DWD's Reviews

The "Forgotten" Founding Father Samuel Adams (1722-1803) George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin. John Adams. All there at the founding of our country. All recognized for their unique contributions to the revolution. Author Gary Wills noted that Adams was "the most influential man at the first two Congresses." He was on the committees of correspondence that tied the colonies together in the first place and no one was on more committees in the Continental Congress. It is easily argued that Samuel Adams had as great a role, if not greater than any other member of the Congress. He had such an integral part to play that a local newspaper noted in his obituary that "to give his history at full length, would be to to give an history of the American Revolution." In Samuel Adams: A Life,  Ira Stoll tells the story of Samuel Adams. Called by some the Last of the Puritans for his strong religious faith and willingness to express it openly, A...

Sarah Palin, without the filter Published in 2011 by Thomas Nelson There is no one, and I mean no one that generates as much energy and as much anger in American politics as Alaska's former governor Sarah Palin. In The Quotable Rogue: The Ideals of Sarah Palin In Her Own Words ,  Matt Lewis has collected a number of Palin's quotes on a variety of topics from her speeches and interviews over the last 5 or 6 years. He has organized them into broad 32 categories ranging from abortion to Barack Obama to Gun Control to Tina Fey. He also has a category of quotes from others about Sarah Palin. I was interested in this book because so much of what I hear about Sarah Palin is filtered through the opinions of columnists or edited heavily for TV or radio. This book is just Sarah's comment with a brief note about where and when it was said or written. That's it - no spin one way or the other. Sarah Palin Being that it is a book of quotes, it really can only be judged on t...

An Important Book - for Liberals and Conservatives Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning author David K. Shipler takes a long hard look at the rights we have sacrificed in the era of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, and lesser wars such as the War on Handgun Violence in T he Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties . I picked this book up figuring that my Conservative sensibilities might get ruffled a bit by a New York Times reporter but I might learn a thing or two along the way. I always tell people that the traditional left-right continuum used to describe someone's politics is so inaccurate as to be useless. Really, what is the difference between an aging hippie living on a hill somewhere raising some dope for personal use and telling the government to get out of his business and a Barry Goldwater-type conservative (like me) living by himself on a hill somewhere that tells the government to get its nos...

The Thirteen American Arguments offers a lot of potential but doesn't deliver Howard Fineman I heard Howard Fineman on the radio discussing The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country one day and scribbled the book title down in my little notepad as I was driving down the road. The idea behind this book is truly great - find 13 central arguments that have been passed down over time and look how different eras of Americans have addressed them. Fineman's 13 arguments are: 1. Who is a person? 2. Who is an American? 3. The role of faith 4. What can we know and say? 5. The limits of Individualism 6. Who judges the law? 7. Debt and the Dollar 8. Local v. National Authority 9. Presidential Power 10. The terms of trade 11. War and Diplomacy 12. The environment 13. A fair, "more perfect" union He adds to these by noting 5 groups that often have competing visions about what to do with each of these: the St...

Neat idea but bad follow through Published in 2006 by Three Rivers Press. I grabbed Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots on impulse as I was leaving the local purveyor of books. You see, I am a "Crunchy Con" of sorts, being an avid recycler. But, this book really failed to reach me. In fact, I felt like I was being preached at with certain topics being outright hammered into my skull due to their repetitive re-occurrence. Pluses: -The book addresses the fact that the conservative movement is not monolithic and their are a variety of reasons for people to espouse conservatism. -Embraces a belief in buying local - something I try to do when I go out to eat or shop whenever reasonably possible. -Points out how silly it is to apply big business agricultural regulations to family farms. Negatives: -What the heck is "crunchy"? Search the internet and you may get a reference to "Crunchy granola", which bas...

