I have always been a fan of Winston Churchill and he has been most fortunate to have Martin Gilbert as a biographer. Happily, Churchill and America is now available in a softcover edition ($18.00, Free Press) and it is a thoroughly enjoyable story of this great man who was half-American by virtue of his mother’s nationality, but attained immortality as the leader of Great Britain during the perilous years of World War II. Gilbert puts his ties to America in historical context for a very readable biography. Few people are more American than the wonderful baseball player, Yogi Berra, and the sports historian, Carlo DeVito has told his story in Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original ($25.95. Triumph Books, Chicago). I last encountered DeVito when he wrote about the Marra family who owned the Giants and I know that any lover of the national game will just love this biography, even if they were born after 1964 when Berra last swung a bat. This son of Italian immigrants grew up to become one of the game’s greatest ambassadors. This is, to my knowledge, the first truly comprehensive biography. A great Yankee player and later a manager of the Mets, Berra is a great American success story participating in ten World Series championships.
- Bookviews by Alan Caruba, March 2008
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