Life of Andrew Jackson
Author: Robert V Remini
The classic one-volume biography of Andrew Jackson
Robert V. Remini's prizewinning, three-volumn biography, The Life of Andrew Jackson, won the National Book Award upon it's completion in 1984. Now, Remini captures the essence of the life and career of the seventh president of the United States in the meticulously crafted single-volume abridgement.
Publishers Weekly
Remini is the author of an acclaimed three-volume biography of the seventh president and now follows up with a superb condensation that incorporates the results of recent research. He describes Old Hickory's early struggle to overcome his reputation as a violent and vengeful man (``virtually a social outcast'' in western Tennessee); the spectacular fulfillment of his search for military glory at Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans; and his frequently turbulent two-term administration (1829-1837). In this vivid biography, Remini analyzes his subject's shortcomings, which included wretched administrative appointments, inability to replace the corrupt U.S. Bank with a better system and failure to bring Texas into the Union. But the overall emphasis is on a chief executive who ``served the American people extremely well,'' preserved the integrity of the Union, saved the government from misrule and liquidated the national debt. Jackson stepped down from office more popular than when he entered the White House. Illustrations. (August)
New interesting textbook: Classic Cajun or Sushi Secrets
Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship
Author: Martin Gilbert
An insightful history of Churchill’s lifelong commitment—both public and private—to the Jews and Zionism, and of his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism
Winston Churchill’s commitment to Jewish rights, to Zionism, and ultimately to the State of Israel never wavered. In 1922, he established on the bedrock of international law the right of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. During his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1960, Churchill presented the Israeli prime minister with an article he had written about Moses, praising the patriarch. In between these events he fought harder and more effectively for the Jewish people than the world has ever realized.
Drawing on a wide range of archives and private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, explores the origins, implications, and results of Churchill’s determined commitment to Jewish rights, opening a window on an underappreciated and heroic aspect of the brilliant politician’s life and career.
Publishers Weekly
This work by acclaimed Churchill biographer Gilbert examines an often-neglected aspect of the British leader's career: his relationship to Jews and Jewish issues. Drawing on a treasure trove of primary documents, Gilbert shows how Churchill grew beyond the kind of friendship with individual British Jews that his father enjoyed into a supporter of Jewish causes-most notably a Jewish state in Palestine. (In later years, Churchill even referred to himself as an "old Zionist.") Gilbert shows that Churchill recognized as early as 1933 that Hitler's regime posed a grave danger for European Jewry. Yet, as Gilbert shows, in the late 1930s, Churchill upset Zionist leaders with his support for limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine out of a concern for British interests in the Arab world. The work is chock-full of narrative, with little interpretation, and some readers might wish for more discussion of questions, such as Churchill's description of Bolshevism (which he loathed) as a "Jewish movement." But this work is a must-read for those interested in Churchill and in Jewish history. 8 pages of photos; maps. (Nov. 1)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationFrederic Krome - Library Journal
Primarily known for his multivolume biography of Churchill, Gilbert has also written extensively about modern Jewish history and the Holocaust. Now he takes the opportunity to combine his expertise on these subjects, and his source material reflects years of work. Gilbert is strongest in narrative; the analysis is sparser. But he's at his best when explaining the interrelationship between Churchill's position as a British government leader-especially during World War II-and his personal support of Zionism and Jewish refugees. Gilbert points out that Churchill had first to safeguard British interests, all the while functioning within a complex governmental system, which sometimes prevented him from promoting causes, such as Zionism, as he might have liked. The book is weaker when Gilbert delineates the number of Jews Churchill interacted with on a daily basis. Does it really matter, for example, that one of his staff at the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 was Jewish? Gilbert's analysis of the tension between Churchill's pro-Jewish and pro-Zionist attitudes and his hatred of Bolshevism, which he considered a Jewish invention, may leave unsatisfied readers still seeking an explanation as to how the two were reconciled. Recommended for research libraries.
Kirkus Reviews
British historian and Churchill biographer Gilbert (Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction, 2006, etc.) explores the great statesman's early, fervent support of Zionism and wartime pleas to save the Jews from Nazi persecution. Churchill believed the Jews, thanks to Moses and the code of conduct he received at Mt. Sinai, "grasped and proclaimed an idea of which all the genius of Greece and all the power of Rome were incapable." Continuing his father Randolph's friendship with prominent British Jews such as Lord Rothschild, Churchill, as a young MP in 1904, became a vocal critic of the Aliens Bill restricting Jewish immigration from Tsarist Russia. As Home Secretary, he dispatched troops to restore order after the pogrom at Tredegar, South Wales. Early on, he became friendly with the one who would most shape Zionist policy, Chaim Weizmann, the Manchester chemist whom he enlisted during World War I to manufacture explosives for British ammunition. While supporting the Balfour Declaration, Churchill was deeply wary of Bolshevism as representing the "bad" Jews. Indeed, he hoped that Zionism would work to counterbalance Jewish Bolshevik sympathies. Churchill visited the Holy Land, excoriated Islam as a "retrograde force" and lobbied against restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, especially as Arab resistance grew and Nazi persecution of the Jews gained force. Regarding the rise of the Nazis, Churchill demonstrated extraordinary prescience as early as 1933 and continually warned in speeches and writings of the impending menace. He led the debate against Partition and called the MacDonald White Paper (devising a policy in Palestine of permanent Arab majority) a "shameful act of appeasement."Gilbert diligently pursues Churchill's attempts to save Jews throughout the war, his disillusionment with Jewish terrorism and failure to bring up the future of Palestine at Potsdam. The author masterfully sketches the evolution of Israel through a long, difficult British Jewish process of conception. Gilbert's deep, lifelong scholarship and knowledge of his subject lend his book both authority and accessibility.
Table of Contents:
List of Maps xiList of Photographs xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Early Years: 'This Monstrous Conspiracy' 1
Supporting the Jews 7
The First World War and Its Aftermath 23
'A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People' 37
Responsibility for the Jewish National Home 45
Pledges in Jerusalem 52
Building on the Balfour Declaration 67
An Anti-Semitic Libel, Palestine, and Moses 86
The Rise of Hitler 97
Defender of Zionism 108
The Partition Debate: 'A Counsel of Despair' 121
Nazism Rampant: 'Abominable Persecution' 135
Palestine: The Legitimate Jewish Haven 149
The Black Paper: 'This Mortal Blow' 157
The First Nine Months of War 163
Prime Minister: The Palestine Dimension 172
'These Vile Crimes' 186
Palestine: A Vigilant Eye 202
Seeking to Save Jews 211
'If Our Dreams of Zionism Are to End ...' 221
The Saudi Arabian Dimension 231
From War to Peace: 'I Shall Continue to Do My Best' 239
The King David Hotel Bomb: 'We Are to be at War with the Jews of Palestine' 253
'A Senseless, Squalid War with the Jews' 261
The State of Israel Established: 'An Event in World History' 268
'An Old Zionist Like Me' 280
'A Great Nation' 293
Epilogue 307
Maps 311
Bibliography 325
Index 331
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