1 comments about An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln.

1. In An Honest Calling attorney Mark E. Steiner makes good use of his professional training and years spent in helping to compile Lincoln's legal papers.
   
   Study of Lincoln's law career has long been hampered by the scattered nature of Lincoln's court documents throughout Illinois and the Midwest. Now they are gathered together, and Steiner has made a fine presentation of what they reveal about Lincoln's "day job," which may have consumed as much of his time as politics did. Steiner deals with Lincoln's law practice in general and with some individual cases revealing Lincoln's handling of particular issues (including slavery and railroad corporations). Civil and criminal practices are covered.
   
   This is an excellent introduction to Lincoln's law practice, and will also interest persons seeking information about the influence of attorneys on the Western frontier.

1 comments about A Life Looking Forward: Memoirs of an Independent Marxist.

1. Samir Amin's autobiography is rich in so many ways! It will be a revelation for most readers having so little exposure to the "third" (and "fourth") worlds; to scholarly and development activities of the U.N.: to Africa, Egypt, and France; to Marxist economics; and to the world from any perspective but that of the U.S.
   
   Amin's family includes Egyptian and French parentage and a grandmother who felt Jesus was the first communist in his concerns for the underprivileged. A humane economist, trained in maths and econometrics but understanding through social and historical context, Amin is a refreshingly independent Marxist. (For many Americans labeling and our own form of brainwashing will dismiss rather than engage any such views - our own loss.)
   
   My only complaint would be that there are too many unfamiliar names listed of those with whom Amin worked. That can be easily overlooked because there is also the sometimes fascinating and instructive personal anecdote. A Christian in Egypt, Arab in France, Francophile in Egypt, economist scholar in developmental planning, administrator among scholars, `Westerner' in Senegal and Mali - Amin always manages to be something of an "insider" with connections and understanding that enriches the story.
   
   There is enough here of essential ideas to introduce matters that can be further elaborated by reading the short (112 pages text) "Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World" and the `intellectual itinerary' "Re-Reading the Postwar Period". Samir Amin has been a creative and important force in Economics far more than any college course here would recognize.
   
   (As of this date the picture of the cover is of the wrong book!)

1 comments about FDR: Nothing to Fear.

1. This is a great book. FDR may be a favorite of yours or not, regardless his speeches desereve to be read. FDR was an inspirational speaker who moved the masses with his words. He has left us with many timeless and priceless quotes that can be found in the speeches featured in this book. I would highly recommend this book to any one looking for a boost in confidence. FDR's words make you feel like anything is possible. Remember "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

2 comments about Class Struggle In Africa.

1. Kwame Nkrumah's ideas are as much a failure in theory as they are in practice. His book, like much communist literature, goes from describing the problem to insisting on communism as the only solution, typically with weak supports. One case in point is his insistence that the military should be under the control of the communist party of the country, without explaining why he seems to belive this would be better than the military being non-partisan.
   
   In his government, Nkrumah attempted to put several of these ideas into practice, and Ghana suffered. When the expected backlash happened, he removed press freedoms and implemented a one-party dictatorship. He was ousted in absentia to thunderous applause.



2. Class Struggle in Africa provides an excellent analysis of the various economic classes in Africa and a historical analysis of the development of these classes. In addition, Nkrumah provides a solution to problem of neo-colonialism and other manifestations of capitalism. This book will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the class reality of Africa today.

5 comments about Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics.

1. Did you know that Molotov had seen all the leaders of the Soviet Union -Lenin, Stalin, Khruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev-and was the only person to remain member of the Bolshevik Party for more than 80 years. In the book he refuses the idea of writing memoirs.Neither Lenin nor Stalin wrote memoirs so he shouldn't either. His friendly conversations during his retirement are carefully catalogued according to chronology. Full of interesting details about Lenin, Stalin, Second World War, foreign diplomacy and the beginning of Cold War.
   One fact that is interesting about Molotov is that he remained true to his ideals throughout his life, never denounced an action the Politburo has taken .He hated people in the Party but never the Party itself, he always tried to do what he thought right even if it meant confronting Lenin or Stalin. The writer dosen't share my point of view as he intensively critisizes "Stalinism" without understanding the circumstances in that period. I learnt a lot of things from him with the help of this book. To Molotov...



