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A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950
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From America's most celebrated living historian comes this "sprightly, straightforward account of the first third of an active and charmed life" (New York Times). Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. turns a studied eye on a personal past and reconstructs the history that has made him such an iconic figure for generations of readers. A LIFE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY offers rare and reve
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Paperback, 592 pages
Published
June 3rd 2002
by Mariner Books
(first published 2000)
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I was mostly disappointed with this book, which I found to be too self laudatory for my taste, and chock full of descriptions of 20th Century events which, somehow, the author just knew in advance would turn out the way they did. I liked his descriptions of his early education and his interests in books and films as a youth. And I found his reporting of the post WWII events in America informative. But ultimately, the things I liked about the book were overwhelmed by all that I did not like.
I expected a lot more from this book, especially since Schlesinger was a famous historian and worked in the Kennedy administration (he wrote celebrated biographies of John and Bobby Kennedy. This memoir only covered the first 33 years of his life, so maybe a book on his latter years would be better. But this book is a huge exercise in name dropping. We learn not only the name of the headmaster of his prep school, but also the names of the headmasters of all the other famous prep schools. Every p
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The lengthy but lighthearted memior recounting the first half of the life of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Aside from charming anecdotes and insighful stories, this book contains Schlesinger's remembrance of the golden age of US cinema (along with enough obscure titles to fill a Netflix cue for the better part of a year), a charming paen to the martini (always with gin and very dry), and some excellent insights into the state of the American psyche before and during World War II.
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An autobiography peppered with historical references. Well written, but dry. I could not relate to Schlesinger's experiences which made it difficult to stay interested in the book. I still want to read his historical analyses, as I think he is probably a better historian than memoir writer.
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Elites in regard to their enemies.
2006 Christmas present from Jennie.
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Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr., born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger, was a Pulitzer Prize recipient and American historian and social critic whose work explored the liberalism of American political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. He served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of th
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