09/01/2018W.E.B. Du Bois ) paints a portrait of Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892–1944) as an ambitious intellectual; a man too stubborn to abandon valued principles yet too ambitious to remain out of politics entirely. Dense and thorough, this treatment clearly illustrates Willkie's political bent from an early age as his family enthusiastically endorsed Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 U.S. election. Willkie's political activity continued with his passionate campaign for Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations and earnest battle against the Ku Klux Klan in his home state of Indiana and adopted town of Akron, OH. Though portrayed as a political neophyte, Willkie championed these causes alongside his climb to Akron social prominence, becoming the youngest president of the Akron Bar Association and serving on numerous boards and directorships. Drawing parallels to recent events, Lewis honestly chronicles Willkie's introduction into politics, with the interesting claim that Willkie "saved" the Republican Party from isolationism. VERDICT Students of 20th-century political and economic history will appreciate this detailed examination of Willkie's rise to prominence and subsequent political career. [See Prepub Alert, 11/12/17.]—Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado
…an insightful, compelling portrait of this political neophyte from the Midwest…Lewis is particularly good at showing how Willkie's implausible victory at the 1940 convention, often described as "the miracle of Philadelphia," was in fact a carefully planned and skillfully organized stealth offensive by his well-connected supporters…Willkie has largely disappeared into the mists of history, recalled, if at all, merely as one of Roosevelt's defeated rivals. As Lewis makes clear, he deserves so much more, not only for his crucial contributions to American unity in World War II but also for his lifelong commitment to civil rights and intense opposition to racism.
The New York Times Book Review - Lynne Olson
07/23/2018
"Readers will delight in Lewis’s sparkling prose and eagerly turn the pages as Willkie is explained in his many dimensions—a man for all seasons and a timely reminder of the ordinary decency and inspired commitments that have occasionally animated American politics and politicians."
"Only the formidably erudite David Levering Lewis, the Voltaire of American letters, could remedy our misunderstanding of a neglected treasure like Wendell Willkie while touting a vibrant liberalism that lifts us beyond the self-defeating narcissism of our social morass to a soaring vision of American politics."
Michael Eric Dyson Michael Eric Dyson
"In his absorbing and all-too-timely book, David Levering Lewis has painted a compelling portrait of a largely—but unjustly—forgotten figure, Wendell Willkie. Our politics needs voices like Willkie’s—someone who is in the arena and who calls them as he sees them, seeking common ground rather than perpetual conflict."
"Lewis… provide[s] deeper insights into Willkie’s promotion of racial equality…. As Lewis writes, 'Willkie foresaw the postwar promise and peril for the United States as a beacon of democracy in a world of decaying empires, rising expectations, vast oil deposits, and flammable Islam.'"
"[An] insightful, disciplined biography….In Mr. Lewis’s telling, Willkie emerges as the kind of figure who is missing on the political stage today: the classical liberal, who stands for individual rights at home and will fight tyranny abroad."
"This engrossing and enlightening appraisal by a master biographer shows why and how Wendell Willkie mattered. We gain virtuoso access to a thoughtful leader who demonstrated that effective political opposition need not descend into coarse demagoguery or shrill combat."
"In this gorgeously written biography of Wendell Willkie, David Levering Lewis forces us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about Franklin Roosevelt, the New Deal, and America’s rise to global power in the twentieth century."
"At a time when our political system seems alarmingly immoral and rudderless, David Levering Lewis’ The Improbable Wendell Willkie offers a powerful reminder of practical bipartisanship, visionary internationalism, and committed civil liberties and civil rights."
"Filled with surprising new information and stunning insights, David Levering Lewis has gifted us with the global vision and politics of Wendell Willkie—needed, useful, and heartening during these difficult dangerous times."
"A nuanced, deeply researched account of Willkie, who despite his loss to the Democratic incumbent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was arguably one of the most consequential public figures of the 20th century…. Much as Willkie was a godsend to the country, so too is David Levering Lewis for offering us this instructive story of courage and bipartisanship at a time when both are in very short supply."
"The freshest dimension to Lewis’s biography comes from the lifetime of scholarship in African-American history which he brings to bear on Willkie’s domestic civil-rights efforts.... Lewis brings the now largely unknown Willkie to a new generation.... The book largely succeeds, suggesting a figure—again, like Reagan—both sunnily approachable and weirdly elusive; one who seems to require imaginative projections."
"Lewis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois, offers an insightful, compelling portrait of this political neophyte from the Midwest…In our own polarized age, Wendell Willkie serves as a poignant reminder of what can happen when a political leader steps up to do what is right, defying his party and putting the interests of his country and its people ahead of ambition and partisan advantage."
"Written passionately with the literary and research skills that only David Levering Lewis commands, here is the definitive biography of Wendell Willkie."
"Meticulously researched and brilliantly written... Lewis, one of our nation’s most gifted historians, rightfully elevates the devalued Willkie to high-minded Mount Rushmore statesman status. This is American history at its absolute finest!"
"Only the formidably erudite David Levering Lewis, the Voltaire of American letters, could remedy our misunderstanding of a neglected treasure like Wendell Willkie while touting a vibrant liberalism that lifts us beyond the self-defeating narcissism of our social morass to a soaring vision of American politics."
"In his absorbing and all-too-timely book, David Levering Lewis has painted a compelling portrait of a largely—but unjustly—forgotten figure, Wendell Willkie. Our politics needs voices like Willkie’s—someone who is in the arena and who calls them as he sees them, seeking common ground rather than perpetual conflict."
2018-07-02
