Critical Compendium

Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, by Eric Alterman

“For any American citizen with faith in the possibility of progressive reform, these are exciting times. Of late, the Democratic presidential campaigns have often had the air of revival meetings. It will be no surprise, of course, if the Republicans continue to beat the drums of fear and resentment; one does not abandon an orientation so tried and true. (Social science research shows that the candidate who pushes the fear button most tends to have an advantage.) But who could have expected such a change of temper on the other side? Who knew that the old rhetoric of progress, of facing the future with confidence, still had such appeal? Alas, as an old-fashioned socialist and congenital cynic — one prone to barking “No confidence in the twin capitalist parties of war and exploitation!” in my sleep, which startles my wife — I have been immune to all this fervor. Or at least I was until I read Eric Alterman’s new book, “Why We’re Liberals.” The subtitle promises “A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 03.17.08 | Comments: None

Reagan’s Disciple: George W. Bush’s Troubled Quest for a Presidential Legacy, by Lou Cannon and Carl M. Cannon

“When George W. Bush became president, he set out to honor Ronald Reagan’s approach to foreign and domestic policy. He succeeded. The more Bush flounders, the better Reagan looks by comparison. The result has been a fresh wave of Reagan nostalgia . . . In “Reagan’s Disciple,” Lou Cannon and Carl M. Cannon contrast the two presidents. Lou Cannon, who has written five books on Reagan, is a veteran journalist. His son Carl, the co-author of a Karl Rove biography, is the White House correspondent for The National Journal.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 03.05.08 | Comments: None

Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, by Robin Wright

“It is one of the chief values of “Dreams and Shadows,” Robin Wright’s fluent and intelligent book about the future of the Middle East, that it is not solely concerned with the war in Iraq and its consequences. In describing the struggles of people from Morocco to Iran to reform or replace existing regimes she draws on three decades of experience in covering the region for The Washington Post and other newspapers.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 03.05.08 | Comments: None

American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, by Nick Taylor

“Imagine the vista that a newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt surveyed from the oval office in March of 1933. From sea to shining sea, approximately 25% of the nation’s workers were unemployed. 25%. Since the stock market crash in October of 1929, the Depression had become a quicksand, pulling tens of millions into joblessness and uncertainty. And each person in these statistics had a family to feed, or a life interrupted, or a skill gone unused. The incredible tale of how the United States dragged itself up from this pit of despair, lurching and stumbling at times but forever going forward, is told in Nick Taylor’s brilliant new book American-Made.” Read the review at the California Literary Review.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 03.03.08 | Comments: None

Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism, by Michael Burleigh

“Terrorist violence is often seen as violence for the sake of violence, death for the sake of perverse pleasure. Some of it no doubt is. In Michael Burleigh’s Blood and Rage, we meet many depraved killers. There is Sergei Nechaev, the 19th-century Russian nihilist, Carlos the Jackal, the loyalist Shankill Butchers. One of Burleigh’s aims is to strip terrorists of any spurious glamour that might be conferred on them by the other target of his book - the dangerously deluded liberal elite who apparently dominate the British media and politics - and in this he largely succeeds. Yet terrorists act for more complex motives than sadism or a love of violence. Burleigh calls terrorists ‘morally insane’ and believes that modern Islamic terrorism is ‘an existential threat to the whole of civilisation’. I am not sure that either statement is helpful in understanding such a difficult and often impenetrable phenomenon.” Read the review at the Guardian.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.25.08 | Comments: None

The New Cold War, by Edward Lucas

“Should the British government, seemingly isolated, be standing up to the Kremlin and banging its drums so loudly about what President Vladimir Putin and his friends are up to? Surely these are the same Russians who have been pouring money (”laundering” might be the right word?) through the City; they own Belgravia, seemingly love our public schools and yet, here is Edward Lucas claiming we face a new cold war.” Read the review at the Guardian.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.25.08 | Comments: None

Lincoln and the Court, by Brian McGinty

“The Supreme Court helped launch Abraham Lincoln’s national political career, albeit unintentionally. The 1857 Dred Scott decision, which declared that no African American could be a citizen and that even free states must respect the property rights of slaveowners, gave the Illinoisan an issue he would ride to the White House. His opposition to Dred Scott animated his debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 and pervaded the New York speech in February 1860 that propelled Lincoln to the Republican nomination. Yet when he took the oath of office in March 1861, five members of the Dred Scott majority, including the main opinion’s author, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, were still on the court. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court was widely, and correctly, considered a potential source of opposition to the new president. Lincoln’s struggle to withstand judicial review is the subject of Brian McGinty’s fascinating book.” Read the review at the Washington Post.

