2 comments about Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary.

1. On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. came to Indiana to campaign for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary. En route, Kennedy learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and had died. Despite the Indianapolis police department's warning that they could not guarantee his safety, Kennedy chose to address an outdoor rally amid the city's African American community. Kennedy delivered one of history's great speeches, breaking the news of King's death and stressing the need for compassion amid violence. Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary commemorates the fortieth anniversary of Kennedy's passionate speech, and examines the characters and events of the 1968 primary, in which Kennedy rose from underdog to victor. A fascinating close study of a great leader's power to console and inspire.



2. The Washington Post on March 25, 2008 reported that the Indiana May primary between Obama and Clinton may make the difference for the Democratic nomination. Forty years ago this was also the case. Every political reporter, blogger and junkie needs to read this book. Indiana politics are quirky, but there are similarities between 1968 and 2008, especially over the race issue. Obama is Bobby Kennedy. Hillary is trying to figure out if she is Gene McCarty or the machine candidate represented by Gov. Roger Branigin.

No comments about Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience.

5 comments about Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.

1. This book is a must read because it describes how politics and government work or perhaps why it doesnt work. Mr. Chaffee's description of his experiences are told in such a direct and honest fashion. He interweaves his political experience as a local politician and that of a congressional candidate. He provides information regarding different foreign policy efforts of the current administration and why they failed, i.e., the palestinian and Israeli peace process. This is a refreshing look at our governmental system and the players in it. Mr. Chaffee's writing style made me feel as if he was telling the story directly to me.



2. As a transplanted Rhode Islander living in New York, I understood why Lincoln Chafee lost his Senate seat in November of 2006 to the lackluster and uninspired Sheldon Whitehouse. An independent, moderate voice from the Ocean State fell victim to the Bush Administration's myopic paranoid agenda. At its best moments, Against the Tide, paints a striking portrait of idealogues centralizing power and marginalizing dissenting voices and their opponents time after time refusing to stand up and speak out for what they knew was right.
   
   Chafee often repeats stories (he was a blacksmith on the plains of Canada, if you didn't already know) and the prose is stilted in places, but the book as a whole is a success. I hope it gives my former neighbors a pang of guilt that we are no longer represented in the Senate by Lincoln Chafee and his sense of duty and principle. His replacement is not cut from that cloth.



3. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee has written an engaging book that connects anecdotes from his political life with thoughtful observations on ethics, power, and diplomacy.
   
   The Senator's disillusionment and disenchantment are thoroughly examined here. Although, as a son of the late Senator John Chafee, he was well acquainted with the realities of party politics in America, he went to Washington with idealistic notions about the possibilities of bi-partisan cooperation born of his experience in local government. Sadly, he was to find out exactly how regressive and obstinate both the national executive and legislative bodies have become.
   
   This is an admirable effort from a man who has managed to retain his ideals despite the disappointing realities he encountered. This book is well worth your time and money, and I recommend it very highly. We need more people like Lincoln Chafee in public life.



4. Outstanding book written by a courageous man. I'm a centrist and not a far left liberal but, until reading this book, I never knew a Republican politician for which I was able to have even the tinest bit of respect. We definitely do need a third party, or better yet the ability for people that don't align with a particular party to have a chance to win an election. People like Chafee - people who put the best interests of America's citizens first rather than best interests of a party machine - would then be able to survive. Imagine a government of people like that! Spread the word about this book so people become inspired to demand this of our politicians.



5. Former Rhode Island U.S. Senator Lincoln has words of wisdom for both Republicans and Democrats alike, but mainly Republicans, in this thoughtful book.
   
   To illustrate the fact that he is straight-spoken, I take this anecdote from page 183, in light of his Senate vote against a flag-desecration amendment in the late summer of 2006, an amendment thrown up as election fodder.
   
   "In my opinion, some members of Congress desecrated the flag every day by wearing flag pins on their lapels while voting to divide Americans and restrict freedom. ... Using the flag for political gain was the real desecration."
   
   Chafee has a closely reasoned takedown argument for his former Republican colleagues in the Senate, for candidates who would follow the Bush-Rove method of campaigning and more: The game is up.
   
   Chafee, one of six Republicans who lost their Senate seats in 2006, repeated this message inside the GOP caucus long before that. And, he meant it as someone who was still trying to save the Republican Party from itself.
   
   He says he considered running as an independent in 2006, but just couldn't do that.
   
