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 enlarge | Author: Robert Schlesinger
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $5.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 28020
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.9
ISBN: 0743291697
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.099
EAN: 9780743291699
ASIN: 0743291697
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Has a publisher remainder mark. 2008 Hardcover.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Who Wrote It? Who Said It? Who Came Up With The Idea? June 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
'White House Ghosts' seeks to answer the questions of who wrote the best Presidential speeches and lines, which President gave the speech, and who came up with the ideas at the core of those speeches. Often times, other than who said it, those questions are not easily answered but Schlesinger still weaves a great historical accounting of presidential history, communications, and policy development since FDR. At its best, Schlesinger makes clear that speechwriting is a collaborative effort that brings together a President's vision with the wordsmithing of a talented writer with the time to spend on a speech. At its worse, speechwriting appears to drive policy development and changes because a good line was created, so the policy must follow through. Perhaps even worse is when a line has no relation to policy at all (see President George W. Bush's second inaugural). Schlesinger's exhaustive research brings you into each presidency, shows you how the President interacted with the speechwriters and how some of the most famous, and important, words of the 20th and early 21st century came about. A must for any student or fan of presidential history.
I wouldn't recommend reading this book straight through from beginning to end. May 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It seemed to me to lend itself best to "dipping into," read a little ahead there, double back here, and check the index to see when an interesting character enters.
But I would recommend it. Especially since the craft and art of speechwriting (and making) is such a crucial part of the modern American presidency.
Two of my favorites, even though they were given by presidents whom I would not have supported (had I been old enough, or in one case alive) were Nixon's first inaugural and Reagan's "Tear down this wall."
Here, you'll find out who wrote these and other of the best-remembered speeches in history.
Interesting and insightful. Great read for those with an interest in Speechwriters. May 23, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Even though I live in Australia, I have long been fascinated with U.S. politics. Especially since GWB walked into the job. It made your politics a lot more interesting. (Good or bad, make your own decisions, I have certainly made mine.)
Even more interesting to me are the Presidents speechwriters. I realise there may be plenty of good books available on this topic which I could have bought, however I was always waiting for that up to date and new book which inevitably had to be released.
For me, this is that book. I am sorry that I do not have the ability to write a comprehensive review. My writing skills do not allow, which is probably why I am fascinated with the skills of a Presidential Speechwriter.
If, like me, you are a layperson who simply enjoys reading about these remarkable writers and how they interact with their Presidents, I am sure you will not be disappointed with this book.
Also, Mr. Schlesinger writes in such a way that even though this book looks imposing, with almost 600 pages, it is nice to read and easily digestible.
A Must Read April 29, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Schlesinger has summarized the presidencies from FDR to W. How each president used, or not, the skills of their respective 'ghosts' shows one and all that words do matter; as well as the wisdom of our first executives when it came to choosing their wordsmiths. Witty and full of details, each chapter of this book is a joy. Indeed, this a must read.
Excellent presidential history April 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an insightful, detailed and well balanced history of the relationships between American presidents and the people who write their speeches. Mr. Schlesinger interviewed more than 90 speechwriters and other aides. He devotes a separate chapter to each president from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George Walker Bush.
Raymond Moley wrote about FDR: "My job from the beginning . . . was to sift proposals for him, discuss facts and ideas with him, and help him crystallize his own policy. Schlesinger writes that FDR believed "policies and words are inextricably linked -- the former cannot be conjured in the absence of the latter." FDR's speechwriters were "advisers as well as wordsmiths."
Truman continued FDR's practices; speeches were written at meetings "at which most of his principal advisers, including Dean Acheson, were present, and during which policy was really and carefully shaped through its articulation."
Over time the job evolved. "As television eclipsed radio as the nation's medium, as the White House staff grew from a handful to a sprawling group of specialized cadres, and, of course, as each president has dealt with it in his own way."
For awhile, the role of the speechwriter was something of a secret. John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address was in nearly final form. But he pretended to be writing a first draft of it in longhand to give a leading reporter the impression that he, not Theodore Sorensen, was the major author.
Johnson continued the secrecy tradition. Richard Goodwin remembers that "the finest moments of my life in politics" were spent writing an address leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. "It is not just Negroes, but it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we . . . shall . . . overcome." Johnson [and Goodwin] made black protest his own.
Reporters were told that Johnson himself wrote the speech, but the speech was Mr. Goodwin's work. He had worked closely with Johnson for a year and, Goodwin wrote later, Goodwin had drawn on his own knowledge of Johnson -- "not merely his views, but his manner of expression, patterns of reasoning, the natural cadences of his speech. [My goal was] to heighten and polish -- illuminate, as it were -- his inward beliefs and natural idiom, to attain . . . an authenticity of expression.... the document was pure Johnson."
Nixon broke with the secrecy tradition and "established the first formally structured White House speechwriting office, called the Writing and Research Department, or in Nixon's words, "the PR department". Schlesinger writes that the writers were rarely consulted on policy matters. In fact, Nixon wrote speeches on his own with little or no input from the speechwriting office.
Schlesinger writes that speechwriters had little involvement in the making of policy and only limited access to the president in most of the administrations that followed Nixon's. For example, "Ronald Reagan's speechwriters had diminishing access to a president who was remote from even his closest aides. [But Reagan] had presented a clear ideology and style so they had gotten his voice even though they might go months without seeing him."
Schlesinger argues that George Herbert Walker Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford were not very concerned with their speeches. Mr. Bush disliked "high-flying" rhetoric and rarely practiced them in advance. Mr. Carter "didn't much like the idea of using [speechwriters], ever." President Ford "rarely faced up to the fact that making a major address is one of the most important things a President does," according to his chief speechwriter, Robert Hartmann. Journalist John Hersey was "profoundly disturbed by what seemed to me the aimlessness of [Ford's] speechwriting session."
Bill Clinton returned to involving speechwriters in the making of policy. "There was more crossover between the speechwriters and policy aides than in any presidency since [LBJ's]. . . . Clinton preferred to work on speeches with aides who could answer substantive questions about policy." But Clinton often ad libbed, spoke in public often, and in practice devalued his own words.
According to Schlesinger, George W. Bush recognizes the importance of speeches: "He put a great deal of time and energy into speech preparation and faith in his speechwriters."
Schlesinger believes that Presidential speeches are important to educate and persuade the public and to force decisions and clarify policies within the executive branch. Schlesinger believes that by divorcing speechwriters from policy making, recent presidents may be depriving themselves of a useful tool for achieving their objectives.
Whatever your views of the value of speechwriters, this is a fascinating and insightful view of the American presidency.
Robert C. Ross, 2008
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