2 comments about Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson.

1. Neither a smear sheet or puff piece, this is a very objective and thorough look at the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

   Here you see both the good and bad. The infamous "King's blood" incident, the womanizing, the crudity and rudeness (that I've had the misfortune to expereince once), and the scandals are all here minus the Angela Parker case in 1971, oddly.

   However, Frady does not let the reader forget the good that Jesse Jackson has done for society. We also him getting tearful Israeli and Palestinian children to come together in peace. We see him trying to unify poor Whites and Blacks in America (who even THINKS of doing that anymore?), we see him encouraging Black kids to forego delinquency and do better in school (I first saw him on one such occasion in 1978), and we see the successful instances in which he helped in the release of hostages. We also see that contrary to popular (mis)beleif, he has encouraged far more cooperation among the races than this far lesser contemporaries among what remains of "Black leadership."

   Frady lets the reader know that in spite of Rev. Jesse Jackson's considerable and numerous flaws, the good that he has done cannot be dismissed.

   In spite of this, there is a minor complaint. Frady gets to be a bit much with the dialect in trying to capture Rev. J/J's speech patters ("Yawl," "Great Gawd a mighty," "Looka heah," etc.).




2. "Jesse" is a compelling examination of the fascinating life and times of an American original, civil rights leader and two-time presidential contender Jesse Jackson. This detailed, nuanced biography benefits from the author's nearly thirty years covering Jackson as a journalist, as well as the access Frady was granted his subject as a frequent traveling companion and from many interviews with Jackson, his family and colleagues. As a result, Frady has been able to create a intimate account of his subject's life and thought which seemingly allows the reader to get inside Jackson's head and understand his motivations and actions. Striving for a balanced portrayal, Frady does not shy away from Jackson's faults; commendably, he deals with them in a frank, fair manner while avoiding sensationalism. Ultimately, Frady suggests, all of Jackson's activities, from his early work with PUSH and Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, to his presidential campaigns and his incessant world travels, have been motivated by a common spirit of "gospel populism" and a desire to be seen not simply as a black leader but as a moral leader with a vision that transcends racial, cultural and economic boundaries. "Jesse" is not a perfect book; it seems at times a bit lengthy, and often Frady devotes seemingly endless attention to minor or obscure events and breezes over major ones (example: we repeatedly hear references and anecdotes about Jackson's 1989 trip to earthquake-stricken Armenia, but his 1988 speech at the Democratic National Convention - probably his most memorable public moment - is cursorily dispatched in two sentences). "Jesse" is probably not, as one reviewer suggested, the definitive biography of Jesse Jackson, but it is an important key to understanding the man, and in the absence of a definitive portrait, it will no doubt be the best Jackson biography available for a very long time.

1 comments about Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, ... Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way.

1. This is my first Amazon review. I felt I had to write a review for this wonderful book. On one hand, this is an inspiring account of the passion and vigor that catalyzed the civil rights and feminist movements in this country (in stark contrast to much of the hollow rhetoric these days). On the other, it is an entertaining and poignant portrayal of an incredibly complicated character in American history. The form of the book, something of a round table discussion between Abzug and those who knew her, helps the reader to get a sort of 360 degree history with multiple views of single events. It is a finely wrought and powerful portrayal of Abzug and of the history of our country. I hope particularly that young women (and men) will read it and be inspired.

4 comments about The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman.

1. Very infomative. Too short, but about the right amount of depth. Showed some of his political shaping.



2. I never did give anybody hell. I just gave them the truth and they thought it was hell. That's my favorite quote of Harry S Truman and has nothing to do with this book, except one thing. As you read through this left-handed autobiography, the quote pretty much sums up this great man's efforts during his long tenure of a political career. There is an involvement throughout the book that says that he tried his best for the people, his people... and who can ask more from a representative of the people? This book is a compilation of letters, writings, scribblings and other noteworthy sources rather than a sit-down writing from the man to the public, which is well put together and gives the reader a strangely consistent look into the mind-set of a great man.