   Now, out of office, though, he is encouraging the idea of a centrist middle to take the third-party road, if needed. This is the one biggest shortcoming of the book.
   
   As a left-liberal who has voted third-parties in the past, I know the Constitutional system is rigged against them, unless one or the other of the major parties is in a time of turmoil. That last happened in the 1850s, when the Whigs shattered over the Compromise of 1850 and then the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
   
   Beyond that, outside apparatchiks like the Grover Norquists of the policy world and insiders, whether elected officials or strategists, will insist in maintaining GOP "message rigidity" enough that, while the party may shrink, it won't explode or implode.
   
   But, Chafee is committed to the idea, perhaps even idealistic about it, so I won't hold that against him.
   
   At the same time, with wistfulness, he recognizes his father's GOP is no more, and Humpty Dumpty can't put it back together. The former "Rockefeller Republicans" are lost; it is on them, and centrist-to-conservative Democrats, that Chafee appears to pin his third-party hopes.
   
   Otherwise, Chafee struck me as someone who actually brought two crucial things to his job as a senator: Due diligence and curiosity beyond accepting spouted platitudes.
   
   That's clear in his descriptions of his dealings with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, John Negroponte when he was ambassador to Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz and others.
   
   For Democrats, his biggest take is continued hypocrisy on the Iraq war. That includes pro-war voters like Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton visiting the state to campaign against him in 2006.
   
   And as for his opponent, now-Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse? Whether due to sour grapes or what, Chafee says Whitehouse had no cojones when he was a U.S. Attorney.
   
   Finally, for both Republicans and Democrats, he says we need a real Middle East peace process, and one that does not write blank checks to Israel.
   
   As a sidebar, I found it interesting that this son of a U.S. Senator worked for years as a horseshoer, in very much an "everyday" job. In short, contrary to the claims about a ranting tyrant from Crawford, Texas, you might actually want to sit down for a beer, a diet Coke, or whatever, with Lincoln Chafee.

5 comments about Counselor CD: A Life at the Edge of History.

1. An intriguing insight into the Kennedy presidency. Mr. Sorensen writes a very compelling account of known crisis of that time, and many accounts of happenings only known by one who was there. It is an excellent historical book.



2. Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History I was very disappointed in Sorensen's book, primarily because about the only thing he gives JFK credit for is his hiring him! It is as if he believes he was the president himself. Most offending is that clearly he does not connect his speechwriting rules "less is more" to his biography. After almost every description of a positive development in JFK's, Sorensen adds a paranthetical note crediting himself or noting how he predicted the outcome, making it an aggravating read. Sorensen has forgotten that he was part of a team and should have left the credit with the subject that is interesting; JFK and his administration (and subsequent relationships).
   
   His opening comment is completely disengenous about his being uncomfortable about too many "I's". This is a man that is so full of himself...
   
   Sorensen deserves credit for his service to the country, as I am sure he is a phenominal individual and was instrumental in shaping policies to the benefit of his sponsor and the US. But he is not an individual that one should devote the first 90 pages about his upbringing and background about...he simply is not that interesting...he was not the president of the United States...and this book is not that interesting because of it.



3. Few would disagree that John F. Kennedy was one of our most inspirational presidents and that it was a tragedy that he was assassinated. Since the 1950s, it was well known that some of the most memorable words that Kennedy inspired us with were drafted if not written in total by Ted Sorensen, Kennedy's dedicated staffer who played many roles in addition to helping write speeches, books, and articles. Speculation about Sorensen's role was fed by Mr. Sorensen's humble deflection of praise that others aimed in his direction.
   
   Imagine what it would have been like to talk to JFK every day and to see him most days. Imagine, even more, if you were walking on history's stage in your role: You weren't just pouring him coffee.
   
   You could re-title this book as "Dream Job" and you wouldn't be far off.
   
   In Counselor, Mr. Sorensen reveals more than in the past about his personal relationship with President Kennedy, who did what and when, his views about Kennedy's decisions and legacy, and what the lessons for historians are from that era. In letting down his hair, Mr. Sorensen is a loyal heir to the Kennedy legend: He doesn't criticize more than an independent observer would who knew the surface facts. Naturally, he also defends where many would not (he's gentle on Kennedy for increasing the number of military advisors in South Vietnam and letting the military leaders there murder the country's political leader). Further, he seems to have amnesia about what any president did before Kennedy who was not a Democrat (he writes as though there was no space program before Kennedy took office).
   