2. I liked this book because it gives one a different perspective. The US leadership called the USSR the evil empire, the USSR leadership called the US imperialist warmongers. I've grown up with the US slant of things so here I hear from the other side, in an age where we are in a permanent "War on Terror" (e.g. Arab/Muslims) instead of a decades long "Cold War" (e.g. Eurasian and Third world communists).
   
   One reason I give it a star off is professional anti-communist Albert Resis editted it, and a conservative publisher published, making me wonder what the editors left out of Chuev's interviews, and how words are translated (such as famous misleading translations like Khrushchev's "We will outlast you" which the US corporate media said was "We will bury you").
   
   Despite having to suffer through Resis's filtering, which I suspect is an attempt to make Molotov seem more sinister and sangfroid, we do get to here from Molotov and a lot of it is interesting. I learned a lot about Russian politics and history from this. If I'd been allowed to have made up my own mind about Molotov (aside from the Resis editting, even the official reviews here tell you what to think - who's the totalitarian?) maybe I'd be harder on him, but since this is filtered through a bunch of totalitarians telling me how to think, I decided to give Molotov a pass. Raise the scarlet banner high!



3. Molotov Remembers is the only book that allows the reader an inside look at Russia pre-1917, through the Bolshevik Revolution, and on through World War II and the Cold War. This is the first time a truly insider account has been written, and who better than Vyacheslav Molotov, the notorious Soviet foreign minister who preceded Stalin as premier. This book is not necessarily contradictory to the history we were taught in school, for never before have we had such an intimate account of the dealings inside the Soviet government.

   What is also particularly fascinating is not the views Molotov held about the West but the views he held of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. The reader is introduced to what Molotov held as the true course for building socialism in the USSR, and one would be surprised to find out what he thought of Khrushchev and Brezhnev building "communism" in the Soviet Union.

   All in all, this is an excellent buy.




4. V. M. Molotov was one of the most evil, ruthless human beings who ever lived, and if there's a Hell, he's in it. For forty years he helped make sure the Communist Party ruled the Soviet Union, whatever the price -- and that price came close to including his own life, and that of his wife, along with the millions he helped Lenin and Stalin murder.
   
   In the eighties, Felix Chuev had a long series of interviews with Molotov, and they form a fascinating picture of life on the inside of the Soviet Empire. Molotov was a true believer in Communism right till the end, ready to justify anything if he thought it would preserve the Party's power. He still loved Stalin, and said so, while admitting that he and his wife were nearly murdered by the paranoid old tyrant. 'It was necessary,' he says.
   
   And in a weird way, he was right. Marx's grand vision was that capitalism would industrialize the world, but the workers would hate it and destroy it. Wrong! The workers were interested in better pay and better working conditions, not running the country. And Marx never had a plan for running the economy after the revolution -- somehow, the workers would solve all problems by unanimous agreement.
   
   When the Bolsheviks seized power, they nearly destroyed Russia's economy. Facing collapse, Lenin re-instituted a form of capitalism (the New Economic Policy) to buy time to consolidate the Communist Party's rule. But by the late twenties, the NEP had done all it could. The CPUSA had to either give up power and go to full capitalism, give up growth and be conquered by Germany, or build industry on the bones of the masses. Stalin saw this, and chose to murder millions rather than admit that capitalism just works better. Molotov was his chief henchman in these policies, and he's dead right that without them, Soviet power couldn't have survived.
   
   But even with them, it couldn't survive. The only way a Communist society can work is by one man rule and periodic bloodbaths. But in order to preserve that rule, the dictator has to slay all successors able and ruthless enough to take his place. So invariably, the Great Killer's successors are mediocrities, and the totalitarian system rots from within. It will happen in China before the 2020s are out, and in Cuba by the 2030s.
   
   All students of Russia and the former Soviet Union (and I still LOVE to type 'former Soviet Union') should read this book and see what is necessary to hold the kind of power Lenin and Stalin did, to achieve what little they achieved, and why in the end it still had to fail.



