of paragraphs of text along with multiple illustrations on each page with detailed captions (these books set the standard for providing informative captions). For example, the spread on Ronald Reagan has one paragraph of text talking about his main achievements in office and another on the facing page talking about the "Challenger" shuttle disaster. The dominant illustrations are a painting of Reagan that appeared on the cover of "Time" and a space shuttle taking off, but there is also photos of a Reagan-Bush belt buckle for the 1984 campaign, Reagan and his chimp co-star from "Bedtime for Bonzo," a picture of the assassination attempt, Reagan with Mikhail Gorbachev, Oliver North testifying, and Nancy Reagan and her "Just say no to drugs" campaign. A information block identies his term in office, birth information, age at innaguration, First Lady, and children (blocks for other presidents list key events in their presidency as well as information about when and where they died). The results are a series of brief introductions to the various presidents in which the illustrations underscore the highlights of each administration and the things that made them unique (e.g., FDR's dog Fala). Actually, for those who have read more standard juvenile biographies of various presidents this book will probably be more interesting because the pictures it provides get beyond the standard photographs to personal and political artifacts. For example, you will see lots of campaign posters, pins, and other things you would find at the Smithsonian Institute (e.g., a giant peanut with the Carter smile). So this is not the first place you would look to find out about the Presidents, but sooner or later young students interested in the study of the occupants of the White House will enjoy looking through these pages.
<< 1 >>
| 