   One of the most interesting episodes in the book comes long after President Kennedy was killed in the description of Mr. Sorensen's nomination to be CIA head by President Carter. The contrast between Kennedy and Carter could not be clearer in reading how this was handled.
   
   I think we should be generous with Mr. Sorensen. It's been many years. He's almost the last of those who served in those years who knows the inside stories. He also suffered a substantial stroke that affected his vision and made writing this book extremely difficult. I commend Mr. Sorensen for making the effort. There are many lessons here that new administrations can learn from.
   
   I also honor him for his service to the nation, to John F. Kennedy, and to my youthful idealistic dreams by inspiring them with his timeless words. Many will always remember him as a speech writer, but he was truly more . . . especially during those potentially deadly days during the Cuban missile crisis.
   
   Thank you, Mr. Sorensen.



4. This is the most moving, realistic depiction of JFK I have ever seen. Many will forever rant and rave over his personal peccadillos, but this man was a leader. His speech at American University, which was his way of dealing with Soviet & American feelings about nuclear war included the following. "For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet; we all breathe the same air; we all cherish our children's future; and we are all mortal." I heard that speech as a young man. I am now 82 and it still rings in my ears. I was raised an avid republican, but I am proud to have helped vote him into office. His like hasn't been seen since.



5. Ted Sorensen subtitles his memoir Counselor as "A Life at the Edge of History." It is, in fact, a rarely candid and insightful account of a life at the very center of history.
   
   Sorensen is widely known as JKF's speechwriter, but he was much more. He was JFK's liberal conscience and go-to-guy for everything from the handling of the "Catholic issue" in Kennedy's run for the White House to the writing of the letter to Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis. The combination of keen intellect and inspiring idealism that anchored Sorensen at the center of JFK's political life is crystallized on the pages of a retrospective clearly aimed at bringing both the author and his country closure on the shattering of that brief window of greatness.
   
   Don't come expecting a tell-all from this member of the Kennedy inner-circle (not just JFK, but Robert and Teddy, as well). Surely Sorensen is the faithful keeper of many secrets. He traveled with JFK throughout his campaigns, competed with RFK in the White House, enjoyed a close friendship with Jackie, and jeopardized his own political future by helping the family "handle" Chappaquiddick; but beyond the general and widely known stories, you'll get nothing new from Sorensen. He remains, as he has always been, the loyal keeper of the flame. What Sorensen does provide is a clear-eyed and frank view of his own life and its sizeable impact on political history of our times.
   
   For anyone who still remembers where he or she was when the gunshots rang out in Dallas, this book is a behind-the-scenes revelation of a history we lived, but never really knew. For those too young to remember, the book is, as JFK himself would have wanted, a torch of liberal idealism passed to a new generation. To that end, Sorensen has accomplished with book the goal he set. He has completed his service to the President he loved.

2 comments about El pais bajo mi piel.

1. Gioconda is another magnificent representative of the Latin American generation of authors that emerged in the seventies and eighties amidst social turmoils. Gioconda's artistry of words and poetry are evident throughout this book. Also the book arrangement, i.e. two threads set at two different time periods of her life, if not innovative fits nicely to convey her passionate, powerfully feminine message. This is perhaps the strongest point in this autobiography: the utmost defense of "las compañeras" in her struggle for equality and respect.
   
   Other little jewels are Gioconda's experience with iconic men like Torrijos and Fidel. These two anecdotes deserve to be in a study of the human condition: even in an egalitarian or progressive mind, machismo can be present.
   
   My 4 out of 5 star rate for this book is related to the author's ambiguous political position after the collapse of Sandinismo. In the last part of the book her message comes forth blurred by Gioconda's comfortable upper middle-class life in a serene Californian homestead. Suddenly, all that life-commitment with the revolution becomes a Sunday afternoon TV movie on "Oxygen" or "We". Then several pages, filled with apparently extensively meditated explanations, try to justify why she chose comfort to revolution. Personally, I think she closed the circle (as she likes to repeat through her book): she came back to her cradle in a solacing environment. Eventually, she goes back to Nicaragua to plunge back into "people's struggle" while being aware that she can always return to his Californian refuge. Not exactly a revolutionary life.



2. I've read the book (in its extremely sensitive and emphatic German translation immediately after my wife finished reading it and told me that it was a must for me to read!)

   The "must" was worthwhile because of the incredible breadth of Belli's writing expressiveness and intensity of the emotions expressed. In this respect I felt with her and for her in all her moods, life situations, her frustrations and her moments of joy.

