Don't Ask What I Shot

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	Don't Ask What I Shot
	by Catherine M. Lewis Sales Rank: 298100	Discount: 34 % $6.70 At Amazon on 6-20-2008.

*Features* Cover Type: Hard Cover with 320 pages Published by: McGraw-Hill Edition: 1st Edition April 13, 2007 Written in: English ISBN 10 Number: 0071485708 ISBN 13 Number: 978-0071485708 Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches Weighs: 1.3 pounds *From Publishers Weekly* Historian Lewis (Considerable Passions) takes an extremely thorough if not always entertaining approach to a combined study of golf in America and Eisenhower's stamp on history. She includes fascinating stories of how during WWII General Eisenhower ordered an air force pilot to drop a bomb on a new army golf course in Italy to quickly dig a hole for a sand trap, and how as president he took to the links with not only golf clubs but a "doomsday" briefcase that held the codes to launch a nuclear attack. Eisenhower used golf as a way to relax from stress and as recuperative exercise after his first heart attack in 1955. Lewis explores how Eisenhower often directed national policy from fairways and clubhouses, including Little Rock's Central High School integration standoff and the response to the American spy plane crash in the Soviet Union. Lewis's narrative sometimes lags with an abundance of unnecessary details such as frequent lists of names of Eisenhower's golfing partners. She ultimately ranks Eisenhower with Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer (both of whom the president befriended) as well as Tiger Woods as the most influential figures in popularizing the game in America. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. *Product Description* “Golf . . . is a sport in which the whole American family can participate--fathers and mothers, sons and daughters alike. It offers healthy respite from daily toil, refreshment of body and mind.” --President Dwight D. Eisenhower On January 24, 1953, four days after his inauguration, the New York Times reported that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had been spotted on the White House lawn practicing his short irons in the direction of the Washington Monument. This image of “The Golfing General” was one that the American public quickly became accustomed to, as Eisenhower is said to have played nearly 800 rounds during the course of his two-term presidency. He befriended the game's most beloved players, including Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, and Byron Nelson, and was the subject of hundreds of golf jokes and cartoons. The public's awareness of Eisenhower's obsession with golf led directly to the sport's mid-century surge in popularity. In Don't Ask What I Shot, noted historian Catherine M. Lewis offers a unique alternate portrait of Ike and this watershed period in American history. “Any time you have a human being in the position of President Eisenhower, who was so enthusiastic about golf and had the press paying attention to his many excursions on the golf course, it was going to make people aware of the game and how much he enjoyed playing it.” --Arnold Palmer "Don't Ask What I Shot is a fascinating examination of one of golf's pivotal decades, and the remarkable president who did more to popularize the game than any other in history." -Mark Frost, award-winning author of Grand Slam and The Greatest Game Ever Played "Whatever remained to be done to remove the last traces of the average man's carefully nurtured prejudice against a game originally linked with the wealthy and aloof was done by President Eisenhower." --Herbert Warren Wind, renowned golf writer *Reader Reviews* Imagine the rumpus if Dwight Eisenhower was bowling when some international calamity cropped up. In his two terms as president ... spanning 1953 to 1961 ... he was usually on the golf course when they did. Better to receive heavy news in spikes than in three-tone bowling shoes. In Catherine Lewis' revealing new book, "Don't Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower's Love of Golf Helped Shape 1950's America," the Atlanta-based golf historian and Kennesaw State University professor tells an intimate story about a president's public obsession ... an obsession so passionate that at times you wonder if he cared what America thought about how he spent his time in office, and out of it. Eisenhower cared what America thought. Golf addicts, though, can't help themselves. The 1950s was a time when an average American didn't know what their president was doing every minute. We do today, whether we like it or not, and seeing presidents in jogging togs or delivering insignificant speeches they've been pressured to deliver just ain't that inspiring. Eisenhower played golf nearly eight hundred times while he was in office. He was the first president to have a putting green installed on the grounds of the White House. It wasn't his idea ... it was the USGA's ... but Eisenhower saw its completion a little over a year after he was sworn in the first time. Eisenhower played at the nation's most exclusive golf and country clubs. Most of the time he was seen, and even photographed, with a golf club in his hand. He recuperated from heart attacks by playing golf. He had some golf pals named Snead and Hogan. Jones. Like everyone else he snuck out of the office to whack nuts ... even though it was the oval one ... and amazingly he always came back to an afternoon and evening of appointments less agitated. He was already a member of Augusta National Golf Club before his first term and made twenty-nine trips to his club during his two terms, sporting a handicap between 14 and 18. He broke eighty four times in his eight years as president. He paid dues to Augusta National Golf Club like every other member. He had a big pine tree on the 17th hole named after him. A cabin, too. His addiction was constantly fueled. Lewis eloquently tells us that America's attitude toward their golf nut president was positive when things were swell. During his presidency, the birth control pill was introduced. Polyester was invented. Sputnik got him feeling competitive. He still did something he loved ... a lot ... when things weren't so swell in 1950's America, but it wasn't scandalous. Chasing a golf ball wasn't impeachable. But his magnificent addiction made more Americans aware of the sport, however ambivalent they were about why a man chases a golf ball. Then Arnold Palmer came along and gave the sport a working man's face ... and Eisenhower and Palmer became good friends. The president proved you didn't have to be good at golf to enjoy it. You really didn't have to know what he shot, because in this fascinating book you learn that American presidents do something right from time to time, even if it's way over par. by Todd Sentell, author of the wickedly funny social satire, Toonamint of Champions: How LaJuanita Mumps Got to Join Augusta National Golf Club Real Easy Comment \| \| (Report this) Back To Top
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