In touching tribute to his father, Jeffrey Marcus Oshins has assembled a hilarious memoir in anecdote, compiled from his late father Robert L. Oshins’s papers and letters home, primarily dating from the Second World War. While the subtitle emphasizes the book’s comic aspects, Oshins’s contributions to the golden age of American bureaucracy fascinate, starting with his education—he arrived at the University of Chicago at age 16, just in time for the “New New Plan” that ushered in Great Books Courses, and Syracuse University’s graduate course in Public Administration. This led to his extensive service in the federal government, contributing to milestone initiatives like the New Deal and the Marshall Plan. Readers will be entertained by Oshins’s timeless humor: an announcement of the birth of his son salutes the “youngest world traveler on record” and purports to interview the infant about his journeys. Meanwhile, his recollections of the Walgreen Investigation into the University of Chicago—to determine whether the niece of Charles Walgreen was exposed to the concept of free love during her time at the college—comically point out his disappointment at not being enrolled in a “free love” course himself. Jeffrey Oshins includes photographs of his father’s wartime adventures, as well as of the Oshins family, that further humanize the anecdotes and somewhat ground the timelines.
Though some readers will wish for more post-war synopsis of Oshins’s life, All Those Except Those is a skillful and inviting labor of love. Jeffrey Oshins tells the stories of “the bureaucrats and officials who wrote the orders and arranged the deliveries of the supplies that made victory possible,” while sharing some of his father’s dynamic personality. The end result is not just entertaining, but also a testimony to the courage and intelligence of Robert Oshins and his generation, an opportunity to bear witness to their lives and accomplishments.
Takeaway: Memoirs about the New Deal, World War II, and bureaucracy usually aren’t this invitingly funny.
Great for fans of: Kirstin Downey’s The Woman Behind the New Deal, Mortimer J. Adler.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
