A wide-ranging biography of perennial also-ran Adlai Stevenson
which demonstrates that character is destiny. Stevenson has been
the subject of several recent books, but Baker (History/Goucher
Coll.; Mary Todd Lincoln, 1987) affords his life a depth,
historical and personal, that few other writers have acknowledged.
She traces Stevenson's family history at length to Scotland, then
Ulster, the adopted home of many Presbyterian Scots who would later
fuel America's expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The
Stevensons were actors in that expansion, moving from Pennsylvania
across into Kentucky after Daniel Boone opened that territory,
later settling in the fertile bottom-lands of Illinois, where they
would become farmers, solid citizens, and important politicians
(Stevenson's grandfather was Grover Cleveland's second-term vice
president). Baker suggests that with this pedigree Stevenson could
have become nothing but a leader. Long portrayed as a misunderstood
saint of American politics, Stevenson turns out in Baker's account
to have had the full range of human frailties. He conducted
simultaneous affairs with two women - a journalist and a State
Department assistant secretary; both evidently believed that
Stevenson would divorce his long-suffering wife to marry them. As
governor of Illinois, he illegally paid bonuses to favorite
political aides from a private fund. "Blinkered by
self-righteousness," Baker writes, "Stevenson overlooked any
possibility of influence peddling on him." For all that, he emerges
as an unjustly abused fellow, smeared by his association with Alger
Hiss, derided as an "egghead" by Dwight Eisenhower, and calumniated
by such right-wing propagandists as Walter Winchell, who, believing
Herbert Hoover's assertion that Stevenson was homosexual,
proclaimed, "A vote for Adlai Stevenson is a vote for [transsexual]
Christine Jorgensen and a woman in the White House." Baker writes
with sympathy and considerable vigor, and this fine biography takes
a refreshingly long view of an important figure in recent political
history. (Kirkus Reviews)
"[A] sweeping narrative, beautifully written and scrupulously evenhanded, [that] does full justice to Stevenson and his people. . . . Ambitious, elegiac, and provocative."--Richard Norton Smith, Chicago Tribune, front page review
Jean H. Baker tells the compelling story of four generations of an American family and its most celebrated memberthe high-minded, eloquent, and perennial also-ran icon of liberal politics, Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900-1965). The Stevensons is also a book about the relationship of a family to its times: With Baker's characteristically deft blend of the public and private, set on a broad canvas, the Stevenson story becomes an American saga.
Baker's biography "affords [Stevenson's] life a depth, historical and personal, that few other writers have acknowledged" (Kirkus Reviews).
"A valuable study of one of the most frustratingly elusive figures of mid-century American politics, rich in political anecdote but rigorously analytical."--Michael Kenney, Boston Globe
Jean H. Baker is professor of history at Goucher College and author of
Mary Todd Lincoln (also a Norton paperback), described by the New York Times as "a striking success . . . absorbing . . . utterly compelling."
"A vivid portrait. . . . It is a great American story."--Baltimore Sun
"Scrupulous and perceptive."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
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