Why Our Presidents Aren't Perfect And Why We Shouldn't Be Bothered About That
By Kyle Hancock
I read the very compelling argumentative novel The End of Greatness by Aaron David Miller, a political expert on the Middle East who decided to strike a little bit higher on the totem pole of politics. The book looks at our three greatest presidents: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, and shows what made them great, while also saying that we shouldn't search for them in our times since he claims greatness is just "too risky" to look for since greatness really only shines in the most dangerous of times. Within the story, he also shows how great presidents got to be considered great, attempts to understand why we consider some presidents great but others mediocre or downright awful, and truly how dependent greatness is on the situation.
I found the book very compelling and uses quite strong grammar throughout the book. It shows both sides of its individual characters, which is refreshing with the amount of white-washed views there are on our presidents. He make makes our presidents, who are real people and, for the most part, as morally good and perfect, much more realistic and imperfect, with better execution than some fiction stories. However, the text tends to be quite confusing to navigate through, skipping between points every now and then, and similar points were often times repeated through the book, which goes from reinforcing the points and reminding the reader of its relevance to being pretentious and unnecessary.
I definitely was sucked into the text was thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Aaron Miller does a pretty good job keeping out political bias, at least within this novel. I will definitely consider reading some of his other books as well, though the rest tend to be analyses of the Middle East, which, if that's your thing, you will probably enjoy.
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