5. This book gives us fascinating portraits of Lenin and Stalin, which refute all the vicious lies about them. It tells us much about international affairs, especially the Soviet Union's successful efforts to delay Hitler's treacherous attack in 1941, and on the period since Stalin's death in 1953. As he told Chuev, "I write about socialism - what it is and, as peasants say, 'what we need it for.'"

   The book shows Stalin's great achievements: solving the nationalities question, industrialisation, the collectivisation of agriculture, the defeat of Hitler. Molotov points out that the Soviet Union created "industrialisation by our own means, by our own manpower. We could not rely on foreign loans." He sums up the successes of the 1920s and 1930s: "In essence we were largely ready for the war. The five-year plans, the industrial capacity we had created - that's what helped us to endure, otherwise we wouldn't have won out." As he said, "Many things have been done wonderfully, but that is not enough."

   Molotov was "a fighter for communism, Lenin's longest surviving comrade-in-arms." He was born in 1890. In 1912 he helped to found Pravda. In 1917 he joined the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. In October 1917 he became a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee which prepared the armed uprising in Petrograd.

   In 1926 he became a member of the Politburo, where he worked till 1952. From 1930, when he became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, he helped to lead the drives for industrialisation and for collectivisation. He took a leading role in the fight to defeat the Fifth column. In May 1939 he was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

   He was Deputy Chairman of the State Council of Defence throughout the Great Patriotic War (World War Two). In 1942 he signed the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of Alliance; he also secured Roosevelt and Churchill's agreement "To the urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942." In 1943 he seconded Stalin at the Teheran Conference, and in 1945 he did the same at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. He represented the Soviet Union at the San Francisco Conference which founded the United Nations.

   In 1957 the attempt to remove Krushchev was defeated and Molotov and the other Communists were expelled from the Central Committee. In 1962 he was expelled from the Party. In 1984 he was reinstated. He died in 1986.

   Perhaps his epitaph should be what he said in 1976, "Properly speaking, what was Hitler's aggression? Wasn't it class struggle? It was. And the fact that atomic war may break out, isn't that class struggle? There is no alternative to class struggle. This is a very serious question. The be-all and end-all is not peaceful coexistence. After all, we have been holding on for some time, and under Stalin we held on to the point where the imperialists felt able to demand point-blank: either surrender such and such positions, or it means war. So far the imperialists haven't renounced that."

2 comments about Tiger on the Brink: Jiang Zemin and China's New Elite.

1. For all the talk of China abandoning the practice of personality worshipping its leaders, here comes a non-Chinese citizen engaging in a veritable Jiang Zemin love fest. A nice introduction to the cast of characters in contemporary, post-Cultural Revolution China, but otherwise lacking in value as a serious reference book.



2. Gilley has written a thorough and scholarly, well researched book on Zemin, for Sinophiles and political addicts alike. He has an understanding of the motivations of Ziang in wishing to liberalise the Chinese economy, while holding on firmly to communist ideology. Also explained is the relationship between Ziang and Zhu Rongji, which while evident now, has a history steeped in Shanghai politics. A must read for all those interested in contemporary China.

2 comments about Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South (Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century).

1. 'Subversive Southerner' is a must-read for anyone interested in southern history or in the social and cultural upheavals of the 50s and 60s. It's a riveting story of personal transformation and courage in the face of unrelenting persecution by authorities, and a reminder of how fragile and how precious are our civil liberties. Anne Braden is a heroine-- dedicated, single-minded in her pursuit of civil rights, but compassionate and always interested in individuals. There's plenty of bombings, arrests, and HUAC subpoenas to keep you turning pages,and lots of quotes, oral-history style, from major figures from the 50s and 60s. It's well-written--Fosl is an expert interviewer and very good writer.



