Book Description
From her fame as the Oscar-winning actress who uttered the famous line, "I know who I am," in Moonstruck, to her lauded role as Mrs. Madrigal, the landlord of indeterminate gender in Tales of the City, Olympia Dukakis has captured the imagination of a broad audience.
But before the overnight success that came with Moonstruck, came twenty-eight years of hard work. For nineteen of those years, Olympia was an integral part of running The Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, while she and her husband raised their three children. She also cared for her aging mother, who developed Alzheimer's and moved into the family home.
In Ask Me Again Tomorrow, this internationally known film and stage star reveals her struggle to assimilate as a first-generation Greek-American, her long alienation from her mother, her battles with addiction, her volatile personal relationships, and the efforts it took for her to achieve excellence in her professional calling.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating Woman.......2003-09-19
I don't usually read many biographies but enjoyed this one...Olympia is a fascinating woman.
Reading her accounts of her childhood, her honesty about the
problems with her mother and about finding herself was not only
interesting but made me wish we were friends.
Beautiful.......2003-09-09
She is a beautiful woman and that is a beautiful book. Truly inspiring, this isn't the story of an "overnight success". Olympia deals with alot of adversity, both from outside and her own inner struggles. A surprisingly meaty book. The last few chapters actually had me crying.
A Memoir In Progress.......2003-08-26
I'll admit that I haven't seen very many of the films that Olympia Dukakis has performed in. If I hadn't received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins (there's my interests declared), I would probably not even have thought about picking up this volume. But pick it up I did, although I was worried for a bit. The quotes on the back cover were ominous: most of them seemed to be compliments from her Hollywood friends explaining how wonderful she was, but paying only lip-service to the book itself. The introduction and prologue are similarly worrying in that Dukakis repeated states that she didn't want to write an autobiography and that she doesn't really know who she is from day to day (hence the title of the book). But fortunately, while this wasn't the best celebrity memoir I've read, it's certainly entertaining enough.
The memoir begins with Dukakis recalling her Academy Award nomination (and win) for her portrayal of Rose Castorini in "Moonstruck". After covering this period of her life, she jumps back to her early childhood and spends a lot of time dealing with what it meant to be a first generation Greek-American. She details some of her early acting work, although much of it has a vaguely superficial feel to it. Towards the end of the book, the sections dealing with her more recent thoughts, she outlines her religious views, which (and I'm not quite sure I picked up on all the details) seem to revolve around the idea of a female goddess. Her religious thoughts and meditations obviously mean a great deal to her, although I'm not sure she quite conveyed why they have such a huge impact on her. She merely tells us how important these things are to her and asserts their relevance repeatedly, but we don't really get to see the impact for ourselves.
Dukakis has a love for the theatre, and most of her book discusses various roles she's played both on and off stage. Helping to run a local theatre gives her a unique perspective on the business and the art, so it makes for quite interesting reading when she discusses how difficult it was for them to make ends meet. She keeps coming back to her theatre, time and time again, and her enthusiasm for her subject is contagious.
The one thing that struck me was that Dukakis didn't quite seem to know how personal she wanted to be. She included some very intimate details, but provided almost no elaboration or context. She mentions a couple of suicide attempts in her early adulthood, but doesn't really explain what brought this depression on other than a few family-related stresses. She discusses having an open marriage, and then closes the subject after a couple of paragraphs. Most stories or thoughts of this nature tend to have their beginning, middle and end all take place within the same page, and then are never discussed again. I honestly do not blame her for not wishing to delve too deeply into what are obviously painful or personal subjects, but I do wonder why she wanted to include them in the first place.
This is a fairly slender book. It clocks in at just under two hundred pages, and has suspiciously wide margins. This makes it a fairly quick read for anyone interested in what Olympia Dukakis has to say. Dukakis has an unfortunate habit of telling rather than showing, and it contributes to the feeling that we have more a collection of facts here than a warm, human story. Still, I can't complain too much; I knew nothing about her when I began this book, but the writing style kept me reading the whole way through. She seems like a fascinating person underneath it all, but we never really feel as though she has taken the reader into her confidence.
