5 comments about Lazy B (Modern Library).

1. A wonderful and genuine book that provides great imagery and a window into the real and raw Southwest. The book is less about Justice O'Connor and more about our magnificant Southwest. Environmental issues, farming, education, and family relationships are all discussed in an authentic and beautifully descriptive way. It's not a page turner but it's a lovely book if you want a picture about growing up in the Southwest when cowboys roamed and cattle were plentiful.



2. I loved reading this memoir about growing up on a huge cattle ranch in the American southwest. Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother H. Alan Day write from the heart in an easy to read book with lots of pictures. This is a tribute to their parents, a portrait of a colorful childhood in a remote setting on the Arizona border. The Day family raised cattle for a living; real cowboys worked the ranch, broke wild horses, built and mended fences, rounded up cattle, drilled wells, and built windmills. The children participated in all aspects of ranch life.
   
   The story is about three generations of a family surviving on an arid and strange land - what the land taught them and how they coped with extremes of drought and distance. Individual stories of the cowboys, their love of horses and cattle and other animals are portrayed in a warm and loving way, as if the authors are smiling as they remember those happy days and their parents who taught and encouraged Sandra, Alan, and their sister Ann; the fun times, hard work, windmills and wells, rodeos, the first train thru the area, school, and so much more.
   
   Short chapters, wonderful pictures, and a pleasure to read about a part of America where it truly was "home on the range", and where the cattle industry flourished over a span of a century. Thank you authors for sharing. The quotations are priceless. Here is one of them: When Time, who steals our years away, Shall steal our pleasure, too. The Memory of the past will stay, And half our joys renew. (Thomas Moore, "song")



3. "Lazy B," like the title implies, is the story of Sandra Day O'Connor and her younger brother growing up on a ranch in south-eastern Arizona. They grew up in an isolated environment that mandated self-reliance and initiative. Sandra received much of her formal education through riding the train to El Paso to stay with her maternal grandparents while attending a local girls' school. Her father had wanted to attend Stanford but the responsibilities of taking over the family ranch prevented that. Sandra O'Connor was able to achieve that for him, where she excelled academically, was then inspired by one of her instructors to study law (also at Stanford), met her husband (and also dated classmate William Rehnquist), and then struggled to begin a law career at a time that women had almost no such opportunity. (Despite Sandra graduating from Stanford Law #2 in her class, her early job searches were at best met with "Can you type?")
   
   Then it was on to Phoenix where she started a law partnership, then moved to the Attorney General's office, became elected to the State Senate, became a Superior Court Judge, was promoted to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Babbitt (D), and then selected by President Reagan to the Supreme Court.
   
   Personal Note: In the late 1970s I appeared in Judge O'Connor's court as a witness and was astounded at her astute (and polite) questioning of one of the attorney's. Later, I witnessed the buzz as those who knew her stopped to congratulate her Supreme Court appointment. And most recently I had the opportunity to hear her and her brother give a presentation on this book - very insightful, witty, and again - polite. (She autographed my copy!)
   
   An inspiring person!



4. This book meant a lot to me on many levels, a special tale for this transplanted Southwesterner. I was attracted first because of the co-author, who is one of Our Country's great ladies. She and her brother have put together an inside look at life in the Southwest, the cattle ranch family life, that is no more. A whole chapter on rain and what it means in an arid land. Their loving but reserved father and how he made a living off the land. It reminded me of my own stern but loving father - when dads were supposed to be that way. The ranch life, the family and characters that inhabited it are fascinating. Wonderful story of a different place and time.



5. This book is a colorful portrait of the world O'Connor grew up in. It is simple and lovely - very little mention of her later life in the law.

No comments about . . . And His Lovely Wife: A Campaign Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man.

5 comments about The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story.

1. Ralph Carr has so far been an unsung hero of the 20th century. His courage during a time of great tragedy in American history is nothing less than inspiring. Still, his story has gone mostly unheard as we have reached a time of similar uncertainty in the 21st century. Thanks to Adam Schrager, Carr's story can be more widely seen, heard, and understood.
   
   Carr's story is enriching and Schrager's style fits the bill. The author does not just recount the life and most important moments in Carr's contribution to history, he tells Carr's story. Schrager puts us in the Colorado State Capitol where Carr made important decisions about the state, the country, and the American people; the author also brings us to the Governor's mansion and his piles of mail, as well as the Brown Palace during meetings that decided Carr's political life. Schrager does well to paint a descriptive picture of who Carr was and what he was like during his time as a leader, both physically and emotionally.
   
   What's more is that Schrager impacts why the former Colorado governor's story is so important and what it means to so many Coloradans and Americans still today. It's made clear that Carr is a political leader and human being that shouldn't have been forgotten to begin with. Governor Carr is somebody everybody should know with steadfast principles, strong patriotism, and a sense of compassion everybody should live by. At least, that's what I walked away from the book feeling; and it's a feeling I won't soon forget. Hopefully more of our leaders gain the same guidance from this book and its hero, Ralph Carr.



2. In June/08, I was privileged to hear a speech presented to our family by Adam Schrager. The topic was his book: The Principled Politician - The Ralph Carr Story. Mr. Schrager's resonant voice would hold one's interest on any topic, but his presentation and his words were most important and captivating. He began his speech by quoting Gov. Carr:
   "Never speak beyond the bladder capacity of your audience." The hour long talk extended to a question and answer period. None would admit that bladders were about to burst, but none would leave before the presentation was ended.
   
   We bought all the books available to us that day.
   
