Book Review: "The Communist" Frank Marshall Davis

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Book Review: "The Communist" - Does Frank Marshall Davis Have An Ideological Godson In President Obama?
The newest book by Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College, is “The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obamas Mentor.” It is a biography of the man who, more than any other, mentored and (as this book shows) powerfully influenced the current president of the United States.

Full disclosure: The author is both my colleague and my friend. I respect him, myself and our country far too much to pull any punches in reviewing this important book. Let me, then, start with the book’s faults: Kengor doesn’t know how to use the pluperfect tense, his arithmetic is quirky (e.g., July is six, not seven, months after January, 20 percent is one-fifth, not one-fourth), and he occasionally uses adjectives with suboptimal nuances.

That said, those are minor quibbles—the proverbial gnats compared to the camels that comprise the real substance of a book. In all the important areas, “The Communist” excels. It is put together the way a good biography should be. The research is thorough and impeccable; the narrative is fluent and engaging; the book is clearly and logically organized; most importantly, Kengor enlivens his book by providing interesting background information and context. Unlike previous authors who wrote about Davis, Kengor read hundreds of Frank Marshall Davis’ long-buried newspaper columns that were found for him by Spyridon Mitsotakis, to whom “The Communist” is dedicated.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendric ... ent-obama/