Not Good Enough.......2003-08-19
I admit I am not an actor or an Olympia Dukakis fan but I was curious about this book. She drew me in by going for what most of us know her by--her Oscar for Moonstruck. But the book was too vague in so many places she brushed over her family life with generalities like I was so busy. She just says I got a role in this play but didn't say how she went about it, who she called, who she knew or who helped her. I was disappointed in the ending and her experiences with the ashrams. Those experiences were the ones she really wanted to share to attempt to inspire other women. I enjoyed reading about her Greek heritage in the beginning of the book, much much more.
A LIFE OF TRIAL, TRIBULATION, AND ACCEPTANCE.......2003-08-18
This autobiography is a winner. Early on she describes the events and what happened after for getting an Oscar for her work in MOONSTRUCK and it is very interesting. Olympia has certainly experienced tragedy in her life and it is also interesting to read of how she met her problems head on in the aftermath. She has had a lot of things happen and the reader should be engrossed along with her as the story proceeds. A fast read and highly recommended.
Product Description
The true first edition limited to 1150 numbered copies and signed by the author
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- The Age of Pitt
- A Man Whose Life Was Politics
- "Billy Pitt" a political genius
- Well written, researched account of an important man
- An especially fine biography of a man of unique service
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William Pitt the Younger
William Hague
Manufacturer: Knopf
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ASIN: 1400040523
Release Date: 2005-02-08 |
Book Description
William Pitt the Younger is an illuminating biography of one of the great iconic figures in British history: the man who in 1784 at the age of twenty-four became (and so remains) the youngest Prime Minister in the history of England. In this lively and authoritative study, William Hague–himself the youngest political party leader in recent history–explains the dramatic events and exceptional abilities that allowed extreme youth to be combined with great power.
The brilliant son of a father who was also Prime Minister, Pitt was derided as a “schoolboy” when he took office. Yet within months he had outwitted his opponents, and he went on to dominate the political scene for twenty-two years (nineteen of them as Prime Minister). No British politician since has exercised such supremacy for so long.
Pitt’s personality has always been hard to unravel. Though he was generally thought to be cold and aloof, his friends described him as the wittiest man they ever knew. By seeing him through the eyes of a politician, William Hague–a prominent member of Britain’s Conservative Party–succeeds in explaining Pitt’s actions and motives through a series of great national crises, including the madness of King George III, the impact of the French Revolution, and the trauma of the Napoleonic wars. He describes how a man dedicated to peace became Britain’s longest-serving war leader, how Pitt the liberal reformer became Pitt the author of repression, and how–though undisputed master of the nation’s finances–he died with vast personal debts.
With its rich cast of characters, including Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Edmund Burke, and George III himself, and set against a backdrop of industrial revolution and global conflict, this is a richly detailed and rounded portrait of an extraordinary political life.
Customer Reviews:
The Age of Pitt.......2007-07-21
I'm trying to think what I knew about the politics of late 18th century Britain before I read William Hague's well written biography of William Pitt the Younger, imaginatively named just that. Not much. I knew about Edmund Burke and his opposition to the French Revolution. I knew a few military leaders from reading about the American Revolution. I've seen the brilliant film about King George the Third's madness, and I vaguely knew that there were two William Pitts, father and son, who dominated British Political life during that era, and that Pitt the younger was amazingly young when he got elected Prime Minister.
Now I know quite a bit more. For one thing, Pitt was not technically "Prime Minister". Rather, he had been "First Lord of the Treasury" which was the most senior position in His Majesty's government. He had served for some twenty years, and has been a member of the House of Commons for most of his life. He has, indeed, been chosen to lead the British government at age 24.
How did a man so young become first Minister to the British crown? The answer is, one is picked by the King. George the Third's alliance with William Pitt was one of convenience - he has loathed the other potential political leaders (Primarily Pitt's arch nemesis Charles James Fox). Pitt was the only member of the House of Commons who had credibility enough to form a government, and whom the King felt he could support.
