The Stevensons
A Biography of an American Family
16 July 1997
Description
"[A] sweeping narrative, beautifully written and scrupulously evenhanded, [that] does full justice to Stevenson and his people. . . . Ambitious, elegiac, and provocative."--Richard Norton Smith, Chicago Tribune, front page review
Jean H. Baker tells the compelling story of four generations of an American family and its most celebrated member, the high-minded, eloquent, and perennial also-ran icon of liberal politics, Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900-1965). The Stevensons is also a book about the relationship of a family to its times: With Baker's characteristically deft blend of the public and private, set on a broad canvas, the Stevenson story becomes an American saga.
Baker's biography "affords [Stevenson's] life a depth, historical and personal, that few other writers have acknowledged" (Kirkus Reviews).
Baker's biography "affords [Stevenson's] life a depth, historical and personal, that few other writers have acknowledged" (Kirkus Reviews).
Reviews
"A vivid portrait. . . . It is a great American story." — Baltimore Sun
"A valuable study of one of the most frustratingly elusive figures of mid-century American politics, rich in political anecdote but rigorously analytical." — Michael Kenney, Boston Globe
"Scrupulous and perceptive." — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World