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American history, biographies, book reviews, Henry Pringle, presidential biographies, Presidents, Pulitzer Prize, William Howard Taft
“The Life and Times of William Howard Taft” by Henry Pringle was published in 1939 and is often considered the definitive biography of the 27th president. Pringle won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Theodore Roosevelt and was a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism. He died in 1958 at the age of sixty.
It is immediately clear that this two-volume behemoth does not provide light reading: it is lengthy (with 1,079 pages), it exudes a dated writing style and it is often detailed beyond the point of comfort. This sometimes overwhelming breadth and depth were made possible by special access the author was granted to a massive collection of Taft’s papers.
In contrast to his biography of Theodore Roosevelt (where Pringle was openly hostile to his subject) this book proves reasonably sympathetic toward Taft. And even some of the author’s previous animosity toward TR has been softened a bit…though one might suspect it is not really gone, but merely lurking beneath the surface.
Not surprisingly, this review of Taft’s life is both comprehensive and thorough. Among its most valuable components are the pages which discuss Taft’s time as Governor-General of the Philippines, the history of the Panama Canal project and Taft’s pre- and post-presidential judicial careers.
But while much of the biography is organized chronologically, Pringle’s review of Taft’s presidency is largely thematic in structure. While this may make sense from an intellectual perspective it presents special challenges to the reader who is unacquainted with Taft’s life and political career.
In addition, this biography provides a fair but not particularly robust sense of Taft’s personality; the reader is not often exposed to the guiding hand of his influential wife or the lives of his children. As opposed to the colorful treatment some biographers provide their subjects (and which this president arguably deserves) Pringle’s description of Taft is fairly dull and two-dimensional.
In general, this biography does an excellent job recounting what happened during Taft’s life (both within his sphere and more broadly) but a less satisfying job of analyzing why things happened in a particular way.
In its quest to present the reader with every available fact, this book frequently wanders into seemingly endless detail and is often dry. Much of what is discussed will be of interest only to a committed historian; casual fans of the presidency will likely resort to selective skimming in order to maintain forward progress with minimal pain.
But what is missing on a basic level is the notion that the life of a former president can be both probative and interesting. There are numerous moments of penetrating insight embedded in these two volumes but they are sprinkled amongst pages that lack vitality and vigor. A collection of this biography’s most piercing observations would be quite potent – but embedding them in a captivating narrative would make them uniquely magnificent.
Overall, Henry Pringle’s two-volume biography of William Howard Taft proves a document of great historical value but falls short as a source of captivating enlightenment. While far more an account than an analysis of history, this biography is so thorough that it seems unlikely to be surpassed as a critical reference on Taft’s life. But in the end, “The Life and Times of William Howard Taft” provides a far better portrait of Taft’s era than it provides of Taft himself.
Overall rating: 3¼ stars
Reblogged this on History Book Reviews.
http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2015/07/04/grace-coolidge-calvin-washington-nationals 🙂
As usual, Steve’s critique is mark on, and although only given a 3 1/2 star review, I have become a glutton for punishment and chose this as the single bio I plan to read on Taft. Presently on Vol.1, p.190. Part of my obsession in reading all these POTUS bios is to check out some of the references the author provides, to see if the author is honest & accurate, and as a way to expand on the original piece of information. This has been very satisfying, leading to new information on both the topic at hand and side trips to unexpected rewards.
Being a poor typist, I prefer to copy-and-paste a line or paragraph to incorporate into my personal notes. Google has been helpful. So let me preface that unlike Steve, I have not spent a small fortune to buy each book, but have depended on my wonderful library (which I support with my taxes). Many times I use our InterLibrary Loan program, which searches the state of Texas, and then the whole country, to ship me the book(s) at a mere $2.50 postage/courier fee. In this case, I may be the first person in 55 years to have checked this out from Cody Memorial Library in Georgetown, TX.
So now to the point. I don’t like reading electronic books, I want a nice hardcopy to sit with. But a digital version has some perks, like the copy-and-paste I mentioned above. I usually start with the Project Gutenburg website as so many books are now in the public domain. Unfortunately, no one deemed Taft’s bio worthy (but there are other Taft things there). But I did find:
Full text – free
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.164430/2015.164430.The-Life-And-Times-Of-William-Howard-Taft_djvu.txt
Full text in flip page format – free
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.164430
I left the above comment while reading Volume 1 of 2. It turns out the above URLs are only Volume One. So to be complete, here are the links to Volume Two:
Full text – free
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.212134/2015.212134.The-Life_djvu.txt
Flip page format – free
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.212134
I previously read The Bully Pulpit and William Howard Taft: An Intimate History, but now I am reading Pringle’s bio on Taft because I still didn’t feel like I really knew the man. I must say I liked Volume 1 much better than I expected to given the age of this bio. I found it to be really interesting and mostly well-written. The only part that was really tedious to me (so far–just starting Volume 2) was the part on the Ballinger-Pinchot “Scandal”. Pringle went into way more detail about that than I really needed. I’m sure that was very relevant when written, but much less so now.