This is an interesting biography of Henry Luce, painting him as a brilliant but very eccentric man. Alan Brinkley details how he built his publishing empire starting with the creation of Time magazine and eventually including Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Luce's publications were generally anti-FDR, but were not explicitly political until the 1940 presidential election. His unreserved support for Wendel Wilkie pushed his magazines into blatant advocacy. From then until 1960, when he endorsed JFK, Luce viewed his publications as a means to exert himself and affect the direction of the country.

His biggest and most obvious project was trying the rally support for Chiang Kai-shek's failing regime in China. Luce was born and raised by American missionaries in China. His interest in the country was rekindled by a trip to China during the second Sino-Japanese War when he met Chiang and his wife. From then, he was convinced that Chiang was one of the greatest men of his era and the only hope for China. He hated Truman, whom he always blamed for losing China, but was mixed about Ambassador John Leighton Stuart, who had been a missionary and was, like Luce, a Presbyterian.

Brinkley describes Luce as a lonely man with few friends and a shaky marriage. His real love was having a project or a mission. That mission was initially creating Time and subsequent magazines but then became Wilkie's presidential run. The mission then became supporting WWII, Chiang, and Eisenhower. Luce appeared to be happiest and most energized when throwing himself into one of the projects. Without that sense of mission, he became restless.

This is one of the most readable biographies I have read, yet it is still informative. It spends a bit too much time on Luce's inner turmoil than I would have preferred, but it does paint a very vivid picture of the man. ( )