This is not to say that Pitt's talents had nothing to do with it - far from it. Pitt, a great orator, became a leading presence in the House of Commons. With brilliant tactics (and shameless use of patronage), he formed his own party, and later split the opposition Whig party (with the help of the French Revolution) to rule the house with a huge majority. He had also been one of the first British politicians to care about the views of the majority of Britons not represented in Parliament.
It has been Pitt's very success that made him vulnerable; by 1801, the opposition more or less ceased to exist, and the King felt much less reliant on Mr. Pitt. When the First Lord of the Chancellery clashed with the Monarch on the issue of Catholic Emancipation (giving Catholics the right to vote and be elected), the King felt confident enough to flatly refuse Pitt. Pitt resigned rather then serve without full powers.
In 1804, as the Napoleonic Wars got worse, Pitt returned to office. This time his coalition was shakier, and he probably wouldn't have lasted long as Prime Minister had he not died in January 1806, at the age of 46.
William Hague, a one time would be Tory PM, who had been compared to Pitt the younger by none other then Margaret Thatcher, offer a very readable and compelling biography. His book is not particularly analytical, but it is very well written and researched. I wish Hague would have put Pitt more in context, both of British and International Politics (we get no mention of America after the Revolution, no word of the remaining colonies, and very little about the internal politics of any other country save France), and the industrial revolution. Nonetheless, as someone who doesn't read many biographies, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Whatever the merits of Hague as a politician, he has a future as a historian.
(By the way, my copy of the book contains a recommendation by British Tory PM John Major "If you only buy one political biography this year, make it this one". Talk about damning with faint praise. I guess it could have been worse "If you only buy one biography of an 18th century British politician named Pitt in December...")
Speaking of Merits, how should we assess the statesmanship of William Pitt the younger? Ultimately, I think Pitt was a very competent, but not great, Prime Minister. In his first decade as prime minister, Britain enjoyed Peace, and Pitt managed to survive as Prime Minister, expand his coalition somewhat, rationalize the tax system, and begin to balance the government's deficit. The reduction of the deficit, with view for its ultimate extinction, was Pitt's greatest achievement, albeit one that was aided greatly by the fast growing economy in the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and that all but disappeared when the wars of the French Revolution started.
Other then economically, Pitt managed to achieve few if any of the reforms he had supported. He failed to reform the electorate, abolish the slave trade, or (later) achieve Catholic emancipation.
As War leader, Pitt commanded over a mostly unsuccessful war effort, which saw the rise of three coalitions against the armies of the French Revolution, and later Napoleon. French forces defeated all in term, and Pitt died just days after receiving word of Napoleon's greatest Victory in the Battle of Austerlitz.
This is not to say that Pitt was a failure. He had been a strong supporter of the navy, and British control of the Seas became an unalterable fact under his watch, and due to his effort and leadership. Pitt had secured the Unification of the British and Irish Parliament. Both achievements would last for over a century. Politically, Pitt planted the roots of the Tory party, and managed to survive various crises, including the insanity of his patron, George III. If nothing else, Pitt has led his nation through some of the most difficult transformations of its age, internal and external. And while there had still been a long road ahead, by the time Pitt passed away, Britain has surely reached, in Churchill's terms, "The End of the Beginning".
A Man Whose Life Was Politics.......2006-11-03
The younger William Pitt lived a life that is not widely known or appreciated in the USA and this well-written and entertaining biography should help to remedy that. It is so unusual for a super-genius to have the opportunity, interest and special aptitude for politics Pitt had that the example deserves much study. We are fortunate that William Hague, the author, did not become Prime Minister himself in 2001 so that he was free to stay in Yorkshire and complete this work.
"Billy Pitt" a political genius.......2005-10-01
William Pitt the Younger (or as he was described by some of his contemporaries Billy Pitt) is a book written by a politician about a politician (you may remember that William Hague was an ex-leader of the Tory party). He was indeed an extraordinary politician although a very limited man.
The story is on a grand scale, prime ministers, kings, wars, revolution, disasters, and the central figure, a larger-than-life classic hero.
