Fail to the Chief

I'm going to break up my recent string of movie reviews with a book review. It's a notable one for me in that it's a non-fiction book, and I hardly ever read such works.

Failures of the Presidents is a selected chronicle of exactly what the title implies. It's not an exhaustive list of various presidential blunders. It's not even as complete as covering every president. But it does, over its twenty chapters, include a good variety of history.

There are events you may be passingly familiar with from long ago history classes, such as the so-called "Whiskey Rebellion" during George Washington's presidency. In an effort to raise funds for the federal government, Washington was convinced to tax anyone selling self-distilled whiskey. Guess how that turned out?

There are events you really, really ought to know about if you don't, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, an all-too recent shame that had best not ever be repeated.

There are events that I for one had never heard about, and am glad I now know a little of, such as Herbert Hoover's disgraceful treatment of the "Bonus Army," or the flying-in-the-face-of-the-recently-ratified-First-Amendment Alien and Sedition Acts passed by John Adams.

Along the way, the book gives background on events that brought about the War of 1812, recounts the infamous "Trail of Tears," and eventually works its way up to material such as the Bay of Pigs and Tonkin Gulf Resolution, for those of us who weren't yet around when those events were actually occuring.

The book gets a bit suspect as it tackles very recent issues in the presidencies of George W. Bush (the Iraq War) and Ronald Reagan (the Iran-Contra Affair). Even though the authors acknowledge a lack of historical distance from which to be evaluating relatively recent occurences, they go ahead and place such accounts in the same volume as criticisms of Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act and Franklin Pierce's repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Don't get me wrong, I certainly have my opinions on how I think history will judge the decisions made by our current and recent presidents, but I'm not sure a book of history is the place for it.

Nevertheless, the book is overall a very interesting one. It's packed full of good "brain food," and is quite well written. It's a very smooth and easy read, placing even 200-year-old events in a clear context where they can be understood and appreciated.

History may not be your thing. But if you have even a passing interest in past U.S. presidents, I think you'll find this book a good read. I give it a B+.