3. This book is an excellent example of why Harry Truman is the all-time greatest underdog. He came from simple roots and through sheer will and determination, he made some of the most significant changes to the United Staes and the world. Well-written and entertaining.



4. I ordered this book because I am interested in the person of president Truman, and the years of his presidency. I expected to get more insight about the decision of dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his dealings with Churchill and Stalin, and the korean war and his relationship with Douglas MacArthur. This book has tells nothing about those subjects, and is overall very sketchy.

5 comments about T.r.: A Life.

1. I am very pleased to add this book by Brands to my T.R.collection. He gave me more insight to Roosevelt's life as a man, a husband, a father and a President. A very good, informative read.



2. I grew up being a fan of Theodore Roosevelt. His energy, unabased patriotism, and concern for the people all attracted me. As time went on and I learned more of him that admiration slowly receded. Nowadays, I can admire his energy but his patriotism I realise was over the line, border line jingoism. His 'concern' for the people caused him to ignore and reinterpert the Constitution in ways favorably to actions he wanted to take.
   
   That said, Mr. Brands has not done a particularly interesting book. The style of writing is breezy and almost tabloid in style. Details are often lacking and opinions are injected without indentifing themselves as such. In stark contrast to Theodore Rex by Mr. Morris, this book seems to be a lightweight. Little concern is apparent in Mr. Brands writings concerneing the damage TR was doing to both the nation and Constitution with his cavaliar attitude in governing the nation. If you want to know about TR's decision making at critical junctions in history or indepth background to such, this is not the book for you. Mr. Morris' book is far better then this Hollywood style tome.
   
   At best this book might be a TR primer, for sure it is not the best book on the subject.



3. This book was HW Brands' first book-length biography. He tackled a challenging subject and succeeded marvelously. The thing about Teddy Roosevelt is that he would be a fascinating character even if he had not become President.
   
   To fit Roosevelt's life into a single volume extended the book to 800+ pages (paperback), but well worth the read. This life deserves it. TR's maniacal energy pulses through the book. TR was a true polymath as well as a 'man of action'. He charges through the book and a towering public career with 'dee-lightful' gusto. An extreme example: he gave a speech in Milwaukee despite still bleeding from a gunshot received that same day. Roosevelt's biggest political mistake came when he announced that he would not run for second full term (He did so because he had served nearly all of McKinley's term). As a result he was out of office at the age of 50!
   
   At the same time his private life revealed a darkness. Stunned by the early death of his father when he was a youth and then by the deaths of his first wife and mother on the same night when he was at Harvard, Roosevelt seems to have never recovered emotionally. After the latter event, he left for the Dakotas and his cowboy period leaving his infant daughter (the redoubtable Alice Roosevelt Longworth) behind. The child, whose mother died two days after her birth, was virtually ignored by Roosevelt. Near the end of his life his youngest son dies in World War One and TR is crushed.
   
   Brands makes extensive use of Roosevelt's personal letters to tell the story of this amazing life. Highly recommended.



4. Two of the finest historical biographies I have consumed in my lifetime have come from the pen of H.W. Brands. The work at hand on Theodore Roosevelt was published in 1997; the other, on Benjamin Franklin, in 2000. Both works pass muster for scholarly accuracy and content. What is intriguing is the author's ability to adapt style to his subject and the times. Franklin's life carries the gravitas of the building of the constitutional life of the United States of America. Roosevelt's, in contrast, bears the energy of a man who came to power as America was high on its own industrial hubris. Brands' Roosevelt is a product of the Gilded Age with the common sense to see its tarnish as well. The T.R. of this work may not be wise, but he was definitely smart.
   
   Born a sickly child to a New York family of some means in 1858, young Roosevelt almost from first consciousness set himself on the road to self-improvement. Brands suggests that one motivating factor may have been Roosevelt's regard for his father, Theodore Sr. The elder Roosevelt had been successful in business and family life, but there was one glaring omission in his resume: he had purchased his way out of the 1863 Union draft. How much this $300 gesture affected his son is a mystery, of course, but there is no denying that the young Theodore [and later, the middle-aged Theodore] would never miss a bugle call.
   
