What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers by Richard Brookhiser

A fun read. Not real deep, but fun. Good vacation read for history buffs.

Published in 2006.

Richard Brookhiser got the idea for What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers from the questions from his audiences when he would give a public lecture on the founders. "Richard, what would the founding fathers have said about...(illegal immigration, marijuana, the war in Iraq, etc.)? So, he collected a number of those questions, did a little research and wrote this fun little book.

Richard Brookhiser is the writer of the best overall biography of George Washington that I have read, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. This one is not the same quality, although I am giving them both the same score: 4 stars.

Why? A book of this sort is just different creature than a biography. By its very nature it is a series of starts and stops (the question and answer format). This inhibits the flow of the book in many ways, but does make it good for the so-called bathroom reader. Brookhiser's sense of humor shines through, as does his genuine respect and affection for these men (the exceptionally successful ladies man Gouverneur Morris, in particular).

Gouverneur Morris

Just for fun, at the end he makes up several descriptions of the sorts of blogs the founders might have written, including 3 for that unstoppable writer Benjamin Franklin. Washington bows out but promises to read them all in a snail mail letter (if you know about him you are not surprised). My favorites, though, are Sam Adams with his blog "BeerandLiberty.com" (conspiracy theories and drinking tips) and John Adams with "TheLifeCareerOpinionsandWritingsofJohnAdamsExaminedandDefendedwithCommentsonhisContemporaries.com" which features long posts, flame wars in the comments and the warning that John makes frequent appearances as a troll on other blogs. Sounds about right to me.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: What Would the Founders Do?

Reviewed on June 19, 2008.

Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another . . .: More Cartoons (Speed Bump series) by Dave Coverly

The next best thing to The Far Side

Published in 2005 by ECW Press.

Speed Bump is the next best thing to The Far Side - it is one of those smart and funny comics that make you think and laugh all at the same time. If you're the kind of person that cuts out comics and sticks them up at the office, this is your type of comic.

Coverly has Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another broken up into themes and has a little introduction (one written by Rick Kirkman, the guy who draws "Baby Blues.") These are all clever (especially the one in which he describes a typical cartoonist's day).

Well, you'll have to excuse me now, I'm off to the scanner to make a few copies of some cartoons for the office!

I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Speed Bump by Dave Coverly.

Reviewed on June 20, 2008.

The Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West

A solid bit of historical fiction

Published in 1975.

For this Hoosier reviewer, The Massacre at Fall Creek is most interesting since the places involved are no more than a 45 minute drive from my house.

Jessamyn West does a great job of getting the "feel" of an 1824 frontier community - how small it was, how truly far away it was from "civilization" and how that isolation created a unique culture.

The storyline is based on a real incident in which several white men from a community to the north of Pendleton, Indiana killed two families of Indians, including their children and stole their furs. Records from those days are "iffy" at best so West has to fill in a lot of blanks as she goes along. In fact, she even uses fake names for the white men involved, although it may be that in the 33 years since her book was written additional research has revealed the names of the men.

Jessamyn West 
(1902-84)

Of course, the Indians were outraged at this treaty violation and the U.S. government decided that there was going to be a real trial and it paid for a team of prosecution and defense lawyers to conduct a real trial. A jail was built (ironically, Pendleton is the site of one of Indiana's prison facilities nowadays as well) and a trial was held for four of the five white men. The fifth white man was never captured by white authorities.

The book focuses on the love life of one of the young ladies of the settlement (her love interests intertwine in all aspects of the case), the trial and the aftermath. At times this book reads more like a romance novel, at other times like a legal thriller but it is a solid, enjoyable read about a sad, tragic moment on the Hoosier frontier.

I rate this novel 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West. 

Reviewed on June 27, 2008.

The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq by Rory Stewart

An informative book without an ax to grind from someone who was really there (who also knows how to write well!)

Published in 2006.

If the Iraq war interests you in any way, even if you are a partisan of the pro-war or anti-war persuasion, read The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.

Rory Stewart was a member of the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority.) He functioned as governor of Amara province in Southern Iraq - a semi-swampland where the Tigris and Euphrates come together. His tale is a tale of success, failure, friendship, war, violence, trust and betrayal. In other words, his is a story of real people in a very difficult situation with the compounded challenges of religious, language and cultural barriers.