   The Principled Politician is a thoroughly researched, objectively written, long overdue book. Often, insincere plaudits are heaped upon deceased persons, most especially on noted politicians, but Schrager tells a different story. "Principled" is an accurate description of Ralph Carr, Governor of CO from 1939 to 1943. His entire life and political career were guided by sound moral principles from which he never backed down. Mr. Schrager convinces the reader of the truth behind the character label by revealing hundreds of facts, incidents, and quotations seldom or never before stated in complete form.
   
   We learn about Mr. Carr's early life in the mining villages of CO and his days studying law at the Univ of CO, but the emphasis of the book is on the years he served as CO's Gov - the WW2 years when most all politicians and most of the country denounced "yellow bellied Japs" in the US. Carr stood virtually alone in voicing the rights and the honor of the Japanese in America. When evacuation and incarceration of all Japanese - non-citizens and native born US citizens alike - living on the west coast, were ordered, Carr did not "invite" the Japanese to CO, but he "welcomed" them, unlike any other politician in all the states. Concentration camps were not welcomed in any state or neighborhood even though decreed by the US gov't and guarded behind barbed wire. Carr listened to his inner voice, heeded his principles and followed gov't rules and demands with a sincere welcome to the "dirty Japs."
   
   Carr's vociferous opponents and the anti-Carr press were overwhelmingly in the majority. His civil rights stance and friendliness to the Japanese in America assured his defeat for a run in the US senate. Nevertheless, he never caved in.
   
   Japanese Americans owe much to this incredible man. In reality, all Americans benefited by his courage and stubborn defiance of what he knew was wrong. Some say we need politicians like him today. The truth is, we ALWAYS need politicians like Ralph Carr.
   
   Thanks to Mr. Adam Schrager to whom we also owe much. I believe, he, like Mr. Carr, is a principled man. Six years of his life were devoted to the research and writing of this book.



3. Adam Schrager has brought a piece of history to life that everyone needs to read. Ralph Carr was an amazing man who stood tall on his principles. The book is a very nice read and you don't won't to put it down. There is a lesson in this book for everyone.



4. I found this book to be an inspriring story of a man standing by his principles despite great opposition. After the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, while many were calling for Japanese-Americans to be moved from the west coast and put into camps, Colorado Governor Ralph Carr said often, and with conviction, that no American-born citizen should lose their constitutional rights. In this time of fear and outrage, many citizens from Colorado and across the country strongly disagreed with the Governor and frequently told him so.
   
   Weaving together such letters to the Governor, along with newspaper clippings, and Governor Carr's own writing, Adam Schrager brings us a detailed account of one man who stuck to his convictions despite the personal and political costs. Some of the letters and articles were difficult to read. I often said to myself, "How could people think that way?" But at other times, after reading Schrager's account of media reports of the time, I had to also ask myself, "In that environment, in that time, what would I have thought?"
   
   Governor Carr knew what he felt and what he believed in. I only wish more of today's politicians put the welfare of citizens over their own political aspirations.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy reading about a unique aspect of World War II. More broadly, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about people of conviction and principle.



5. Colorado's governors beyond the past quarter-century occupy a nearly anonymous place in the state's history. Most served for short times, leading the 21st-Century resident to wonder if any truly made a mark. Even Ralph Carr is honored in the Capitol by just a small plaque outside the governor's office, and few state officials know much about him. Until now.
   
   What Adam Schrager has done is crack open a previously sealed historical vault and reanimate a man whose principled stand brings to mind the fate of Christian martyrs, American revolutionaries and anyone who has lost their lives for a cause. What Carr lost by standing up for American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II was his political life, and Schrager is able to point out just how shocking that was by taking the reader on a concise but detailed look at the rise of someone who may have been the most popular governor in state history at the time.
   
   The book shines in bringing forth Carr's character through well-placed anecdotes - including the story of him shouting down a fellow motorist while leaving a football game - and thoroughly researched details of his life. It also paints for the reader a picture of the age, when hatred toward one nationality of people is far more savage than anything we witness from Americans today. Its only slight downfall is that it goes into such enormous detail to describe the hostile racism in the letters that Carr received on his stand that it sometimes veers too far from the character himself who makes you care about this episode. But Schrager always brings you back in ways that are neither sentimental nor slanted but a lively historical retelling of Carr's career as governor.
   
   The Principled Politician is a fairly quick and enveloping read.

5 comments about Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius.

1. Until Damros published this 2005 National Book Award finalist, there has not been a good single-volume biography of Rousseau in the English language. This is because Rousseau's own auto-biography, "Confessions" (1782), is so well done and the number of sources for Rousseau's first 40 years are otherwise so weak, that writing a new biography is mostly a retelling of what Rousseau has already said. The strength of Damros' biography is to summarize Rousseau's life, his evolving thinking and his major works, including historical significance and context, while weaving in some of the best scholarship available after two centuries of reflection.
   
   His personality can best be describe as immature and "sharp at the edges". He either loved a person with all his heart, or hated them as his worst enemy. Usually, it started with the former and ended with the later, fueled by his paranoia and over-active imagination. These are traits one normally sees in a child, a black and white world view of love and hate unable to deal with the ambiguities of human weaknesses - which makes sense given Rousseau's brilliant genius combined with his abusive child-hood; lacking a mother he needed to trust someone, but at the same time could trust no one because of his abusive past. This fueled his desire for self-sufficiency and subsequent rejection of dependent relationships - thus he was naturally conflicted in an 18th C French society which was based on hierarchies of dependencies, where everyone was either the master of someone, or mastered by someone (and usually both)--Rousseau found a way to both live and preach an isolated life of self-sufficiency and inward reflection, hallmarks of the modern man. The master of no one, mastered by no one, and completely isolated from everyone. All of this is directly reflected in his works and ideas, so it is possible to fully understand Rousseau's works by understanding Rousseau the person - this biography paints the full portrait and answers many questions.