   Roosevelt's professional resume is eclectic and even eccentric. Although he was born into money, he was not so rich that he needn't work. A lawyer by profession, Roosevelt's drive and self confidence would never let him live conventionally, and he seems to have suffered from chronic "vocational crisis." For the young and the restless of his day, the two great frontiers were politics and the open West, and T.R. ventured into both.
   
   There is some irony in this, because in truth Roosevelt was not genetically suited for either. His Dakota ranching years proved to be an expensive, uncomfortable, and at times dangerous experiment that took a large bite from the family fortunes. On the other hand, he acquired the skills that would later help him corral enemies in his gilded Republican party. Dakota in many ways was the paradigm for the political Roosevelt: a man strangely out of place in a hostile environment who proved to be doggedly likeable and yet someone not to be trifled with, either.
   
   His rise through the Republican Party was the antithesis of, say, that of McKinley or Harding, or even his dear friend Henry Cabot Lodge. Put briefly, he was so loud and so popular that party leaders virtually had to hold their noses and swallow hard. Brands' description of Roosevelt's nomination to the vice-presidency sounds for all the world like the tale of a middle manager being booted upstairs because no one could work with him. Roosevelt in the executive branch was bearable; it was, after all, a McKinley universe.
   
   McKinley, sadly, departed the scene sooner than anyone expected. And yet, for his seven-plus years in the White House, Roosevelt must have felt as if he was still in the McKinley orbit. He was not totally unlike his young relative Franklin Roosevelt in terms of political fortunes: electorally untouchable, professionally anathema. In the case of T.R., he captured the great electoral middle ground with rhetoric that decried the trusts and the excesses of big business, on the one hand, and radicalism on the other. He would easily have captured the 1908 election had he kept his mouth shut, but he felt compelled to honor his public remarks made years earlier that he believed his completion of McKinley's term should constitute his own first term as well.
   
   Roosevelt's executive strength lie in national defense and foreign policy. He had long been a disciple of the Alfred Thayer Mann school of strong navies, and it is not surprising that the Panama Canal is one of his legacies. The canal's strategic importance in two subsequent world wars has dulled Americans to the memory of Roosevelt's Caribbean chicanery in making it possible. In T.R.'s defense it can be said that he was probably as knowledgeable of world politics as any president of his era and very much a realist on matters of American military capabilities.
   
   His understanding of Emperor Wilhelm and the deteriorating European alignment probably made his retirement extremely difficult, and he seems to have been rather unsatisfied with his progress of effecting the "Square Deal" for American workers. Much of this frustration was projected onto his anointed successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt's treatment of Taft as described by Brands is morally repugnant, and one is hard pressed to feel much sympathy for Roosevelt's political derailing in 1912.
   
   The complexity of Roosevelt's affections for Taft might come as a surprise to those who subscribe to Henry Adams' description of T.R. as "pure act." In truth, Roosevelt's psyche and the complexities of his personal life deserve and receive substantial attention. Consider, for example, his conjugal life. After a brief infatuation with Edith Carow, Roosevelt was smitten by her friend Alice Lee and eventually married her. In letters to his friends Roosevelt described his life with Alice as unimaginably happy. What he could not have foreseen was Alice's untimely death in childbirth. The reader must make what he will of Roosevelt's behavior in his grief, as he gave away baby Alice to relatives until he was well established in his second marriage to the runner-up Edith. It was Edith, hardly naïve to the realities of the situation, who bore the next five of Roosevelt's children.
   
   Roosevelt's record as a husband and father was mixed. One winces at his absences and hunting trips. On the other hand, he professed and lived a fined tuned moral stance toward marital fidelity and parenting. Whether his longtime wife Edith ever felt she had received a "Square Deal"....



5. The bar is high for H.W. Brands - after a bigoraphy as nearly perfect as "The First American" we have come to expect great things. Well in "TR" we have a nearly perfect biography on Teddy Roosevelt.
   
   To me, Brands strength is his flowing style that often reads as fiction. Unfortunately that is the lone chink in "TR" it is a little choppy and not as fluid as we have come to expect.
   
