Brian Kilmeade

October 16, 1901, new President Theodore Roosevelt invited his friend and advisor about Black issues, Booker T. Washington to dine with him at The White House. That one decision, by a man who valued hard work by all people, caused a backlash by the South that affected every other decision made in his presidency because after all that was equivalent to inviting the black man to rape and pillage his daughters.

This book does a great job of giving Teddy's backstory and Booker's backstory by alternating chapters. When the two finally converge, the history moves forward from there. When Teddy makes a decision that affects 197 black men and bars them from their pension and their future ability to make a living, it is not sugarcoated, but noted in history.

Teddy and Booker T looks at the personalities of both individuals, the decisions they made, the influence of WEB DuBois on the next generation, and the state of the union in the early 1900's Jim Crow era of the deep south which makes any thinking person cringe.

Well worth the read.… (más)

Booker T. Washington and Theodore Roosevelt formed as much of a friendship as was possible between a southern Black man and a northern politician around the turn of the last century, and Brian Kilmeade uses this connection as the center of Teddy and Booker T. He explores both of their backgrounds, their meeting, and then follows their subsequent relationship through Roosevelt’s presidency until both of their deaths. This is not a particularly well-written book, but readers looking for a cursory examination of both men and their relationship will find a precise story with a lot of interesting notes and primary sources. (FYI — a terrible audiobook with inconsistent reading, tone, and recording volume. Publishers need look no further if they ever need an example of why it’s worthwhile to spend money on a professional reader instead of using the author.)… (más)

Do not waste your time. This actually deserves negative stars for the writing, but the cover is lovely so I'll let it have one.

This is extremely BAD history writing. (I would love to see what a professor would do to these authors over this.. crawling away doesn’t even BEGIN to cover it) There is little to no analysis or insight. It’s revisionist, Islamophobic, and worse its using history to suit a modern agenda. All huge no-no's. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. (I'm sparing you my extremely long rant. For what it's worth I began making notes of what was wrong in with this, then stopped as it was becoming more than an essay in itself. I ended up just putting it down.)

Had I known who the author was before I picked this up I wouldn’t have wasted my time. But I don’t watch Fox. Now I know better regarding these authors. I'm going to have to make a list of these types of authors so I'm not encountering them and having to go through this trauma again. Yes I wrote trauma. Otoh.. now I have had the opportunity to warn others.. so all is not lost andtake heed!!!

edited to add: It is a real shame because this is a very interesting topic, and with some real historical research work it could be very well addressed. That is why I picked it up. I was looking forward to some real historical research, analysis, and insight into this topic. It's a real shame this was not it. Also once again kudo's to the artist who did the cover.
… (más)