2. Anne Braden courageously opposed the Dixie segregationist establishment. She was born Anne McCarty in 1924 in "Louisville where white folks lived." Her earlier concerns were conventional and non threatening to the social mores of her Jim Crow society. Anne mostly worried about being attractive to boys during her high school years and was even willing to play dumb so as not to alienate them. She underwent a dramatic change in her early adult years while attending college and earning a living as a journalist. The Southern newspapers of that era barely considered a murdered black person worthy of mention. Blacks could fight and die in our wars, but were refused entrance to the voting booth. White criminals were afforded more respect than virtuous and law abiding Afro-Americans. The usual definition of a liberal Southern politician was someone who dared speak out against lynching while remaining firmly loyal to the principle of segregation. Anne ultimately could not make peace with the prevailing zeitgeist. She marries Carl Braden, a man named after Karl Marx. The Bradens soon partner with such luminaries like James Dombrowski, Bob Zellner and Martin Luther King. The latter remarked upon her dedication in his famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." Heroic self sacrifice and the constant risk of violence became an everyday reality. The odds were probably no better than fifty-fifty that the Bradens could escape being murdered.
   
   What does the Cold War have to with Anne Braden? Why did the author choose the title "Subversive Southerner?" Catherine Fosl points out the insane eagerness of the segregationists to brand those advocating civil rights as traitors to the United States. In their peculiar way of looking at the world, combatting Jim Crow was the same thing as aligning oneself with our nation's enemies. The Bradens, however, did flirt with Communism and this made it easier for their foes to justify harassing them. A number of prosecutors seeking political power relished the opportunity to put them behind bars for alleged acts of sedition. Anne's relationship with avowed Communists extends to the point where the well known radical Angela Davis even writes the forward for this book. Should we therefore condemn her? Not in the least. Fosl presents a persuasively well put together argument that Anne Braden deserves to be cut some slack. There is no evidence whatsoever hinting that the still living Ms. Braden ever adhered to any orthodox interpretation of Communist doctrine. She seems naively oblivious to the logical consequences of these horrifying set of beliefs. Sadly, mainstream political conservatives did virtually nothing to combat racism in the Old South. Anne Braden was therefore compelled to cooperate with those willing to fight along side of her. She and her late husband were primarily activists and not armchair philosophers. One also does not have to agree with all of Anne Braden's more recent political proposals. Some of these efforts might indeed leave something to be desired. That is beside the point. Ms. Braden definitely has done far more good than inadvertent harm. Catherine Fosl is to be congratulated for making sure that Americans don't overlook her enormous accomplishments. It would be shameful not to honor Anne Braden while she is still alive. I strongly urge you to read this superb biography of one of our greatest American heroes.

5 comments about Barry Goldwater.

1. It has been said that Barry Goldwater ran for President in 1964 but was elected in 1980. This refers to the fact that he set the stage for the movement, back in the 1960's, that set the stage for the Reagan revolution in 1980. Goldwater energized a base of largely young conservatives and brought a whole new great of people into the process.
   
   The book also tells us a lot of details of Goldwater's early life. Most people probably don't realize the he is of Jewish heritage. He worked hard his entire life to get where he was. This is a strong contrast with the Kennedy family and many others (including George W. Bush) who were children of wealth.
   
   The book gives an excellent account of Goldwater's entire career including his retirement in 1987....such that he ever really completely retired.
   
   It is a faily well balanced book.....at least compared to most others. It is clear, as others have said, that Goldberg approaches the subject from the left. But it doesn't spoil the contents of the book and he doesn't revise history or distort Goldwater's record. It is a fairly good account of a great man's life!



2. Few people have had the impact on the American political scene that Barry Goldwater made in his career. Born into one of the wealthiest families in Arizona, his embrace of the Western myth and his opposition to increased role the government played in economic management after the Great Depression (one influenced by his experience managing the family's chain of local department stores) combined to shape his political philosophy. After service in the Army Air Force in World War II, he entered politics and became a leader of the effort to "clean up" the Phoenix city government - though Goldberg writes that, as most of the members of the effort themselves acknowledged, the charges of civic corruption that led to their victory were largely overstated.
   
   Upon winning election to the United States Senate in 1952, Goldwater quickly emerged as one of its most prominent conservatives, becoming chair of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee just three years later. The role played to Goldwater's gift for marketing, and he quickly developed a national following among thousands of Americans. He benefited as well from the emergence of a new radical right, fueled by growing concerns over race and embodied in organizations like the John Birch Society. With the publication of his 1960 book Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater cemented his position as the leading figure of the movement, their natural candidate for the presidency.
   
