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What a wonderful combination of substance and opportunity! Sep 16, 2005 (29 of 30 found this helpful)
Since I grew up in a house where the "Washington Post" was devoured daily, I was always aware of Katherine Graham. I read this book shortly after she passed away, and I was knocked off my feet.
She was blessed by the accident of her birth into a family of extreme wealth and ultimate social position. Her family's advantages - sadly compounded by her husband's untimely death - gave her inumerable opportunities. At the same time, she was brilliant, capable, focused, and a gifted communicator. This combination of traits and circumstances allowed her to live a most enthralling, significant life.
Throughout, I marveled at her "realness." Her family had more money and servants and things than anyone I am ever likely to meet, but she describes her challenges, insecurities, and fears in a way that allow me to appreciate how she faced and succeeded in life.
This is a compelling read despite its length and detailed content. It is well documented and beautifully written - without the aid of a ghostwriter. It does not suffer from spurious melodrama, myopia, or vanity to which so many autobiographers fall victim.
I highly recommend both the form and substance of this book.
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Uplifting & life affirming Aug 15, 2001 (26 of 27 found this helpful)
Anyone wanting any more insights into Watergate or the Pentagon Papers will probably be disappointed by this book (if you want that read Ben Bradlee's autobiography). This book is very aptly titled - it is indeed a personal history and what comes out in the end is the story of a woman who via her upbringing and marriage was afflicted by a crushing lack of confidence, deeply insecure, troubled by some of her closest relationships (in particular her own mother) and in her own words little more than a housewife. This same person upon the death of her husband was thrust into a world which she was totally unsuited for and against all odds flourished as the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
What comes out in the end is that people in general and women in particular are capable of taking grievous blows and overcoming far greater challenges than they ever realise.
A friend of mine lost her partner in similar circumstances to Katharine Graham many years ago and I wish I could have bought her this book then. Without wanting to sound patronising, this is a good book for men but a great book women. I don't know whether she is a feminist icon but she certainly should be !!
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I hope I have a story like this I can tell at age 80 May 11, 1999 (18 of 18 found this helpful)
I read this book's first chapter on the internet, and knew I had to buy it. I was captivated by the analysis and detail in the early chapters, specifically targeted at her parents, their relationship, and the impact they had on her and her siblings. Details are gradually drawn away from family and, after Phil Graham's death, is focused almost entirely on her career at the Post. But the new focus her life takes is nothing short of inspirational, and her recollection (and application)of detail provides us with an absorbing panorama of faces and places. Having known little about the newspaper industry prior to this book, I am eager to know more, and put Ms. Graham's tremendous accomplishments in a more informed perspective. Despite her insecurities, fears and worries (which were difficult to read--even to believe--at times) they are obviously a part of her personality, and by revealing them she made her story more compelling. I felt that, if her point was to write a manual for success, she could have done so. But how much she would have deprived us of! The only serious deficiency I found was that I thought, with the great deal of commentary at the beginning of the book concerning how she and her siblings were raised--with particular emphasis on her mother's influence--that she would have included more on what the effects of her own role as a mother were. But, this omission seems to have been a conscious one on her part. This was my nightly reading for quite some time, and I feel a little sad that I no longer have it to look forward to! Though I was certainly glad when the interminably long segment on the pressmen's strike was over, as important as the incident was...
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Not your typical coming-of-age story Jun 30, 2002 (10 of 10 found this helpful)
A treasure for people who make a hobby out of media stories, as I do, _Personal History_ is as much about the Post as it is about Graham herself. But as I think Graham is saying in the book, everything personal in her life was somehow linked to the paper-- either through her own efforts at its helm or as the wife and daughter of the men who were leading it.
I've read a lot of the criticism of this book-- and I know enough about media history to know that at least some of it is fair. At least in the sense that it's accurate. Graham doesn't come out wearing a hair shirt about the real media relationship to people in power. She also has a slightly nervous tone-- the sound of someone who isn't very sure her accomplishments are going to be achieved. But in the end I found that even valid criticisms didn't really interfere with my reading of the book. In the end I was moved by it, and felt honored that Graham was so willing to put herself out there to be observed and judged.