2. This fine biography traces one of those lives that would not be credible if it were fiction. After his mother died and his father abandoned him, Rousseau wandered from place to place without receiving any formal education. He failed at just about every job he attempted. Through a course of self study, however, his genuis slowly fermented, and then, in a mind bogling 5 year period around the age of 40, produced The Social Contract plus two of the most popular and influential novels of the 17th century, Emile and Julie.
   
   The story of his life, as told by Damrosch, serves the purpose of explaining where his philosophy came from. In Damrosch's view, Rousseau's outsider status and his ability to learn on his own provided the prespective from which he could see through the assumptions of his day and emerge with a unique view of life. Damrosch does a superb job of weaving between Rousseau's life, his personality and his philosophy.
   
   My only slight criticism is that the substance of The Social Contract, the book for which he's best known today, fills just a few pages. I would have preferred more on that. Damrosch, a professor of literature, seems more at home analyzing the two novels and the later autobiography, Confessions, which he considers the first modern autobiography in which a person tries to look at his childhood and inner life to see how he became the person he became. Damrosch does a first rate job examining all aspects of Rousseau's thought as revealed in the novels and the autobiography.
   
   In short, an extremely well written biography of a both intriguing and important man.



3. This fascinating biography gives a concise and briskly moving snapshot of one the key figures of our contested modernity, indeed, and ironically, of the Enlightenment tradition. Before Hegel mechanically codified dialectic Rousseau lived it in his embrace and intuitive grasp of contradictions that form the unity of life. Perhaps this is the reason he is often misunderstood and why a work such as The Social Contract provokes in turn its own dialectical audience. At a time when a technocractic rendition of the Enlightenment reigns as scientism Rousseau's critique, at the fount of the Romantic movement, still speaks to us. And Rousseau first grasps what Kant will make explicit in his 'critique of pure reason': the place of freedom in the mechanical Newtonian triumph, finally a triumph over man. All in all Rousseau is simply a human puzzle and this cascade through the strange incidents is superb reading.



4. I had previously read a good deal about Rousseau in general histories of the Enlightenment, and inspired by Prof. Damrosch's course for the Teaching Company, I had re-read a few of Rousseau's own works, but I was still intrigued and puzzled by his place in history and by his personality. Prof. Damrosch's book is so comprensive, insightful, and readable that my questions have now been answered to my complete satisfaction. In addition, Prof. Damrosch encourages and enables readers to compare themselves to Rousseau in terms of the unique individuality that we all share. I think that I now understand my own similarities and differences to Rousseau better than I did before. But I am not only a fellow human being but a participant in the history and culture of the modern world, which has been more profoundly affected by Rousseau than most of us realize.



5. It is no disrespect to a biographer of Rousseau to say that his task is made considerably easier by the fact that his subject had himself, in his fifties, written such a vivid and amazingly self-revealing autobiography, the famous Confessions. Especially as far as the first half of Rousseau's life are concerned, the main task of the biographer is to recount a story that has already been written, correcting the occasional misremembering or misrepresentation, and to comment upon it. Damrosch's own writing always reads pleasantly and easily, and he also alerts us in advance to how Rousseau's descriptions of his own childhood and adolescence would inform later writings, like Julie (1761) and Émile (1762), and how much his youthful resentment about the way he was treated by social superiors would be the foundation for his later political theories.
   
   For the first 37 years of his life, Rousseau had not revealed himself as the genius in the subtitle, though he was certainly restless: constantly on the move physically and psychologically highly labile. One wonders, in fact, how interested one would be in those 37 years if he had not shown himself a genius thereafter. I for one became a little impatient that as much as 2/5th of this long book is devoted to this early period, which by itself is not all that interesting, in which there are a lot of trivial incidents and in which we are told more about Rousseau's marginal acquaintances than perhaps we want to know. True, there emerges a good picture of the aristocratic segments of society which took Rousseau up and in which he moved with an understandable touchiness about his own status; and we also learn, for example, that Rousseau's behaviour in placing his five children to a Foundling's Hospital as soon as they were born (not left on the doorstep, a story later spread maliciously by Voltaire) was not as unusual in those days as one might think: more than a quarter of all newborn babies in Paris were abandoned in this way. Most of them were illegitimate, as Rousseau's were, and some of them, like Rousseau's later friend d'Alembert, were the illegitimate children of aristocrats.
   
   To me the book became really interesting when Rousseau made his break-through into real originality, and from that point onwards it gains immensely in power. Damrosch's analysis of Rousseau's writings is excellent. It does several things: it explains the ideas clearly and succinctly; it shows their originality at the time and the way they have influenced later thought, and it invariably links the ideas up with Rousseau's psychology. In this respect Damrosch goes against some literary theorists who insist that one should read texts as if one knew nothing about the lives of their authors; but many of Rousseau's books deliberately reflect his personal experiences in such a thinly disguised form that such arid theories are even more than usually inappropriate. Outstanding, I think, is the analysis, near the end of the book, of the Confessions, and I was particularly taken with his comparisons between Rousseau's autobiography and the autobiographical writings of his contemporaries, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume, Gibbon, and Benjamin Franklin. (Damrosch is an American professor, and he comments: "Contemporary American culture talks the Rousseau line but lives the Franklin life").
   
   Damrosch's account of Rousseau's emotional, prickly and suffering personality amply bears out David Hume's famous judgment: "He has only felt, during the whole course of his life; and in this respect his sensibility rises to a pitch beyond what I have seen any example of, but it still gives him a more acute feeling of pain than of pleasure. He is like a man who were stript not only of his clothes but of his skin, and turned out in that situation to combat with the rude and boisterous elements, such as perpetually disturb this lower world."
   
