tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80168509246208353232024-03-19T04:51:52.129-07:00From the ArchivesArchived writings on various and sundry topics; not a "blog" per se in that it is not updated regularly.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-76547080971707947772016-04-03T07:30:00.003-07:002016-04-03T07:30:26.335-07:00The Betrayal: A well researched and written, but not flawless, account of baseball's great scandal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_X9FHb23NRLqUeuuVN0X5osdvOZmQReLi36-5femVrQQNvhh5biAupHXx88jX4yMlfCuiZD_S0zpK45ks1v4Oxfpo2PP8chQ48SNMSSb0OAjmRDl8AZQYMV958T5QmxZ761uKWkpN4qU/s1600/Betrayal+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_X9FHb23NRLqUeuuVN0X5osdvOZmQReLi36-5femVrQQNvhh5biAupHXx88jX4yMlfCuiZD_S0zpK45ks1v4Oxfpo2PP8chQ48SNMSSb0OAjmRDl8AZQYMV958T5QmxZ761uKWkpN4qU/s320/Betrayal+cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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Northeastern University professor Charles Fountain’s The
Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball retells the
story of the 1919 World Series “fix” and explains its ramifications for the game’s
development. He relates the known facts,
helpfully clarifying between which is known, which is speculated and even that
which is “known” but not really true largely thanks to previous accounts that
are as much fiction as fact. The result
is a more accurate account and deeper understanding of how and why the scandal
unfolded as it did.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To do this, Fountain takes us back to the 19<sup>th</sup>
century so we can appreciate baseball’s complicated relationship with gambling
(and to some extent game fixing). For
“behind the Black Sox story,” he writes, “stretches a long history of organized
dysfunction and incorporated hypocrisy.”
Only after a period of toleration did baseball’s powers that be come to
recognize that fixed games alienated spectators and threatened owners’
financial interests. Efforts to clean
the game of dirty players were largely successful by the 1880s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaf1ohBZHeszbVZP9ueB_cqKlK6k-kZYD4nNMOzf544vdqwtkoP_74zqnJvspJegZS4sG6Ymnirnur2b_GJmxvYI2zi-LC8jeawJdVDRB3vIzO03pAViv7QN79alpupmxYR3DPUG6ATEk/s1600/Hal+Chase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaf1ohBZHeszbVZP9ueB_cqKlK6k-kZYD4nNMOzf544vdqwtkoP_74zqnJvspJegZS4sG6Ymnirnur2b_GJmxvYI2zi-LC8jeawJdVDRB3vIzO03pAViv7QN79alpupmxYR3DPUG6ATEk/s320/Hal+Chase.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hal Chase: one of the early game's most gifted players was<br />also one of the most dishonest to ever play major league baseball;<br />his antics fixing games and the Commission's failure to deal with<br />him helped create an environment that made the fix possible</td></tr>
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But the events of 1903 would undo this progress, recreating
an environment conducive to gambling and fixing. For it was in this year, Fountain explains,
peace was achieved between the warring National League and the upstart American
League. With peace came an end to competition
for players and the higher salaries that went with it. Instead, the reserve clause and their
depressed salaries would rule. In
addition, a new owner dominated governing structure would be created and it
promptly failed its first test in dealing with allegations of game fixing,
choosing to look the other way instead.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, players’ gambling on
the outcome of games was not seen as problematic. It was even encouraged to show confidence,
perhaps like a CEO who takes a large share of their pay as stock options rather
than cash. But so long as there was
gambling, there would always be losers seeking to shift the blame. Allegations of a “fix” would follow each
World Series, and when similar allegations surfaced in 1919 even before play
began they were not illogically dismissed out of hand.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fountain spends considerable time on the politics of
baseball management, focusing on the rivalry between White Sox owner Charles
Comiskey and AL President and de facto baseball CEO Ban Johnson. By 1919 the two were locked in blood feud,
and each would try to use the fixed series as a tool to gain the upper
hand. The result would be a new
Commissioner with dictatorial powers. And Commissioner Mountain Kennesaw Landis
would react much differently when the 1919 fix became common knowledge than the
National Commission had in 1903.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Colorful profiles help keep the readers’ interest. Besides Comiskey and Johnson, Arnold
Rothstein (the gambler who would remain at an elusive center of the fix),
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Judge Landis and Hal Chase are profiled at length. Although
one of the “Black Sox,” as guilty players were tagged, Jackson’s actual role
was also very small (he admitted taking money on the understanding he was
supposed to be throwing games, but there is no evidence that he did so) but
Fountain goes on at considerable length about his life and legacy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The most famous of the<br />"Black Sox"; one of baseball's all<br />time greats. He took the money, but<br />may not have kept up his end.</td></tr>
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There are some flaws with Fountain’s account. Many threads, such as the profile of Chase
and the relationship between Comiskey and Johnson just to cite two examples,
are much longer than necessary to explicate the book’s central story. As a result the reader frequently finds
herself in an alleyway of baseball history, often very interesting but also
largely beside the point. Fountain also makes several rather egregious errors when
it comes to discussing Jackson and the Hall of Fame. For instance he writes that it was Commissioner
Bart Giamatti who proclaimed that no one on baseball’s eligible list was
eligible for election to the Hall of Fame.
In fact, it was an <i>ex post facto</i>
rule change in 1991 by the Hall’s governing board in reaction to the Pete Rose
case. Fountain also asserts that writers
never had the chance to elect Jackson to the Hall. In fact, Jackson was on the 1936 and 1946
ballots, but received only two votes each time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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1919: The Great Betrayal contains a great deal of very
interesting history about different aspects of the baseball’s early period and
brings many of its characters to life even if it is not all strictly related to
the 1919 World Series fix. The story is not really complete, however. Nothing about Babe Ruth, the livelier
baseball or the phenomenon of the home run” that began to appear in 1920 and
would change the game dramatically appears in Fountain’s account, all of which
are necessary to understand the “modern” (or post dead ball) game. But fans of baseball history will find much
to enjoy, ponder and argue with in Fountain’s retelling.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3XwjyS4KqmBuPVnDbrvK2F9AZr8pJyjGxoqiImg1yBfObqZnNG_GLiB1K9PwmGULiT4-h3QzftZhNBRQXCBaSeXU_imyu2udsoSHbKD6qtK9AzjOR-H-w8RO4VTC-qL9ItPKqByOQD4/s1600/Landis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3XwjyS4KqmBuPVnDbrvK2F9AZr8pJyjGxoqiImg1yBfObqZnNG_GLiB1K9PwmGULiT4-h3QzftZhNBRQXCBaSeXU_imyu2udsoSHbKD6qtK9AzjOR-H-w8RO4VTC-qL9ItPKqByOQD4/s1600/Landis.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only winner was Baseball's new Commissioner Kennesaw<br />Mountain Landis: a publicity hungry judge whose love of the game<br />led owners to give him carte blanche, which he would exercise<br />like a czar for over two decades.</td></tr>
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Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-74657355956939381692015-12-03T09:05:00.003-08:002015-12-03T09:55:08.125-08:00Woodrow Wilson's Place and Ours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The School of Public and International Affairs is one of two buildings on campus named for Woodrow Wilson, whose "Princeton in the Nation's Service" speech recalled its previous greatness and helped set the stage for its renaissance.</td></tr>
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Ever since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Princeton_University" target="_blank">Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber</a> agreed to reconsider <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S44/82/14K15/index.xml?section=topstories" target="_blank">"how the University recognizes [President Woodrow] Wilson's legacy"</a> in response to a student protest that had occupied his office, magazines, newspapers and the Internet have been flooded with thoughtful debate over the answer. Most prominently at stake is the eponymous <a href="http://wws.princeton.edu/" target="_blank">Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs</a>.<br />
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I'm not a Princeton graduate and I think <u>it's mostly a question for the Princeton community to decide</u> for itself. But, as a supporter of <a href="http://www.preservationnation.org/" target="_blank">historic preservation</a> who studies American history as a long standing hobby, it's hard not to think about such matters, especially given that the debate about how to judge our forebears is <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/22/university-missouri-students-claim-thomas-jefferson-statue-offensive/" target="_blank">not limited to the Princeton campus</a>. Every generation takes a fresh look at past ones, so its useful to consider Wilson's case in a broader context.<br />
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To summarize a pertinent facts regarding Woodrow Wilson that are most pertinent to the current debate:<br />
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* He was born in Virginia in 1856, five years before the Civil War. The war itself, fought between 1861 and 1865 (and much of it in Virginia) would have been something very real to Wilson.<br />
* Wilson taught Constitutional Law (despite not being a lawyer) at New York Law School and government at Princeton before becoming Princeton's President in 1902.<br />
* Wilson had delivered <a href="http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/princeton_in_nations_service.html" target="_blank">a famous speech lambasting Princeton</a> for its failure to achieve its full potential. Later, as the University's President, he would go on to radically reform the school, fighting entrenched interests to put it on the path to the academically elite institution it is today. <br />
