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 Ron
Chernow
Ron Chernow (left) poses for a
picture with fellow National Book Award recipient Charles
Johnson at the 1990 National Book Award Ceremony.
When I try to reconstruct my writing life, I realize
that the work that often hovers at the margins of my
consciousness, always teasing me as a model to be emulated,
is the distinguished New Deal trilogy by Arthur Schlesinger,
Jr. I found The Age of Roosevelt irresistibly
appealing because of the way its epic narrative alternates
scenes of cinematic clarity and high drama with sweeping
expositions of the doctrines that informed the Rooseveltian
programs. The trilogy wears its scholarship with such
light, graceful elegance. Many other fine books might
have served the purpose, but I happened to read Schlesinger's
work at a susceptible age and it demolished for me forever
the invidious distinction between "popular history"
-- presumably fun, but fluffy and superficial -- with
authoritative, academic history. Like all superb history,
The Age of Roosevelt transcends pedestrian categories.
Schlesinger shows how ideas can germinate over decades
and then coalesce in inspired policy decisions or moments
of exquisite human drama. His blend of rigorous scholarship
and readable prose, of detailed analysis and abundant
anecdotes, the profound mingling with the charmingly
prosaic -- well, I guess that's what I have aspired
to achieve in my own historical tomes.
Sincerely,
Ron Chernow
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