   The book is attractively illustrated with contemporary engravings and portraits and with photographs of places where Rousseau lived.

5 comments about For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years.

1. I wanted a book in which the central focus was the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton. I got a book in which the central focus was scandal. No question: Scandals were a crucial and indelible part of the Clinton administration, and a necessary element of any half-way honest account. I have no doubt that Smith gets the details right, and after reading this book I was properly furious with Bill. He lost a lot of his idealism, became far too poll driven, disgraced the presidency and the White House in particular and gave us eight years of George W. Bush. Heck, the way this book puts it he was almost single handedly responsible for 9/11. It just defies credibility that the book doesn't aknowledge in any detail that the Clintons accomplished a single thing in eight years, that there was anything going on other than the scandels and the failures. I don't know that Smith is necessarily a Republican, but I do know that she pads her meager anecdotes about the Clinton family with the lard of the Lewisnky and White Water scandels, and she comes across less as a historian than as a gossipy tabloid writer.



2. Was it all so seedy, all so sordid? That's how the Clinton years feel reading this book. Of course, most depictions of the inner workings of any White House administration make for a depressing read. But perhaps a little more effort could have been made to explain how they did not seem to mess things up so much in the Clinton years. The best part of this book, is how it shows the Clinton working together so intimately. People who think they should have gotten divorced don't really understand the complex dynamics of their relationship.



3. I watched Ms Smith on book tv talking about this book. She was giving her lecture in front of a biased group of think tank people. Hint #1
   She is totally biased. She is a very good assassin and deserves whatever they paid her to write this attack piece. When a right wing think tank with board members from the health care industry invite an author to give a speech about her book....then buyer beware...DONT BUYT THIS BOOK.



4. In the past few months, I have been reading a lot about the Clintons. I wanted to know more about Hillary. After reading Carl Bernstein's "A Woman in Charge", I had a favorable impression of her, even though his account was not slanted in either direction.
   
   This book focuses more on the Hillary and Bill Clinton's dynamic. After reading this book, it is clear that you cannot study one without the other. They are truly each other's "other half".
   
   After reading this book, it is clear that they did run a co-presidency during Bill Clinton's 2 terms in office; and it is understandable to see why she refers to this time as the needed experience for her own presidency plans.
   
   In fact, the impression I got from this book is that even without the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater incidents, Bill Clinton would still not have been an effective president without Hillary at his side. She brought the discipline that he needed to put into practice his political dreams.
   
   He on the other hand provides the political vision and spontaneity in thought, that she lacks.
   
   The book is successful in showing that Hillary is certainly capable of being our next president, but it also makes you wonder if you really want her to be. I felt that the book was not as objective as it could have been. I have always liked Bill Clinton, but I finished this book disgusted with his sexual behavior, and with the distinct feeling that they are both so political ambitious and self-centered, they will step on anyone, say and do anything to get elected. This book did not present the facts in an objective way as Bernstein's did, but in a more negatively-slanted manner. She mentions The Drudge Report without illuminating us on its creator, she talks about Mellon Scaife without clarifying how much money he gave to feed the right-wing conspiracy that was definitely working against the Clintons; and she mentions David Brock as a source against the Clintons, without mentioning that he later wrote a book describing in detail all the lies and manipulations that were exercised in the conspiracy that Brock himself confirmed to exist.
   
   Perhaps one of the more interesting "side effects" of this book for me, is the light it sheds on Al Gore. I had already gotten a whiff of his brilliance in Bill Clinton's autobiography, but in this book he is also shown to be a highly honorable, decent man. It once again, saddened me to reflect on how different the world would be today if he had been president these last 8 years.
   
   I have often wondered why Al Gore has not endorsed either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. In view of what I read in this book, I don't think he would endorse Hillary; but he would probably feel he was betraying the Clintons if he endorsed Obama, and so will refrain from doing so. In the end if he does endorse Obama, it will be because he truly believes in his candidacy and not for payback to the Clintons, even though he would be quite justified in doing so.
   
   In conclusion, reading this book has changed the way in which I view the Clintons. Although it is true that they were the victims of a right-wing conspiracy, they made many personal and political mistakes, that gravely affected the presidency. In the book someone is quoted as saying that Bill Clinton was a great president but not his presidency, and I think this is not only very accurate, but could also describe Hillary Clinton's presidency, if there's ever one.



5. What a surprise For Love of Politics was. I bought it as an alternative to the recent works Her Way and the one penned by Carl Bernstein. I hoped that it would be more objective than those two publications and I was not disappointed. This is an excellent history and happens to be one of the few books in my life that I could not put down.
   
   As for the author, before purchasing my copy I knew nothing about her. Indeed, I had never heard of Mrs. Bedell Smith before. All her bio online tells us is that she is a biographer who works at Vanity Fair. The endorsements listed on the back cover come from mainstream media sources like the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post so, upon receiving it in the mail, I was a little worried that the analysis would be slanted. I am pleased to report that my fears were unwarranted as For Love of Politics gives off no odor of bias whatsoever. Indeed, these chapters are bathed in neutrality. Clinton supporters might not like this but if justice offends then one must examine oneself.
   
   As a conservative who has read five or six rightist accounts of the Clintons, I can quickly grasp from what side of the political spectrum commentary comes; although, here I had no idea. Even after devouring all 450 of these pages, I am as befuddled in regards to what Mrs. Bedell Smith thinks as I was when I first opened it. I can think of no higher compliment to bestow upon a historian than saying that they are above political manipulation which Mrs. Bedell Smith definitely seems to be. Her evaluation of these primary source materials (original sources) was compulsively fair which is also true of the narrative on aggregate.
   