He came from famous stock, his father, known as the Great Commoner, was an heroic figure who in his own time was the equivalent of the Prime Minister, then known as the First Lord of the Treasury although this particular position was held by the Duke of Newcastle who sat in the House Of Lords. William Pitt the Elder was the leader in the House of Commons. He took office at the age of 48 in 1756, some three years before William Pitt the Younger was born. He served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, at that time there were two Secretaries of State, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department dealt with matters relating to southern European countries, including France and Spain, the Secretary of State for the Northern Department dealt with Northern European countries such as Russia.
His father came to be regarded as the saviour of the nation and was instrumental in defeating the traditional enemy of the English, the French. He was regarded as the saviour of the nation and was a great orator.
William Pitt the Younger was raised in an intensely political family and learned a great deal from his father's capacity to achieve high office without money or patronage from the King. His father was the more extraordinary because he was, by the standards of the times, incorruptible. Unfortunately this was associated with accumulation of enormous debts, a habit followed by his son. He suffered from a wide range of ailments including gout, bowel problems and similar disorders. He married at the age of 46 and proceeded to have five children of whom only his two eldest survived into their 30s. After leaving office he was eventually persuaded back into office by George III and to reduce the burden on him emotionally and physically he accepted a title and became Earl of Chatham. This eventually proved to be his downfall and damaged his reputation. William Pitt the Younger lived through all these events before he was 10 years old! Even by that age he must have been aware that he belonged to a father and a family that stood apart from and were treated differently from everyone else.
He was educated at home and although uninhibited by peer pressure was required from the outset to meet adult standards. His tutor stated "William never seemed to learn but merely to recollect". His father took an active, usually daily, role in his education. As William Hague says "at no other time in British history has the head of one administration acted as a tutor of another".
His father taught him to speak in a clear and melodious voice by making him recite each day passages from the best English poets, particularly Shakespeare and Milton. As William Pitt the Younger later said " Lord Chatham had bid him take up any book in some foreign language with which he was well acquainted, in Latin, Greek, or French, for example. Lord Chatham then enjoined him to read out of this work into English, stopping when he was not sure of the word to be used in English, until the right word came to mind, and then proceed. At first, he had often to stop for a while before he could recollect the proper word, but he found the difficulties gradually disappear, until what was a toll him at first became at last an easy and familiar task. " It is perhaps, not surprising that he developed early on a highly unusual ability to speak clearly, structure an argument, and think on his feet. He was aided in this by a formidable memory.
He went to Cambridge University at the age of 14. He was a sickly adolescent and spent the summers in Cambridge and the winters with his family. He was intensely attached to his mother and his father and he idolised. There was intense political discussion between himself and his father. He made friends easily, despite his youth, and became part of a large social circle. He made many lifelong friendships. To insiders he was regarded as great fun but to the external world he showed a stern and aloof demeanour, even from an early age.
His father was deeply opposed to the policy of the government which led to the American Revolution. There was great opposition to Roman Catholics leading to the Gordon riots in 1780. It was a dramatic and exciting time. Unfortunately, his father died in 1778 deeply in debt and the family finances were only saved by a grant from Parliament of 20,000 pounds. Pitt trained as a lawyer and indeed practised as such briefly. This was a time of rotten boroughs, large cities with no representation and some electorates with only two voters. Corruption was rampant. The largest seats cost each candidate the equivalent of 5,000,000 pounds in today's terms on electoral expenses.
Over half the boroughs could be purchased in one way or another. However, hehad no money and depended on a patron. One was eventually found who fortunately was not very demanding and he entered Parliament in January 1781 at the age of 22. At that time one in six members were under the age of 30. He quickly established himself as a great orator. He entered a house containing some extraordinary characters including Fox, Sheridan, and William Wilberforce.
The Whigs, including Fox, threw out Lord North because of his disastrous loss of the American colonies and took office. Unfortunately they were violently opposed by George III. The King acted in an unconstitutional way so as to indicate that he had no confidence in his government. This was, even by the standards of the day, outrageous but led to Pitt being offered the position of "Prime Minister" and taking office in December 1783 at the age of 24.
He remained in office, apart from a break between December 1801 and April 1804 (having resigned office for complex reasons including the intransigent attitude of George III to the question of Catholic Emancipation) until his death at the age of 49 in January 1806.
