Time and distance often allow for revised opinions of people
and events, and several new biographies are cases in point. Recently published
works on Brigham Young, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and William Seward take on famous
subjects who often have been under-appreciated by historians and biographers or
explored with less depth and nuance than they are due. Now, thanks to these new
books, we have the opportunity to reconsider the lives and contributions of all
three men.
From the current Broadway hit, The Book of Mormon, to Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president, the
timing couldn’t be better for a biography of one of the most famous Mormons of all,
Brigham Young. John G. Turner, an
assistant professor of religious studies at George Mason University who
specializes in 19th and 20th century social and political
movements, has written Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet,
a scholarly yet highly readable study of the Mormon leader’s life. Turner
traces Young’s impoverished beginnings, his embrace of what was a fledgling new
religion under Joseph Smith, and the tumultuous efforts to build and lead a
religious movement that ultimately rooted Mormonism in the American landscape.
Using previously untapped primary sources, Turner delves deeply into the
ironies, paradoxes, and controversies (including violence, vulgarity, and
polygamy) that marked Young’s life and religious career. Like him or not,
Young, in Turner’s hands, is a fascinating and vexing historical figure.
Evan Thomas,
the veteran journalist and biographer, has now turned his attention to Dwight
D. Eisenhower, a president often glossed over or ignored by historians as
insufficiently interesting or influential to warrant further probing. Thomas’
excellent new book, Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s
Secret Battle to Save the World, represents a fresh
and vigorous look at our 34th president, with special focus on his
success at keeping the United States at peace and staving off nuclear war.
Through his prodigious research, Thomas discovers an Eisenhower who is smarter,
cagier, more tempestuous, and more humane than the cardboard versions presented
in earlier works. This is one of Thomas’ finest books.
William Seward received welcome attention from historian
Doris Kearns Goodwin in her landmark study of Lincoln and the men he appointed
to his cabinet, The Team of Rivals.
But decades after the last major biography of Seward, he deserved another
thorough examination, which Walter Stahr
offers in Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man.
Stahr, who had a career in law and finance before turning full-time to
biography (his first book was about another behind-the-scenes power, John Jay),
unearthed a trove of documents that enabled him to challenge some of the
conventional wisdom about Seward’s role in several of Lincoln’s most important
decisions regarding treatment of the South during the Civil War—and more.
All three books are refreshing additions to our inventory of
American biographies. We hope you enjoy them.
-Brad and Lissa