In some respects it's difficult to argue that Graham had a difficult life-- she was born to such enormous privilege that she had resources to deal with tragedy that most people can never command. (You hear her refer to her family's 'summer home', but what the means remains opaque until you see the picture!). Even still, Graham is human. To be constantly in the shadow of the people in your life, to see yourself as helpmeet and not a full person, to emerge from that shadow and assert that you have a place in your own right-- that's certainly something that speaks to everyone, regardless of who they are.
What I find extraordinary is how revealing the book is about her insecurities. This is a very personal autobiography, and Graham lets you see her weaknesses in a way that I think most public figures would not allow. I don't agree with many of the positions Graham takes, and certainly she and I are light years apart in almost every aspect of background and experience, but I felt lucky that I was able to read this book. And I was also glad that she wrote it.
A book to read, and to give away as a gift.
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Resiliency and Emotional Toughness of the Self-Taught CEO Dec 10, 2001 (12 of 13 found this helpful)
Ms. Katharine Graham's autobiography explores many dimensions of life that will appeal to readers: lifestyles of the rich and famous with her celebrity and society friends; an inside look at one of America's most powerful and famous families in the 20th century; overcoming the personal tragedy of being married to a brilliant, manic-depressive cheater who was nasty to her; a history of the rise of the Washington Post from a minor D.C. paper to the top ranks of international journalism; becoming the head of a family that had been dominated by strong personalities who had put her in a supporting role; seeing the interactions of the press with presidents up close; and learning to be a female publisher and CEO on the job with almost no prior experience.
If you are like me, you will find the sections of the book about her growing up as Andre Meyer's daughter, Watergate, the strike with the pressman's union at the Post, and her relationship with Warren Buffett to be the most interesting parts of the book.
If, like me, you decide that you find Ms. Graham appealing, it will probably be because of her willingness to do the right thing, even when very painful and dangerous to her, and her loyalty to others . . . even when that loyalty may not have been earned. Even to her enemies, she held out olive branches to keep lines of communication open . . . which were often rejected.
Although the book is candid about her own failings (having been too sheltered as a child and wife, making lots of mistakes in picking and working with people at the Washington Post Company, and being too accepting of male chauvinism) and family members who are deceased (especially her father, mother, and husband), she pulls back from any significant observations about many of her friends and acquaintances who are still living. You will see these people primarily from the perspective of having been lunch and dinner companions and guests. A curtain of privacy is also pulled over long sections of her life. For example, you will find out the names of the people and the yacht that she disappeared on for several weeks, but nothing about what occurred.
On the other hand, CEO autobiographies usually toot the horn of the CEO. The closest this one comes to tooting is quoting Warren Buffett in pointing out that Washington Post Company stock grew more than double the rate of any other similar company during the time when she was CEO. Actually, even that observation is modest. As measured by stock-price performance, Ms. Graham is one of the great CEOs of the 20th century.
She has also left behind a legacy of commitment to a free press from the Pentagon Papers publication and the Watergate exposures that will stand as a beacon for future publishers. In either case, she could have lost the bulk of her wealth and influence had things turned out differently. Most CEOs would be reluctant to take those kinds of risks in the public interest. Certainly, there was no financial windfall to taking these courses. It was simply the right thing to do. Thank you, Ms. Graham!
Have you ever been in a situation where you were supposed to know how to do something, but had no clue? Throughout her business career, Ms. Graham was placed in that awkward situation. Towards the end of the book, she reveals that she wished that she had attended Harvard Business School. Throughout her business career, Ms. Graham reveals here feeling like a fraud and not knowing what questions to ask. But in business, it's usually more important what you do than what you know. And she kept moving forward until she found a method that worked. That kind of perseverance takes great moral courage, and I was impressed to realize just how much more difficult her accomplishments were to achieve than they seemed to outsiders.
Where should you be taking a more active role in choosing your life's direction? Where should you be more understanding of friends and family members? Where sho