   Reading it in that way, it is truthful, self-critical, just fascinating.

   But....and the BUT is my critical BUT.....where Belli, whose dairy-like autobiography this is (because otherwise whe would never have been able to reconstract the three decades of her life she talks about in "The Country Under My Skin" where she recalls all those names an situations with the accuracy as she does), the political aspect being portrayed in the book is strikingly unfair
   and is in severe contradiction to what is known to have actually happened between the terribel '72 earthquake and the end of the millenium as regards the Sandinistas and their revolution and the latter-day developments.
   The political stance Ms. Belli takes throughout her narrative is heavily lop-sided, if not naïve. Ms. Belli, who has in many ways "run into her hated enemy's arms" by living in the US, and does not really appear to have had any qualms about it, nor about passing on pure hear-say about political intrigues and movemements, acribically puts down dates and names and improper behaviour of the so-called enemies of the revolution, but she does not find any need to set right the warped political picture her Sandinista ideologists have slyly - and successfully - embedded in her mind.

   Ms. Belli should stick to writing her very beautiful prose - and stop loving her country by lashing out at phantoms, and painting a halo of "libertador" on irrespressive revolutionaries like Castro at al.....Nicaragua has not stopped suffering from the aftereffects of power-obsessed personalities, much as as it had been suffering from the Somoza nightmare.
   To be sure that I am not just blowing off steam for the sake of criticism, I have once again taken time and consulted credible sources on the actual facts of Nicaraguas transition from Somozism to Sandinism-Tercereistas and the years that followed....and have tried to do this without being blind on one eye...

   What I have finally found to be a representative truth does certainly not identify with many aspects Ms. Belli sets forth in her autobiography.
   Personally, I love South America. My mother tongues were English and Spanish, having spent my childhood in Venezuela, Argentina, Perú and Colombia.

5 comments about The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The true story of the first African American on the White House Secret Service detail and his quest for justice after the assassination of JFK.

1. This work is intriguing as Abraham Bolden gives his side of how the Secret Service framed him rather than permit him to give testimony to the Warren Commission about the lax in the duties of Secret Service agents to protect President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission investigated the assassination. Bolden was the first black to serve on the White House Secret Service, assigned to protect the president, and was invited to that post by Kennedy. Bolden is very brief about his childhood, and tells even less about his teen and college years. The main purposes of this section is show the development of his sense of duty, honesty, and other values his parents taught him. Most of the book is devoted to his tenure as a Secret Service Agent and how all that he had built professionally was destroyed. He provides very detailed accounts of the trials, and his appeals and other strategies to clear his name and get his freedom. Despite all that happened to him, his family stood my him. The work is well written, and written in such a way that the reader can get a sense of the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical trials and tribulations of the author and those around him. The minute details are necessary because Bolden is attempting to clear his name and actions from a time period that is very controversial. Therefore, he uses footnotes so that the reader can cross check the facts. Some documents were unobtainable, but Bolden proves to a great researcher, using various primary source materials to support his claims. Unlike most autobiographies, the work is indexed. Others have criticized the book because it sheds little light on the Kennedy assassination, but this is an unfair assessment. The book is about Bolden, not Kennedy. This work is a very much needed addition to black American history, particular in the history of Secret Service Agents. In addition, it also contributes to the historiography of the assassination of President Kennedy, as well as the general historiography of the 1960s. It could also be used in the study of racism, organized crime, the criminal justice system, and the legal system. This work stands, perhaps, as the final testimony of Bolden, who wants to public to know his ordeal. At this point, the public becomes the jury.



2. What a story of shear guts and determination of a man who paid the price for speaking out against the Secret Service protection for President Kennedy. I wish I had half the guts Mr. Bolden has, and I hope that in the end, those who for the most part framed Mr. Bolden, will be held fully accountable when they meet their maker. There was definitely a breakdown that fateful day in Dallas of Secret Service reaction when the first shots were fired. REading about one of the agents losing his credentials in a bar the night before the assassination definitely makes one wonder about the "phony" Secret Service agent who flashed credentials behind the grassy knoll.