* He was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910, where he again took on entrenched and corrupt bosses. <br />
* He became President in 1912, served two terms in office, and personally attended the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Conference,_1919" target="_blank">Paris Peace Conference</a> that ended World War One, which established the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations" target="_blank">League of Nations</a>. Largely due to his intransigence, however, the US would not join the League.<br />
* As President he <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/remembering-president-wilsons-purge-of-black-federal-workers" target="_blank">purged African Americans from the federal government and re-segregated its departments</a>. As President of Princeton also maintained Princeton as a "whites only" institution.<br />
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The arguments for keeping Wilson fall into different camps:<br />
<ol>
<li>History is complicated. Great men sometimes do very bad things as well. Getting rid of Wilson will encourage us to avoid such ambiguity (<a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/30/what-to-do-about-woodrow/" target="_blank">the American Interest</a>) to the detriment of the educational experience.</li>
<li>On a similar note, all great leaders have some terrible flaws so there wouldn't be anyone left to honor if we remove Wilson and apply that precedent to others (Princeton history professor <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/30/opinions/zelizer-woodrow-wilson-princeton/" target="_blank">Julian Zelizer</a>).</li>
<li>Or that Wilson's accomplishments are so significant that they outweigh the bad, which has itself been overblown (Liberal Oasis's <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/11/23/princeton_dont_erase_woodrow_wilsons_name_128819.html" target="_blank">Bill Scher</a>; NYU's <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/woodrow-wilson-racism-213388" target="_blank">Jonathan Zimmerman</a>).</li>
<li>With regards to his horrible record on race relations, he was a product of his time and place (see above) for which we as 21st century Americans should be at least somewhat understanding (<a href="http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/princeton_students_learn_your_history_editorial.html" target="_blank">Star Ledger</a>).</li>
</ol>
On, the other side the augments for dumping Wilson are:<br />
<ol>
<li>his record on race is so awful it overwhelms all else and that as times change so do our values allowing us to reappraise who we wish to honor (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/opinion/the-case-against-woodrow-wilson-at-princeton.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a>).</li>
<li>His Presidential actions were do detrimental that he shouldn't be honored anyway, and the racial issues just make it worse (<a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/19/princeton-students-are-right-woodrow-wilson-was-the-worst/" target="_blank">the Federalist</a>).</li>
</ol>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">100 years after his presidency, Woodrow Wilson is back in the news.</td></tr>
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Some of the defenses of Wilson resonate with me. <br />
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Love him or hate him, there's no doubt that he was one of <u>our most significant presidents</u>. The Federal Reserve owes its existence to him. He led us during World War One. Even his failure to obtain entry for the US into the League of Nations had hugely important consequences. His <u>views on government</u> and the Constitution may be pernicious to some, but they <u>still drive much of the contemporary debate</u>. Finally, I agree with those who believe that <u>people should be judged in the context of their own time and place rather than contemporary standards</u>.<br />
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However, I don't buy the "getting rid of Wilson would hurt history" argument. We don't name buildings to promote debate and understanding, but to honor the person named. No one would forget Wilson if his name was removed. So long as Wilson's name is on the Princeton campus there is at least some ongoing honor bestowed upon him. I don't think it's possible for Wilson defenders to hang one's hat on the "protection of history" argument.<br />
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On the other hand, what I have yet to see is a defense of Wilson centered around the situs of the monuments to him, which I think is highly relevant to this debate, which is about <u>honoring Wilson at Princeton</u> as opposed to honoring him generically.<br />
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As a former Senate staffer who once worked in a building named for Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Russell,_Jr." target="_blank">Richard Russell</a> I recall an effort to remove Russell's name from that building. I instinctively thought it was a bad idea. Russell, who represented Georgia in the US Senate from 1933 to 1971, opposed Civil Rights laws and was a firm supporter of his state's segregationist system, one which I despised. Yet one had to consider that no Senator from Georgia could have possibly done otherwise (unlike Wilson's purge of African-Americans from the federal government, which followed great progress by his predecessors) and his career in the Senate was in many ways a magnificent one. While I wouldn't go naming anything else in Washington, DC after him, I felt strongly that Russell's name should remain on the Senate office building where his colleagues had placed it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Senator Richard Russell (D-Georgia) still stands in the rotunda<br />
of the Senate office building named after him</td></tr>
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Similarly, Wilson belongs at Princeton, but perhaps only at Princeton.* He was not only a distinguished professor of government, but as President fought hard to alter it from being a school for lazy kids of privilege to what has indisputably become one of America's elite educational institutions, modeled after Oxford and Cambridge. If many of the students who protested in President Eisgruber's office would not have been allowed into Princeton in Wilson's day, none of them would likely have even wanted to be at Princeton had it not been for Wilson. For that, I don't blame the Princeton community for honoring him in the manner it does today.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Interestingly, no one so far as I can tell has brought up the Wilson Center in Washington DC, the Smithsonian think tank named for the nation's only PhD President, for criticism. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The other institution named for Wilson at Princeton is Wilson College: <br />
one of Wilson's innovations as Princeton's President was to establish <br />
on-campus facilities for students so that they could live and eat <br />
together outside the college's traditional "eating clubs," which Wilson disliked.</td></tr>
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<br />Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-62228005662882164292015-12-01T12:28:00.000-08:002015-12-01T12:28:33.170-08:00Review of John Bacon's Endzone<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
John U. Bacon</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
St. Martin's Press, 2015</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
480 pages</div>
<br />
Several years ago, I realized that <a href="http://alecsarchives.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-i-dont-follow-college-football-any.html" target="_blank">I had lost my passion for college football</a>. It was not a sudden process. The arrival of baseball in Washington D.C. in 2005 and the explosion of new information via the saber-metrics revolution consumed most of my sports bandwidth as I sought to reacquaint myself with the sport of my youth. In the wake of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State_child_sex_abuse_scandal" target="_blank">NCAA's miserable handling of the Penn State affair</a>, I decided I was pretty much done with college football except at a very casual level.<br />
<br />
In the past year or so, though, several things have happened to bring me back around. First, <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/114477/ncaas-involvement-with-penn-state-penalties-flawed-from-the-start" target="_blank">the NCAA largely reversed its position on Penn State</a>, restoring to it 112 wins that had been vacated. For reasons I explained earlier, I find the vacating of wins to be an unacceptable means of enforcing rules. Perhaps it's the history buff in me, but I'm not good at pretending what happened didn't happen and I don't want to invest my time in a sport where the game is never <i>really</i> over.<br />
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The other major development was <a href="http://espn.go.com/ncf/story/_/id/12091512/michigan-announce-hiring-jim-harbaugh" target="_blank">the return of 49ers head coach and former University of Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh</a> to coach at Michigan, one of my two alma maters. For those unfamiliar with Michigan football it's hard to fathom the depths of exactly precisely how big of a phenomenon this was. Among other things, the story of how Harbaugh returned to Michigan engendered a new book <i>before he had coached a single game there</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0poAvXlBkjc7njHQxTZ3g-mlO3hwBqzpa_aCqKzH8TOGZB9pXLV3cHbQgWTkrAj3I60XcQwSEf5PiR4zFNmt7vIQj0x8NACjWEacGqxxWKWEwvWSsa8lDtQRHZhrs111l_T0jfnc_gLQ/s1600/Endzone+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0poAvXlBkjc7njHQxTZ3g-mlO3hwBqzpa_aCqKzH8TOGZB9pXLV3cHbQgWTkrAj3I60XcQwSEf5PiR4zFNmt7vIQj0x8NACjWEacGqxxWKWEwvWSsa8lDtQRHZhrs111l_T0jfnc_gLQ/s320/Endzone+Cover.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So intense was the interest in Harbaugh's return,<br />
<i>Endzone</i> was published before Harbaugh <br />
hadcoached a single game at Michigan.</td></tr>
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The story begins in 2007 when tiny Appalachian State shocked the collegiate football world by coming into Michigan Stadium and knocking off the Wolverines. The following week saw Oregon humiliate Michigan 39-7. Although the "Maize and Blue" would win nine of its last 11 games to finish 9-4 with a Citrus Bowl victory, coach Lloyd Carr was done. West Virginia head coach Richard Rodriguez was brought in to coach in 2008. But under "RichRod" and successor Brady Hoke, Michigan football would average less than seven wins a season from 2008-2014.<br />