It is astonishing to recognise that throughout much of that time he was Prime Minister with virtually no staff, he was also the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Leader of the House. The House of Commons was his arena of greatness. From a position of running a minority government he quickly gained the ascendancy to such a point that Fox did not attend parliament for some years.
During this time he dealt with the madness of King George. He attempted and then abandoned attempts to bring about parliamentary reform. He revolutionised the running of the government including bringing in the first income-tax. He dealt with the French Revolution and all its consequences and was the first to attempt to put the finances of Great Britain in order using a sinking fund to pay off debt. It is salutary to realise that five future prime ministers served in his Cabinet.
Throughout much of this time he retained his aloof demeanour, he had little contact and no obvious interest in women apart from on one occasion and, if anything, appeared to be an asexual ascetic, except that he enjoyed his booze. He routinely drank three bottles of port per night. William Hague makes the point that bottles of port in those days were about half the size of the standard bottle today. Nevertheless that is a considerable intake and is thought to have contributed to his early death.
He had been made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports which provided an income of 3000 pounds but his own finances were a terrible mess, in part because of his lack of interest, his lack of time, and because of his refusal to accept any sinecures.
He was the dominating the political figure of his times but was not a popular figure in the House of Commons, he did not socialise with other members most of whom he treated with disdain. There is a telling story of him, in his 40s, playing with two old friends and his niece, who was living with him. They were attempting to blacken his face with burnt cork in a vigorous indoor wrestling match. Two grandees arrived to see Mr Pitt. One of the participants in the struggle saw him straighten himself, put on his public mask as the two grandees approached him bowing, hesitant, and concerned about his response. He treated them with some contempt, scarcely looking at them, dismissed them after answering a query and then quickly returned to the frolic.
Although Sir Robert Walpole is recognised as the first Prime Minister and indeed was longer in office than Pitt nevertheless Pitt first articulated the concept of a prime minister. He also brought great efficiencies to the running of the country and for a number of years before the onslaught of the French revolutionary wars the country was running at a significant surplus. Whilst incorruptible himself he used patronage with great political sensitivity to achieve his aims.
It is extraordinary that he accomplished so much and was dead by the age of 49.
William Hague's biography is the best sort of biography, it is fascinating to read with telling stories about Pitt and his contemporaries and allows us to see Pitt in the context of his times. Hague repeatedly dwells on the sheer volume of work that Pitt was able to get through, his mastery of detail, especially financial detail. He was known for his extraordinary grasp of the classics and his capacity to produce the apt quote at the right time. He was known for giving speeches off-the-cuff lasting up to three hours which were models of clarity, reasoned argument leading to inexorable conclusions without any apparent preparation.
Hague is also fascinated by his ability to manipulate the King, the Prince of Wales, and other influential figures. He made great enemies but had enduring and loyal friends. With the passage of time, Hague makes it clear that anyone in office for any length of time is gradually brought down by the burden of accumulated mistakes, problems, enemies, and the eventual boredom of the populace.
By the way Hague quotes from a letter written by Pitt in which he uses the word " se'nnight". I leave it to you to work out what it means.
This one volume biography provides a fascinating introduction both to politics but also to the history behind such events as the Battle of Trafalgar and the English view of the various phases of the French Revolution. It made me want to read more about Fox, Grenville, George III and other larger-than-life figures. I commend it to you.
Michael Epstein
Well written, researched account of an important man.......2005-08-14
Pitt the younger led his nation through the Napoleonic wars, the first stages of the industrial revolution, and a transformation of Britian, yet all the book seems to talk about is his health, his speaches and where he traveled.
I am sorry, but I selected this book while in Heathrow Airport waiting for a flight back to the US. I knew about Pitt the younger and the times in which he lived. I had hoped for a book that talked about a man in the center of his times. Instead I got an introspective work focused on the triangle between Pitt, Fox and George III. Based on Hague's work they were the only three people who mattered in the world.
I guess I am not the anglophile I thought I was as I found this work admirably written, well researched and understandably proud of Britian's first modern Prime Minister and global leader.