   Goldwater got his chance in 1964. With the front-runner for the Republican nomination, Nelson Rockefeller, politically damaged by his divorce and remarriage, Goldwater was the front-runner. He accepted the nomination at a convention that Goldberg terms "the Woodstock of American conservatism," with a speech that galvanized his supporters. Goldwater's nomination became a pivotal moment in the history of the Republican Party. While Goldwater himself was defeated in the subsequent campaign by Lyndon Johnson (who succeeded in depicting Goldwater as an unstable reactionary ideologue), his candidacy signaled the party's ideological, social, and political shift away from its traditional base in the Northeast towards its new home in the South and West.
   
   Yet Goldberg sees Goldwater's candidacy as the high-water mark of his role as a conservative leader, as he began moving away from the ideas of the radical right and towards a more libertarian style of conservatism. Though he returned to the Senate in 1968, his support for Nixon's opening of relations with China and his backing of Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in their race for the Republican nomination in 1976 led many former Goldwater supporters to turn on their former champion. By the 1980s, Goldwater had become a leading opponent of the growing role of the religious right in the Republican Party, and he remained an uncomfortable gadfly after his retirement from the Senate in 1987 by speaking out against many of the actions of the party he did so much to change.
   
   Goldberg's biography offers a balanced examination of the senator's life and career that is welcome. He avoids the hagiography of earlier works, which distorted or excluded some of the details of Goldwater's life so as to better fit their image of a conservative paradigm. Though such information as Goldwater's financial donations to Planned Parenthood and his personal efforts to support civil rights (which he disguised so as not to alienate voters in the South) may call his reputation for honesty and bluntness into question, the result is a better understanding of the man and his role in the rise of American conservatism after the Second World War.



3. This biography is well written and researched. Unfortunately, it becomes painfully clear at times that the author, Robert Alan Goldberg, is writing from the Left. The book's strengths lie in his discussion of Goldwater's family history and upbringing. On the other hand, Goldberg's rants on Goldwater's racial complacency get old after a couple chapters, and do not relent. Goldberg essentially accuses Goldwater of turning a blind eye to racism, but then defends him by saying he himself was not racist.

   Of course Goldwater was not racist. He did not "accomodate" racism, either...Goldwater just wasn't a "Civil Rights" activist like Goldberg, but then again, who is Goldberg to judge a man such as Barry Goldwater? When he sticks to the facts, this book is good. When he strays, it is awkward. Overall, though, its at least worth borrowing from the local library.




4. Barry Goldwater,as someone once pointed out, last name speaks of the 2 most important things in the American west. this biography,meticulous in its balance,shows Goldwater from his lonely days as a western conservative ina republican party dominated with eastern power and money{how wird does that sound now?],to his latter days a conscience of the conservaties,who found little to cheer about from the new right who claimed its parnetage to him.From his biting prescience on LBJ and Vietnam, to his condemnation of modern politcs,Goldwater was an original.truly .Would his vision and sheer balls be available on this convuluted and viscious landscape of politics today.Very,very well written,balanced,nuanced biography of a seminal figure of modern america.



5. Goldberg's biography is the definitive work on Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater. Essential reading for anyone interested in Goldwater and an excellent reminder that Goldwater's brand of conservatism is a far cry from the conservatism of the religious right. The book is a balanced view of the man from Arizona written by a scholar with an engaging and highly readable writing style.

3 comments about My Last Chance to Be a Boy: Theodore Roosevelt's South American Expedition of 1913-1914.