3. This is an amazing story of injustice, racism, a corrupted justice system, and dogged, courageous persistence to clear his name. Abraham Bolden was clearly his own worst enemy, if only because he wasn't shy about pointing out the shortcomings of his colleagues and bosses. Most of us would shake our heads and pass on by. Not Bolden. If Secret Service agents came to work drunk, he spoke up about it. If they let security relax on President Kennedy's White House detail, he told his superiors. That's not a strategy to warm the hearts of co-workers, but this was the Secret Service, and the President's life was at stake. Bolden took his protective mission to heart. The obvious and blunt racism of his colleagues is surprising forty years later but typical of the sixties. After a stint with the First Family on Nantucket Bay, Bolden writes that his shift supervisor, Harvey Henderson, a good-ol'-boy Southerner, commented to him, "You're a nigger. You were born a nigger, and when you die, you'll still be a nigger. You will always be nothing but a nigger. So act like one!" If that doesn't stagger your perceptions about the Secret Service, nothing would. Imagine trying to do your job with that kind of attitude hovering over you. Transferred back to Chicago, his home base, after a month on the White House detail, Bolden's troubles continued and eventually culminate in charges, conviction, and imprisonment. As he presents the case against him, the corruption, racist conspiracy to destroy him, and the fumbling, blockheaded pursuit of the case by authorities eventually overpower and convict him. It is justice pursued in the most invidious fashion for the most insidious motives. The man is black. Get him. Yet, after all that he and his family endure, Bolden emerges years later undefeated. And that is what makes him a man admired. This is one heck of a story! And the horrifying thing is, it's true.



4. If you are looking for something really new and substantial on the JFK case, I doubt you'll find it here. Or anywhere ! I'd recommend the book if you are interested in the secret service however and the author has a few interesting snippets to tell of his brief meetings with the Kennedy brothers which may be of interest to some. It's a reflective work and highlights some of the prejudices prevalent at the time even within the secret service, but the title is a little bit misleading as the material relating to the assassination is limited. A nice to have book, but there are better recent works on the case.



5. Very little about Kennedy and the secret service in Dallas Texas concerning the assassination. [...]

5 comments about Son of the Revolution.

1. This was an excellent book that showed the effects of the 'Cultural Revolution' from the perspective of individuals. The book does not cover the movements in an overall view but keeps with the viewpoint of the individual. I think it would help to have a basic understanding of Chinese history during this era, to fully appreciate what is going on in this more detailed and finer viewpoint. Liang learns of the contradictions in this "socialist" society. He does not demonize the Chinese people but shows how they struggled in creating a new society. There are many powerful images of his personal relationships. The main theme I picked up on was how misguided policies fostered a corrupt culture that was exploited on the ground level, often by people who thought that they were doing what was best for their country.



2. This book is what "Catcher in the Rye" is to adolescents in America...and for all backgrounds, its THE novel to read. its so real and current and applicable to one's own life. I feel the struggles of Liang Heng and his family. Its told in a way thats enjoyable yet saddening. His loneliness becomes the reader's loneliness. I read this book while going through a hard time in my life. After reading his story, I had all the strength and willpower to "struggle" as if somehow through my struggle I would build charascter and be better for it. I appreciate this book for all it is, says and the reality it created for me. Thank You Liang Heng



3. A long and, at times, stressful read, but worth every beautiful word.



4. Liang Heng's memoir accounts his experiences living in the second half of the 20th century. This book belongs in the category of "Wound Literature," books written post-1976 about the Cultural Revolution. While an enormous body of Wound Literature exists, Liang's is unique for the Western reader because it represents the perspective of a man. The book is a quick read and it does a good job of critically examining history but leaves out polemic politics.



5. This book, by Liang Heng, apparently co-written by his wife Miss Shapiro, is a very quick read, one of those books with a well-flowing style to its prose and simplicity and power of its description. You don't want to put it down.
   
   It is a story of how Liang Heng grew up as his family was torn apart by the ever changing and eratic policies enforce by the state of which Chariman Mao sat at the helm. He was probably about five when his mother was branded a rightist devationist. She had been encouraged to make criticisms of the party during the "Let one hundred flowers bloom" campaign and after honestly thinking it over, decided to criticize her bosses at the local police department for elitism and abuse of power. Of course, the Hundred Flowers campaign was eventually transformed into a rectification campaign. His mother was sent to the countryside,eventually being able to return once a month home to see her children and face the frenzied abuse of her husband, a very indocrinated, humorless, pious party member and journalist at the local state run paper. Liang's father for political safety eventaully got a new wife who, like the father, also had questionable associations and links with the old KMT regime. This new wife was posted as a school teacher in a far away city and due to bureaucratic restrictions on movement, they could not see each other for many years.
   