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The results on the football field, however, were only the manifestation of years of decline, according to John Bacon's <i>Endzone: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football. </i>Bacon, author of numerous books on the Michigan football program and now its leading scribe, describes how and why Michigan Football declined, what it meant to the University and those who are part of it, and finally how it "returned." To do this, Bacon takes his reader back to the founding of the Michigan athletics program in the late 19th century and provides a guided tour through its highlights. It was out of this history that Michigan's traditions emerged, none more important than the enigmatic concept of the "Michigan Man."<br />
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The Michigan Man (or as Bacon acknowledges Michigan Woman as well these days) is someone who values community, putting the needs of the University of Michigan before their own. Excellence at Michigan is a given. But it must be coupled with a strong ethical core as well. Cutting corners is unacceptable. Excellence, ethics and community are at the heart of the concept of the "Michigan Man/Woman" to Bacon. After the retirement of revered coach Glenn "Bo" Schembechler, the University's leaders largely lost touch with these values.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeK1f0Yh-6P8cqdifFsvqA_w16XuzG-emotFo68Uc6jXYcyIR8fnbr1EYHJzhm3IcAyn-w3m2WiNxVswfRnttxSXMMnfBxZ-24X4UZ5FYQ7nx4nZovBOrIx2GSOhgRbrcHtzM8W-9VgIE/s1600/Bo+and+Jim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeK1f0Yh-6P8cqdifFsvqA_w16XuzG-emotFo68Uc6jXYcyIR8fnbr1EYHJzhm3IcAyn-w3m2WiNxVswfRnttxSXMMnfBxZ-24X4UZ5FYQ7nx4nZovBOrIx2GSOhgRbrcHtzM8W-9VgIE/s320/Bo+and+Jim.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim Harbaugh (left) and his mentor, Bo Schembechler</td></tr>
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By 2014, the entire Michigan community had come to realize this. As Bacon astutely notes, when students marched over to President Mary Sue Coleman's House, they did not demand the firing of the head coach (as they would have had they simply been concerned about wins and losses). It was the Athletic Director, Dave Brandon, they were after, and most of <i>Endzone </i>is concerned with his tenure as A.D. and its legacy.<br />
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Although just a bench warmer, Brandon himself had played football at Michigan under Schembechler. He became in his own words an "All American" at business however, amassing a multi-million dollar fortune as CEO of Domino's Pizza, and served on the University's governing body. On paper he appeared to be a "Michigan Man" par excellence. <br />
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Bacon documents carefully, though, that Brandon had not learned what the concept truly encompassed. Stories abound of how Brandon put himself about the community and ran the Athletic Department like a business, forgetting as Bacon notes that college football is more akin to religion than business despite the big bucks involved at the highest levels.<br />
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Through numerous missteps, Brandon antagonized and alienated virtually all of his constituencies. Long time employees were let go. Former Michigan athletes alienated by the failure to extend trivial, customary courtesies. Students were forced to pay greatly inflated prices for games featuring lower and lower quality opponents and suffered under Brandon's policy of seating students by general admission leaving it nearly impossible to enjoy games with friends. As demand for tickets dropped, the department began to virtually give away seats, diminishing their value and hurting loyal long term season ticket holders. As a result of these missteps, when Michigan began losing games Brandon found himself without a lot of friends willing to stand by him.<br />
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Many of his mistakes seem to have been driven by Brandon's maniacal pursuit of the "Director's Cup," awarded to the collegiate athletic director for overall athletic performance. Millions were spent in pursuit of excellence in relatively obscure sports to the detriment of those with greater interest among the alumni and fan base whose support was vital to keep up with Brandon's growing levels of spending. It was as if Brandon was trying to make up for not being an All-American football player at Michigan by being an All-American Athletic Director. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrnT5j5oAzPqbWLyW1LB5nYYl06GC19t6FLYiqfzjc442a0yiz-FOhN-nA2bDjVeM0Bdp1mFewF_G50ODK8NN-pOveCoe1-2s30_UCZ_J0JqKauXgWeNZTcwBz9huxNK4-te8fiajSIc/s1600/Brandon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrnT5j5oAzPqbWLyW1LB5nYYl06GC19t6FLYiqfzjc442a0yiz-FOhN-nA2bDjVeM0Bdp1mFewF_G50ODK8NN-pOveCoe1-2s30_UCZ_J0JqKauXgWeNZTcwBz9huxNK4-te8fiajSIc/s320/Brandon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An antihero but not a villain, Dave Brandon lost sight<br />
of what it meant to be a "Michigan Man" pursuing<br />
reputation at the expense of the greater Michigan community.</td></tr>
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In 2011 Brandon's insecurity with his legacy would lead to his biggest failure of all. After deciding to let Rodriguez go, Brandon bungled the pursuit of Jim Harbaugh, who many felt should have been hired as Michigan's next head coach. But Brandon set difficult conditions, in effect telling Harbaugh that Brandon would be the face of Michigan.<br />
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In Harbaugh's words, the negotiations left him "not feeling the love." The man who had put first San Diego State and then Stanford Football on the map would choose the NFL instead, guiding his team to the NFC Championship in his first year as a pro coach and the Super Bowl the next. Michigan meanwhile would endure a four year slide under Brady Hoke, culminating in a 5-7 season.<br />
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By late 2014, however, things had changed. Brandon was out, seemingly as the result of a P.R. miscue involving an injured Michigan player he failed to contain. Another A.D. would likely have survived, but Brandon had burned through all of his good will. On the other side was a determined, fired up group of students, regents and alumni more than ready to show him the door, With Brandon gone, Harbaugh was back in play. This time, there would be no miscues. Every possible button was pushed to recruit him and his wife by letting them know how badly they were wanted in Ann Arbor.<br />
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It's telling that Bacon's declared that Michigan football had "returned" occurred before playing a single down under Harbaugh. Michigan football isn't about wins, but doing things a certain way, the "Michigan way" with the belief that the wins will eventually follow. Bringing in a coach who understood this and embodied the school's values was all that was needed to constitute "return."<br />
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For anyone who wishes to understand this episode in collegiate athletics, <i>Endzone</i> is really "must reading." It eschews simple explanations, delving deeply into Bacon's seemingly endless reservoir of Michigan history to produce a compelling and highly thoughtful analysis. Even those with no connection to the University will be fascinated with the story of how a great institution loses it way and what it must do to restore itself by remaining true to its values. As such it would make a great case study for business school. Finally, Bacon's loving portrayal of Michigan is so compelling that any high school student who reads it will likely make it a first choice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefabFEq5gJJWOYuwUvhkSF4vGjHKSHbJPuhNIY2gT2HsrHUA61-RtvI-PKm7BbB0kVjc0-Umropq_2nh9AbkEbBm452JuM4vGERg4A1P34-ymhCEgjJQHlSUoPg-UaixJAuDdLzq-v-I/s1600/Big+House.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefabFEq5gJJWOYuwUvhkSF4vGjHKSHbJPuhNIY2gT2HsrHUA61-RtvI-PKm7BbB0kVjc0-Umropq_2nh9AbkEbBm452JuM4vGERg4A1P34-ymhCEgjJQHlSUoPg-UaixJAuDdLzq-v-I/s320/Big+House.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things are looking bright at the "Big House" these days.</td></tr>
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<br />Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-59498699360345930582015-06-02T12:31:00.000-07:002015-12-01T12:32:08.739-08:00Washington Times review of The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership that Transformed the New York YankeesMy review of Steinberg and Spatz's The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership that Transformed the New York Yankees can be found <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/2/book-review-the-colonel-and-hug-the-partnership-th/?page=all" target="_blank">here</a>.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-75361744890871273982015-01-13T07:48:00.001-08:002015-01-13T07:49:56.234-08:00Weekly Standard Review of Edward Larson's Return of George Washingtoncan be found here...<br />
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/The-Return-of-George-Washington-1783_1789<br />
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Other reviews of the same book:<br />
<br />
The Wall Street Journal:<br />
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-return-of-george-washington-1783-1789-by-edward-j-larson-1412365252<br />
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The New York Times:<br />
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/books/review/edward-j-larsons-the-return-of-george-washington-1783-1789.html?_r=0<br />
