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PPM Picks: REPORTER

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By Andrew Hager, Historian-in-residence

PPM Picks is a weekly feature offering film, book, or music recommendations from our staff. The links provided in the article go to product listings on Amazon. Purchases made using these links support the Presidential Pet Museum. That said, we were not paid to review or promote any of the items mentioned. We just legitimately like them.

Seymour Hersh is one of America’s foremost investigative journalists. His work–particularly his efforts to uncover military misdeeds at My Lai and Abu Ghraib–changed the course of American foreign policy. Hersh has been a thorn in the side of the powerful for almost sixty years, an example of journalistic integrity who never traded honesty for access.

Reporter, his just-released memoir, recounts his career with surprising detail and candor, chronicling both high points (Watergate) and mistakes (failing to report on President Nixon’s abuse of his wife, Pat). Like any journalist, Hersh cultivated connections with major players in the arenas he covered, and he used those associations to find stories. The inside information he gathered spills out of his book, offering a wealth of fascinating anecdotes for politics and history junkies.

The book recounts Hersh’s early days as a copy-boy hoping to work his way into the newsroom, as well as the various pieces of good fortune and kind advice that propelled him forward. Some of his biggest triumphs came down to lucky breaks–people who let vital information slip or inadvertently confirmed something they didn’t understand. The massacre at My Lai, for instance, came to light in part because a high-ranking military official assumed Hersh knew more than he actually did and blurted our the name of William Calley, who led the butchery.

Of course, uncovering scandals does not endear one to the powerful. Hersh worked on Eugene McCarthy’s anti-war presidential campaign in 1968; his political leanings were well known. Henry Kissinger (and others) viewed him as an adversary. Reporter discusses the impact a known bias can have on a story and the pains a good journalist will take to confirm facts to protect the work from accusations of political motivation. The story must be true above all else. If your mother says she loves you, Hersh writes, verify it.

We live in a precarious time for the media. Most newspapers lack the budget to pay for in-depth investigative reporting or for foreign correspondents. Cable news offers little more than a platform for partisan debate. “Hearing both sides” takes precedence over relaying the unadorned facts. Reporter acknowledges the dire state of current affairs. It offers no prescriptions to cure our ailing Fourth Estate, but it feels like a blueprint for the sort of tenacious truth-seekers a democracy needs.

PPM Picks: THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

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By Andrew Hager, Historian-in-residence

PPM Picks is a weekly feature offering film, book, or music recommendations from our staff. The links provided in the article go to product listings on Amazon. Purchases made using these links support the Presidential Pet Museum. That said, we were not paid to review or promote any of the items mentioned. We just legitimately like them.

There’s a common refrain that goes like this: The book is better than the movie. Sometimes, it’s actually true. What the generalization fails to account for is the reality that literature and film are different art forms, created with different techniques. And, with very rare exceptions, the book and its cinematic adaptation are created by different artists. What book-lovers really mean is this: The movie version left stuff out.

This was my complaint eleven years ago when I first saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Director Andrew Dominick’s sprawling, nearly three hour film is beautiful and well-acted, but it seemed somehow rushed to me. I had just read Ron Hansen’s novel, and couldn’t separate the two.

I was wrong.

Hansen’s novel is terrific–a lyrical, bittersweet, and honest version of the events that led to the notorious outlaw’s murder by his companion. It doesn’t shy away from the violence of the James gang or sensationalize their crimes. Instead, Hansen describes events with a melancholy third-person detachment that reminds the reader of late-nineteenth century novels. His prose is beautiful, snd his characters perfectly observed. The novel is so deeply researched and well-constructed that it feels like Truth.

Dominik’s film, by comparison, functions as both a traditional, elegiac western and a commentary on celebrity. Who better to play the nation’s most hunted man than Brad Pitt? The actor certainly understands what it means to seek anonymity in a world hellbent on knowing everything about you. His Jesse James possesses a natural charisma that belies his violent tendencies.

Dominik’s screenplay remains true to the novel, including large portions of Hansen’s prose. The translation to film suffers less than you would expect, as the book’s vivid description is replaced by Roger Deakins’ breathtaking cinematography. Few movies have ever looked this good.

My earlier criticisms of the movie version have faded with time. What I really wanted was Dominik’s four hour director’s cut (which has never been released). Most movies feel too long and bloated, especially when they are 160 minutes. That I wanted more is, I think, a compliment. But the extra material, however wonderful it may be, wouldn’t substantially improve the movie. There is a focus here, a confidence as swaggering asJames himself. Dominik has given us something wonderful, a work equal to (yet distinct from) Hansen’s. It feels greedy to ask for more.

PUSHINKA Arrives September 18!

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The Cold War may be over, but the POTUS Pets series is just getting warmed up! You enjoyed spending time with Woodrow Wilson’s feisty, tobacco-chewing ram in last year’s Old Ike. On September 18, get ready to fall in love with Pushinka!