   The most vivid parts of the book deal with the cultural revolution. Liang Feng as a zealous primary school student, initially lifted himself up at the beginning of this time by making cartoons of his teachers accusing them of being capitalist roader,bourgeois counterrevolutionaries, etc. But soon, his father got caught up in the trap because he was an intellectual, had briefly been part of a KMT group during the dark days of Chiang Kai Shek and the rapacious landlords before he was exposed to Maoism, and so on. Liang was branded a "stinking intellectual's son" and shunned and sometimes physically abused by his peers. His father was forced to go through many "struggle sessions" and paraded around town in a dunce cap.
   
   The Cultural Revolution years are indeed described with the most simple and powerful indepth vivideness. The Cultural revolution for Liang had many harrowing adventures including his participation in mock long march and a stay in Peking to be part of a Red Guard group at a Musical conservatory during which period Liang caught a glimpse of Chairman Mao. Another episode deals with the armed combat of the rival "conservative" and "rebel" Red Guard groups and all sorts of splinter groups fighting for control of the city of Changsa, Liang's home town. Liang Heng gets caught in the middle of one battle and witnesses horrible death and destruction. He eventually joined a street gang made up of children of counterrevolutionaries and of communist china's lowest class, what Marx called the Lumpenproletariat. He spent some time being a cart pusher and custodian of a pig pen on a train,under the mentorship of the wise old migrant worker and street person Pockmarked Liu.
   
   The climax of the book's vividness is probably when Liang Heng's father is transfered to the countryside for hard labor in a peasant commune. The particular commune where they are sent is in a very neglected area and the peasants very benighted. Liang's dad is assigned the duty of teaching Chairman Mao thought sessions to the peasants. Liang and his father are forced to live with a peasant and his wife, who have serious difficulty accomodating them. Unfortunately, Peking had launched another mass movement this time about elminating capitalist practices, and so the local leadership used the opportunity to harrass the peasants. The state gave this particular commune, in contrast to other areas, not much resources, and the peasants could only survive by raising revenue by selling produce from their livestock which was now being confiscated. During this episode, there are such notable incidents as Guo La Da' and the confiscation of his ducks. (...) The peasants in this commune seemed to be able to be more independent, beyond the reach of indoctrination if only because the government couldn't quite afford to put its tentacles into their remote area. Another incident deals with the hard suffering of Guo Lucky Wealth's wife, the wife of the peasant household they stayed in. She wanted to get pregnant but she had been manipulated into getting a birth control device put inside her. Guo Lucky Wealth's wife enlisted the services of a local witch doctor to make her fertile, but the witch doctor couldn't get quite the right potions.
   
   After this point, the story loses some of its vividity as the events in his life are told more briefly. But it still is very interesting. By the early 70's, Liang Heng started to get some breaks, including being assigned a decent job at a factory to while he played for the factory's basketball team. He admits that though living standards on the whole improved(only slightly for all too many he claims) in China from the dark days of the KMT, he began to fully grasp that the cruelty, stratification and corruption in the economy and government in his society was quite different from the propaganda conception of what socialism was supposed to be. He tried to pursue girlfriends but his unfortunate political status ruined those relationship. Then he managed to get bribe his factory party officials and others to help him get accepted into college. This was after the lunacies of the Cultural revolution had died down and colleges were reoopened for competitive examination after the "Gang of Four" and their followers were purgedd after Mao's death. He eventually met Miss Shapiro who was working as a foreign language teacher at his college and fell in love with her. After college, his first postition was that of a school teacher and was dissapointed that though the post-Mao era was seemingly enacting great changes, the students he taught still exhibited the same inability to think critically that his generation had. The students still had alot of their time devoted to blindly memorizing the same silly Party slogans and being trained to worship the state, as Liang did as a youngster.

No comments about The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President.

5 comments about Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson.

1. I had read Robert Caro's book on Robert Moses, and I found Master of the Senate to be an equally well-written and insightful read about an even more complicated figure. Readers get a real sense of the dark character of Lyndon Johnson. The book also offers a revealing view of the inner workings of the U.S. Senate. His portraits of Richard Russell and Sam Rayburn are particularly poignant. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in 20th-century U.S. history, and for anyone who enjoys monumental biographies.



2. Anyone know? This is a masterful book series. The one on LBJ's presidency should be the best.



3. Despite what you think of LBJ, and I don't think much of him, Robert Caro's series on Johnson far surpasses any other books that have come before or after on Lyndon Johnson. In all three of Caro's volumes, he includes mini biographies of important people in Lyndon's life. In this volume, Senator Richard Russell, jr. of Georgia is given his due, and his importance as friend and adviser to LBJ. Also, the first 100 pages include a history of the US senate that could stand alone as a book unto itself. I can't wait for Caro's fourth volume, alas it probably won't be out for another five years.



