Tag: biography
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Book review: The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is a fascinating biography of Elizebeth Smith, a woman who, along with her better known husband–William Friedman–was responsible for the creation of the field of…
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Book review: The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman by Brian Holden-Reid
The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman by Brian Holden-Reid My rating: 4 of 5 stars The author of this book has a definite viewpoint, which is that William Tecumseh Sherman got a bad rap and was not the savage butcher and scourge of the South that he has been portrayed to…
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Book review: Ty Cobb by Charles Leerhsen
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen My rating: 3 of 5 stars Ty Cobb has a horrible reputation as a racist, mean, and disreputable human being. The author’s premise in this biography is that much of the mythology surrounding Ty Cobb is erroneous, based on a biography by an author who took a…
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Book review: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ask a normal person what their first impressions are when you say “Genghis Khan,” and chances are you’ll hear words like “savage,” “barbaric,” and “ruthless.” If the person is a bit of a know-it-all and smart aleck,…
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Book review: Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olson
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was the the leader of a intelligence gathering group, the Alliance, in France during World War II that was instrumental in providing the Allies with key intelligence, including…
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Book review: A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell My rating: 4 of 5 stars “A Woman of No Importance” is about the life of Virginia Hall, who despite being a woman, an American, and disabled (a prosthetic leg), managed to outwit and…
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Book review: Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is the inspiration for the Broadway musical (and cultural) smash “Hamilton” (and, in fact, the author receives royalties from the musical). I have mixed feelings about this biography and mixed feelings about the subject. Alexander Hamilton was clearly a brilliant man, excellent…
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Book review: Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Achilles’ heel of biographers are those who fall in love with their subject and fail to be objective about the subject’s failings (an excellent example of this is David McCullough’s biography of John Adams). In general, the author of…
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Book Review: The Last Lion, Volume 3 by William Manchester & Paul Reid
The Last Lion 3: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-65 by William R. Manchester My rating: 4 of 5 stars William Manchester wrote the first two volumes of his planned Winston Churchill biography (The Last Lion: Visions of Glory and The Last Lion: Alone) before suffering several strokes that resulted in his inability…