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Rating: 
Summary: Poorly Researched
Review: Being a student of religious history, I was interested in Harold Gullan's book to see whether he had the courage to author the truth about President Eisenhower's religious background, or whether he had regurgitated previously fabricated propaganda.
Dwight Eisenhower was reared in the religious faith that later took on the name "Jehovah's Witnesses".
However, Eisenhower biographers, American historians, and even the Watchtower Society (JWs) have worked in concert to distort that fact.
In the days of Dwight Eisenhower's youth (the late 1890s and first decade of the 1900s), IKE's parents were what were then known as "Bible Students". "Bible Students" were oftentimes labeled "Russellites", since they followed the teachings of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. This group eventually adopted the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931.
The ruse that IKE's parents were "River Brethren" during his formative years and only briefly associated with JWs after IKE left home is an intentional effort to rewrite history so as to hide the fact that an American President, who also happened to be THE military hero of World War II, was reared in the religion which later became infamous for its theology which forbids members to participate in political and military activities.
The ruse is assisted by the fact that the Watchtower Society does not want to acknowledge such facts either, because to do so would require them to publicize to their current membership and potential converts the fact that their ever-changing theology once accomodated participation in military and political affairs. For example, in 1911, the year that Dwight Eisenhower entered West Point, the Chairman of the opening ceremonies at the then annual Watchtower Convention was General William P. Hall, a Congressional Metal of Honor winner from the western Indian Wars, who was named Adjutant General of the United States Army in 1912. (It is a thus far undocumented suspicion that Hall may even have played a role in IKE's West Point admission.)
The ruse is also assisted by the fact that at that point in the Watchtower Society's history, it had not yet become a totally separate denomination, and its "followers" often maintained membership ties with local churches, so long as the local church did not object to the member's promotion of Watchtower teachings (which at that time were not as objectionable as current). IKE and his parents may very well have remained members in the Eisenhower family's local "River Brethren" church, but it is also a fact that IKE's parents' home was the local weekly meeting place for "Russellites" during IKE's formative years starting in 1896, and continuing even after he left home for West Point.
After Charles Taze Russell died in 1916, and his successor started initiating doctrinal changes (including those relating to participation in political and military affairs), IKE's father and siblings gradually separated themselves from the Watchtower Society. IKE's mother continued with the Watchtower Society, dying a loyal Jehovah's Witness. However, the rest of IKE's family (no doubt partially motivated by IKE's career), did everything they could to not only separate themselves from the Watchtower Society, but they even went to the extent of attempting to erase their past ties with such.
For the most part, the various parties' efforts to rewrite IKE's history has been successful. Regretably, Gullan's lack of research has aided and abetted this fictionalization of an important part of American Presidential history, and likely will play a major role in the future perpetuation of rewritten history.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful insight into the mothers behind the Leaders
Review: Clearly Dr. Gullan has a brilliant grasp on delivering touching biographical accounts.Books like these make history relevant to young and old!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Enough Bush
Review: Ok, so Barbara Bush got her picture on the cover, but the section about her is way too small to justify buying this book. I really interested in the sections on Reagan and Bush, but we need more. Perhaps the author could write another book focused mainly on these two mother-figures of our nation.
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