4. Caro is a master writer. I found his book 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses easily one of my top ten reads of all time, five star all the way. Johnson to me was not quite as interesting, but nevertheless this is a top notch book showing how Johnson came into the Senate and transformed it. No matter what one thinks of Johnson, if one is a student of American politics, this is a worthwhile book as it shows the influence of one man and what can be done. He was no saint, but he did manage to get things done. I am slowly working my way through it, it's been about 2 years, I keep picking it up and putting it down, but learn something every time.



5. I used to worry Robert Caro wouldn't live long enough to complete his epic biographical history on Lyndon Johnson. Now, 25 years after the first volume, I worry I won't live long enough to read it all.
   
   Published in 2002 and still as of now Caro's latest installment, "Master Of The Senate" weighs in at close to 1,100 pages. It details Johnson's time in the Senate, where he rose to become the Majority Leader. Caro spends 100 pages explaining how the Senate was designed and operated as something of a brake on populist excitability, a vessel for cooling passions. A sort of sluggishness evolved, Caro explains, until the guy with ambition from Texas arrived and changed everything by smashing tradition to bits.
   
   Caro's overriding distaste for Johnson, clear especially in "Means Of Ascent", remains in force here, but another strain emerges, too, of Johnson the difference maker, the guy who got things done. You almost might see him, flaws and all, as a kind of archetypal American in his cussed indomitability, brutish, charming, needfully effective.
   
   When LBJ's mother asks about Adlai Stevenson, the Democrat who twice ran for President in the 1950s, you can't help but chuckle at his reply: "He's a nice fellow, Mother, but he won't make it 'cause he's got too much lace on his drawers."
   
   Better than "Means To Ascent" but not the classic that "Path To Power" was, "Master Of The Senate" suffers from things that make Caro such a great writer, like his ability to draw up seemingly endless detail and find a coherent whole. He can't stop writing about a handful of topics. Each time he goes back to the well he draws up something different, but it's too often the same well.
   
   Caro believes Johnson was the difference maker in making civil rights happen, even though he championed a watered-down version, because he was the only man who could push civil rights through the Senate and its stubborn Southern wing. It's a debatable point, especially since the force of change was already there, Johnson or no.
   
   More problematic for me was the book's unrelenting focus in its second half on the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which ultimately accomplished little, and on Johnson's bid for the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination, which he didn't get and wouldn't have mattered if he had. So much time is spent here that Caro is left to sum up the three remaining years of Johnson's Senate career after the Civil Rights Act's passage in less than 30 pages.
   
   One great thing about "Master Of The Senate" is Caro's articulation of Johnson's ambition as both poison and antidote for the Senate, in how he worked his fellow senators, racist zealots like Richard Russell and liberal lions like Hubert Humphrey, to get what he wanted.
   
   Johnson may have been one of the toughest figures ever to take control of our tough nation. Tough enough, in fact, that I think he'd even like Caro's books about him, warts and all. If one man's life was ever a testament to the power of one's own will, it was Johnson's, and in Caro that will to power has an able chronicler.

5 comments about Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad.

1. This is the autobiography of Waris Dirie, an international supermodel. Waris grew up as part of a nomadic tribe in Somalia that still practices female circumcision, sleeps outdoors, subsists on camels milk, and marries off young girls at 12 or 13 to much older men. It was very interesting to read about her experiences as a child because her upbringing was the same as the upbringing of children 1000 years ago in Somalia. Waris' description of her circumcision and the problems she experienced afterward were poignant and terrifying.
   
   Waris clearly has a good sense of humor. It is interesting to read her perspectives first of Mogadishu and then of London. It is fascinating to hear about how she became a model. Unfortunately, the book degenerated in the second half. Waris becomes conceited and less likeable. She also seems a bit selfish in her behaviors towards her friends.
   
   This book was a good read because of the first half but the last hundred pages was a big disappointment.



2. I looked for a book off my shelves that I hadn't read yet and came upon this one-- one I've been meaning to read ever since I first heard of Waris Dirie a few months ago when she disappeared for a few days and made the international news.
   
   As I had a few hours to wait for my son to finish his pottery class, I dove right into this book. And, it was very good. I was able to finish it before my son's class was over 2 1/2 hours later.
   