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<br />Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-51234516072673425872013-03-03T03:59:00.001-08:002013-03-03T03:59:08.885-08:00Back To School<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several months ago I went "back to school" (virtually speaking) to study something I actually WANTED to learn. My portal is the website <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a>, which is a consortium of universities offering free online courses in a wide variety of topics (the acronym fashionable among academics for this phenomenon is MOOC (massive open online course) pronounced "MOOK"). Now that I'm at the half way mark through the 14 week class, I thought it would be useful to record my thoughts and impressions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The course I'm taking is offered by the University of Virginia (UVA) and titled <i>The Modern World: Global History Since 1760</i>. Taught by Philip Zelikow, White Miller Burkett Professor of History, the course is being taught simultaneously on the UVA campus </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(see </span><a href="http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/31/16795195-massive-open-online-classes-raise-questions-about-future-of-education?fb_action_ids=10200658249963107&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=AddThis_Blogs&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> for a news clip about the course)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. For his online students, Professor Zelikow delivers roughly seven tutorials per week in the form of videos recorded in his office that last between six and 35 minutes. At the end of each week there is an online quiz. There are also electronic bulletin boards for students to open discussion threads in which Zelikow and his teaching assistant will occasionally comment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The weekly quizzes are multiple choice and there are no exams or papers. This is certainly understandable given the work that would be involved to read essays and papers (about 40,000 students around the world have registered; it would be interesting to know how many stick it through all 14 weeks). All that is really tested, then, is the student's aggregation of knowledge, with no real evaluation of understanding (which would involve essay questions) nor the ability to apply what is actually learned (which would involve writing papers). UVA does not offer credit for completion of the course, although students receive a certificate upon its successful completion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Different schools have a different approach to MOOCs, even those under the same umbrella. For instance, this course runs the same period as the "live" version and is about as good a virtual reproduction as can be afforded to the university with minimal cost. Other courses offered by Coursera last as few as six weeks, and seem more like advertisements for their extension school courses. One course (not through Coursera) is actually a barely disguised vehicle for selling a book the school publishes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far, I don't see MOOCs as being quite as revolutionary as some hope (or fear). They are better oriented towards more technical, quantitative material. The only interaction with other students occurs through bulletin boards (Coursera does provide some networking for local meetups but this seems little used) without the give and take of a live class. Absent a serious commitment by universities to hire many more TAs, there seems to be a limit on the quality of learning that a MOOC can provide as mentioned above. If a university were to hire the quantity of graders needed, student fees would likely be involved, and that would probably curtail participation dramatically, especially for international students. For those seeking such an option, there are already extension schools even at <a href="http://www.extension.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">big name universities.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of the day, what such courses <i>might</i> do is force universities, many of whom are convening committees to study the challenges posed by MOOCs, to reexamine the classroom and academic environment they are providing their own students. In many cases, <i>e.g.</i>, intro to accounting, I'm guessing they're really offering in-person MOOCs with massive student packed halls, materials taught mostly by TAs, and grading by problem set. It's these sorts of experiences that are most easily replicated by MOOCs and therefore most threatened by them. The small history seminars and English lit. classes, not so much. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If competition from MOOCs force universities into bringing back quality, interactive learning as opposed to one way lecturing, they will have contributed significantly to higher education. What really needs to happen in education is that employers, students and parents need to start focusing on education rather than credentialing. There is significant evidence that higher education <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125979/" target="_blank">teaches too little</a> and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2013/01/15/the-scary-economics-of-higher-education/" target="_blank">costs too much</a>, but so long as the premium is placed on the paper (and the institutional name on the paper) rather than demonstrated learning, this situation won't get any better.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOIriGCR9gkP2nuqNQKO9mhWft_QiBDuWQky68LrWe8URWBkcL3CtAxPM86ecR6sv2-UOeQrx7hzgPxaUqQLR2_MFQqUUN2eugQEmjIH2v5n3PnAqMxyF4bCXkeG_nvmsaNzaxINhc_w/s1600/Nau+Hall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOIriGCR9gkP2nuqNQKO9mhWft_QiBDuWQky68LrWe8URWBkcL3CtAxPM86ecR6sv2-UOeQrx7hzgPxaUqQLR2_MFQqUUN2eugQEmjIH2v5n3PnAqMxyF4bCXkeG_nvmsaNzaxINhc_w/s640/Nau+Hall.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "live" version of my class is taking place here: <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/webmap/popPages/201-NauHall.html" target="_blank">Nau Hall at the University of Virginia</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is where the virtual version takes place...</td></tr>
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<br />Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com6Nau Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA38.0317613 -78.50498249999998338.0313703 -78.505612999999983 38.0321523 -78.504351999999983tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-81112053456922127812013-01-08T07:40:00.002-08:002013-01-08T07:40:34.878-08:00Baseball, Steroids and the Hall of Fame<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY: As simple and stately as the game itself</td></tr>
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Tomorrow the Baseball Hall of Fame announces its newest members. This year’s ballot is particularly interesting because two of the game’s unambiguously greatest players are on the ballot, but they are also strongly believed to be steroids users. They are Barry Bonds, aka baseball’s all time home run leader, and Roger Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers ever to take the mound (another big name user, Sammy Sosa, is also on the ballot for the first time this year). The debate that began several years ago when Mark McGuire first reached the ballot will reach its apex. One could make at least make a case against McGuire and several other suspected players on non-steroids grounds. Anyone voting against Bonds or Clemens, however, will definitively need to take their stand against ever voting for someone strongly suspected of steroids use.<br />
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Baseball fans, players and journalists are split on the role steroids use should play in Hall of Fame voting. <br />
<br />
Understandably, many do not want the Hall to be tainted by those whose inclusion is based on their deliberate use of an illegal and dangerous substance. Still can we imagine a Hall of Fame without Bonds or Clemens? (Perhaps – baseball’s all time leading hits leader is Pete Rose, barred forever for his gambling)
Some argue that<strong> no one</strong> <strong>even suspected</strong> of steroid use should get in. After all, if we find out they did use after their election, there's no precedent for removal. Better safe than sorry if the Hall is to remain clean. If Mike Piazza, the great Mets and Dodgers catcher, does not make it this year that will be why. It’s the only explanation for last year’s failure of Jeff Bagwell to gain admission. They were just “big guys” during the steroids era.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nqYXE6bnRGkC3jkEEU9nB-yRFhOPJW5ehPXUu15VMCXw244cEve_UctWRrG5cjDC-J50Zhi3oFRy7XtX9m4zN4DnGFrz86VCNGGire-qbInkflo5BXrF8f2P77DimMbS85Y8AOsGUbo/s1600/HOF+Originals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nqYXE6bnRGkC3jkEEU9nB-yRFhOPJW5ehPXUu15VMCXw244cEve_UctWRrG5cjDC-J50Zhi3oFRy7XtX9m4zN4DnGFrz86VCNGGire-qbInkflo5BXrF8f2P77DimMbS85Y8AOsGUbo/s200/HOF+Originals.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No doubt about these guys:<br />
Ruth, Wagner, Johnson et al. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Others would just look at the stats and ignore steroid use. Each generation has its own "steroids" or form of cheating whether it's spitballs, amphetamines, etc the logic goes. We don't even fully understand to what degree steroid use even really benefitted the players who use them. They would ignore the issue all together. Some would place a sort of asterisk on their plaques noting that they played during the steroid era (presumable all players from this era, clean or not, would have such a mark) and have some sort of exhibit explaining how steroids affected play during this time period.<br />
<br />
My own (perhaps over-lawyerly) view: apply a "but for" test. <br />
<br />
<strong>But for the player's steroids use, should he be in the Hall of Fame?</strong> I think this is the ideal test on paper, but the hardest to actually administer. After all, what do we really know about a player's use? What do we know about how his use affected his performance? What if we find out later that a player's admitted use in the twilight of an otherwise Hall of Fame career or only brief use during an injury was actually career long? (The A-Rod question).
These are difficult questions, and require much investigation and supposition. For me, I'd rather engage in such detective work than simply ignore the issue all together or bar every guy who shot up at only one stage, perhaps well after his Hall of Fame career was established (the Roger Clemens scenario). We'll get plenty of arguments applying such a “but for” test, but hey, isn't that what the Hall of Fame voting is all about anyway? <br />
<br />
N.B.: This year, I’d like to see Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell, Piazza, Schilling and Trammel make the cut. The last two are more sentimental, but not undeserving.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeado63l2Yj-U1_k5VOUUOPMsSEkPJGMG97WshIqZEuxJCIcnhrDMldMnFj8pKCVvieEFCXWv6Yw03CtSS68n6QaWp8U5xIKfbxKTvdkWBqpfi7BDgadbSwjOb0ONFZ_N3b9FKmTV07nY/s1600/19th+Century+Baseball+-+Currier+&+Ives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeado63l2Yj-U1_k5VOUUOPMsSEkPJGMG97WshIqZEuxJCIcnhrDMldMnFj8pKCVvieEFCXWv6Yw03CtSS68n6QaWp8U5xIKfbxKTvdkWBqpfi7BDgadbSwjOb0ONFZ_N3b9FKmTV07nY/s400/19th+Century+Baseball+-+Currier+&+Ives.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When it was still a game: actually that period lasted about 5 minutes<br />
before people started placing bets, which was the only thing<br />
that drew crowds in the 19th century.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
.
