Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History - Softcover

Cannon, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472084828 ISBN 13: 9780472084821

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1998

Synopsis

Gerald Ford came to the presidency at the time of one of our nation's greatest constitutional crises, the downfall of President Richard M. Nixon in the aftermath of the Watergate affair. His service as president concluded a distinguished career in the House of Representatives during which he served as leader of the Republican Party in the House. With unrestricted access to Gerald Ford's papers, James M. Cannon tells the story of Ford's rise and Nixon's ruin, providing new insights into this troubling period of our history and Ford's role in guiding the nation through it. Cannon tells the story of Ford's difficult early life and the beginnings of his career in politics in the period immediately after World War II. He tells the story of Ford's rise to prominence in the House of Representatives during the 1950s and 1960s, giving us a fascinating picture of the Congress. In addition, in telling us about the personal life of Gerald Ford, he gives us a sense of the price Ford paid for his success.
"James Cannon, formerly national affairs editor at Newsweek and Ford's domestic policy advisor, has written a superbly provocative and arresting biography that traces Ford's life from his July 4, 1913, birth in Omaha, Nebraska, to his September 8,1974, decision to pardon Nixon of the Watergate conspiracy." --Washington Post Book World
James M. Cannon is a journalist and was Domestic Policy Adviser to President Ford and Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A Republican loyalist's version of the obvious. Cannon, who has worked for Howard Baker, Gerald Ford, and George Bush, combines a retelling of the Watergate story with an initially adulatory, finally well-balanced, and always overly detailed portrait of Gerald Ford. Filled with clich‚ and irrelevant detail (Betty Ford, greeting her husband, ``kissed him with the warmth of a new bride, and he wrapped a muscular arm around her slender shoulder'' before they sat down to ``steak, baked potato, and butter pecan ice cream''), the story drags through events ranging from Ford's early sexual history (pleasant and non-problematic) to what feels like every human relationship he ever had (all good) to Watergate. In Cannon's telling, the enormous tawdriness of that long, bizarre period retains some of its fascination; but in both the political and personal stories, the lack of differentiateion here--between the pivotal and the extraneous--results in an attenuated narrative. Cannon had excellent access to Ford, to many of the people who know him, and to much of the documentation of his life and of the Watergate period, but he fails to shed new light, and the story here--from Ford's birth in 1913 to his defeat in the 1976 Presidential election--plods, like its putative hero, along familiar ground. Nixon remains inexplicably strange, Ford begins and ends as a nice guy who did the best with what he had and what he was given, and the truth remains unchanged that the inane skullduggery of the Watergate period still poisons the attitude of the American electorate. Nothing new, and nothing not said better before. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

With the well-honed instincts of a former Newsweek editor and political adviser to President Ford and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Cannon has produced a meticulously researched and beautifully crafted account of the political and personal style of Gerald R. Ford. Making heavy use of Ford's own papers and interviewing an impressive list of Ford intimates and administration personnel, Cannon provides a justifiably positive record of the life and times of the nation's first "instant President." Early chapters examine his difficult childhood prior to his mother's marriage to Gerald R. Ford, whose name he later adopted. While aficionados of political biography will enjoy the chapters detailing the young Representative Ford's climb up the House ladder, the real contribution of this work comes in the second half when Cannon details the agony of the new vice-president Ford, given the job on Spiro Agnew's political demise, as he watched his old friend and political colleague Richard Nixon destroy his presidency. Riveting and insight-filled, this book is highly recommended for all collections.
- Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0472084828
• ISBN 13: 9780472084821
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528