   The real art here is that she allows the Clintons to tell their own story...but what a story! The tale remains timely as Hillary may well be our next president. For Love of Politics was entertaining but incredibly educational as well. Old time students of the Clintons will learn new things and neophytes will have a chance to get beyond the soundbytes that saturated the two terms of our 42nd President. In my humble opinion, this is a must read.

5 comments about The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream of Absolute Power.

1. I find myself enjoying non-fiction more and more as I grow older, but books like this make me stop and think, maybe I should stick to biographies, standard historical texts and of course fiction. That of course is what I wish this book was, fiction. I never knew much about Karl Rove, and never really thought about the man behind the man type of political animal. I'm aware they are more into the "game" than anything else, and that winning is all there is - just like ambitious coaches. Isn't that what Rove is, essentially, a coach. If so his personality and the way he goes about the business of creating an image, decimating opponents - with bald faced lies more often than not- is disturbing.
   
   This is a very well written book, easy to follow and organized so that following the progression and development of the story Moore is telling is comfortable. Obviously there was a lot of research done and it is well used, not over used. I checked a few of the texts referred to and could find nothing objectionable as "out of context", and the opinions of the author is controlled and not intrusive. As a reading experience it was pleasant enough even if the material was oh so disturbing.
   
   In the last four years I have probably read more political books than the previous thirty. Maybe because they are everywhere and being talked about constantly. Certainly they are no more interesting than say, "The Making of a President" from the 1960s. Most of the best sellers in this category are extremely divisive and in many cases, just by their titles, mean spirited (case in point the savage diatribes of Ann Coulter such as "How to talk to a Liberal, If You must".)and of little real value.
   
   That said, "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power" is very, very disturbing. Here is a man who has decided that ulra-conservative thought must rule for the next century, and who does he pick as his standard bearer but George W. Bush, a man with little experience, proven ineptitude and incompetence inbusiness, a draft dodger who doesn't even take his commitment to the air nathional guard seriously and a former drunk. Few people now will deny that as President - an office he didn't even win by popular vote - George W. Bush has remained true to his character and blundered his way through his first term in such a horrible way that no one with an ounce of sense would have voted for him for a second term - which he likely did not win legitimately either - but with a man like Karl Rove there to lie about his opponents, distort the truth about them and deny the absolute irrefutable truth about his candidate's own back ground and lack of moral character he remains the president for four more disaterous years. Karl Rove is a mastermind when it comes to duplicity. He saw to it that true American heroes who served during the Vietnam conflict were degraded (John Kerry, John Murtha, John Mccain, etal) and then promotes Bush as a man who has high regard for the military. What monumantal hypocrisy. The sadest part is that with all the facts before the American electorate Bush still remains president. Perhaps the contempt Rove expresses for the average American voter is the hook he has so effectively used, proving not once, but twice that an inept, incompetent, lazy, anti-intellectual, pretend evangelical christan can be a winner if the man behind him has no ethical standards, or moral compass and is willing to lie, cheat and steal to achieve his nefarious results.
   
   Sadly, he is very, very good at it as this book shows. Sadly the voters buy it, and even more sadly we all loose in the end and worst of all the America of ideological moral standards and a reputation for care and concern for the down trodden is lost, and perhaps never to be regained.
   
   Karl Rove has created the absolute worst world leader in the history of our great democracy and he is actually proud of himself. At the risk of repeating myself, how sad for us all.



2. Even before the results of the recent midterm elections were in, "The Architect", a superbly written narrative about the life and actions of Karl Rove, would have been a big hit. Since last week, however, James Moore's and Wayne Slater's book must be viewed in a more substantive and profound light. After all, Rove was one of the big losers on November 7 and we can now read this book through a prism of recent events.
   
   "The Architect" hits the ground running. After terrific chapters about the connection with Rove and the Christian right, the book lands on what Rove does best. By promoting the wedge issue known as "gay marriage", Rove succeeded in disarming then actually arming Evangelical Christians to rise up against this issue. Rove rightly looks at this group as "absolutists" and ramping up support for anti-gay marriage amendments with the help of the religious right is made all the more curious when one finds out that he was raised in a non-religious home and had a gay stepfather to boot. It must take great disassociation yet immense focus to achieve what Rove did on just this issue alone. It is also a wonder as to what could have been achieved had Rove recast his forces for the common good and not for divisive ends.
   
   While "The Architect" is a very good book, it stumbles occasionally. Chapters regarding labor unions and trial lawyers have less of a direct Rove fingerprint. However, when Moore and Slater return to the sheer political power wielded by Rove, the book regains its clarity and interest. This is where the authors are at their collective best.
   
   If one has read "The Architect" before last week it would be good to give it another read. For now we see that the whiz kid-cum-guru can't win them all and this lack of recent political success signals the beginning of the tide away from Rove and Co. I highly recommend this book for its revelations and the authors' ability to see their subject from so many different angles.



3. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's Machiavellian methods behind George W. Bush's gubernatorial and presidential election victories have garnered a begrudging admiration from conservative politicos and pundits. Texas journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater know their subject quite well since they are also responsible for the incisive book upon which the 2004 film version of "Bush's Brain" was based. The fiery documentary detailed Rove's tactics in orchestrating the successful 2000 presidential campaign. Moore and Slater's new book goes much further in showing a man who has made himself even more indispensable as a virtual Iago figure to Bush's Othello.
   
