Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian [Hardcover]

[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.] has found in Aldous an agreeably judicious biographer. & Aldous gracefully balances an appreciation for his subjects talents as a writer of narratives and speeches with an acknowledgment of his shortcomings as a political analyst and aide.[A] very readable distillation of a long and fruitful life.As a biographer, Mr. Aldouss prose is cool and even-handed. ... [[A] convincing portrait, rendered with skill and sensitivity, sympathetic toward its subject while capturing the quirks that made him, in the words of one contemporary, so Arthurish.[A] compellingly narrated and well-researched biography.Aldouss absorbing biography will surely be the definitive account of the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.. Schlesinger was often accused of writing hagiography, but Aldous deftly avoids a similar charge. While clearly admiring of his subject, Aldous is thoughtful and insightful, and at times critical.Aldous writes with a verve and clarity that matches Schlesingers ... his book is likely to long endure as the standard work on its gifted title character.The triumph of Richard Aldouss new book is that it separates the myth from the reality, explaining both the seemingly inexorable rise of Schlesinger and how he contributed so much to the subsequent mythologising of the Kennedy era.Richard AldoussIn this elegant biography, Richard Aldous reveals the fascinating story of the knee-pants genius who won his first Pulitzer Prize at the age of twenty-eight and went on to become the Kennedys court historian. Aldous presents an intimate portrait of a man of thought and a man of action living at the vital center of Cold War America.In his marvelous, moving, and unsparingA provocative and definitive account of a man of great achievement and charm who looms over nearly a century of the history that he himself so meticulously recorded. A great readand an absorbing, essential book.Aldous effectively captures the optimistic spil£&