Filed under: Biography, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.20.08 | Comments: None

The Teapot Dome Scandal, by Laton McCartney

“To most Americans younger than, say, 50, the Watergate scandal is a vague affair. Oh sure, they know that it involved a break-in and cost Richard M. Nixon the presidency. But past that, the names and details are fuzzy at best. That historical blank spot may surprise those older Americans who vividly recall Judge Sirica, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and all the rest. But these same older Americans have a similarly vague knowledge of the Teapot Dome Scandal — even though it made headlines throughout the 1920s, brought down Cabinet members, produced several corpses and exposed a corrupt government that had sold out to Big Oil. Now comes writer Laton McCartney, determined to introduce new generations to the details of Teapot Dome. His subtitle sums up his approach: “How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country.” Read the review at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.19.08 | Comments: None

Did Lincoln Own Slaves? by Gerald J. Prokopowi

“It is good to have this book arrive near the head of the stream of publications certain to appear as we approach the bicentennial next year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Most of the books to come will treat only one phase of Lincoln’s life or focus on a particular aspect of his life and work. “Did Lincoln Own Slaves?” has no such limits, as it treats in question-and-answer style matters on the minds of curious folks wanting to know more about the man regarded by many as our nation’s greatest president. Read this book, and you will be an informed reader of the others, and even if you don’t read other ones, you will still be equipped to engage knowledgeably in conversations about Lincoln.” Read the review at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Filed under: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.19.08 | Comments: None

Gaming the Vote, by William Poundstone

“In the midst of this presidential campaign comes author William Poundstone with a book whose title says several things. His main title, “Gaming the Vote,” indicates that we are betting on elections, which, in a sense, we are. The first part of the subtitle — “Why Elections Aren’t Fair” — is a little strong, not being borne out in the text. But the second part — “(and What We Can Do About It)” — holds promise of interesting things between the covers.” Read the review at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.19.08 | Comments: None

Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, by Randall Kennedy

“Sellout,” Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy’s balanced analysis of the pervasive idea of race betrayal in African American life, stems partly from the author’s experiences being maligned as a “sellout.” Kennedy defines “sellout” as “a stigmatizing weapon typically wielded by people who face and are attempting to overcome unjust racial discrimination.” Willing to admit that cases of race betrayal exist, Kennedy nevertheless cautions that “extreme care should attend the making of any such allegations. All too often, in framing their indictments, prosecutors of `sellouts’ display alarming sloppiness.” He astutely observes that “victims in one setting often become victimizers in another.” Read the review at the Charlotte Observer.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.19.08 | Comments: None

Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers, edited by Susan Morrison

“Cookies and teas; headbands and helmet hair; Gennifer Flowers and Tammy Wynette; cleavage and perhaps a soupçon of Botox. “Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary,” an impressive if somewhat exhausting anthology about the first feasible female presidential contender, is a prism focused almost exclusively on such familiar emblems of the domestic realm — not welfare reform, but the inner confines of the White House.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Anthology, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.13.08 | Comments: None

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill), by David Cay Johnston

“Free Lunch” consists of 26 chapters, each a case study of a corporation enriching itself through lax or solicitous government: beggar-thy-neighbor state and local tax breaks to lure businesses, government subsidies for sports stadium construction, electricity deregulation and so on. The material comes from Johnston’s journalism over the last three decades, supplemented by the contributions of several reporters he hired to help research the book (and the presence of all these hands may explain its choppy feel). The stories, generally convincing, are rendered in an unremitting tone of blunt, you’re-getting-shafted outrage.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.05.08 | Comments: None

Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul, by Michael Reid

“Michael Reid, a longtime Latin America correspondent and the editor of the fine Americas section of The Economist, takes exception to such benign neglect (of Latin America), and worse, in “Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul.” In a brilliantly researched and annotated work of scholarship, Reid makes a cogent case that the battle (for the continent) has become more internal — but of necessity, not by choice.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.05.08 | Comments: None

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, by Jonah Goldberg

“National Review editor Jonah Goldberg says he is fed up with liberals calling him a fascist. Who can blame him? Hurling the calumny “fascist!” at American conservatives is not fair. But Goldberg’s response is no better. He lobs the f-word back at liberals, though after each of his many attacks he is at pains to say that they are not “evil” fascists, they just share a family resemblance. It’s family because American liberals are descendants of the early 20th-century Progressives, who in turn shared intellectual roots with fascists. He adds that both fascists and liberals seek to use the state to solve the problems of modern society.” Read the review at the Washington Post.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.04.08 | Comments: None

Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson, by Alan Pell Crawford

“If you’re Joseph Ellis dissecting George Washington or David McCullough tackling John Adams, the answer isn’t so hard: You’re Joseph Ellis or David McCullough! But if you’re anyone else, you’d better have an angle. You can (A) write new stuff about an obscure founder: How Charles Pinckney Saved America! Or you can (B) unveil a lesser-known aspect of a famous founder: John Adams, Meticulous Gardener! The only other option (C) is to recast old material with some counterintuitive spin: George Washington’s Willing Executioners! In Twilight at Monticello, Alan Pell Crawford has chosen option B, compiling a well-researched narrative of Thomas Jefferson’s post-presidential years — with a notable non-emphasis on the best-known aspect of those years, Jefferson’s correspondence with Adams.” Read the review at the Washington Post.