1. Ornig's book is the first full account of this amazing adventure since Theodore Roosevelt was alive to tell it himself. Thanks to the author's years of meticulous research, we get to see the ex-president up close as every ounce of courage and determination that can possibly be required of a human being is exacted by this perilous expedition. Why would a man, having already carved his name in history, literally risk his life in service to exploration? The book title is informative; it was the kind of thing he loved to do. Roosevelt's passion for for life was abundantly demonstrated on the River of Doubt as he and his party encountered one life-threatening obstacle after another. If it wasn't the hostile natives who tracked them, it was the piranhas. If it wasn't a lack of food and supplies, it was flesh-eating disease.... As if fighting just to survive the forces of nature weren't enough, there was also the recklessness of some, including his own son. And there were personal conflicts among the explorers--disagreements, arguments, theft--and a murder. This wilderness adventure had it all--and it wasn't reality TV. No camera crew, no global positioning system, no one to bail them out at any point. In this age of apathy and plasticized existence, this story is all the more striking.
   
   Thus, out of this book emerges a fresh portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. We learn a great deal about him under conditions of maximum stress. We also get to know the group of explorers who accompanied him. And the generous 48 pages of maps and photographs are a real plus. Many thanks to the author for rediscovering this story and dusting it off for us with such literary finesse. For a non-fiction history work, it reads like a novel.



2. TR's 1913-1914 expedition down the River of Doubt (subsequently renamed Rio Teodoro in his honor, and later Rio Roosevelt) is an astonishing piece of history - one often refered to in passing by other TR biographers, but not often fully explored, as it here. Author Ornig tells an exciting tale well, from the multitudious details of planning and executing a massive exploring expedition in the early 20th century, to vivid portraits of the characters involved. This book would be a wonderful companion for any adventure traveller (or even armchair adventurers).

   Best of all, Ornig is no run-of-the-mill TR hagiographer (and there are plenty of them out there), nor is he interested in taking unfair potshots at the great man (plenty of those folks out there, too). Ornig simply relates events as they occured, and doesn't care a whit whether they cast TR in a favorable or unfavorable light: TR was a poor shot (due to his poor eyesight) and became grumpy and embarassed when he missed easy targets. TR was delighted with the impact on his waistline when the expedition was forced to subsist on reduced rations -- and argued against the restoration of full rations even though others were suffering. Do these facts detract from the TR legend, or add to it? I have never been a fan of Marble Men, and found that I loved TR even more after glimpsing some of his human flaws in MY LAST CHANCE TO BE A BOY. No student of TR should be without this volume.




3. Ornig provides the first detailed account of one of the most exciting adventure stories of the 20th century -- Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the River of Doubt in Brazil's Amazon. The story is more incredible when you think that Roosevelt was a 55-year old former President at the time of the expedition. As we approach the 100th anniversary of Roosevelt's presidency, and as we consider our relationship with the earth, it is worth taking another look at this great outdoorsman. Ornig weaves together the political and diplomatic origins of the expedition and how Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the rest of the expedition got much more than they bargained for. There's murder, there's drowning (and a question of whether Kermit Roosevelt was accountable), there's frustration, and there's a former President on the brink of death. After you read it, you'll want to read Roosevelt's account, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." You'll enjoy that one too

1 comments about Vice Presidents: Biographies of the 45 Men Who Have Held the Second Highest Office in the United States.

1. It's hard to find good, thorough and easy-to-use reference works on VPs, and this book fills a needed gap--however...Any reference work is valuable only to the extent that it is accurate, and some big blunders make me nervous here. Andrew Johnson is inexplicably given the middle name Jackson. Has anyone ever heard of Andrew Jackson Johnson? I've done some published work on the Presidency myself, and I can find absolutely no corroboration for this moniker. The author certainly doesn't bother to source it, or much else unfortunately. There was a story, evidently contemporary with Johnson's career, that he was named Andrew after Jackson, but scholarly consensus is that this tale is wholly apocryphal, easily invented for a 19th century Tennessee politician. Since Johnson was born in 1808, in North Carolina, and before Jackson had risen to any particualr prominence, the likelihood that a he was named after the General is slight. Unless she had new info that would be quite w! ! orth sourcing, Waldrup just seems overly willing to repeat a good story as if it were fact. Of course this is unacceptable for a reference work. Then there is the matter of the near-full page portrait of William Henry Harrison (who was only briefly a president, and never a vice)which the book tells the reader is in fact John Tyler. Again, very bad for any work, let alone a reference. Who's on a $20 dollar bill, Martin Van Buren? Don't they have editors in these houses?