Unforuntaley it was not very interesting -- I am not sure if that is due to Hague's account (I kind of doubt) or Pitt's interior and financially centered life.
It probably has more to do with me being an american and wanting to know more about the man -- the person. The US is after all pretty much a show and tell kind of culture without the reserve for status and class as the UK.
Either way, if you are a strong Anglophile who knows much about the times -- then this is a well crafted detailed account. If you are a part time reader of biographies and history, then you may want to give this one a pass.
No offense intended to our friends in Britian -- Pitt is surely one of the few men who have make the UK great.
An especially fine biography of a man of unique service.......2005-03-13
As a rule, I believe that Americans would be better off if they read and understood more about history. It is important to read widely enough, both in breadth of scope and time, to provide a rich and useful understanding of how things have become what they are. While we cannot read everything, let alone retain it all in our memory, there are certain times, events, and even single lives that can provide valuable structure to our understanding of the world.
In my view, knowing more about the history of Great Britain can help Americans understand more about our origins as a nation, provide a richer context for our founding, get a better fix on our own place in the world through time, and how we grew into a dominant power in the world. This particularly fine biography of William Pitt the Younger concerns itself with the time immediately after Britain's American Colonies became the United States up to Pitt's death in 1806 in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars.
This is an especially rich time in history because everything was in flux and so much was at risk. The French Revolution of 1789 soon became The Terror. Great Britain struggled to recover from the blow of losing her American Colonies and putting herself forward as a still relevant global power. The United States actually benefited in many ways from the Europeans being so absorbed in fighting each other in these decades. However, that is a story for another time.
William Pitt the Younger was the extraordinary second son of the also extraordinary William Pitt. The father dominated the House of Commons for many years including the time during the American Revolution. He was universally loved as The Great Commoner and retired as a Lord. William the Younger was endowed with certain intellectual gifts in fabulous abundance. He had a tremendous capacity for oratory. He trained himself by reading the Classics in Latin and Greek. He learned mathematics particularly as it related to finance. And of course he learned by observing his father's work in Parliament and in discussions with him. He focused his whole life and all his energies to service in the House of Commons with a view only on the position of greatest power.
Britain was adrift when Pitt came to Parliament. Great things were expected of him and his early speeches confirmed his gifts. He sought front line leadership from the beginning and due to his gifts and unique circumstances he became First Lord of the Treasury (what later became Prime Minister) at twenty-four years old. He soon earned the favor of a strong majority and through his scrupulous dealings became known as Honest Billy. He was one of the first to use the rapidly growing newspaper industry as a tool to govern through the development of his image.
He put Britain's finances back in order, protected the monarchy during George the III's bouts of madness, and deftly handled all the governmental issues of the empire including issues involving India and the great trading companies. He completely dominated the Whigs and led the way to the founding of the modern Conservative (Tory) party. He finally resigned after 17 years in power. He did so for many reasons, but the issue that seemed to provoke it was Catholic Emancipation, which the King refused to even consider because he considered it a violation of his duty as King and Head of the Established Church.
Also, Pitt's health was beginning to fail. He had dedicated his whole life to the service of his country and the maintenance of his power and dominance in the House of Commons and the strain was beginning to tell. Pitt never married nor did he develop a new circle of friends or wider interests during his time in power, which was essentially his whole life from his early twenties until his death at forty-six. Hague has some keen observations on the way serving in high political office has the effect of freezing a person at that stage of life until they leave power. Pitt is one of the most extreme examples of this effect.
At the zenith of Pitt's power the French Revolution occurred and was soon followed by the calamity of the Napoleonic Wars. While he led Britain through the wars ably, his gifts for war were not as sure as his gifts for finance. Another issue that he confronted during his time in office was the issue of abolishing the slave trade. Neither the ending the wars nor, nor Catholic Emancipation, nor abolishing the slave trade was accomplished during his lifetime.
Pitt chose Addington as his successor. The response of others can be understood through a little couplet. "Pitt is to Addington as London is to Paddington". He returned to power within a few years, but died in office in less than two years.
