Reviews

"Rutherford B. Hayes was an important president who has long deserved a full modern treatment of his career. Ari Hoogenboom's well-researched, engrossing, and multi-faceted account of Hayes's life as a soldier and politician is a significant contribution to the historical literature on the American presidency. It is also a first-rate example of political biography at its best."--Lewis L. Gould, author of The Presidency of William McKinley and The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt"From antislavery lawyer to Union general and Republican politician, Hayes's career was intertwined with the major issues of slavery, war, and reunion. As president he struggled with the issues of Reconstruction and the emerging industrial order, always seeking to do the right thing; as an ex-president, he endeavored to preserve the past and prepare for the future. In this comprehensive biography, Hoogenboom rescues Hayes from undeserved obscurity and tells us much not only about the man but also about the times in which he lived. Hoogenboom's skilled rendering of the life of the nineteenth president promises to be definitive, restoring Hayes to his rightful place in American history as a representative of his era."--Brooks Simpson, author of Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868"Compels fresh respect for both the man and his times."--Allan Peskin, author of Garfield"An exceptional study: revisionist, comprehensive, and, to a surprising extent, relevant. A superb job."--Les Fishel, former director of the Hayes Library

"We get to know the public man, best of the Gilded Age Republican presidents and among the most service-minded of ex-presidents. And it is a good visit."--Reviews in American History"This thorough, insightful, and fair-minded book earns for Hayes the enhanced reputation that is his due."--Civil War History"Hayes, the man and the president, receives a sympathetic but balanced portrait in this superb addition to the growing literature reevaluating political leaders of the Gilded Age."--Journal of American History"Gracefully written, lucidly organized deeply researched, and insightfully perceptive, the book is a model biography of an American President."--Illinois Historical Journal"Based on exhaustive research in the Hayes Presidential Center and numerous collateral collections. . . the definitive treatment of the subject."--Journal of Southern History"Hoogenboom's writing is pleasurably detailed without overwhelming the reader. The detailed personal portrait of Hayes, in some ways more interesting than his public accomplishments, is made possibly by the author's careful use of Haye's voluminous diaries and correspondence."--Ohioana Quarterly"All readers will appreciate Hoogenboom's larger view of the man and his time."--Library Journal"A definitive study."--Choice