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6 reviews for:
Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives
Brian Williams, Dwight Young
4.22 AVERAGE
6 reviews for:
Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives
Brian Williams, Dwight Young
4.22 AVERAGE
A beautiful collection of letters throughout the course of the presidency. It includes hand written letters, some barely legible; typed notes; letters from famous people; and includes an email from outer space. Some are admiring, some critical, some hateful, but all passionate.
I confess: I really like reading other people's mail. In my defense, I only do it when it's been published. I love collections of letters, and I love epistolary novels. This was a wonderful mix of light and somber.
A collection of letters that have been sent over the years to the President of the United States. Some are hilarious, from children, others are heart breaking. Its covers the range of human emotion, of time, and place in society. I think such collections are important. This collection shows what real, normal (and by that I mean non-politicians) were thinking, and sometimes even when they disagreed with each other.
This was an entertaining and thought provoking collection of letters to the president(s) from the National Archives.
Some of the more notable letters include:
The King of Siam's letter to Abraham Lincoln; the letter from 54th of Massachusetts, asking for equal pay for Black soldiers, "Are we soldiers or are we laborers?"; Annie Oakley offering to William McKinley to head a female group of sharpshooters in a war against Spain; Amelia Earhart sharing her secret flight plans with FDR; 12-year-old Fidel Castro asking FDR for a U.S. ten-dollar bill; Harold Ickes (Secretary of the Interior in 1944) attesting that Japanese internment was unconstitutional; the scores of letters about the Civil Rights Movement; Albert Einstein warning that atomic weapons pose both a supreme physical and moral threat; a handwritten recipe for drop scones the Queen made at Balmoral and forgot to write down for Eisenhower.
My favorites:
*A ten-year-old Miss Weatherhogg asking FDR that fathers be drafted alphabetically
* The letters about pets
* The letter from Linda Kelly and her friends to Eisenhower: "It's bad enough to send Elvis Presley in the Army, but if you cut his sideburns off, we will just die!"
*12-year-old Leah Russell's 1957 letter in braille saying that the way to end racism is to send every child to school blindfolded.
*7th-grader Andy Smith, whose mother declared his bedroom a disaster, so he was writing to request federal relief funds. And Reagan's awesome response.
Some of the more notable letters include:
The King of Siam's letter to Abraham Lincoln; the letter from 54th of Massachusetts, asking for equal pay for Black soldiers, "Are we soldiers or are we laborers?"; Annie Oakley offering to William McKinley to head a female group of sharpshooters in a war against Spain; Amelia Earhart sharing her secret flight plans with FDR; 12-year-old Fidel Castro asking FDR for a U.S. ten-dollar bill; Harold Ickes (Secretary of the Interior in 1944) attesting that Japanese internment was unconstitutional; the scores of letters about the Civil Rights Movement; Albert Einstein warning that atomic weapons pose both a supreme physical and moral threat; a handwritten recipe for drop scones the Queen made at Balmoral and forgot to write down for Eisenhower.
My favorites:
*A ten-year-old Miss Weatherhogg asking FDR that fathers be drafted alphabetically
* The letters about pets
* The letter from Linda Kelly and her friends to Eisenhower: "It's bad enough to send Elvis Presley in the Army, but if you cut his sideburns off, we will just die!"
*12-year-old Leah Russell's 1957 letter in braille saying that the way to end racism is to send every child to school blindfolded.
*7th-grader Andy Smith, whose mother declared his bedroom a disaster, so he was writing to request federal relief funds. And Reagan's awesome response.
fast-paced
Letters written to presidents--grandiose things, like the king of Siam offering Lincoln some elephants, Jackie Robinson arguing for equal rights, and more everyday things, like a young man who wrote to president Reagan and asked for federal funds to clean up his room, which his mom had declared "a disaster area." (Reagan wrote back that the boy should begin a volunteer initiative.)