The Gentleman From New York : Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Biography

by Godfrey Hodgson

Coinciding with his departure from the United States Senate after twenty-four years of distinguished service, this major work is the first comprehensive account of the life and ideas of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a great political figure and a brilliant and complex man. Godfrey Hodgson, a highly regarded expert on American politics and history, has known Senator Moynihan for four decades and had full access to him and to his political papers while preparing this book. In addition, he interviewed dozens of Moyhnihan's friends, aides, and antagonists.

Both admiring and critical, this balanced portrait follows Moynihan's rise from an unpromising childhood in a broken middle-class family (not, as many believe, a tenement boyhood in New York's Hell's Kitchen). It explains how a self-described "birthright Democrat" could decide to work for Richard Nixon, and how a man elected to the Senate as the darling of the neoconservatives could come to oppose Ronald Reagan and fight for the goals of mainstream Democrats. It deals at length with Moynihan's sometimes embattled tenure as our ambassador to India and to the United Nations. Above all, it is the history of a mind, portraying Moynihan as a prophet who again and again saw through the conventional wisdom of liberals and conservatives alike, and who expressed his insights with clarity, vigor, and not a little wit. From "benign neglect" to "defining deviancy down," his formulation of some of the central problems of American society are sure to remain part of our national discourse for years to come.

Among the many prominent people who appear in these pages, some in fascinating behind-the-scenes encounters, are Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon; Henry Kissinger; Indira Gandhi; and Elizabeth Moynihan, the senator's wife and a remarkable figure in her own right. This splendid biography powerfully illuminates the life and ideas of a courageous, controversial, truly impressive American, whose entire career embodies a sustained faith in the possibility of a Great Society.

Genres: Biography, Politics, American History, History, Nonfiction

464 pages, Hardcover

First published August 16, 2000

About the author

Godfrey Hodgson was a White House correspondent for a London newspaper with a desk in the Washington Post newsroom during the Kennedy and Johnson years. He has worked as a reporter for print and television throughout the United States and has written sixteen books, most dealing with people and issues in American politics. He taught at Oxford University and lives in Oxfordshire, U.K.

Reviews

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, at best, a solid biography...but what else can you do with Pat Moynihan, a man who left behind so many thousands of pages of articles, books, speeches, etc.? To paraphrase Seneca, I'd feel bad for the man who merely had to read them (and Hodgson has clearly only read some of them)...but the man who wrote them? Good lord.

The bio suffers from "author fatigue factor" - the material up to Moynihan's arrival in the Senate is excellent, but Hodgson either found his Senate run uninteresting or he was pressed for time, so the 120 or so pages you get there seems a bit thin. But would I want to read 800 pages on Moynihan as opposed to 400? Perhaps so, given that I've read several other books on (or by) the man this year. Though I'll likely just segue into reading more of Moynihan's own work now.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, solid and well-balanced biography. I did not know that Moynihan was central to the creation and passage of The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) which created the structure for "Rails to Trails!" Thank you Senator Moynihan. I enjoyed learning about what a DC player he was, quite the character.

[John Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

His book on Stimson was better

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good biography of a great man. DPM was a intellectual giant. An amazing career. One of New York's finest senators. This was the seat that Hilary Clinton filled. I think she "did him proud".

I decided to read this book while I was reading Tim Russert's book, Me and Big Russ. Russert had the distinct honor to work for Senator Moynihan for a few years. The more he wrote of his experience with The Senator, the more intrigued I became. People on the political Left and Right still quote him today.

When I look at the political pygmies in both parties today........

[Harry Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written bio of an interesting and consequential figure in American politics. Hodgson's treatment might be a bit adulatory, but the facts of Moynihan's life speak eloquently for themselves. To liberals, he often seemed to be a conservative, and to conservatives a liberal. He was, in fact, a moderate Democrat with an original mind and an independent streak. No one on the scene today seems to have his ability to get to the gist of an issue and then explicate it robustly. And that's a shame.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moynihan's life story is fascinating, and I am personally a big fan of him. The book, however, is not the best read. It lacks a consistent storyline, which is something you would not expect from a biography.

[Laura Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Patrick Moynihan - politician, intellectual, adviser to Presidents, Senator from New York, Democrat, Speaker of the Senate, Wit. A life worth reading about.

[Anthony Rishchynski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography of my favorite liberal-cum-conservative, Pat Moynihan. The chapter on his UN Ambassadorship has a lot of great anecdotes not least about Pat's complex relationship with Kissinger.