Character Is Destiny Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember Modern Library Classics

In Character is Destiny, McCain tells the stories of celebrated historical figures and lesser-known heroes whose values exemplify the best of the human spirit. He illustrates these qualities with moving stories of triumph against the odds, righteousness in the face of iniquity, hope in adversity, and sacrifices for a cause greater than self-interest. The tributes he pays here to men and women who have lived truthfully will stir the hearts of young and old alike, and help prepare us for the hard work of choosing our destiny.

From the Hardcover edition.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Very well written, lot of information about many good people
Very good book. His selections tell much about John McCain. My thoughts about him are now very, very high. He wrote the best I have ever read about Pat Tillman. His death was so sad I did not want to read more about him, but what John said was touching. He said, Sojourner Truth, she taught us how to be Americans. I read several books about Winston Churchill and John Wooden, but learned new great thoughts & information about both and many others.

His Father, at the end of the day would stand at the north end of the base he was at, alone, looking toward where his son was prisoner of war. He admired wooden a lot, John McCain regretted missing many of his great games. {Our putrid media loves to show another candidate trying to play basketball, (badly) and bowling a 37. How does an adult bowl a 37?}. John McCain wasn’t able to polish his basketball game and not even watch a game while he was keeping us free, when he was not free.

Great book for all adults. Great book to help children grow to be great, happy adults.

4 Stars Excellent Book On Character
John McCain’s book is well written and provides individualized examples of people who exemplify the important characteristics he’s written about including: honesty(Thomas More),loyalty (Sir Ernest Shackleton)- who also could have easily been chosen as a model of leadership also,citizenship(Pat Tillman),cooperation(John Wooden),generosity(Osceola McCarty) - a truly inspiring story, and many others. This is a great book for anyone, particularly for younger people who are forming their characters. It would also make an excellent gift book. I’ve given it to a few people already.

This is not a political book. It’s simply a super compendium of character. It’s for anyone. It is disturbing to note some of the “argumentum ad hominem” directed against McCain in the review comments, which may be suitable to a political forum, but seem inappropriate in this one. It would be a shame for that to keep someone from buying this very worthwhile book. McCain probably won’t get my vote for President, but he surely has it for this book.

5 Stars Great book for kids 10-16
This is a great book of heroes, especially for kids 10-16. I am reading them to my 10 year old son. You wouldn’t want to go much younger, because McCain does deal with incredible hardships some of these people went through, some of which younger kids just wouldn’t understand. It’s well written, and it consistently comes back to the value of having honor. Kids need more of this. And by the way, this is a great read for adults too–really inspirational.

5 Stars There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is - deceit.
There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is - deceit, August 17, 2008

By Xuan Loc 1967-69 - See all my reviews

Character is Destiny

McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.

But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign.

She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.

And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous `Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier.

Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak.

In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce.

But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.

Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. `I have no bitterness,’she says.

`My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn’t the reason for my divorce.

`My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens…it just does.’

Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to `play the field’.

They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

McCain was then earning little more than