   As far as the subjects matter: Teddy Roosevelt may have been the strongest personality America has produced ...ever. His life is one that reads of power, strength and an enormous drive to achieve great things. Brands is able to capture these elements of TR's life and paint a fascinating picture of a man that was born to be president (interestingly enough TR is one of the few men who ever ENJOYED being president).
   
   As a whole - I will admit that I was still a little disappointed, mainly dur to my respect for Brands. While "TR" is not to the level of "The First American" it is still better than your typical biography on Teddy Roosevelt.

5 comments about Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope.

1. [...]
   
   Shirin Ebadi's Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope is a very easy, compelling read. Of course I heard about Khanum-e Ebadi, but I had never actually heard her speak or read any of her writings.
   
   My big fear whenever I read a memoir is the possibility that it is pure propaganda and promotion. (Witness the slew of memoirs from former officials of George W Bush's government who distance themselves from its policies. Where was your conscience when you were implementing them?) While no memoir will be free of these elements, I felt that Khanum-e Ebadi's shows a real human being who finds herself in events that teach her to stand up for justice and think about how oppressive governments, religious beliefs and cultural habits manipulate and coerce decent people into compliance.
   
   Khanum-e Ebadi begins her career as a judge during the last years of the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi. Her naiveté at this stage of her career is surprising to me, since I would assume that a judge is by nature a political animal. (Perhaps I'm too wrapped up in George Bush judicial appointments.) At any rate, this naiveté prevents her and others from seeing that the Iranian revolution of 1979 would turn ugly. I think it's this regret over her mistake of uncritical support of the revolution which caused her to become a much more sophisticated student of government and revolution later in life.
   
   The bulk of the remainder of the book describes her participation in various cases involving defense of the rights of women, children and political prisoners. I believe this narrative will help people answer the following questions (or at least guide them to better thinking about them):
   
   1. Is U.S. military intervention a good idea?
   2. Is a government based upon religion generally, Islam specifically, compatible with a just society?
   3. What should an individual do when faced with an oppressive society and government?
   
   1. Is U.S. military intervention a good idea?
   
   The short answer is "no." And Khanum-e Ebadi gives a lot of good reasons for this. I think one of the most important reasons is her conclusion about how to achieve positive change, which I address in point 3. The U.S. support for the 1953 coup and for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s means that most Iranians interpret covert and overt U.S. military intervention as attempts to control Iran, not free her people.
   
   2. Is a government based upon religion generally, Islam specifically, compatible with a just society?
   
   Without explicitly saying so, and I hope I'm not putting words in her mouth, I believe she would say, "Yes, it is possible for a religiously-based (including Islam) government to promote a just society, but there are so many ways it can go wrong that it is better to base the government on secular principles." I derive this conclusion based on her discussion of her attempts at reforming Iran's personal status laws and her impressions of the quality of people who rose in the government of the Islamic Republic.
   
   She realizes that within the religious interpretive project, it is possible to support liberating and oppressive interpretations. So more important than the specific religious texts involved are the ethos and character of the people with the authority to impose their interpretation on society. In the case of Iran, the revolution elevated the most patriarchal elements of Iranian society to power, and their interpretations of Islam were imposed on all others, even those of recognized and authoritative religious scholars.
   
   The second problem with religiously-based governments is that religion has instruction for both the outer and inner dimensions of a person, and the people on whom governments rely for support can more easily and quickly judge a person's outer dimension than inner dimension. This promotes hypocrites and social entreprenuers (in the most negative sense), who are able to make end runs around those who trouble themselves with the inner dimensions of religion.
   
   I should add here that the United States certainly shows that you don't need a relgion-based government to promote hypocrites and social entrepreneurs.
   