A fun and interesting read P.J. O'Rourke This quick read is also must read for any political junky. The book teaches the reader that there are many paths to conservatism but a whole lot of conservatives began moving to the right as a reaction against over-reaching on the part of liberals at one of our country's many fine universities. Practical experience in the real world does a lot of changing of political minds as well (that was the case for me). Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys also teaches the reader that there are lots of funny conservatives out there. P.J. O'Rourke's essay was a stitch. Danielle Crittenden's is funny and rings true to every parent. Joseph Bottum's observation are not really humorous, but they are some of the most profound as he discusses society, the respect for life and how said it is that the 10 Commandments have been replaced by in our society by the two new...

How to ruin an economy in 10 simple steps Arthur Laffer The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy--If We Let It Happen is a well-written book, filled with charts and graphs, is a great introduction to the principles of the Laffer Curve , the dangers of high taxes and the folly of many of the proposals that the Democrat leadership in the House, the Senate and Mr. Obama (and some Republicans) are proposing. On page 261 these foolish proposals and policies are laid out in detail. Hopefully, after having read the rest of the book the folly of those policies should be clear. Prior to that, the book explains the wisdom of low tax policies. The authors go through the recent history of the United States (from Hoover to Bush43) and demonstrate their principles in action. A fantastic introduction to conservative economic policy for the layman. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found at Amazon.com here: The End of Prosperity . Revie...

A simple but profound piece of science fiction I have not read any Ayn Rand before Anthem . I know this may seem strange for a person that enjoys politics, leans heavily to the right politically and enjoys science fiction, but it is true. The reason is quite simple - the people at the Ayn Rand Institute are so enthusiastic about Ayn Rand and her ideas on talk shows and in interviews that they seem like a religion to them. I feel similarly creepy about the postage paid information card that is included in my book. Plus, let's face it, her most famous works are L-o-o--o-n-g and I was not sure I wanted to invest that much time into Rand. But, I decided to give Anthem a try because it is very short (105 pages) and my local bookstore had it on clearance. So, what did I think? There was a stretch of time before and after World War II, when the collectivization political movements were gaining momentum (fascism and communism) when some great novelists grew wary and wrote so...

While I agree with most of his premises...the delivery needs some work I'm an economics teacher with a firm belief that markets are the single most efficient way of creating wealth and that interfering with markets is a sure way to slow or stop the creation of wealth for all, not just for the elites. However, despite the sometimes eloquent prose, Donlan's A World of Wealth is merely a solid book, not a great one. Two issues cloud the book for me: 1) no footnotes, endnotes or even a bibliography. Instead, there is only an interesting list of recommended reading. I would not let my high school students get away with such shoddy scholarship, an editor of a magazine should know better. 2) Meandering text and incomplete arguments get in the way of his discussions of immigration and education. Too bad since there is some nice writing here. This one won't hurt the reader too much (scholarship-wise) but others do it better. A better introductory t...

Sometimes incredibly strong, sometimes deeply flawed. Carol M. Swain's Be the People: A Call to Reclaim America's Faith and Promise is a look at several broad areas of concern in American policy, including the high divorce rate, abortion, gay marriage, illegal immigration, race relations in America, HIV, school prayer and the high unemployment among those with lower levels of education. First, the positives: -Swain's personal story is inspirational and she shares it as she writes about these issues. -Swain accurately describes how illegal immigration destroys job opportunities for the least educated Americans by driving the wages down to a pathetically low level. It is not that Americans will not do those jobs, they will not do them for that low of a wage. She also provides a humane 15 point plan to deal with illegal immigration. -Her commentary on race and racism are quite interesting and well thought out. I teach in a multi-racial school with a near even mi...

A cautionary tale buried inside some first-rate action. Published in 2012 by Crown. The Profession is a near-future sci-fi action-adventure tale with a great deal of political analysis and some history tossed in as well. Set in the year 2032, the world has become a different place, but not at all unrecognizable. The chaos in the Middle East still reigns supreme on the international scene because oil is still king ($8/gallon gasoline is threatening to collapse America's economy). Iran and Iraq are still fighting, terrorism still exist, the oil states in the Middle East are, at the same time, both strong and unstable. The United States is in the middle of an election that seems to be addressing none of the real issues that the country faces and none of the candidates inspire anyone to anything but changing the channel of the television when they appear. Steven Pressfield America is still acting as the world's de facto policeman, although this role is enhanced by a new c...