   The co-authors assert that nothing is sacred to Rove, in particular, founding democratic principles and the U.S. Constitution, when it comes to attaining victory and that in fact, the amoral gamesmanship he feels is required is what motivates him. It's a scarifying portrait but one that comes across as far more textured than one would expect due to some surprising disclosures from the co-authors. They fill in details of Rove's background with his long-standing affiliation with several neo-con organizations, which in turn, shaped his drive toward dismantling unions, privatizing Social Security and diminishing those he saw as his political enemies, homosexuals and anti-war activists. However, the most publicized disclosure is the personal account of how Rove's beloved stepfather revealed himself to be gay and left his mother for another man. It is debatable whether this perceived act of betrayal was the lightning rod for Rove's aggregation of anti-gay sentiments.
   
   At the same time, his persistent efforts to smear opponents appear to have this common thread, and the co-authors effectively show us to what degree he was willing to use this tactic. It is not a new campaigning approach, but it's one that Rove has elevated to an art form in 2004. Targeting the Christian fundamentalist conservatives that constitute the largest cross-section of the Republican base, Rove used whatever means necessary to convey the conviction that Democratic opponents were dominated by a significant homosexual lobby. The most egregious maneuver was how he purportedly orchestrated a campaign of automatic telephone messages to be placed to thousands of numbers nationwide. The infamous message stated it was from the Kerry campaign and that if elected, gay rights would be a top priority. Moreover, beyond the presidential campaign, the Republican machine under Rove's direction managed to put anti-marriage equality referenda on eleven state ballots under the guise of groups like the Traditional Values Coalition, which were fronts for the religious right.
   
   While anti-gay paranoia was his linchpin, Rove was not limited in his arsenal of weapons, whether it was vote suppression in Ohio where Bush won by a slim margin or pressure placed on members of Congress to support controversial bills. Moore and Slater detail the smear campaign developed against Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame to cover up the truth about Bush's rationale for invading Iraq, as well as the connection to Jack Abramoff and the resulting corporate corruption scandals. While Rove's hypocrisy is fiercely documented and obviously reviled by his opponents, his supporters are ambivalent about his methods. Moore and Slater provide a comprehensive portrait of a man who based on his record, illustrates a total disregard for democracy. He has amassed a fearsome respect among the White House inner circle for the past six years, and one wonders from this fascinating book whether a possible dismantling of the Republican hegemony in the House will diminish his standing.



4. Perhaps people should not judge a book by the cover--but they do.
   
   "Bush's Brain": Great title.
   
   "State of Denial": Great title.
   
   "The Architect": Terrible title.
   
   Who is going to read this book? Only those who already have contempt for
   Karl Rove and George W. Bush and nobody else. No Republicans and no swing voters.



5. "The Architect" reports that Karl Rove's ambition is to build a right-wing dynasty that can dominate American politics for decades, and that ultimately he will be remembered for figuring out how to game the American political system.
   
   The politics of deception has become a conventional political tool for Rove-aided Republicans. His history is to use surrogate organizations and third-party operatives to attack opponents - without leaving either Rove's or his candidates fingerprints.
   
   Rove's special talent is achieving synergy - pleasing moneyed and/or voter-rich coalitions while undermining Democratic party strengths. For example, lanugage inserted into the Homeland Security Bill restricting TSA employees' ability to unionize pleases big business, while reducing Democrats' ability to derive strength from government unions; a "special bonus" was achieved through also offering a means to attack Democrats rising to unions' defense as "weak on defending America" --> defeat of at least one Democrat senator (Max Cleland). Similarly with vouchers and the "No Child Left Behind" act - this helps motivate the Christian Right, homeschoolers, and anti-government conservatives to the polls, boost Republicans' image as pro-education (even among African-Americans), while undercutting teacher union strength and their ability to support Democrats. Privatizing Social Security obviously would bring increased revenues for Wall Street (and more Republican donations from them), boost the Republican-leaning "investor class," and loosen Democrat strength among the elderly.
   
   Early on Rove realized that politically conservative Christian evangelicals were easy to organize - they were already organized into churches. Rove saw Ralph Reed (Christian Coalition leader) as an asset, and thus "parked" him at Enron as an energy lobbyist, awaiting Bush II's candidacy. From others Rove also recognized that traditional Catholics and Orthodox Jews were similarly inclined to be politically conservative. Emphasizing support for Israel served to further bring conservative Jews and Christians together into the Bush camp (the latter hoping to bring about biblical prophesies about "end-times"), and siphoned off funds from Democrats.
   
   However, analysis of the 2000 election convinced Rove that over three million of these groups had not voted. Thus, to invigorate the group he launched an emphasis on attacking homosexuals - despite the fact that his father was a homosexual, and most also believe the Republican Party Chairman is as well. (Rove had used this ploy earlier in Bush vs. Richards in the '94 Texas gubernatorial race, taking one of Richards' strengths - her inclusiveness - and turning it into a weakness. Similarly, he launched a whisper campaign against an Alabama judicial candidate well-known as a benefactor of troubled youth - spreading suspicions that he was a pedophile.)
   
   Attempting to sell Social Security privatization, Rove's "signature approach" also appeared vs. AARP, the leading opponent. Ads were taken out claiming that AARP supported same-sex marriages, based on the organization's objection to wording in the Ohio anti-gay marriage amendment (it feared the wording would also ban elderly heterosexuals living together).
   
   Meanwhile, the Bush II administration, instead of working out effective solutions to terrorism, Katrina, the economy, etc., focuses on weakening enforcement of regulations against businesses and the wealth, while increasing same vs. unions.
   
