This is my first president biography I'm writing about! For background, I'm reading a biography on every U.S. president. I love U.S. history, and I think it's interesting to read about it from the perspective of the men who wield the power (perspective isn't exactly the right word, but it's 7 a.m. so I'm going with it). I started 10 years ago, so it's pretty slow going—in my defense, I was in Korea for two years, where it's (shocker) difficult to find books on U.S. presidents, and when you read them chronologically, it starts to get very repetitive....especially with the early presidents.
I found this book to be wildly disappointing. It was the only non-children's book on Taft that my library had, so I didn't have a lot of options. I'm putting Taft on my list of presidents to revisit because I don't think this book did him justice. I'm really interested in what shaped the presidents into the men they are, and what they did with their time post-presidency. This book was strictly on the presidency, so I missed all my favorite parts. I think it's so interesting that he went on to be Chief Justice but I didn't get to read anything about that! He's one of the few presidents to return to civil service post-presidency....I feel so cheated. But I can't blame the book for that—the title is literal, so I knew what I was getting into.
I don't like presidential biographies that are ordered by topic rather than chronologically, and unfortunately this one was by topic. I can understand the appeal—learn all about the foreign policies at one time!—but I find it sloppy. Other topics related to the topic at hand are brought up, but that topic isn't discussed in full until the next chapter, so I'm left scratching my head because the author assumes the reader is already knowledgeable. In this book in particular, Roosevelt and Taft's disagreements are frequently brought up, but they aren't discussed until the latter half of the book, so I was constantly asking myself, "Wait, why are they fighting?" I knew to some extent having read a Roosevelt biography already, but I wasn't as familiar with Taft's perspective, so it was very annoying. And on that note, Roosevelt was featured far too heavily. I know he directly led to Taft being elected and then no re-elected but it almost felt like a Taft and Roosevelt biography. I already read up on Roosevelt (twice, because the first book was lackluster); I don't need to read about him again.
My other problem with this book was....well, actually, there are a lot, like it's super dry and the writing wasn't fantastic—it felt like reading a history textbook. But, there was one sentence in there about how one of Taft's military aide died on the Titanic. One sentence! That's so interesting! Tell me more about how Taft dealt with the Titanic tragedy, especially considering one of his top staff members died on it. And then I realized, we didn't really get to hear about any of the little, interesting things going on at the time. Recession, Panama Canal, blah blah blah. What did the people care about? What were the big news stories outside politics? I thought it was fascinating how high the cost of living was, and everything about implementing income tax. Tell me more about the American people and how policies affected them, and less about Cabinet members and congressmen arguing.
Do you know how many times the book mentioned Arizona and New Mexico statehood? A lot. Do you know how many times it actually talked about them going through the statehood process and the dates they became states? Never. Way to leave that dangling—this New Mexican was interested in that topic. I can't think of other specific topics where we were introduced to something and then never got the payout, but my gut is saying Arizona and New Mexico statehood was not the only time it happened.
So, all-in-all, Taft deserves another turn around the block. This book was lackluster to the extreme. I actually read his Wikipedia page when I finished. As for Taft as a president—he didn't seem bad nor good, so very much a middle-of-the-road guy.
Completed: 20 January 2021
Rating: 1/5
Recommend: No
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