An interesting head-to-head biography about two gentlemen who went head-to-head quite often during the Civil War. Published in 2006 by Simon and Schuster. James F. Simon's Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney shines an interesting light on two overlooked aspects of 19th century American history. The first overlooked aspect is the Supreme Court, specifically the person of Roger Taney (pronounced Tawney), the Chief Justice most famous for what may be known for all time as his single worst legal opinion, and one of the most controversial and ill-considered opinions of all time - Dred Scott. Roger Taney   (1777-1864) Simon tells the story of Taney's life, including his surprisingly liberal views on slavery and his legal defense of blacks who were seized illegally to be sold into slavery, the fact that he freed most of his family's slaves and even provided a modest pension for the elderly ones. Taney even defended an the rights of an abolitionist preacher to preach his m...

A political thriller for people that don't know much about politics Read by Robert Petkoff 11 hours, 42 minutes. The premise behind A Heartbeat Away is simple and brilliant:  What if terrorists released a biological weapon into the House chamber during the President's State of the Union Address - the one time when just about everybody who is anybody in the Federal government is all in one room together? The follow through, however, is not so hot. Palmer's characterization of how a President would deal with this sort of problem shows that Palmer does not understand the one thing that all presidents are - they are politicians. They know how to collaborate, get things done, work with people they cannot stand to get their programs enacted. Even the most difficult President can schmooze and get people to work with them.  The president in A Heartbeat Away , James Allaire is the most politically tone deaf character I have ever seen. He manages to make the whole thi...

An interesting piece of history Note: this is not written by "THE" Winston Churchill. This one was written by an American novelist and essayist with almost the same name who lived from 1871-1947. Sir Winston Churchill signed his works Winston S. Churchill in order to differentiate between the two. The essay is inspired by a 1917 visit to the battlefields of Europe during World War I. Churchill's essay is an interesting bit of history in that it appeals to old ideals of the old Progressives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are many comments that hold to all of the hallmarks and ideals of the movement, including an obsessive faith in science and psychology (line 200) and a belief that human nature is basically good but just needs to be re-educated (line 228). He advocates a new political party based on the teachings of modern social science (line 290), a centralized economy in order to be more efficient (line 360) and he proposes that ...

Some good thoughts but... Michael Waldman Written by a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton, A Return to Common Sense: Seven Bold Ways to Revitalize Democrac y features a series of suggestions for how to improve democracy in America. His seven suggestions are: 1. End Voter Registration as We Know It. 2. Rocking the Vote. (issues such as voter ID, changing election day, changing the primary system.) 3. Stop Political Hacking. (use electronic voting machines but with scan-tron type backups.) 4. Campaign Finance Reform (public financing based on the NYC model) 5. Gerrymandering (stop the creation of "safe" districts for both Democrats and Republicans) 6. Flunk the Electoral College (recommends not changing the Constitution but rather going around it at a state level) 7. Restore Checks and Balances (more Congressional oversight of the Executive branch) I have no problem with many of these suggestions but Waldman is a bit simplistic in som...

Fantastic! Originally published in 2002. D'Souza starts Whats So Great About Americ a with a thorough indictment of America. In a 30 page chapter entitled "Why They Hate Us" he honestly and thoroughly lays out all of the arguments about why America is reviled by so many. By the end of the chapter the reader begins to wonder if there really is anything so great about America. The balance of the book is spent answering every charge leveled in the first chapter. I have rarely read a book on contemporary politics in which I agree so thoroughly with his analyses. I may be just a high school history teacher but I do a lot of thinking about history and a lot of reading. The big ideas such as those of Locke, Rousseau and Jefferson fascinate me and I like to think about what their philosophies mean for us if implemented in the real world. D'Souza's comments on the West being an inheritance from both Athens and Jerusalem (pp. 60-61) closely mirror a concl...