   3. What should an individual do when faced with an oppressive society and government?
   
   Khanum-e Ebadi is against emmigration (although she eventually agrees that her daughter leave for Canada) and against violent revolution, such as the Mujahidiin-e Khalq Iran. I think she has a gift for recognizing the cracks and weakpoints of an oppressive system, and she believes focusing on those cracks causes effective, long-term change. For example, when an eighteen-year old woman lectures her about Islam in the Iranian countryside, she realizes that the same process which transformed this rural girl from a peasant to an ideological functionary for the Islamic Republic will later turn her and her daughters into a thinking opposition. When people emmigrate, they turn their back on attacking these weakpoints in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and she cannot hide her disappointment.
   
   Additional links:
   
   * Iranian Children's Rights Society



2. I join those admirers who have called Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi a woman of steel. Her intelligence, tenacity, and courage to bring justice to women, children, and dissidents over the years is amazing!
   
   She used her creative juices to organize a public funeral for one little girl who'd been left in the custody of her abusive father, after his divorce from her mother. In divorce cases, the law automatically gave custody to the father, no matter if he had an abusive history and/or was a drug abuser. Ebadi helped to bring change in that unfair law with the help of friends/colleagues through that public event as it stirred the public to speak up, and even one man came forward with another child that had been left to the whims of his abusive father, though the boy had wanted desperately to live with his mother. That was just one of many cases where she tried to effect change in unjust laws and bring justice to victims and their families, most of whom had been severely abused by their country's legal system. Or more precisely perhaps, by whoever's whims they happened to be dealing with at the moment. She has written articles that brave editors published, thereby raising the ire of government hard-liners. And she has exhaustively researched through musty old religious texts, to better argue her cases; she hasn't always won, but when she's in the courtroom, she seems to the reader to be steadfast and unafraid of any religious hard-liner, and not afraid to speak up if she thinks they said something totally unrelated to the case (which often appears to be a condescending reprimand to her).
   
   Her belief and hope in Iran is truly admirable, though I think she comes down rather harshly on her friends and colleagues who fled the country over the years, especially during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
   
   Her recollections of clients and friends who were abused by the powers that be are heart-wrenching. Some cases kept me on the edge of my seat, such as when a writer friend of hers was en route to attending a literary conference in Armenia and the bus driver twice abandoned the bus full of 20 or so writers on the high, winding mountains of northern Iran. The second time he abandoned it, the nose of the bus had just slipped over a mountain cliff (he jumped out in time, of course). Or when a classmate who was a judge was travelling with her fiance and two male friends to visit her mother--and was stopped by the "morality police"; they were held and interrogated for three days. It is painful to learn what little freedom of expression the Iranian people have, and the extent of intolerance the hard-line members of their government harbor towards women's rights, dissidents, and activists like Ebadi.
   
   As Ebadi herself writes, this isn't a political memoir or political analysis of how and why events came to pass. It's her personal story and how events in the last half century have affected her life. Her strength radiates throughout the book, especially when she recounts her time in jail. Before she reported to the judge, she left a note to her family:
   
   "My dear ones, By the time you read this, I will already be in prison. I want to assure you that I will be fine. I will be released and unharmed because _I have done nothing wrong_ (italicized in book). Can you please do something for me? I want you to imagine for a moment that I've suffered a heart attack and have been rushed to the hospital. Wouldn't that be terrible? It would be much, much worse than my arrest. So please keep all of this in perspective. Love to all..." (pp. 161-162)
   
   Shirin Ebadi had open-minded parents, who treated her, her sisters and brother equally. What a fortunate beginning, as well as having an open-minded husband who "let me be myself from the beginning, and encouraged my work as part of me, rather than a hobby or indulgence" (p. 29)! She maintained her domestic responsibilites at home, while managing her writing and legal work. I can only marvel at how she stayed focus as mom, wife, judge, and then as human rights lawyer/activist! Her memoir will surely be an inspiration to human rights activists everywhere.



