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    The Butler: A Witness to History
    The Butler: A Witness to History
    The Butler: A Witness to History
    Audiobook2 hours

    The Butler: A Witness to History

    Written by Wil Haygood

    Narrated by Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo and Lee Daniels

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 30, 2013
    ISBN9781442368187
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for The Butler

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      I was slightly disappointed in this book after watching the movie. I thought it would me more of an insight on Mr. Eugene Allen but it did not ( maybe about 30 pages). It talks a lot about American Americans in film which was interesting but not what I was wanting to learn from the book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book about Eugene Allen, a butler at the White House during the administrations of Presidents Truman through Reagan. The first part of the book is an expansion of an article appearing in the Washington Post around the time of President Obama's 2008 election. The author wanted to find a black person who had served in the White House for several decades; he found Eugene Allen. The story includes the author's search for such a person, his interview with Allen and his wife, Helene, and seeing all the memorabilia they had, and Allen's story of working in the White House, and his attending the inauguration of President Obama. The second part of the book is basically an interesting history of blacks in U.S. movies including both their portrayal and the number of black actors, actresses, etc. up through the making of the movie, "The Butler." Also included are 16 pages of plates, many in color, both of Mr. Allen himself and of the movie.
    • 1/5
      There are no words to describe how disappointed I was by The Butler by Wil Haygood. What I was expecting was a book about Eugene Allen - you know, the famous man who was the White House butler and served eight American Presidents. Basically, you know, what was written in the summary of the book. But I should have been forewarned because look at the first line of that summary - it's a lauding of all of the accolades of Wil Haygood. And that's ultimately what The Butler was about - Wil Haywood's story as he sought out the man who inspired the story.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Dec. 1, 2013.
    • 4/5
      Quite good. Parallel stories of father and son over time as they try to find their place in a world both full of and fighting racism. Based on the life of Cecil Gaines, a boy from a cotton farm who becomes a White House butler to several Presidents.
    • 3/5
      The audio of this book is read by people involved in the movie that was created about this little slice of history: the story around the black man who served 8 presidents in the White House, as a butler, during the times when the Civil Rights Movement.Some parts were amazing, some too brief, but the story is a fascinating one.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to like this book more than I did. I actually felt like I should like it more. But I didn't. I confess that I watched the movie before picking up the book and the movie was pretty awesome. It was a disappointment to find that the book and the movie, with the exception of having the same setting and circumstance, were vastly different. The names of the main character were not even the same.This is really too bad. Because this is an important story, a tragic but inspiring life to learn about. But in this format it falls short. Making this one of the few times I can honestly say the movie was better.The first half of the book is the author's recollections of meeting Eugene Allen, the butler, and his desire on the eve of Barack Obama's campaign run to write an article of Eugene's tenure in the White House. The second half of the story is dedicated to telling the story of the making of the movie. It actually seems that more time is dedicated in the book, The Butler, to addressing Hollywood and the movie the Butler as well as the cinema's treatment of African American actors than is given to Eugene Allen.See the movie, skip the book.
    • 5/5
      This is a lovely little book, and a nice accompaniment to the movie. The photos and history of the man whose life provided the inspiration for the movie were interesting, and I enjoyed reading about how this project came about. I also liked the history of Black people in the movie industry that led up to there being so many great actors available to be cast in this movie. It is crazy to think about how the United States was just a few decades ago, and to realize how impossible a movie like this would have been just 50 years ago. I definitely recommend reading this book and watching the movie.
    • 3/5
      The Butler is a brief but intriguing look at the life of Eugene Allen, who became a White House butler and served for more than three decades before, during, and after the civil rights movement. On one level, it is Allen’s personal story, and on another level, it is the story of African-Americans in the 20th century. Although the book left me wanting more – something the movie did not provide – The Butler is worth a read.