In the Days of McKinley

I've been reading biographies of each U.S. president in order, and this is, the 25th book, is the best I have read. In fact it's one of the best books I've ever read...period. It is long, yes, and it is packed with detail. But Margaret Leech is an utterly splendid writer, with the best novelistic style brought to bear on what could have been dry material. Her format and detail gave me the best sense I've ever had of what it must be like to do the job of president day in and day out. It took me a long time to read this book, but it was so completely, splendidly worthwhile. (The last chapter reads like a thriller, too.)

A very readable biography about an often neglected President. There are some flaws; Ms. Leech has a tendency to impute motives and ideas on contemporaries of McKinley on the basis of little (or conflicting) evidence, and much of the book s taken up with McKinley's Presidency, glossing over his much longer (if less documented) history in government service. Still Leech makes a very good case the McKinley was very much 'his own man', and far from being a puppet of Mark Hanna, was the dominant one in their relationship. McKinley also comes across as a very likable, personable man and President; contemporaries noted that Harrison made an enemy when he gave someone a position, whereas McKinley made a friend when turning them down. Not a bad show more starting point for someone who wants to know more about McKinley, the last president to serve in the Civil War and the founder of the American Empire. show less

Very detailed account of McKinley's presidency. Often more about the events and people around McKinley than about McKinley himself and his thinking about what he decided to do in leading the US through a warm a period of expansion and the move to the 20th Century.

647. In the Days of McKinley, by Margaret Leech (read 12 Apr 1961) (Pulitzer History prize in 1960) (Bancroft Prize in 1960) I found this book thoroughly enjoyable and remember talking about it with court attendants who were veterans of the Spanish-American War. In that time there were four court attendants at the Woodbury County Courthouse and each was a veteran of said war.