3. Shirin Ebadi ([...]) is trying to be loyal to Iran's cultural and religious traditions as well as universal values of human rights. Unlike many Iranians, whom she chides (perhaps unfairly!) for abandoning Iran and Islam, she has chosen not to abandon this heritage to the forces of darkness and intolerance. She has taken her life in her hands to protect what is left.
   I am not a Muslim and I have left Iran (although I have family which has stayed behind), but I can only be moved by her example of steadfastness and courage.
   This book is not without flaws. Its coauthor, or at least its editor, should have been familiar with Persian. And some of her reasoning about the compatibility of Islamic dogma with human rights struck me as weak. But otherwise, I heartily commend this book to anyone who cares about Iran.
   One question: How come this book is so hard to find in American bookstores? Just wondering...
   For a more detailed review, please visit my blog at
   [...]and leave a comment.



4. This is a concise book on how the society is affected by revolution and its vagaries in Iran. Written by the venerable Nobel Laureate, it showcases many brutalities done by the regime in the name of tradition and religion. This also shows a woman's struggle to cope with the human rights in such regime. Although written very briefly and possibly in a haste, meaning that scenes jump to one another suddenly and there is no in depth explanation why the society is behaving like this, this book is a primer in civil movement in Iran. I had a long-time suspicion that Iranian law is very messy, making its people hate the regime and it turn Islam itself. This book proves it, which shows how Iranian penal code uses extreme means in the name of Islam, whereas the same laws are very different in other muslim countries.



5. Here is a woman who is trying her hardest to be islamic and make excuses for her religion which is a bad one to start with. Very few mulims seem able to look at Mohammed and his life. However, this is a brave woman in the limits of Islam.

3 comments about Abraham Lincoln: Man Behind the Myths, The.

1. In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".
   
   That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government.
   
   Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans.
   
   Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American.



2. As an amateur genealogist I discovered that I was a sixth cousin, five times removed to President Abraham Lincoln through the Lincoln and Holmes families. On page 21 ( Abraham Lincoln, The man Behind The Myths ) Mr. Oates wrote that there was a mistaken belief that Thomas Lincoln was not Abraham's real father rather it was a Senator John C. Calhoun or a Henry Clay. If this was true it would mean that I was not related to President Abraham Lincoln. How would such a rumour start ? Is there any documented evidence that Nancy Lincoln had an affair with one of these men while being married to Thomas Lincoln. At the time I am trying to locate Stephen B. Oates so I can get this matter cleared up. Sincerely, Mr. Blair E. Bartlett, 87 Shillington Road, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, E2J 4K7 1-506-696-6175



3. We invented Abraham Lincoln. Not the man, of course, but the myth, that solemn and statuesque giant memorialized eternally overlooking the Capitol mall. The power of that myth and the quiet dignity of its personage dwarfs us all. But the myth is not the man. Myths never are. Stephen Oates in his _Abraham Lincoln, The Man Behind the Myths_, does not seek to diminish the man but rather to clarify him, separating the mythos from the mortal. And it is not an undaunting task, it seems, for overly soon after Lincoln's tragic end the mills began to churn. The public's shredding of the White House interior for mementos while Mary Lincoln lay debilitated in the next room seems symbolic of the wolfpack mentality in Washington even today. And every new memoir published by another family acquaintance of the Lincoln's almost always got it wrong, and tore anew at the heart of the family. We may not have memorialized and glorified our modern-day tragic heroes to such an extent, for we have simultaneously tried to scandalize them. But the tabloid trade it seems has always been a yellow paper. Even Lincoln was vilified in his time and after. He was, Oates, reminds us, one of the most unpopular living presidents of our history. But though the legacy ballooned to heroic proportions after his passing, the man seems to have been lost in it all, remaining only in the hearts of the family leaving quietly and unattended down the steps of the White House never to return.

5 comments about Life and Death in Shanghai.

1. My mother asked me years ago to read this book. She was an avid reader and often recommended books to me. I failed to read it while she was alive. I just finished it today and wish I could share my thoughts about this great read with her. This is a powerful book about a courageous woman. Don't miss it. It will also help you to appreciate the freedom we enjoy in this country. Don't take it for granted!



2. I bought a second copy of this book to share because it is so well written and gives a clear picture of what went on in China during the Cultural Revolution. What a brave lady!