   Bottom Line: Rove and Bush II decsion-making is dominated by political manuevering, instead of what's best for the nation - this explains Bush II's reliance on cronies rather than experts. Worse, Rove has probably irrevocably changed American politics for the worse. In doing so, he has taken advantage of the overwhelming complexity and extent of government today that prevents citizens from adequately following and analyzing events. Rove's actions show that he lacks a decent moral compass; unfortunately, Bush's retention of Rove doesn't say much for him either.

2 comments about The Americano: Fighting with Castro for Cuba's Freedom.

1. Morgan's story is almost too amazing to believe. A hapless soul with nothing to lose -- kicked out of schools and dishonorably discharged from the army -- washes up in Cuba and within months becomes a Cuban national hero?! This gringo didn't even speak Spanish and now (thanks to this book) has a legitimate claim to being properly recognized as one of the genuine heroes of the Cuban revolution. Just look at the cover with this dropout from Ohio walking arm-in-arm with Che and Castro.
   
   This is a wonderful story of charisma, good timing, and derring-do -- and how someone really can have a second act in life. And what a second act: a drifter morphing into a central player on the international stage. The book offers a lot of color on the "peripheral characters" in Morgan's story, like Castro (a closet Communist at the time), the NY Times mischief-maker Herbert Matthews, and the ruthless Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo.
   
   The book shares Morgan's charisma and good timing. It's fun, runs fast, and is full of endearing details to make you fall in love with the guy. Timingwise, it's perfect. The old timers who know what really happened were muzzled by Castro for the last fifty years. They're (mostly) not dead yet, but old enough to spill their guts without fear of retribution. Shetterly does a nice job of getting them to talk, which makes all the difference in this charming story of a forgotten/censored corner of US and Cuban history.



2. There is no shortage of biographies on historical figures. Year after year, we're inundated with new editions on Kennedy and King, Lincoln and Leonardo da Vinci, each purporting to shine a new light on the great individual and their role in history. However, it's often the stories of people who have been lost to history that truly bring the particulars of a certain era into sharp focus. Such is the case with Aran Shetterly's The Americano, the story of William Morgan, a man from Toledo who fought alongside the rebels in the Cuban revolution.
   
   A misfit whose taste for adventure was way bigger than the middle American sensibilities of his native Toledo, William Morgan, after years of mixing it up with small time hoodlums and a troublesome stint in the US Army, finds his way to Cuba, where he enlists with the rebel group the Second National Front of the Escambray. Within months, The Americano, as he is affectionately christened by his new comrades, is one of the unit's leaders, and on his way to becoming one of the central figures in the revolution and a Cuban celebrity.
   
   Morgan rubs shoulders with all of the well-known usual suspects: the Cuban dictator Batista and the Dominican dictator Trujillo, the Argentine rebel commander Che Guevara, Ernest Hemingway, J. Edgar Hoover and the "jefe" himself, Fidel Castro. Shetterly delivers all of the requisite historical detail--names and roles of characters from important to incidental, all the relevant dates and locations, geopolitical backstory--but locates it all within a narrative that is as compelling and cinematic as any story I've read recently, fiction or non-fiction. By the time your come to the breathtaking ending--which somehow still feels like a surprise, even though it's previewed from the beginning--you're well-versed in the nuances of the Cuban story, *and* you've had one rollercoaster of a read.
   
   Cubaphiles regardless of their persuasion will have a field day with this book, as it's exhaustively researched and offers the kind of detail that is usually found in more academic (read: boring) treatments of important moments in history. However, The Americano is so accessible and engaging that those of us with just a cursory knowledge of the history will turn the last page completely satisfied. Highly recommended!

4 comments about Self Portrait Che Guevara.

1. The usual revolutionary psychosis on display. Committed to "saving the world" once he got power he was at a loss to do anything but make vacuous speeches and, of course, kill, until he was up to his elbows in blood.
   As he discovered that the real world was a bit more complex than his teenage formulations, he tried time and time again, Congo, Russia, China and finally Bolivia to escape into the role playing and costumes of "man of the people" but never duplicating the thrills of the Sierra Maestra until betrayed by Fidel he died alone in a mud hut, with the solace that millions of like wise vacuuous teenagers would someday wear his picture on a t-shirts while getting stoned.



2. I purchased Self Portrait because it sounded like a good biography/autobiography of Che Guevara. What the book actually is is a coffee table book, with small excerpts from Che's diaries and letters and commentary by the editor, Victor Casaus. It seems in some parts of the book that Casaus is more the author and that his words fill the pages more than Guevara's. This book has great photos of Guevara and it decorates my coffee table quite nicely, but if you are looking for a good history of Guevara, look elsewhere.



3. A very interesting way of portraying the Cuban hero through pictures. My one criticism is that the pictures at the end of the book are not captioned to tell us what they are or when they were taken.



4. If you are tired of the same books on Che Guevara, this is the different book. Formed by texts and images based upon Che's own life it follows mainly the same path of its biographers but in such a beautiful way it made his own daughter Aleyda (who rarely saw him) exclaim: "the photos in this book are so magnificent you feel a desire for kissing him, embracing him and keep talking to him" (she means with his own personal texts based in his own testimony).
   
   The selection, prepared on the first hand with the remembrance of a lost love (by his widow) and on the other, by the professional eye of Victor Casaus (a Cuban cinematographer who had been many times a judge on international film competitions) you can follow Dr. Guevara from his childhood, young age, his travels, the Sierra Maestra up to his last days in Bolivia.
   
   Sorry, no Christ figure photo (in the words of its own editor). Keep in mind this is a pro-Cuban Government book so you instead will find Fidel, but judge by yourself. My only last opinion is that if this people can produce such a book in a system so full of censorship, I do wonder what they can achieve in liberty!