   Waris' life has definitely been interesting and, in some cases, very sad. Born in Somalia, she lived with her nomadic family for her first 13 years. As she notes, all ages are estimates, since they didn't really pay attention to birthdays. She begged her mother to be circumcised when she was five years old-- obviously, she had no idea what that meant, at all-- she only knew it meant she was considered more grown up. And, this was the kind you read about-- the kind that removes both the inner and outer labia and the clitoris. The woman that did the "surgery" sawed her with a rusty bloody broken blade that she spat on and wiped dry before cutting. Waris' circumcision left her infibulated-- with only the smallest opening that made menstruation and urination extremely painful.
   
   She does discuss this, one of the most abhorrent practices, but she also discusses much more. Much of her life was very happy-- although they were very poor. She loved both parents but ran away when she was 13 (through the desert with no shoes or water) or so to avoid a marriage to a much older man (for the price of five camels!).
   
   Through an odd chain of events, she was able to go to London to be a servant for some wealthy relatives. And, when this family planned to return to Somalia, Waris decided to stay in London. She was very soon discovered by a photographer and almost immediately became a top model.
   
   Waris' tells her story in simple, yet stark language-- she speaks her mind and is a likeable and strong woman. Her memoir is definitely interesting and she's very open about all her feelings and thoughts. The only thing I would have preferred she talk about more were her feelings about Islam. I realize that genital mutilation is not mandated by the Koran-- it is only a tradition in many of these families. However, her thoughts about her religion and some of its laws and archaic practices that affected her family (polygyny and its treatment of women, for instance), would have made the book a bit more intriguing. She didn't go into this at all.
   
   All in all, this was a provocative memoir of someone raised so entirely differently than those of us in the West. Her introduction to our foreign culture- so different than her own- made for a very thoughtful and affecting read.



3. This is the most emotional, extraordinary and shocking autobiography I've ever read, and the one I'll never forget and will always be in my mind.
   
   Some passages of the book are so shocking, you get sick in your stomach for a few seconds. But every time I had that feeling, I thought: what's this feeling compared to the pain they've gone through? So I kept reading and was astonished that FGM is still existing.
   
   I'm now a proud member of the Waris Dirie Foundation and every month, I give a little amount of money to help these little girls and the battle against FGM.



4. I purchased Desert Flower about five years ago from a street vendor in Brooklyn. I'd have to admit that I purchased the book simply because of the pretty face on the cover. I recently grabed the book of the shelf to read the story behind that pretty face. Oh! my God. I can't remember the last time I was touch by a story like this one. It's been a week since I've read the book and I'm still trying to get it out of my system.
   
   Scream in silence is the first thing that came to my mind when I heard what these women are going through in Somalia and other countries that pratice female Genital Mulitation. To deny a woman of something so natural and beautiful, I think is the worst act ever commited against women. It's as if the women are there only to service the men: cooking their food, washing their clothes, taking care of their children and she's still obligated to satisfy him sexually regardless whether or not she enjoys it in the process.
   
   Loveless sexless and most of all painfull is the best way I can describe these countries that practice Female Genital Mutilation. Shortly after these women are born, they're sexually mutilated , and have to deal with all the medical complications that follows: From trouble urinating, severe menstual cramps, painful sexual intercourse and painfull childbirth. Pain seems to play a major roll in just about every aspect of their lives. These women are hurting and and screaming in silence.
   
   A woman's body is very delicate and sensitive. Without provation women sometimes experience or develop problem with their sexual organs. So, why make matters worst?
   
   As the old saying goes, people will only go as far as you allow them. until These women work up the strength and say enough! is enough! and also recognize that they're the one with the power This nonsense will continue. Throughout history men have been known to buy, beg for sex and sometimes take it involuntary. That in itself should give these women strength to stand up to these men and stop multilating their daughters to satisfy these selfish men. These women should take control of their mind and body.
   
   Waris is definitely a child of God. There is a special purpose for hebeing here on this earth. It was not by accident that she made it safely out the desert and jungle after encountering a lion. Waris has achieve what many women will never achieve, a successful modeling career and inspite of her situation, gave birth to a healthy son without complications. Keep on counting your blessing Waris. The Lord is not done with you yet.



5. This book was both heart wrentching and inspiring. It was a beautiful story. I would like to use this book in class. I think it should be a mandatory read for everyone. This woman has become my hero. I plan on reading all her other books as well.