The Butler, Wil Haygood
The Butler, Wil Haygood
19 Rating(s)
List: $14.99 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.49

The Butler
A Witness to History

Author: Wil Haygood

Narrator: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Lee Daniels

Unabridged: 2 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/30/2013


Synopsis

This mesmerizing companion book to the award-winning film, The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century American history through the eyes of Eugene Allen—a White House butler who served eight presidents over the course of thirty-four years.

During the presidencies of Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, Eugene Allen was a butler in the most famous of residences: the White House. An African American who came of age during the era of Jim Crow, Allen served tea and supervised buffets while also witnessing some of the most momentous decisions made during the second half of the twentieth century, including Lyndon B. Johnson’s work during the Civil Rights Movement and Ronald Reagan getting tough on apartheid. But even as Allen witnessed the Civil Rights legislation develop, his family, friends, and neighbors were still contending with Jim Crow America.

Timely, “poignant and powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) The Butler also explores Eugene Allen and his family’s background along with the history of African Americans in Hollywood and also features a foreword by the film’s director Lee Daniels.

About Wil Haygood

A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and a writer for the Washington Post, Wil Haygood has been described as a cultural historian. He is the author of a trio of iconic biographies. His King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., told the story of the enigmatic New York congressman and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. That was followed—after publication of a family memoir—by In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., which was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor Music Biography Award, the Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Legacy Award, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In 2009, he wrote Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson, which told the story of the famed New York pugilist known as much for his prowess in the ring as his elegant style outside of it. Haygood is an associate producer of Lee Daniels’ The Butler.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sandy on August 06, 2013

This is mainly the story of the making of the film "The Butler." I wanted to story of Eugene Allen, the butler.......more

Goodreads review by Ruel on March 29, 2014

Short and ultimately disappointing read about the man who inspired the title character of The Butler (pardon me, "Lee Daniels' The Butler"). I enjoyed the movie, but this book is nothing more than a rush-to-the-bookstore money grab. There are nice photos of the actual butler, Eugene Allen, with his......more

Goodreads review by flaams on July 25, 2017

Nice book, not too entertaining but nice. I was looking for something that resembled more the story depicted in the movie rather than the story of how the life of the butler has become a movie, but I enjoyed reading the whole process that stands behind every great movie. The creation of the idea, th......more