3. Nien Cheng is quite the lady with some experience to tell. Growing up in China as part of the wealthy class, her life changed all of a sudden as the Great Cultural Revolution came down her street.... It's a chilling story of a mob mentality that pretends to "purify" society of evils of the day. It's a sobering story that unveils and condemns the horrors of communism. Required read.



4. Nein Cheng lived a comfortable middle class existance...in Shanghai during the height of the Cultural Revolution. Big mistake. Her comfortable lifestyle and connections to the West (via Shell Oil, her former employer) make her a target of the Red Brigade. Imagine if you will, waking up one morning to find a bunch of politically jacked up teenagers suddenly given the freedom to ransack your home, determine whether or not you are a danger to society, and beat you, arrest you, humiliate you and arrest you. Ms. Cheng is imprisoned and everything she has is taken away...rare works of art, priceless porcelains. This irreplacable beauty is, for the most part, destroyed by the loutish thugs -- the 14 and 15 year olds who ran amok, brandishing their political clout -- who made up the bulk of the Mao Cult that was the Red Brigade. Cheng is arrested and sent to a hellacious prison. Beaten, starved, subjected to brutal interrogation, Chen is indomitable. She does not confess, she does not kowtow, she sticks to her guns and even dares to lecture her captors and, in the process, drive them crazy. She lives this nightmare year after year, never budging from her declaration of innocence, never seeing or hearing from her beloved daughter. But no matter what they do to her, Cheng does not give in. Give in? She doesn't give an inch. We learn, though her, fascinating lessons in the political subtlties that fomented chaos and laws during this period. Through hints and reading between the lines of the official propoganda that the prisoners were forced to listen to, she pieces together much of the political climate and events. Her tenacity, stubborn contrariness and refusal to make any concessions to her captors is inspirational, astounding and, frankly, almost unbelievable. Even when the political climate changes and she is given her release, she insists that the prison "confess" its error. This is not a lady to trifle with. Upon her release, she immediately begins to search for her daughter, and for the restoration of whatever of her property has survived the Red Guard. The second half of the book -- Ms. Cheng's "rehabilitation" is as compelling as the first part. It's a book that is impossible to put down and certainly the best of a spate of first-hand accounts of this horrible "Through the Looking Glass" period of China's history. Nien Cheng is one hell of a tough lady, her book is moving, thought-provoking and compelling.



5. Nien Chang's account of her encounter with the Cultural Revolution is the best book of this kind that I recall. Many others have written about their experiences, some in memoir form, others in fictionalized form. NC's is the most accessible to the Western reader, she can relate to our expectations better than some of the others, and she writes more specifically for a Western audience. Her personal background made that easier for her than for many others, she had this working history with a large foreign corporation (no product placements in my reviews!).
   The sad fact is that the subject interests non-Chinese or 'Overseas Chinese' substantially more than the population of the People's Republic. Books like NC's are often talked down because they are successfull in the West. That fact seems to be a negative mark. This applies also to Jun Chang's Wild Swans, while her later bio of the great helmsman is taboo.
   The desire to forget about the past is so overwhelming, that many shut their eyes and minds to the recent past. (Actually not that recent any more.) With this strong wish to close the chapter, and in a situation of overwhelming success and progress for the country as a whole, the ruling elites find it very easy to put the Cultural Revolution into a kind of frozen state of taboo: it is not denied, but it is not visited with the purpose of understanding and digesting it. The man who provoked it is sacrosanct, he can not be touched by criticism. The negative things are assigned to others, like the Gang of Four.
   (Who was it who wrote here recently that history does not change?)

5 comments about Granny D: Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year.

1. I read this book as a recommendation from my school freshmen year in college. To be honest, this book could have been 10 pages long. The story was interesting for the first few pages but it became extremely repetitive. This book basically had two elements: stories about the people/cultures she encountered on her walk, and complaints about politics. The book never became specific with its politics, just general statements. If you're going to be political, then be political; don't be general. Second, the people she encountered were described the same throughout the book.
   
   Let me summarize the whole story with one short paragraph:
   "I met some amazing people today that let me into their home warmly. It always amazes me how trusting people can be. I also hate corporations and greedy politicians. We need change. Let's go walking again."



