Booknotes: Life Stories: Notable Biographers on the People Who Shaped America

by Brian Lamb

Book Overview

Conversations with the most admired biographers of our time on the people who have forged our contemporary landscape C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb invites readers into a virtual conversation -- via the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812930819
• ISBN13: 9780812930818
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 471 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

What a great teaching tool - nice biographical vignettes

I am one of those who loves Booknotes and Book-TV and feels a real loss when my schedule keeps me away from them (yes, I can pick them up on the C-SPAN websites, but it just isn't quite the same). These books are just one of the additional reasons some of us refer to Brian Lamb as Saint Brian. The chapters are digests of the information gleaned during the actual Booknotes broadcasts. Each one is from an individual author and in this case, it is on the lives of famous Americans. There are something like 80 to 85 of these biographical vignettes. Some of them are autobiographical when the author being interviewed about their book was also a notable American in their own right. We all know Mr. Lamb's unique style of quantum interviewing (one can never predict the precise location of his next question). These edited and assembled pieces have a somewhat more organized and focused feel, but there is still a bit of the Cooks Tour approach to each subject. Having watched many of the shows from which these articles were made and also having read several of the books by these authors, I can still say that even when the material here is familiar it is still fun to dash through because it is so concisely presented and decently edited. When the material is unfamiliar it is very delightful and an invitation to more study and investigation. I am not only happy to have this dandy book, I am actually grateful for it. It is a marvelous tool for introducing children to biographical subjects! The book also has an index and a list of all the Booknotes programs through the publishing date of the book.

A great place to start

Though this anthology does in no way substitute for the biographies themselves, the book points you toward wonderful biographies of famous and important Americans. A bit uneven , exerpts range from unsatisfying (George S. Patton), to appetite-inducing (George Custer), to concisely authoritative in themselves (Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson). Certain omissions, such as Douglas MacArthur, scream out, while inclusion Anita Hill but not Clarence Thomas seems woefully outdated.

An impressive compendium that belongs on your bookshelf

Brian Lamb, host of C-Span's Booknotes, has pulled together a collection of short, enjoyable, highly personal biographical glimpses into the lives of famous Americans - political notables ranging from John Adams to Lincoln to Edison to Bill Clinton. Booknotes Life Stories contains more than 75 four-to-eight-page profiles, reflecting the informed, entertaining, and controversial opinions of scores of leading biographers and historians, as told to Lamb in his decade of Booknotes interviews. While other available biographical references are more detailed, the charm of Booknotes Life Stories is its tendency to cut to the chase, presenting only the relevant points of the historical figure's life in an informal, enlightening, and sometimes irreverent style. This impressive compendium belongs on the bookshelf of writers, history buffs, students, teachers, politicians, and those who just plain enjoy a good, educational read. (Reviewed by Angelo Parra, award-winning writer and dramatist, who also writes and edits personal and family memoirs.)

Nice to meet you

The origin of this book weighs rather heavily on its content. Some of the pieces are a bit superficial and many tell less about their subject than one would have wished. On the other hand, this book is a great opportunity to get acqainted with people you would not ordinarily read about. Who would ever have thought that Henry Clay was a funny person to be with or that Paul Revere was not the only one on the road that famous night? And there are many surprises: I ,for one, didn't know that Sojourner Truth's first language was not English but Dutch( she grew up in the Hudson Valley). Among the pieces that dig deeper are those on Whittaker Chambers and Harry Truman. For every reader this book will have its eye-openers and discoveries. It does best what it was meant to do: getting you to read more books.

Insightful comments from noted biographers

This is a fine collection of short pieces by biographers, more or less in the same spirit as CSPAN's Book Notes on TV. I bought it mainly to get a list of authors I should be reading. The only criticism I have is that I wish that it had been longer.Brian Lamb is fine interviewer who has achieved national prominence as the originator of CSPAN. This collection of comments by quality authors assembled by a great American is well worth your time.