2 comments about The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography (Blackwell Critical Biographies).

1. Incredibly interesting and really a good, hard look at the life of John Milton and what inspired him and what aroused his wrath. His poems are eternal and deal with things secular and spiritual. His words have come down to us through many centuries and they are still as powerful as the day he wrote them. What a true genius! What a stunningly beautiful biography...I couldn't put it down.



2. This is, indeed, the most exhaustive modern biography of John Milton. The renowned critic Barbara Lewalski, as usual, offers the students and scholars of Milton an enchanting biographical masterpiece that both narrates and captures Milton's story and history from his early childhood "The childhood Strews the Man" to his last breath "Teach the every Soul". Mocking Samuel Johnson's theory on writing a biography, Lewalski, without eating, drinking, or living in social intercourse with Milton, has succeed in writing an impressive biography of Milton through, as she mockingly asserts, living in intellectual and artistic intercourse with Milton. Reading this book, to the surprise of Johnson, one will find him/herself eating, drinking, and living social intercourse with john Milton thanks to the scholarly talent of Barbara Lewlaski.

5 comments about Ho.

1. David Halberstam was a reporter in Vietnam from 1962-1964 and revealed what was happening. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964. Halberstam used his knowledge of Asia and his abilities as a political reporter to write this biography of Ho Chi Minh. The 'Bibliography' lists his sources. Bernard Fall seems to be his main source. This book lacks an index, a table of contents, and photographs. This 1971 book is basically a magazine article. There are history books that go into more detail and have the advantage of hindsight. Ho Chi Minh liberated his country from colonial rule, a feat that is unusual in history.
   
   Chapter 1 tells how French colonialism began in 1856. In precolonial Vietnam taxes were low, landholdings were small and dispersed, and there were few rich people. The French brought heavy taxes, loans and usury, an increasing poverty among the peasants with rich owners of lands (p.11). The defeat of the French at Dienbienphu was an example to other colonial peoples (p.15). Ho eschewed a cult of personality in favor of simplicity. Chapter 2 tells of his life in France and his becoming an advocate for Vietnamese freedom (p.31). In France Ho sided with those who took the side of people in colonial countries (Chapter 3). Ho lived a clandestine life while traveling to Russia, Western Europe, and Asia. Ho cleverly eliminated a rival (p.44). The VNQDD started a revolt against French rule but they were suppressed and eliminated (p.48). Industrialization increased the number of laborers and strikes.
   
   Vichy France allowed the Japanese occupation of Vietnam (Chapter 4). The Vietminh were the only group that was against both the French and the Japanese (p.69). They also had their military force (p.70) under the leadership of Giap (p.72). The surrender of Japan allowed the Vietminh to take over Hanoi and Vietnam as the legitimate power. A weak France was preferred to a strong China (p.83). The rest of Chapter 5 discusses and explains the victory against the French. The Vietminh won because they had the support of the Vietnamese people. The costs of the war to the French was too great (p.101). Chapter 6 tells about the American involvement in South Vietnam. The land that had been distributed to the peasants was taken away; this created enmity for the Diem government (p.109). Diem depended on American support; when this was withdrawn Diem was finished. The Vietcong was winning by 1964 (p.113). American escalated the war in 1965. The Tet offensive had both a military and a political aim (p.115). Ho Chi Minh died before Vietnam won its independence.



2. I wouldn't order the item if I did not want it or think it of merit. I wanted a copy of the book formyself, and one for my nephew in Oregon. Seemingly your Web page would not allow me to enter two different shipping addresses. Is there a trick, when I entered my home address, my nephews would default to that address. When I entered my nephew's address, then my address would be overwritten by his. Is there a remedy for future orders?



3. Nations at war like to demonize the leader of their enemy as part of propaganda. This is fine as long as the nation's leaders themselves do not believe in their own propaganda, but instead do their homework and get to truly understand their enemy. This crucial step was missing from America's policy makers during the Vietnam War. Every president involved; JFK, LBJ, to Nixon, did not bother to fully understand Ho Chin Minh, the leader of the Vietnamese Communists. This is why books like this one are so important; written by private individuals, they offer unbiased, insightful glimpses at the other's leader.
   
   This book by David Halberstam is one of his less read books, but being so short in length, it is probably the most focused of his books. This book describes the life of Ho, both private and public, his role in the Vietnam War, and his relations with other world leaders and governments, both before, during, and after the Vietnam War. The treatment of his private life is shorted at the expense of covering more of his public life.
   
   The book does a good job of describing his personal traits that made him a leader: patience, self-sacrifice, humility, and foresight. The book also does a good job of contrasting his personality with others he encountered in battle; Western generals, Western soldiers, and Western politicians. The book is also worth reading because it offers a viewpoint of the Vietnam War as seen by Vietnamese, specifically Ho and his leadership.
   
   I highly recommend reading this book; it is short and easy to read. It is also impartial and straight-to-the-point history, as expected from an author like David Halberstam.



4. Ho Chi Minh was, in many ways, a mysterious figure. This book reveals some of those mysteries. But also, his stalinist tendencies which caused the death of many of his fellow countrymen and women. Although a revolutionary, he was a stalinist in many ways. Halberstam is such a brilliant writer though, its worth a read.



5. This book was less about Ho Chi Minh, and more about why the United States should not fight him. This reader was hoping for a more detailed discussion of Ho's life, his philosophy, etc. This book does over some insights into Ho Chi Minh's character and life, but I was left with the feeling that the book was written for other purposes. The book was originally published in 1970, a year after Ho's death so the book also smacks of the eulogy, glorification of the dead variety.