Here's what you learn from this book:

-Success in Iraq is best measured on a relative scale and will ultimately have to be determined by the Iraqis themselves - on their terms with their leaders.

Rory Stewart

-Iran is definitely active in Iraq, as current news from the Bush administration suggests. If Rory Stewart says Iran was involved in his province's politics, I believe him.

-Lots of money was wasted in Iraq, buts lots of projects were completed.

-The Italian armed forces perform under fire according to their international reputation (not worth much since the fall of Rome in 476 AD), as do the Brits (professional.)

-The CPA did not seem to have a great game plan going in, which is a real disappointment to me since the war was planned well in advance. The CPA upper echelons seemed pretty well removed from the realities of day to day operations, even to the point of denying that Stewart and his officials were being shelled when he called his superiors to ask for help. It reminded me of some of the insanity of some of the early episodes of the TV show M*A*S*H.

-There was no clear command structure between the CPA military and the CPA civilian leadership.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq by Rory Stewart.

Reviewed on February 21, 2007.

Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution - A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Alister McGrath

Strong, but not for those who are not well-versed in history 

Originally published in 2007.

Let me just note that Alister McGrath has taken on a large topic (Protestantism) in Christianity's Dangerous Idea and done about as well as one can in organizing the information and presenting it in a cogent and readable fashion.

McGrath assumes that you already know a lot about history in general and about the last 500 years or so in particular. That is to be expected. If he had to explain every last detail this book it would have to have been 3,000 pages rather than the already hefty 478 pages of text plus 50+ pages of endnotes. If you are a person that has heard of the Huguenots, but are not sure if they are a native group in South Africa or a religious group in France, this book is not for you.

This is not a complete history, either. It is an overview. If you are looking for a complete history of a particular denomination, you are likely to be disappointed. Some denominations are completely overlooked (African Methodist Episcopal), some are largely overlooked (Southern Baptists) and McGrath does not even address the thornier issue of whether the Mormons are Protestant, even though they are obviously came from the Protestant tradition.

McGrath does a good job of tying the Protestant Reformation into the larger Renaissance movements of the day. He makes strong arguments for Protestantism as a supporter for democratic ideals and capitalism. His comments about the lessening of tensions between Protestantism and Catholicism due to the stronger common threat of Islam and especially secularism were well-stated and dead on correct, in my mind.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Christianity's Dangerous Idea.

Reviewed on July 12, 2008.

A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

Not very good

Originally published in 2003.

First the positives:

The over-arching storyline of A Faint Cold Fear is really a pretty good concept of a story. I did want to know who did it so I read until the very end.

Now, the negatives:

Too many characters that are introduced just once and then continually referred to from that moment on by their first name. There are nearly 20 characters that I am supposed to remember with no reminder of what they do in the plot. Just a name and I have to go back in to the book and look up who Kevin or Richard was.

Plot items are brought in (the arrow drawn in the dirt outside the dorm window, for example) that are a big deal for about 3 pages and then are totally dropped.

Lena. Her behavior is insane. She's terrified to be touched (being the victim of a horrific rape), afraid to be out of control and yet she goes to a rave party full of drugs, gets drunk and loses control with a dangerous man who has already hurt her.

The relationship between Lena and Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is so contrived, so "fakey" that it just failed to click at any level for me. Every scene between them seemed forced.

A shotgun IS NOT a rifle. They are both long guns, but they are different. This is not specialized knowledge. Ask anyone who knows a thing about guns and they'll explain the difference. It's not hard. I can't believe no one caught that at the publishing house, either.

I also cannot believe that any college campus would let any student, even a student on a skeet-shooting team, keep their gun in their room on campus. Campuses have been gun-sensitive places for years and years. I know of a student who had to live off campus because he refused to leave his skeet guns in a designated locker at a university in Indiana in the 1980s.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Faint Cold Fear (Grant County Mysteries)

Reviewed on July 14, 2008.

A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World by John Dear

Troubling

Published in 2008. 

Let me start this review by stating the following in clear and unequivocal terms:

I have no problem whatsoever with people who protest and demonstrate for the things they believe in, especially those who do it like Rev. John Dear, who proceeds with the understanding that there is a possibility of arrest and detention as he protests for peace and against social inequity.