Filed under: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.04.08 | Comments: None

The British Constitution, by Anthony King

“Does Britain need a written constitution? Of course it does, which is why, as Anthony King points out at the start of this readable and illuminating book, it has one already. Whatever its detractors might think, Britain is not some folkloric society governed according to immemorial custom on the nod and the wink of the people in the know. Most of the rules of modern British political life, from the 1701 Act of Settlement on, are set down in statutes, which in total run to many hundreds of pages and cover everything from the maximum duration of Parliaments to the relationship between British and EU law.” Read the review at the London Review of Books.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 02.02.08 | Comments: None

Torture and Democracy, by Darius Rejali

“(Darius) Rejali’s massive book, “Torture and Democracy,” is an exhaustive study of (waterboarding) and other “clean tortures,” or tortures that leave no permanent scars. Electrotorture, water tortures, stress and duress positions, beating, noise, drugs and forced exercises all make an appearance. The book is a towering achievement, a serious work of social science on an urgent topic that is too frequently surrounded by assumption and myth. It should be read and disseminated widely.” Read the review at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 01.28.08 | Comments: None

The Bush Tragedy, by Jacob Weisberg

“Well before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, some experienced people raised their voices against it. One was Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to George H.W. Bush, the 41st president. Scowcroft made his point in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece on Aug. 15, 2002, headlined “Don’t Attack Saddam.” Because Scowcroft was so close to Bush 41, the piece was widely viewed, as Jacob Weisberg puts it in The Bush Tragedy, as “a worried father’s only way of communicating with his bellicose son.” But that son, the 43rd president, reacted to Scowcroft “not as a concerned uncle but as an irksome surrogate for his dad.” Scowcroft, the younger Bush was quoted as saying, “has become a pain in the ass in his old age.” Read the review at the Washington Post.

Filed under: Biography, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 01.25.08 | Comments: None

Democracy Without Nations? The Fate of Self-Government in Europe, by Pierre Manent, translated by Paul Seaton

“A professor at the Centre des Recherches Politiques Raymond Aron, (Pierre) Manent has written extensively on democracy, nationalism, and liberalism. Democracy Without Nations comprises an earlier essay of the same name; a long monograph, La raison des nations, that appeared in France in 2006; and a lecture, “What Is a Nation?” Together with translator Paul Seaton’s overview of Manent’s writings, they make an excellent introduction to the work of an important thinker, whose ideas help us understand the temptations of the E.U.’s utopian dream—and its dangers.” Read the review at City Journal.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 01.18.08 | Comments: None

They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, by Jacob Heilbrunn

“To be neoconservative is to bear almost daily witness to the resurrection of Adolf Hitler . . . Just about the only place the neoconservative movement can’t locate Hitler is Nazi Germany. As late as 1944, the founding-neocon-to-be, Irving Kristol, publicly dismissed the “near hysterical insistence upon the pressing military danger,” Jacob Heilbrunn reports in his new book, “They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 01.16.08 | Comments: None

Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual, by Clive Doucet

‘When Clive Doucet won a seat on Ottawa’s city council in 1997, he was a poet with no experience as an elected official. In Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual, he brings to bear on the problem of global city development a sharp outsider’s perspective and the gift for expression that endeared him to voters.’ Read the review at the Walrus.

Filed under: Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 01.06.08 | Comments: None

A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, by Shelby Steele

‘It is not uncommon to see Barack Obama described as “comfortable in his skin.” Yet in “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win,” Hoover Institution senior fellow Shelby Steele argues that underneath Mr. Obama’s cool-tempered exterior is a soul divided against itself. Specifically, Mr. Steele suspects that Mr. Obama has crafted an oppositional “black” identity of a staged variety, despite having been raised by whites in a culture disconnected from the black American community.’ Read the review at the New York Sun or at City Journal.

Filed under: Biography, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 11.28.07 | Comments: None

The Liberals’ Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party by Bruce Miroff

‘It’s an article of faith among many centrist Democrats (and nearly all Republicans) that the Democratic Party blundered badly in 1972 when it nominated George McGovern for president. Bruce Miroff’s wise and informative book “The Liberals’ Moment” invites a peek through the telescope’s opposite end. Miroff, a political science professor at the State University of New York at Albany, reminds us gently that the real blunder was committed by the 47 million voters who re-elected Richard Nixon in a 49-state landslide.’ Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction, Politics | Posted 11.11.07 | Comments: None