As a biographer, William Hague is in many ways a perfect choice for William Pitt the Younger. Hague has an eloquence that is inviting and informs without bogging down. He also brings a special insight into some of the more obscure decisions Pitt made because Hague also served in the House of Commons and came to office in his twenties. Mr. Hague also became leader of the Conservative party (the descendent of the party that rose from Pitt's legacy) at thirty-six and despite losing to Tony Blair, he fully understands the massive demands of front line political leadership. Mr. Hague continues to serve as a Member of Parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire as well as being active in many other duties and activities.
I saw an interview with the author about this book. He said that he would also like to write biographies of Pitt the Elder and Pitt the Younger's friend, Wilberforce, who had so much to do with abolishing the slave trade. I want to encourage him to write both. His excellent writing conveys his passion for this period of history, and his analyses provide helpful and entertaining insights to the way politics worked then and how it works today.
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William Pitt the Younger (Lancaster Pamphlets)
Eric J. Evans
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William Pitt the Younger
ASIN: 0415132851 |
Book Description
In i William Pitt the Younger, /i Eric J. Evans re-examines Pitt's career in light of recent research and makes the controversial statement that Pitt's life does not fit into two neat stereotypes. This complete historical background to Pitt's political career outlines his economic, domestic and foreign policy as well as detailing the changes in party politics and monarchy during the period.
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ASIN: 1852853778 |
Book Description
William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was the youngest ever Prime Minister, and the second longest-serving one. Dominant in British politics for over twenty years, at a critical time in the his-tory of Britain, Europe and the world, he presided over the reforms that set up modern government in Britain (including the introduction of income tax). He also orchestrated Britain's response in the early stages of the war against the French Revolution and Napoleon, living to see British command of the sea established for over a hundred years at the battle of Trafalgar.Pitt the Younger is the story of an extraordinary career. The son of Britain's war leader in the Seven Years War, William Pitt the Younger was a born politician who dedicated his life to the exercise of power. His superb oratory, personal probity, and deep understanding of politics enabled him to overcome a lack of bonhomie and a chaotic private life. Michael Turner shows what Pitt achieved and how he achieved it, providing a clear and readable assessment of Pitt's career.
Customer Reviews:
Pitiful.......2005-06-01
A book only for the most committed scholar of William Pitt's political life. Written in an arid style, Professor Turner's book neglects the broader context. The general reader is offered no feel of the interesting times in European history within which Pitt the Younger operated.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, concise and very readable........1999-11-01
Robin Reilly has entered a field with a vast number of competitors but has acquitted himself admirably. The life of this important stateman, politician and friend has been dealt with in a brief but thorough compass. All the important subjects are covered with ease of expression and satisfactory detail. A good index ensures that one can find topics and persons of note easily. A number of prints are included that are relevant and of good quality. After wading through the huge tombes of Ehrman, Stanhope and Holland Rose Reilly is refreshing and to the point. My first point of call when checking a point in Pitt's life. An excellent book which brings together all the usual information on the statesman in a brief readable compass.
Thorough, but not for beginners.......1998-05-08
While this book provides excellent detail and a thorough account of the younger Pitt's life, it is certainly not a good first book on the period. The author gives a good account of the personality and evolution of Pitt, and the stories and anecdotes are well documented and reasearched. However, the sheer volume of Pitt's contemporaries can be overwhelming, expecially for someone without knowledge of the period. Having said that, I was particularly intrigued by the excellent account of Pitt's parlimentary struggles against his adversaries (Fox in particular). Also, the royal (George III) favor and disfavor of parlimentary leaders is interesting. Pitt emerges as a heroic figure, with unwavering integrity. Additionlly, anyone interested in the history of parlimentary debate, and the focus upon oratory will find no better study than Pitt. The author gives a fine account of Pitt's mastery in this area. I heartily recommend this book, although I would also recommend starting with a more general account of the period for background. This make the detailed account of Pitt's life much easier to follow.
Average customer rating:
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William Pitt the Younger (Meckler's bibliographies of British statesmen)
A. D Harvey
Manufacturer: Information Today USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0887363148 |
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