Reviews for History of the Federal Government for Fifty Years: From March, 1789 to March, 1839

The average rating for History of the Federal Government for Fifty Years: From March, 1789 to March, 1839 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-02-18 00:00:00 Greg Eller What can I say. Peggy Guggenheim is one of the most fascinating, driven, entertaining, annoying, dysfunctional, delightful, frustrating, self-centered, philanthropic women I have ever encountered in a biography. Her friends, acquaintances, lovers and enemies find heaps of reasons to love her and hate her. Gill covers a lot of ground in these 480 pages, drawing on Peggy's own memoir, other bios of her, countless other books and interviews to present Peggy's 80-year life. (I had the good fortune to visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice a few months ago, and knew I had to delve deeper into the person who could have created such a lasting monument to some of the great European and American artists from 1910-1950.) If I had any major criticism of the text, it's that the first 164 pages are devoted to Peggy's first 39 years, not a particularly noteworthy time of her life unless you are keen on failed marriages, who's cheating on who, and the challenges of being a poor little rich girl. Not until Peggy purchases Jean Arp's polished brass "Head and Shell" in 1937 is she smitten with the Art Collector bug and begins amassing the modern art collection that will grow to 189 pieces, valued today at about $500 million, give or take a Pollock or de Chirico. Peggy's fecund period, her raison d'etre, was the decade 1937-1947, in which she assembled most of her collection and rubbed shoulders (and more) with the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Alexander Calder, Arshile Gorky, Renee Magritte, Joan Miro, Andre Masson, Salvador Dali, Constantin Brancusi, Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and many more. The heart of the book -- why Peggy is called 'Art Lover' -- is this 10-year stretch. Had this decade been covered in more depth and the remainder of the book proportionately reduced, it would have been a far better read. But Gill is to be commended for his wide-ranging research and his 5-page bibliography whetted my appetite for more.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-03-31 00:00:00 Charles Hillyer Reading about Peggy's life and her artist friends was facinating, make sure to pick up a companion art book so you can look up the artwork as you read the book ( a tip from a friend)