The positives of A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World:

-It is written in an engaging style, most of it can be easily grasped, even by those who are uninitiated in Christian theology. His story of how he struggled with the choice of whether or not to enter the priesthood is quite well told and interesting.

-The chapters are organized by both time frames and theme so it is fairly easy to go back and find comments and stories.

The negatives:

-That being said, I do have a problem with a priest that re-interprets the Gospels (he calls his re-interpretation the "Gospel of peace") and devotes himself to the peace movement to the exclusion of all else. I am concerned with an autobiography that written by a Jesuit that mentions nuclear weapons, Dr. King and Gandhi more than Jesus Christ. On page 80, Mr. Dear comments that Gandhi is in heaven for being a non-violent protester (where is the Church's teaching about being at least a Christian, if not a Catholic? How about Jesus' comments about his being 'the way'? Throw them out, I suppose. In a similar vein he tells that president of Georgetown University, "I ask you in the name of Jesus...to end the ROTC program and close all research into nuclear weapons. If you do, I'm sure you'll get into the kingdom of heaven."(p. 109)

-His comments point to Jesus as being some sort of anti-Roman protester that was eventually killed for his protests (p. 79). Considering that Jesus was part of the largest empire on the planet at the time and considering how truly miserable the Jews were under Roman rule, Jesus says surprisingly little about the Romans.

-Dear refers to what he calls Jesus's words of invitation: "You are my beloved. I am with you. Don't be afraid. I want you to be my disciple. Follow me on the road to peace and justice to my reign. Advocate nonviolence like me, and carry on my work for me." I searched these words on the internet and the only place I can find them is on web pages featuring articles by Rev. Dear. This is troubling. It is most inappropriate to make up quotes for Jesus. It is Even more so to refer to those words as if they are authoritative and to use them to teach others without noting that they are not Biblical text.

-Rev. Dear's protests seem spectacular (they once tried to disarm a nuclear device, for example) but they are merely glitz. In one protest they block a busy intersection during George H.W. Bush's inauguration to protest families being evicted from their apartments for not being able to pay their rent. No doubt, the eviction of families is a bad thing. This protest drew attention to the problem, but it sure didn't help anyone pay their rent, or get additional training to get a better job so that they would be able to pay their rent easier, did it?

-One of the common terms for a reverend is "pastor" - a term that means shepherd. Dear's superiors continually try to move him towards the role of being a shepherd that takes care of the flock - teaches, comforts, teaches the faith, consoles. Dear does precious little of that for any extended period of time, although he seems to have done an exceptional job in New York City on 9/11 and its immediate aftermath. His lack of experience as an actual shepherd of the flock shows when he is shocked at someone asking him how to pray. He demonstrates an unwillingness to be a shepherd except when directly ordered to by his superiors. He starts to help with some worthy projects and then, soon enough, he wanders off to go protest somewhere.

-Dear complains about the Jesuit leadership throughout, claiming they are blind to the true vision. It seems to me that he is being re-directed by everyone because he is the one that is wayward. Ironically, the book is published by Loyola Press, part of the very Jesuit bureaucracy he is so disappointed in. He claims they do not support him yet they publish his book...

-He correctly chastises the Church for its cover-up in the sexual abuse scandal. But, his answer to the problem is odd - denounce the Catholic doctrine of the Just War. (p. 372) Rev. Dear, you are missing the point by focusing on the same issue all of the time.

-This book should have included an index. I am looking at an "uncorrected proof" so perhaps the final edition will include one.

Factual errors:

-In his introduction, Martin Sheen claimed the prophet Isaiah commanded us to "beat swords into plowshares and make war no more." This is not a command, but part of a larger prophecy about Judgment Day.

-Sheen also claimed that the so-called Star Wars defense plan proposed by Reagan included putting nuclear weapons in space. This is not true - it was proposed and still remains a plan for developing an anti-ballistic missile shield with lasers and intercepting missiles. We used that technology to destroy a dangerous failing satellite earlier this year.

-Dear claimed he witnessed an anti-Star Wars demonstration in New York City in 1981. That would have been amazing since it was not proposed until March of 1983.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Persistent Peace: One Man's Strugle for a Non-Violent World.

Reviewed on July 17, 2008.