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-63354420836544706842012-12-30T10:52:00.000-08:002012-12-30T10:52:40.584-08:00Amazon Review of an Honourable Englishman<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZHNrbRb6S3PqGuugTQxJza6nCzxut7cxuHjfJ3y-eNp0PnNZuOgumU0OBdYA90hDC8ayNeQhIapwDev0A_eggbVw8Gq6lWmNRf9J5rgQTPHnv1Nz_v3qdTIOJD26_OBMYBlvncYDqyE/s1600/An+Honourable+Englishman+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZHNrbRb6S3PqGuugTQxJza6nCzxut7cxuHjfJ3y-eNp0PnNZuOgumU0OBdYA90hDC8ayNeQhIapwDev0A_eggbVw8Gq6lWmNRf9J5rgQTPHnv1Nz_v3qdTIOJD26_OBMYBlvncYDqyE/s1600/An+Honourable+Englishman+Cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">An Honourable Englishman</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adam Sisman</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2012, pp. 672</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Adam Sisman’s biography of English historian Hugh
Trevor-Roper harkens us back to a time when the writing and teaching of history
mattered. From the 1930s through the
1980s the world was highly ideological, and the interpretation of even the
distant past was hotly contested as being intimately relevant to contemporary
events surrounding the rise of first fascism and then communism. As the gladiators in this particular coliseum,
certain historians became celebrities in a manner not seen before or since. Appearing on television and the radio, and
writing in newspapers and journals both academic and popular, they were much in
demand to provide perspective on events such as trials of Nazi war criminals,
the JFK assassination and the Warren Commission. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Country homes, fancy cars, and exotic foreign travels play
as large a role in the Trevor-Roper story as journal articles, conferences and
books. The reader is invited into the
arcane world of Oxbridge and the vicious politics that consumed its scholars. Flamboyant, brilliant, garrulous and out
spoken, Trevor-Roper is a particularly engaging protagonist. One author likened him to a “pop star” in
terms of his standing with the public. Although
his academic work focused mostly on the 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup>
centuries, Trevor-Roper’s framework for understanding “his” period was in
competition with those offered by Marxist historians such as Christopher Hill
and Eric Hobsbawm. Which interpretation
prevailed was not seen as irrelevant at a time when a Marxist superpower was
claiming that “the West” was irrevocably doomed because of natural historical
forces.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGVgzu_0Ciq0qRZ08pfLv3xOCa5VpRZsiEyIlMVg_FYaBsnxhzDLtBZa2qfJGBlJaBc07syi09-wWieU22Vtd85KIWZVPsbdGvADBSCOWGqj-0HhX8OkmsAVcjsiT93MhM4sjzCN19RtU/s1600/Hugh-Trevor-Roper-and-his-wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGVgzu_0Ciq0qRZ08pfLv3xOCa5VpRZsiEyIlMVg_FYaBsnxhzDLtBZa2qfJGBlJaBc07syi09-wWieU22Vtd85KIWZVPsbdGvADBSCOWGqj-0HhX8OkmsAVcjsiT93MhM4sjzCN19RtU/s320/Hugh-Trevor-Roper-and-his-wife.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trevor-Roper with his wife: <br />
a passionate yet stormy<br />
relationship</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sisman does a particularly fine job covering the historical
issues about which Trevor-Roper and his colleagues discussed and debated,
sometimes in vituperative terms. At the
same time, he avoids turning the book into historiography. The reader will understand just enough about
the historical controversies to understand Trevor-Roper, and the controversies
in which he engaged with relish, without getting too bogged down.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrPBdptvmMJaEjD94AZQdUdpGZ41mwL7-e8A0K0RumhLt2CKPptRqKlT8CzDbLidksPyEf9VJAz43H7oVO2YpY2aAYRDXTphi_oqT0K2zThdilOtM62lMLrZ39Xus_kZWtw6MvpcEh9o/s1600/Trevor+Roper+Drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrPBdptvmMJaEjD94AZQdUdpGZ41mwL7-e8A0K0RumhLt2CKPptRqKlT8CzDbLidksPyEf9VJAz43H7oVO2YpY2aAYRDXTphi_oqT0K2zThdilOtM62lMLrZ39Xus_kZWtw6MvpcEh9o/s320/Trevor+Roper+Drawing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical "young man in a hurry" Trevor-Roper<br />
would come to be frustrated later in life with his inability<br />
to create a masterwork on the 17th century. His inability<br />
to navigate between complexity and narrative still eludes<br />
many in academia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sisman’s generally sympathetic portrayal does not lead him
astray when recognizing his subject’s shortcomings. For example, his summation of Trevor-Roper’s
involvement in the controversy surrounding the Warren Commission’s report is
particularly harsh (“rashness,” “poor judgment,” “ obstinacy,” “arrogance”). Trevor-Roper habitually separated the
personal from the professional in a manner many others could not and
consequently was frequently caught off guard at how personally colleagues took
what he intended to be purely professional criticisms. Sisman’s reliance on Trevor-Roper’s
voluminous correspondence reminds us of the daunting challenge that will be met
by anyone attempting to chronicle the life of the historians of today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One final note: the American title of the book is a
curiosity (it was not used in England where readers would recognize
Trevor-Roper’s name more readily).
Trevor-Roper was not <i>particularly</i>
honorable (except that he was incapable of keeping his honest opinions to
himself, a sort of academic integrity perhaps) and he might wince at being
identified as being more “English” than any other historian of the period, as
he was very critical of those who failed to look beyond England’s borders when
chronicling events. Still anyone looking
for a biography of Trevor-Roper in particular or for exposure to the world of
Oxford dons and historians during their golden age will enjoy Sisman’s book
tremendously.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-29512910229683408442012-12-26T16:42:00.001-08:002012-12-26T16:42:23.016-08:00Amazon Review of The Union War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Yzn0lkMSH6l8-9QRyC-KK2TNPG8y9AEfrAZblxKbx7fBaGwZgGRMSC6M0fCBF-OYUg5eMuxCEtjxKPXW-JI8Pyi2k7_a99kgDXilyhQRfT7Cs5rPHXvgMJ7TfCOVtequpzyEHpCHNTA/s1600/Union+War.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Yzn0lkMSH6l8-9QRyC-KK2TNPG8y9AEfrAZblxKbx7fBaGwZgGRMSC6M0fCBF-OYUg5eMuxCEtjxKPXW-JI8Pyi2k7_a99kgDXilyhQRfT7Cs5rPHXvgMJ7TfCOVtequpzyEHpCHNTA/s200/Union+War.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Union War</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Gary Gallagher</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2011, 256 pp.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RAU15P8SNT2F/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0674045629&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
<br />
An often neglected topic of Civil War literature is the role preserving the Union played in motivating the North. Even when the importance of preservation of the Union is acknowledged, it's often relegated to second tier status in favor of emancipation.<br />
<br />
University of Virginia professor Gary Gallagher's latest work replaces preservation of the Union as the primary goal for which the North fought, helping 21st century Americans understand why it was so beloved by those willing to die for it. He differentiates this Northern GOAL from the war's CAUSE, which was "beyond dispute...controversies related to slavery." The Union War provides insight into subjective Union views on topics related to the war's aims, although it does not offer an objective assessment of their accuracy (e.g., whether the Union really afford its citizens, particularly those in urban slums and factories the economic opportunities often claimed). At the same time, it disputes the thesis that emancipation emerged as a goal equal to or greater than Union by the war's conclusion. To the vast majority of the North, emancipation remained a necessary tool to prosecute the war, and restoring the status quo ante was unthinkable given how slavery had nearly destroyed their beloved Union.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4m8eEWjkRkPCXcrBujQsGA2YunqTq44kMAsRicWYnqCzAZcvlvFssU7WyAcvhjnsnDFZbeJ0scXdlPHk81PCl-onpe50EMDDK8ySF5lGEiYEEhzbKaUexCXvE4Z3brj4tb6MfuIDQBjM/s1600/LandU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4m8eEWjkRkPCXcrBujQsGA2YunqTq44kMAsRicWYnqCzAZcvlvFssU7WyAcvhjnsnDFZbeJ0scXdlPHk81PCl-onpe50EMDDK8ySF5lGEiYEEhzbKaUexCXvE4Z3brj4tb6MfuIDQBjM/s1600/LandU.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gallagher explains the link between the Union and<br /> liberty and why northerners, particularly immigrants<br />cherished it for the opportunities it afforded</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In a day when we debate concepts such as "American exceptionalism" there was little doubt that it was exceptional in 1861 in terms of popular government, or self-rule by the common (white) man. As flawed as American republicanism was in the middle of the 19th century, it still stood out as the most progressive form of government (if practiced imperfectly), especially when compared to the aristocratic and even more repressive forms of government found in Europe, which had fought, successfully, against republican inspired uprisings only a few years earlier. Fighting for the Union meant, in their view, fighting for the survival of self government and the rule of law in the world (recall Lincoln's "last best hope" rhetoric). To Union soldiers it also meant preserving the legacy of the founding generation, and protecting the inheritance of future generations of Americans.