06/20/2022
The only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms in office, Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) was more than the answer to a trivia question, according to this entertaining biography. Senik, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, characterizes Cleveland as a fierce opponent of corruption who was willing “to follow principle regardless of the political consequences.” Though this integrity sparked Cleveland’s meteoric rise from mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., to governor to president within the span of three years, it backfired politically when he was in the White House and opposed factions of his Democratic Party on such issues as tariff reform, the Pullman labor strike, and the gold standard. After winning the popular vote but losing in the electoral college to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Cleveland reclaimed the presidency in 1892. Senik details Cleveland’s personal scandals—including allegations that he fathered a child out of wedlock and institutionalized the child’s mother; his marriage, while president, to a 21-year-old woman who had once been his ward; and the “massive cover-up” over his secret surgery to remove a cancerous tumor during the financial panic of 1893—but never seriously challenges his subject’s “moral probity.” Well-researched if biased, this is an enjoyable reconsideration of an underappreciated American president. Agents: Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn, Javelin. (Sept.)
Entertaining...an enjoyable reconsideration of an underappreciated president.” —Publishers Weekly — Booklist —Kirkus A Man of Iron is a tribute to an incorruptible man, a rare politician who rose above partisanship." —Roger Lowenstein, Wall Street Journal A Man of Iron is better than [previous Cleveland biographies] — smarter, more comprehensive, faster-paced, and above all funnier in exactly the kind of sly, underhanded way that best fits its subject.” —Christian Science Monitor A Man of Iron is a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable journey through the life and career of the ox-like man who became the only U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.” — National Review A Man of Iron is a good, crisp read on Gilded Age politics and one of America’s unappreciated presidents.” —Claremont Review of Books — Responsible Statescraft A Man of Iron finds the perfect balance between gifty histories and doorstop biographies... Senik packs in many dense discussions of the annexation of Hawaii, the gold standard, Cleveland’s fraught relationship with Buffalo, and violent labor struggles. Also exemplary is A Man of Iron ’s aphoristic style. Senik sprinkles throughout many insightful reflections of his own..." — City Journal A Man of Iron with prodigious research, rich detail on his subject’s public and private lives, and lively prose as he profiles the man likely to have been the last conservative Democrat to hold the presidency." — The Free Lance-Star
06/01/2022
Senik, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, offers a colloquial, wittily written biography, based on primary sources, of the only U.S. president to win two non-consecutive terms. According to Senik, President Grover Cleveland arguably stood out during the Gilded Age because of his integrity and relative non-partisanship. With his often anti-labor (Pullman Strike), anti-interventionist (in Hawai'i), and sound monetary policies (opposed to the free coinage of silver), Cleveland is more admired, in retrospect, by Republicans than by his fellow Democrats. Although historians have not neglected Cleveland's rapid political rise (see the biographies by Allan Nevins, Rexford Tugwell, Alyn Brodsky, and Henry Graff), contemporary lay audiences are more likely to have been impressed by his personal and political failings, as is clear here. For instance, Cleveland was frank about having fathered a child outside of marriage, and his politics were marked by racism toward Black, Chinese, and Indigenous Americans, whom he sought to assimilate, through education, into a hegemonist national culture. VERDICT This biography may surprise readers; how many know about the thwarted movement to draft Cleveland for a third term in 1904? Or that Cleveland's 21-year old bride was the youngest wife of a president but not the youngest woman to function as First Lady?—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.
Pete Simonelli offers an easy-on-the-ears narration of this biography of President Grover Cleveland. To most Americans, Cleveland is little more than the response to a clue on "Jeopardy." Author Senik seeks to expand that by exploring the life and extraordinary career of an oft-overlooked historical figure. Simonelli keeps the audiobook flowing in spite of the author's sometimes overly detailed discussions of the machinations of late-nineteenth-century American politics. As there are few extended quotations, Simonelli doesn't give speakers individual voices. But he injects hints of emotion at appropriate times. Strategic pauses help set off the occasional footnotes. Listeners will be rewarded in learning about a man who deserves far more credit than history has afforded him. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
Pete Simonelli offers an easy-on-the-ears narration of this biography of President Grover Cleveland. To most Americans, Cleveland is little more than the response to a clue on "Jeopardy." Author Senik seeks to expand that by exploring the life and extraordinary career of an oft-overlooked historical figure. Simonelli keeps the audiobook flowing in spite of the author's sometimes overly detailed discussions of the machinations of late-nineteenth-century American politics. As there are few extended quotations, Simonelli doesn't give speakers individual voices. But he injects hints of emotion at appropriate times. Strategic pauses help set off the occasional footnotes. Listeners will be rewarded in learning about a man who deserves far more credit than history has afforded him. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
2022-08-11
There aren’t many good reasons that Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) is largely forgotten alongside such fellow presidents as Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, yet there he is. Granted, writes former George W. Bush speechwriter Senik, he “didn’t look like a president. He looked like a foundry foreman.” Bulky, but with an oddly high-pitched and nasal voice, he had a quick temper accentuated by the habit of pounding his fist on a table to make an objection known. Cleveland certainly has demerits on his resume. For one, surrounded by Civil War generals who entered politics, he paid a Polish immigrant (who, happily, survived the war unscathed) to take his place, leading to the charge that he “was an unpatriotic elite who bought his way out of the war.” The elite part is wrong, Senik holds, for Cleveland was a working man who was more or less swept into politics without having much in the way of political ambition, and one who “was perpetually sensitive to the fact that his mandate was to rise above reflexive party loyalty.” As both governor of New York and president, he forged coalitions that frequently had more Republican than Democratic support, and many of his positions, especially on fiscal matters, were conservative. Yet, as Senik enumerates, he also established progressive policies, including requiring corporations to file quarterly financial reports and pressing for penal reforms to limit the use of force in prison, since “he suspected the authorities were exceeding the letter of the law.” He opposed the plot to overthrow the government of independent Hawaii, and he had a determinedly anti-imperialist bent. Freely exercising his veto power, his central conviction was that “government exists to protect the welfare of the people as a whole.” Practical rather than ideological, he got plenty done.
A capably written introduction to a political leader who, though no rock star, deserves to be better known.
