Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans

Author - John F. Kennedy ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from HarperCollins was reviewed on 11-Dec-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins. Profiles in Courage is a book that American lovers of history will inevitably read at some point or another...and they should. It is a solid piece of work, grounded in erudition and steeped with keeps-the-pages-turnin´ anecdotes.

The Senators profiled are mostly forgotten, but their stories are compelling nonetheless, and one wonders why they have lapsed into obscurity while other negligible figures (e.g. Crispus Attucks) have risen to prominence in elementary history curricula. (OK, one doesn´t really wonder.)

There are some eye-glazing passages of fluff and foofaraw, but the book mainly keeps a brisk pace, evoking the historical context in small prefatory chapters, and then outlining the situation wherein the Senator in question--rightly or wrongly, for good or ill--exhibited the courage that qualified him for inclusion. (One could call their courage anti-democratic...but sometimes that worked out for the best.)

Besides its readability, Profiles in Courage is also strictly non-partisan--a feat I´m surprised they pulled off. Kudos to Ted Sorenson for crafting this--I´ll go ahead and call it "classic"--work, which stands as an admirable piece of educational apparatus.

(Too bad he didn´t receive the Pulitzer.)¤

2) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins. I bought this book and it´s a nice read and very historical, of course. I just wanted to put it in context today. 07/31/08 The house voted 213-212 not to extend the session. The main reason it was brought up was to debate the issue of our nations energy future One vote mattered to keep Congress in session, it voted against that debate. I wonder if that can be pinpointed to a single Representative for that vote against and why they chose that. Probably not as they would not be viewed as a member or party of courage today! Then again why not? They come out on TV saying they want to save the earth (tell China, India and the rest of the world please and let me drive cheap, please), so lets get the debate going and cut the total BS. no courage on the Democrat side now a days or else you become Lieberman.¤

3) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins. This book is well written, engaging and tells stories of courageous political leaders. Once you pick this book up you won´t be able to put it down, and it will stick with you for years. He won the Pulitzer for a reason; we all need a reminder that doing what´s right but unpopular leaves a far richer legacy than making decisions that win short term allies.¤

4) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins. I read this book quite a while back and found some great food for thought. One of my primary takeaways was that be careful when judging others motives.

Kennedy (or whoever wrote the book) poses a primary question: Which is better...the man who will not compromise at all, or the man who bends but does not break?

The argument is that the man who does not compromise may be considered true to his cause, but may get little done. The man who compromises to get things done may not be 100% true to his cause but is able to forward some of his ideas.

The author(s) leave it up to the reader to decide (judge) if the path is right. Or, are both paths right? This is good food for thought for a critical thinker!

What the author(s) is pointing at is that each man and woman must choose their own path in a situation according to their beliefs, values and morals, even if it may cause political and/or other ruin.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking¤

5) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins.
I read this book quite a while back and found some great food for thought. One of my primary takeaways was that be careful when judging others motives.

Kennedy (or whoever wrote the book) poses a primary question: Which is better...the man who will not compromise at all, or the man who bends but does not break?

The argument is that the man who does not compromise may be considered true to his cause, but may get little done. The man who compromises to get things done may not be 100% true to his cause but is able to forward some of his ideas.

The author(s) leave it up to the reader to decide (judge) if the path is right. Or, are both paths right? This is good food for thought for a critical thinker!

What the author(s) is pointing at is that each man and woman must choose their own path in a situation according to their beliefs, values and morals, even if it may cause political and/or other ruin.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
¤

6) Hardcover Book Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans by HarperCollins.

In 1954-1955, John F. Kennedy´s active role as a Senator in the affairs of the nation was interrupted for the better part of a year by his convalescence from an operation to correct a disability incurred as skipper of a World War II torpedo boat. He used his "idle" hours to great advantage; he rediscovered, and did intensive research into, the courage and patriotism of a handful of Americans who at crucial moments in history had revealed a special sort of greatness: men who disregarded dreadful consequences to their public and private lives to do that one thing which seemed right in itself. These men ranged from the extraordinarily colorful to the near-drab; from the born aristocrats to the self-made. They were men of various political and regional allegiances—their one overriding loyalty was to the United States and to the right as God gave them to see it.

There was John Quincy Adams, who lost his Senate seat and was repudiated in Boston for his support of his father´s enemy Thomas Jefferson; Sam Houston, who performed political acts of courage as dramatic as his heroism on the field of battle; Thomas Hart Benton, whose proud and sarcastic tongue fought against the overwhelming odds that insured his political death; and Edmond Ross who "looked down into his open grave" as he saved President Johnson from an impeachment; and Norris of Nebraska; and Taft of Ohio; and Lamar of Mississippi (who did as much as any one man to heal the wounds of civil war). There was Daniel Webster, scourged for his devotion to Union by the most talented array of constituents ever to attack a Senator. For the most part Kennedy´s patriots are United States Senators, but he also pays tribute to such men as Governor Altgeld of Illinois and Charles Evans Hughes of New York.

And in the opening and closing chapters, which are as inspiring as they are revealing, Kennedy draws on his personal experience to tell something of the satisfactions and burdens of a Senator´s job—of the pressures, both outward and inward—and of the standards by which a man of principle must work and live.

John F. Kennedy has used wonderful skill in transforming the facts of history into dramatic personal stories. There are suspense, color and inspiration here, but first of all there is extraordinary understanding of that intangible thing called courage. Courage such as these men shared, Kennedy makes clear, is central to all morality—a man does what he must in spite of personal consequences—and these exciting stories suggest the thought that, without in the least disparaging the courage with which men die, we should not overlook the true greatness adorning those acts of courage with which men must live.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Jan-2009, 00612056809780061205682, 180-800-940-440-810-731-H2B-IUB-HKB-8

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