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9ZXocCFi1haIkuOdfZPLEIOVVo7G5TcEb-Ej4Upx5t_G1Zrkhm2ciTY5zo_FQ34OyXM_V2UhWmBPua2CB2qYZ37XV3SpU0rcftneAADFTN-1OaUaCPrZz2Y5xhBM2hIEG_JrhH_SiS0/s1600/Union+Soldier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9ZXocCFi1haIkuOdfZPLEIOVVo7G5TcEb-Ej4Upx5t_G1Zrkhm2ciTY5zo_FQ34OyXM_V2UhWmBPua2CB2qYZ37XV3SpU0rcftneAADFTN-1OaUaCPrZz2Y5xhBM2hIEG_JrhH_SiS0/s200/Union+Soldier.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most likely he fought to<br />preserve the Union rather<br />than end slavery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Gallagher reviews recent scholarship on the Civil War that denigrates the concept of Union as a worthy war aim, explaining why the Union was so important to Northerners. Another interesting theme is Union soldiers' hatred of slaveholders and oligarchs who threatened "liberty," but primarily the Union soldiers' own through their non-free labor economy. He discusses the link that Northerners placed between the Union and economic liberty, something Lincoln and others continually stressed, although, again, he does not evaluate its accuracy (he does, interestingly, cite Karl Marx for the view that Union victory would preserve the most progressive form of government heretofore existent and provide many oppressed Europeans with the potential for a small degree of economic autonomy in the form of western lands).<br />
<br />
Overall, Gallagher's work is a "most read" for students of American history. It stands as a reminder that ideas have consequences, and provides us with exactly what good history does: a window into a time period as seen through the eyes of those who lived it, rather than through the distorting lens of time that has led some to condescending, ahistorical conclusions about those who fought and died to preserve the Union.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-1778162633228699312012-12-21T07:46:00.000-08:002012-12-21T07:48:00.606-08:00Amazon Review of Fenway 1912<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAP2hchBDRtJE1RBEl-DGbFLh9gMUIs3sicQVoNkEtAW_O05VI4z1md5o2P3hLWuR8Xb_4mPIsEzzlaPaSWWGRP4GKM1eGNBxprYQwv7ltZ172Lgps7G3sevSFlRrNRy6VFCT3FPfMyo/s1600/fenway1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAP2hchBDRtJE1RBEl-DGbFLh9gMUIs3sicQVoNkEtAW_O05VI4z1md5o2P3hLWuR8Xb_4mPIsEzzlaPaSWWGRP4GKM1eGNBxprYQwv7ltZ172Lgps7G3sevSFlRrNRy6VFCT3FPfMyo/s200/fenway1912.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Amazon Review of Fenway 1912</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fenway 1912</span><br />
Glenn Stout<br />
2011, 416 pp.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R126YKO6JYOLAG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
<br />
<em>Note: Fenway 1912 was recently awarded the Society of American Baseball Research's Seymour Medal (best book on baseball history) and Larry Ritter Award (best book on the deadball era).</em> <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, A Championship Season, and Fenway's
Remarkable First Year is the latest in a string of books celebrating the storied
ballpark's centennial next year. Three other books about Fenway have already
been released this year and another six are on the horizon. In Fenway 1912, Glen
Stout, the author of numerous team histories and other sports related books,
covers "all the bases," surrounding the park's construction and the 1912 Boston
Red Sox championship season.</div>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzlaUNh5nUF66UkZwPDdvkWVooY9fGpLfLYBWB7TFTPdrD495nb0S5k9w9j7eGFl0zmOqzdbHhHnnykdlB8U0AV-pv337vAMOZZBAv4PMNztAw5GLn-94EyR3eKU3N8J2D3fyn8jCHM0/s1600/1912+WS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmzlaUNh5nUF66UkZwPDdvkWVooY9fGpLfLYBWB7TFTPdrD495nb0S5k9w9j7eGFl0zmOqzdbHhHnnykdlB8U0AV-pv337vAMOZZBAv4PMNztAw5GLn-94EyR3eKU3N8J2D3fyn8jCHM0/s320/1912+WS.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 1912 World Series between the Red Sox and Giants was<br />
so monumental it earned the title "The First Fall Classic" </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To read Fenway 1912 is to travel back to New
England at the dawn of the 20th century. Readers will meet not only the players,
but Fenway architect James McLaughlin and head groundskeeper Jerome Kelly while
learning something about the early, pre-1920 game both on the field and from a
business perspective. Another major character is Boston itself, and Stout spends
some time discussing the spate of buildings that had gone up near Fenway Park
that still stand, enjoying iconic status in their own right. The Irish pols that
took over the reins of city government before the turn of the century and were
comfortably ensconced by the time the book opens also play an important role
that Stout does not neglect. Street cars weren't just used for travel downtown,
but in between towns as well. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy and the Royal Rooters make
their appearances as well throughout.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14DhybfhXZknLsVhP0oEki1heTKvLj__cs57PsGgcYxYIygOw3vhiTihVz6oR9j18rJl5lwjy3sJFLIjlvmOXWVwUE8hWX8zH17vbfnv4Ao_vu68Hsh87mt3pCUCBHjnqDj-61YpNzWU/s1600/NufSed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14DhybfhXZknLsVhP0oEki1heTKvLj__cs57PsGgcYxYIygOw3vhiTihVz6oR9j18rJl5lwjy3sJFLIjlvmOXWVwUE8hWX8zH17vbfnv4Ao_vu68Hsh87mt3pCUCBHjnqDj-61YpNzWU/s200/NufSed.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael "Nuf Said" McGreevy<br />
The Sox's most ardent supporter</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fenway is, of course, iconic - its
odd shape instantly recognizable to even the most casual baseball fan. Stout
opines, however, that Fenway has actually changed so much in its 100 year
history that today's Fenway regular, transported back in time to the days of
Howard Taft and Smokey Joe Wood would not recognize the ball park he was sitting
in. This constant change, not its unchanging image, is the real reason that
Fenway has survived while other stadiums from the same era such as Ebbets Field,
Shibe (Connie Mack) and Tiger Stadium have fallen victim to the wrecking ball,
he writes. Besides dispelling the myth of a timeless, never changing Fenway,
Stout demolishes some other myths. For instance, Fenway's shape was dictated by
the shape of the land parcel purchased by the owners. There was still
undeveloped area around the stadium. Given how far the ball flew in 1912,
however, Fenway's dimensions were considered more than adequate and few home
runs were anticipated. Of course, the city grew up around Fenway, closing it in
and making expansion difficult once the game changed in 1920 with the livelier
ball and free swinging, homer seeking batsmen.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4etJQYuyWNfBeAFpe0EyQ2f8yFhu4jL9HouIMh7pqgESoiF74TuXc3ZeBOsX_hgqc4EBYeyAV5T4ytGvlvGyzz1EmQPGGcNtCHSYDWAp8RuVkt2oG0xKcAPxuZ_Pg7hKP-dy4m8O7sAo/s1600/AFP_AboveFenwayPark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4etJQYuyWNfBeAFpe0EyQ2f8yFhu4jL9HouIMh7pqgESoiF74TuXc3ZeBOsX_hgqc4EBYeyAV5T4ytGvlvGyzz1EmQPGGcNtCHSYDWAp8RuVkt2oG0xKcAPxuZ_Pg7hKP-dy4m8O7sAo/s320/AFP_AboveFenwayPark.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stout demolishes the myth that Fenway's odd shape was <br />
attributable to the scarcity of available land</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Red Sox themselves
come alive in Stout's description of the 1912 season and World Series, and the
epilogue fills in the rest of their story after 1912. Still, the book's largest
character is the park itself. Fortunately, an enlightened ownership and fan base
has made the concessions and changes necessary to preserve Fenway, so its story
is still being written. While Red Sox fans and Frequent Fenway goers will enjoy
1912 the most, any fan of the game and its history will want to give Fenway 1912
five stars.<br />
<br />
To this day, the 1912 team is the winningist in Red Sox
history. While fans will be celebrating Fenway's 100 year anniversary with the
gorgeous coffee table books spewing forth, they'll also want this excellent
