Review of A Man of Iron

A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm a bit torn regarding this book. It's well-researched and written, and clearly Troy Senik, the author, has a high regard for Grover Cleveland. My problem is that, despite the efforts of the author, I found Cleveland to be a second-rate individual.

As documented at length in the book, Grover Cleveland was a very honest person, a rarity in that era and especially for a politician. However, Cleveland was not particularly visionary and quite doctrinaire. Moreover, one of Cleveland's chief doctrines was that government had a very limited role, which in the Robber Baron era meant passivity when action would have been better.

In short, this was a good book about a not-terribly-interesting person.



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