Follow the antics of Soviet transplant Pushinka as she enters the Kennedy White House at a time when the US and the USSR teetered dangerously close to nuclear war. See history from a dog’s-eye view–up close, personal, and full of curiosity! There’s humor, romance, joy, and tragedy in this dog’s tale.

Historian-in-residence Andrew Hager weaves Pushinka’s fascinating story into the pivotal foreign and domestic events of the early 1960s, offering a behind-the-scenes view of the Kennedy administration. Nora Sawyer’s charming artwork adds a perfect bit of Camelot-era style to the mix.

More information to come!

Do you need a copy of Old Ike? Order one here! (Only 99 cents on Kindle!)

PPM Picks: JANE

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By Andrew Hager, Historian-in-residence

PPM Picks is a weekly feature offering film, book, or music recommendations from our staff. The links provided in the article go to product listings on Amazon. Purchases made using these links support the Presidential Pet Museum. That said, we were not paid to review or promote any of the items mentioned. We just legitimately like them.

Jane Goodall has spent nearly sixty years studying chimpanzees, and we owe her quite a debt. Before she began her research, scientists knew very little about humanity’s closest relatives. Now, we know quite a bit, and most of it is because of her studies.

Brett Morgan’s documentary Jane, an enchanting and affectionate look at Goodall’s life and career, is surprisingly intimate. It features never-before-seen footage shot by Goodall’s first husband, National Geographic cameraman Hugo van Lawick. Hugo was assigned to document Jane’s research in its early stages, when the scientific community questioned whether a young woman with little experience could possibly have observed chimps in the wild. As such, he was present, with camera, to document much of her groundbreaking research.

A wildlife documentary is only as good as its narration. The audience requires guidance and explanation to understand what it’s watching, but not so much that the images and the soundtrack become redundant. Morgan allows Goodall to tell her story and matches her words with just the right images. Jane is impeccably edited, the rhythm of the shots meshing perfectly with Phillip Glass’ beautiful score. Through it all, Goodall recounts her tale with a clarity and profundity possible only after the passage of decades.

There is both joy and sadness in Jane, as we come to know various chimpanzees and watch their lives. New generations are born. Old generations die off. Some chimps go too soon. In their society, we see a version of our own. Without Dr. Goodall, this world would be unknown to us. Jane offers us her compelling work, wrapped in a visual poetry that makes it all the more resonant.

PPM Picks: AMERICAN PHAROAH

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By Andrew Hager, Historian-in-residence

PPM Picks is a weekly feature offering film, book, or music recommendations from our staff. The links provided in the article go to product listings on Amazon. Purchases made using these links support the Presidential Pet Museum. That said, we were not paid to review or promote any of the items mentioned. We just legitimately like them.

Horse racing, Joe Drape notes, is America’s oldest sport. It arrived in the New World centuries before the creation of baseball, basketball, or football, and it has become a part of American culture, if only for a few weeks every year. From the running of the Kentucky Derby in early May to the Preakness to the Belmont Stakes, American sports fans watch to see if a single horse can capture racing’s storied Triple Crown. Following the 1978 Triple Crown won by Affirmed, no horse was able to do it until 2015, when American Pharoah claimed his place in history.

Drape’s American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s Legendary Rise offers readers a behind-the-scenes recounting of the titular colt’s career. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the modern racing industry–from the major players to the shady dealings to the negative impact the sport has had on thoroughbreds. The champion horse and his trainer are celebrated, of course, but racing itself is the real centerpiece.

While American Pharoah lacks the novelistic grace of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, Drape approaches his subject as both a journalist and a fan, a combination which works best when he recounts the action from the star horse’s races. Though the outcome of a given contest is rarely in doubt, these passages have a surprising tension. Drape also conveys the ample charisma of American Pharoah, giving readers a strong rooting interest in the colt. We want him to win because we like him.

Horse racing is a controversial sport. Animal rights activists denounce it as cruel. It has long associations with gambling and organized crime. Moreover, it’s a sport that only the wealthy can participate in, with unproven ponies selling for millions of dollars. Still, racing has been with us from the early days of the British colonial era, and it continues to fascinate, if only for five weeks a year. American Pharoah will satisfy the casual fan who wants to understand why.

PPM Goes to School!

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On May 15, historian-in-residence Andrew Hager travelled to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to discuss presidential pets with students at South Stafford Christian School. The students, who ranged in age from pre-school to 12th grade, learned about a variety of White House animals, from Teddy Roosevelt’s badger, Josiah, to JFK’s Russian pup, Pushinka.

The school visit was the first of what the Museum hopes will be many such outings. We are working hard to develop a series of programs for elementary and middle school youth that will nurture a life-long love of history and animals.

The students and staff at South Stafford Christian could not have been more welcoming or attentive. We hope they will continue to explore the ways animals have impacted our culture, our politics, and our daily lives!

If you live in the mid-Atlantic region and would like the Presidential Pet Museum to visit your school, please email us at [email protected] for more details! We’d love to talk to you!

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