history of the stadium's birth and the team that inaugurated it. Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-58182913087688913382012-12-17T06:25:00.000-08:002012-12-17T06:25:02.955-08:00Why I Don't Follow College Football (any longer)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp608CVC5Ot_vM_OLMTPMMHaDrduMO-NHKuGrU-vZod7h6J-w8K-13Tmzz_aC2lS9z5_NlhYuZO881mFOWFYzdU6G1PAcMb-CWGa9NrSW65vmQUf7jHdSKyxVeJMeLvFow-oFBPzQMeNg/s1600/Football4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp608CVC5Ot_vM_OLMTPMMHaDrduMO-NHKuGrU-vZod7h6J-w8K-13Tmzz_aC2lS9z5_NlhYuZO881mFOWFYzdU6G1PAcMb-CWGa9NrSW65vmQUf7jHdSKyxVeJMeLvFow-oFBPzQMeNg/s640/Football4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Until the late 1950s collge football was much bigger than pro football</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Dating my lack of interest in college football is difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing up in Michigan, a state with not one but two NCAA <s>Division One</s> FBS football programs, I loved following the Big 10 (historical side note: there really were only 10 teams in the Big 10 once upon a time).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With its passionate student fan bases, marching bands, fight songs and a more exciting style of play than the National Football League, it was always much more fun to watch the Wolverines and Spartans than the Detroit Lions (ok, just about anything was).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite the debacle that was his brief presidency of the Detroit Tigers, longtime Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler remains one of my heroes (as does, for some reason not fully understood by me, Alabama coach Bear Bryant).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet today I rarely do anything more than check the scores every now and again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I do read something about college football in depth it’s usually because of some scandal with deeper societal impact, such as Penn State’s implosion.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvW8Fyg08yhYQqhS007rnw67pwvESE0LaBPTlQy6jTEeHyTGdoBvuX-8Bq-Ht5FJfeFEwv4JOcvmipTV5W9jNz4IPA0kzK29lcTxnNIcWreveeeQRaY8MgvG_VZdTACftGhqYcH0OUs0/s1600/BO+SCHEMBECHLER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvW8Fyg08yhYQqhS007rnw67pwvESE0LaBPTlQy6jTEeHyTGdoBvuX-8Bq-Ht5FJfeFEwv4JOcvmipTV5W9jNz4IPA0kzK29lcTxnNIcWreveeeQRaY8MgvG_VZdTACftGhqYcH0OUs0/s320/BO+SCHEMBECHLER.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bo Schembechler: he turned down a truckload of<br />
money to stay at Michigan and became an even bigger legend:<br />
where are today's Schembehlers?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think there are a number of culprits, originally having to do with the overregulation of the game and the way it deals with violations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the sin of “excessive celebration” for a late go-ahead touchdown, the opposing team will likely get the ball with good enough field position to kick a long game winning field goal, nullifying the heroic long run or 80 yard “bomb.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A late night out with the teammates that leads to some cheap tattoos?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goodbye national championship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a mindset that would have made perfect sense to Joseph Stalin and at which George Orwell would have salivated to parody, the NCAA has taken to declaring players retroactively ineligible and any games played with them forfeit no matter what the score on the field was or how long ago the final whistle blew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, there’s no guarantee that the outcome of the game you just spent three hours watching won’t be altered by lawyers years later and the $75 Rose Bowl sweatshirt you bought your son to commemorate your alma mater’s gridiron glory rendered an embarrassing reminder best left at the bottom of the drawer.</span></div>
<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXEV3siEV_4eCSQyZMA2Knwh-0H1l8Rgpak7kZv3ekp6qI5efw021Yq2vj6HYgevPaPTczF5OqiqlYXyWNdUJ8QSSN4VdmcP93vedXzVj9PPEdRxNv1CQCugZU2iq0UrtWJX0nDUSAmE/s1600/MSU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXEV3siEV_4eCSQyZMA2Knwh-0H1l8Rgpak7kZv3ekp6qI5efw021Yq2vj6HYgevPaPTczF5OqiqlYXyWNdUJ8QSSN4VdmcP93vedXzVj9PPEdRxNv1CQCugZU2iq0UrtWJX0nDUSAmE/s320/MSU.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When there were still ties in college football:<br />
the 1966 10-10 game between MSU and Notre Dame<br />
(both undefeated) is one of the true classics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The recent story regarding how Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville walked out of a recruiting dinner and, having just accepted his new position at the University of Cincinnati, simply never returned started me down a new, separate line of reasoning why I’m just no longer interested in college football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many of the game’s most important personas simply lack commitment to their schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This wasn’t even the first time Tommy Tuberville let down the program he coached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor is he the first coach to leave his program in the lurch, swearing lifelong fealty to whichever school just hired him only to have already compiled a short list of what constitutes the next rung on their career ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is certainly not behavior restricted to college football.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps we have even come to expect this from the head coaches of the college football world, a small band more closely aligned with Machiavelli’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Condottiere </i>than their more immediate predecessors by such behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that behavior can only exist in the long run because it is countenanced by the college administrators who hire them despite their track records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, there’s simply no longer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i> “adults in the room” when it comes to college football.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMiQxCyUc3MiojMZ9beZezMAUoI-APTO0zjMlLAGzL4RaX4Gb4iGZLBr3VSmAXu8wsqWGxB8mbGq8r3GpuO_ow8_bfAlX8r9u2XvlfQK-EvpF1NAU3eGAyF-1SWNqe08F6vPlDuxxMb94/s1600/Football2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMiQxCyUc3MiojMZ9beZezMAUoI-APTO0zjMlLAGzL4RaX4Gb4iGZLBr3VSmAXu8wsqWGxB8mbGq8r3GpuO_ow8_bfAlX8r9u2XvlfQK-EvpF1NAU3eGAyF-1SWNqe08F6vPlDuxxMb94/s1600/Football2.jpg" /></a></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that the world we knew when we were young was a better one, but I’m convinced that the college football one that I knew from the 1970s and 1980s was such a world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sport I follow most closely, baseball, certainly had its share of troubles with steroids and imbalance of play, causing me and many others to lose interest in the 1990s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow, though, baseball came back and by virtually every metric is in great shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With all of the recent health issues surfacing about former NFL players and the epidemic of violence becoming associated with pro football both on and off the field, baseball has even arguably reclaimed its place atop the US sports world.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">College football has faced an existential crisis in its history that was even more serious than what it faces today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the early 20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century the game had become so rough that there were several fatalities each year and a movement to put an end to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was able to clean up its act only after a Presidential intervention by Theodore Roosevelt, whose son played for the Harvard varsity squad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The NCAA, whose governing status was one of the Roosevelt era reform, seems to have lost its way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Perhaps it is time for another outside intervention?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxb4lGV4niOLcWnfE7hXq8cOWJ2BmGbMppe59jWmOPVWpXRyY3DwVb8XNl4KAvUrjf8PmyJMDHcIgzpza3j3ThGrnY6ucIgWrcPTCHxz4L-RnrjGjH-cWEeuqiNYEnOXClhsfXGOtvWo/s1600/TR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxb4lGV4niOLcWnfE7hXq8cOWJ2BmGbMppe59jWmOPVWpXRyY3DwVb8XNl4KAvUrjf8PmyJMDHcIgzpza3j3ThGrnY6ucIgWrcPTCHxz4L-RnrjGjH-cWEeuqiNYEnOXClhsfXGOtvWo/s640/TR.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teddy Roosevelt helped fix college football before: Is there another TR out there?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-30515079593608475582012-12-13T07:33:00.000-08:002012-12-14T08:45:46.854-08:00Review of The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhO6KcFc69VyFycfkTmOsoBZCPo-4GG_lrjeqaF8LADEvEBdb1jwVfZTcPT6hPiIuwSkLjsVh1BRD83gtSrzy26kNCl4qMa2bKrifGcMM0MhsJG5iYO0ry66EnEZVRv00i-ZgEXhGgCA/s1600/Reagan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhO6KcFc69VyFycfkTmOsoBZCPo-4GG_lrjeqaF8LADEvEBdb1jwVfZTcPT6hPiIuwSkLjsVh1BRD83gtSrzy26kNCl4qMa2bKrifGcMM0MhsJG5iYO0ry66EnEZVRv00i-ZgEXhGgCA/s200/Reagan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Amazon Review of The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Gil Troy</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2009, 168 pp</span>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/RMVKTRLQW2R8I/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0195317106&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In THE REAGAN REVOLUTION: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION professor
