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nickolette's review
2.0
Interesting because of the subject itself, but I found it chaotic and fragmented and by the last chapter – enraging. After this book, I officially dislike Mr. Johnson on a personal level, and distrust him as a historian. He makes bizarre value judgements and throws opinions as facts. If his evaluations of events I have opinion on are so absurd, even horrifying, I find it hard to respect his views on the subjects I know nothing or little about. He has been on the wrong side of history far too many times. He is talking affectionately about Reagan, George W. Bush and destroys Jimmy Carter (one of the reasons – he wore sweaters in the White House). He has “defended Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, finding his cover-up considerably less heinous than Bill Clinton's perjury”; professed himself unimpressed by Nelson Mandela, and...
"And I like that lady—Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib." The former governor of Alaska, he says, "is in the good tradition of America, which this awful political correctness business goes against." Plus: "She's got courage. That's very important in politics. You can have all the right ideas and the ability to express them. But if you haven't got guts, if you haven't got courage the way Margaret Thatcher had courage—and Reagan, come to think of it. Your last president had courage too—if you haven't got courage, all the other virtues are no good at all. It's the central virtue."
I guess he is just senile.
http://slpssm.blogspot.com/2014/09/florence-in-books.html
"And I like that lady—Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib." The former governor of Alaska, he says, "is in the good tradition of America, which this awful political correctness business goes against." Plus: "She's got courage. That's very important in politics. You can have all the right ideas and the ability to express them. But if you haven't got guts, if you haven't got courage the way Margaret Thatcher had courage—and Reagan, come to think of it. Your last president had courage too—if you haven't got courage, all the other virtues are no good at all. It's the central virtue."
I guess he is just senile.
http://slpssm.blogspot.com/2014/09/florence-in-books.html
csd17's review
4.0
A very good collection of some of the best men and women to have walked the earth.
I fell in love with Wellington, Lee, and Henry V and the others, for the most part, were quite enjoyable.
Johnson nicely balances emotion and reason to provide a solid argument for the inclusion of almost every individual. However, I wasn't convinced on his inclusion of Boudica and I completed skipped Wittgenstein(it was the only one that didn't seem justified thoroughly by the author).
Also, he name drops quite a bit in the last two chapters(which slightly lowered the score).
I fell in love with Wellington, Lee, and Henry V and the others, for the most part, were quite enjoyable.
Johnson nicely balances emotion and reason to provide a solid argument for the inclusion of almost every individual. However, I wasn't convinced on his inclusion of Boudica and I completed skipped Wittgenstein(it was the only one that didn't seem justified thoroughly by the author).
Also, he name drops quite a bit in the last two chapters(which slightly lowered the score).
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