The Education of Gerald Ford by Hendrik Booraem (review)

The Education of Gerald Ford, as author Hendrik Booraem thinly alludes, is largely a rewritten version of his earlier book on the thirty-eighth president of the United States, Young Jerry Ford: Athlete and Citizen (2013). Having now had the opportunity to read both of Booraem's early-years biographies of Ford, it can be concluded that either book stands alone as an excellent recounting of the early years of Gerald Ford—but reading both will largely provide much of the same material. Indeed, Booraem has mastered the art of telling the stories of presidential boyhood, having given the same treatment he provided Gerald Ford to early-life biographies on Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield, and Calvin Coolidge.

In an attempt to differentiate between his two seemingly identical works on Gerald Ford, Booraem's aim in this specific biography of Ford's early years is to draw upon the future president's relationship with the society and culture of Michigan and his hometown. However, and perhaps more important to those interested in sport history, Booraem places a specific emphasis on the game of football. It is argued that football, as a game, was largely the same as how we recognize it today but the cultural meaning of it—especially to an adolescent midwestern, middle-class child—was vastly more important than in the modern era.

In general, Booraem does an outstanding job of narrating how Ford's hometown of Grand Rapids, his menial jobs such as mixing and pouring paint, and his relationships with his football teammates and coaches were all a driving force in shaping Ford's opinions, beliefs, work ethic, political leanings, and ethical and moral standards. Unfortunately, for as well written and documented as the book is, there is a critical lack of Ford speaking in his own voice. The author attempts to rationalize that this lack of interjector is largely the fault of Ford himself, explaining he was not a "reflective person" and that he often had "little interest in crafting his communications" (xii). While the reasoning is certainly understandable, it diminishes the significance of the book, as the author is often forced to theorize and speculate about how any one event or occurrence affected the president's education, whereas any sort of primary documentation from Ford himself would have erased the need for any conjecture. Nonetheless, not once does Booraem's speculation regarding Ford delve into fanciful psychobabble or far-fetched arguments. With a real lack of primary sources from the narrative's antagonist, Booraem should ultimately be praised not only for crafting a vivid image of Ford's upbringing and education but largely drawing a wonderfully detailed—if not nostalgic and idealistic—image of what it met to be a young boy growing up in the Midwest during the 1910s and 1920s.

The success of Booraem's book is largely underpinned, despite lack of primary sources from Ford himself, by an outstanding selection of over sixty other primary sources. As well, the author conducted no less than six personal interviews with people pertinent to the upbringing and education of Gerald Ford. When one considers the staggering amount of primary sources used, the invaluable personal interviews, and the tremendous amount of newspaper research done by Booraem, it is easy to argue that The Education of Gerald Ford is one of the most thoroughly researched forays on the former president thus far.

Despite any perceived shortcomings with the lack of direct primary sources from Ford, Booraem has managed to author an outstanding—if not authoritative—book on the many factors that shaped Gerald Ford from a young boy playing football in the Midwest into an iconic American president. Sport historians will especially appreciate the author's work, as the sections dealing with Ford's love for football and the values instilled in him by the game and his coaches are, perhaps, the most brilliantly presented and argued portions of the book. [End Page...