2. Granny D. is a great writer and I offten enjoyed her stories in this book. This is a classic and any one who wants to learn more about the political process, campaigne finance reform, or just want a great read this book is for you.



3. This book is about 90 year old Doris Haddock walking from Los Angeles to Wshington to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. Regardless of your politial persuasion, I think you'll find Granny D's book a fun and inspiring read. She intersperses
   stories from her life with her pitches to run the money changers out of the Capitol. Her charm is reflected near the end of the book where she says, " Well, I am finished with this book, but I am not finished with my life or with my passion for campaign finance reform. There is almost always time to find another victory, another happy ending. I hope that is your feeling about life, too. I thank you for the time spent with me between these covers. I apologize for preaching far more than I intended, but I 'm sure you skipped through the worst of it"

   Oh that we should all be able to pursue such adventure in our life, let along in our 90th year.




4. Granny D is real. That's the highest praise I can bestow. You feel you've met the real person and that she's presented herself, warts and all. I actually read this book with pen in hand, marking points to write down to form a synopsis of her wit and wisdom for later reference. This is certainly not something I do more than once in a decade. I'd expected more of a description of the walk itself, and less of a memoir, but I was delighted with what I got. I loved her and the people she met along the way. Though she and I have differing viewpoints on several issues, I thoroughly respected her and was nearly overwhelmed with the magnitude of her undertaking and her optimism.



5. This is an inspiring story on two levels: as a chronicle of an elder woman's courageous effort to mobilize attention and action to the cause of campaign finance reform, which she considers a step in the redemocratizing of America; and as her spiritual autobiography, the summation of her life experience and perspective.

   Granny D speaks to me when she says that "people have a great, unmet need that expresses their passions and values . . . they think they are being cheated out of that life--that they will die and it will have passed them by. They see an old woman doing something she believes in, and she somehow carries this ineffable something for them. Our shallow culture makes us people of great longing, for we are not always provided with opportunities to live out our most meaningful beliefs."

   What begins as a journal of her remarkable trek, walking along roadsides at the pace of ten miles a day from California to Washington DC, transforms into another kind of account, the inner journey that brought her to this enterprise, the singular incidents and loving relationships that shaped and fostered her through her long life. By the end of this book, she can examine both her triumphs and trials and ask, "Do we see who we are, finally? Do we see, behind the curtain, the scars and insecurities that have controlled us? And when we see them and look them squarely in the eye, do they lose their power over us, backing down from their bullying bluster? Indeed they do. We become free to take our life in whatever shape it has become, and find a good and enjoyable use for it, serving others and ourselves."

   Granny D shows that old age doesn't have to be synonymous with dotage, with being passive and indifferent to our world, to what goes on around us--to what the future may hold. She shows that age and accompanying infirmities are, at worst, inconvenience, not an excuse to block or ignore the desires of the heart and the active mind. She demonstrates, no matter the immediate outcome, the power of one. And she reminds me of a remark attributed to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that if one does not have a cause to live for, then one has no reason to die.

1 comments about America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War.

1. Milne's biography of Rostow demonstrates the futility of creating a independent state without having any support of the native population. Rostow thought that is possible to end the Vietnam War by merely bombing North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese fearing for their industry would stop supporting the Viet Cong and bring NVA troops across the border and thereby an independent South Vietnam could be preserved. But this theory backfired and the North Vietnamese will strengthened and chaos erupted in South Vietnam. Still Rostow stayed true to his theory and persuaded Johnson to ignore offers of a bombing halt by Harold Wilson, Henry Kissinger, and members in Johnson's own cabinet. The only weakness of this book is that Milne ignores the influence of Thomas Schelling on members of the Johnson cabinet and their decision to bomb North Vietnam. Nevertheless one can see elements of Rostow's theory about bombing in order to create a stable state in John McCain's rhetoric about bombing Syria and Iran in order to create an American backed Iraqi state.

No comments about Winston Churchill - Biography of a Nobel Statesmen.