Gil Troy asserts that Ronald Reagan is our most significant President since
FDR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying to explain seeming
contradiction of a so-called right wing conservative President pursuing a “revolution”
leads Troy to reinterpret Reagan and what his administration was about, analyze
the extent to which Reagan succeeded, and evaluate how much of his legacy
remains with us today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Troy is mostly persuasive
in his judgments but can occasionally make grandiose claims both for and
against Reagan without always convincing his readers, many of whom will likely
be disposed toward their own strong views on the subject.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZZ2H2MGcouPavjqVBCJu-cArIiq3rnMAEJJaacGuc485r7DMKRDLEsFEPmnH3mdCezVRmEh59RHhLQUjDj1J2ziRIjwW5aEG9Wg20cDRY3jZukDQ6i2EiNZFwSSYa1MqF2kPFyrcSCw/s1600/Patco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZZ2H2MGcouPavjqVBCJu-cArIiq3rnMAEJJaacGuc485r7DMKRDLEsFEPmnH3mdCezVRmEh59RHhLQUjDj1J2ziRIjwW5aEG9Wg20cDRY3jZukDQ6i2EiNZFwSSYa1MqF2kPFyrcSCw/s200/Patco.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The PATCO showdown... a <br />
turning point in America’s <br />
economic, psychic, and <br />
patriotic revival."<br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Troy does a nice job of setting the stage by explaining
Reagan’s upbringing and personality (a task so daunting to official biographer
Edmund Morris that Morris felt the need to invent a fictional character who
could interact with Reagan as a character in a work of supposed non-fiction).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reagan was a “loner who knew how to charm a
crowd,” concludes Troy, the result of an upbringing in a lower middle class
household that was constantly on the move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His father’s alcoholism and the other turmoil in his youth led him, out
of necessity, to create the sunny optimism that sometimes only he could see,
but also could blind himself to others’ struggles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Troy also provides a succinct history of the
trajectory of American government in the 19<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup>
centuries, and how Reagan came to view those events, that led America to the
sorry state in which</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> it found itself in 1980.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such history is important, in Troy’s view, because Reagan was not so
much trying to revolutionize America so much as “recover” a period in our
history before he thinks we took a wrong turn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Troy seems to like Reagan personally and freely credits
his political savvy (strongly rejecting the “amiable dunce” caricature popular
during Reagan’s presidency), he also seems sympathetic to the views of Reagan’s
opponents on many issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance, Troy
credits the New Deal with helping to lift the working class into enough economic
comfort that it would eventually become the base for Reagan’s triumph, the
so-called “Reagan Democrats.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
Reagan critics and admirers will find much to like and dislike in Troy’s
account, which does a very nice job covering every significant aspect of the
Reagan years in the very limited space allotted by the “Very Short
Introduction” format.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0JxifkQ3_SUgnt1N9Y7T-1u8JrTif2didtTOOYJSWpVZ5igXTryXSI4P-dRwvHwOzZXtDWB6TmrP-bo2pboFANymoZ2Oyx-PDffiNCXhCMk-Vlif_sT4o3hdLWSC6AxLvbWETuXAxTo/s1600/FDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0JxifkQ3_SUgnt1N9Y7T-1u8JrTif2didtTOOYJSWpVZ5igXTryXSI4P-dRwvHwOzZXtDWB6TmrP-bo2pboFANymoZ2Oyx-PDffiNCXhCMk-Vlif_sT4o3hdLWSC6AxLvbWETuXAxTo/s200/FDR.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Reagan remained an ardent fan of </em><br />
<em>FDR -</em><em>"The press is trying to paint me</em><br />
<em> as </em><em>trying</em><em> to </em><em>undo the New Deal.… </em><em>I'm </em><br />
<em>trying to</em><em> undo the Great Society"</em><br />
<em> - Ronald Reagan.</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Troy can contradict himself however, particularly when it
comes to Reagan’s true goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
he is sensitive to Reagan’s continued support for New Deal fundamentals, but
other times he notes that Reagan was unable to undo the New Deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Troy also
asserts at length Reagan’s policies and values “personified” a “consumer-driven,
celebrity-oriented, and selfish society” but then he points out that such trends
both pre and post dated Reagan, undercutting such criticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also seems surprised that Reagan and crew
did nothing to roll back the civil rights gains of the 1960s when the only
assertion that they would try came from Reagan’s opponents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There proof may be there for some of Troy’s
conclusions but he does not always “show his work.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does a better job explaining the seeming
contradictions in Reagan’s foreign policy and in explaining how in both
domestic and foreign policy, Reagan would surprise both his supporters and
critics, proving himself more flexible and pragmatic than the rigid caricature
that both sides saw him as</span>.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxQHDaefC7CzIz4G6A78LdMqVhbJhrKMUi4YCnmvJO5ggRILKMZSJr8u6ulgsYvXo3XMmnysiOT2mSw3dGaM3QQsyLGITzYfNevIZQ_Kd8uCJ5mOeAiejL0Q2IPLWj84DSaKwTucBAkU/s1600/Reagan+Horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxQHDaefC7CzIz4G6A78LdMqVhbJhrKMUi4YCnmvJO5ggRILKMZSJr8u6ulgsYvXo3XMmnysiOT2mSw3dGaM3QQsyLGITzYfNevIZQ_Kd8uCJ5mOeAiejL0Q2IPLWj84DSaKwTucBAkU/s320/Reagan+Horse.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Love him or hate him, Ronald Reagan remains<br />
the most influential president since Franklin D. Roosevelt."<br />
. </td></tr>
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Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-89298326542987755352012-11-30T19:38:00.002-08:002012-12-06T06:26:25.419-08:00Review of Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgjgiYL2B8S0NwkrWZ3sVsmynnMb1ju8zgXxi8OygXNU4rJCc3TmHwzchifj_LCwYfg8NvHVNVu2I7gFxLvf70UUBiM55tRLvBLzgDSN54fhosT95XJMXZYNvV8QwNfe7v2pWww4Bm4k/s1600/mayflower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYgjgiYL2B8S0NwkrWZ3sVsmynnMb1ju8zgXxi8OygXNU4rJCc3TmHwzchifj_LCwYfg8NvHVNVu2I7gFxLvf70UUBiM55tRLvBLzgDSN54fhosT95XJMXZYNvV8QwNfe7v2pWww4Bm4k/s320/mayflower.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
MAYFLOWER: A STORY OF COMMUNITY, COURAGE AND WAR<br />
Nathaniel Philbrick<br />
2006, 480 pp.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R200R9LY6V3V0A/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0143111973&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
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Nathaniel Philbrick’s MAYFLOWER: A STORY OF COMMUNITY, COURAGE AND WAR is essentially a retelling of the story of the settlement on Plymouth Colony in 1620 and the history of that colony though the end of what became known as “King Phillips War.” That conflict, which stretched throughout New England, came close to snuffing out the presence of English settlement in that part of North America. Despite our knowledge of how it all came out, Philbrook manages to create many moments of drama leaving the reader not wanting to put the book down as he recounts many of the individual narratives that make up the dramatic history of 17th century Plymouth and its surroundings.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPb65xmPOPikbchMFAhGqBg0_MPzyP0mB-39aeR7dxU0_hbEs6b2zPgoAU5ydBCQrHJ8s7IyjDaQHTgJAzvJlnbG-BQWgOrxk4puNT73DAdGg3QUyk4aB0eBY7hhbgyaBof7o40Vyv3f0/s1600/tg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPb65xmPOPikbchMFAhGqBg0_MPzyP0mB-39aeR7dxU0_hbEs6b2zPgoAU5ydBCQrHJ8s7IyjDaQHTgJAzvJlnbG-BQWgOrxk4puNT73DAdGg3QUyk4aB0eBY7hhbgyaBof7o40Vyv3f0/s200/tg.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The traditional story<br /> of the Pilgrims' first<br /> Thanksgiving is surprisingly<br />accurate</td></tr>
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Early on, Philbrick tackles “two conflicting preconceptions.” The first is that the Pilgrims “symbolize all that is good about America”. Its counter is that “evil Europeans annihilated the innocent Native Americans.” His research led him to a much richer, more interesting story: “real-life Indians and English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave—in short, too human—to behave so predictably.” In short, there are heroes and villains among both the English and the Native Americans they encounter. This may upset some readers who prefer their preconceptions unblemished, but for the rest of us it makes for a much more interesting story and rings truer to our own experience in everyday life that courage, decency and wisdom are not traits endemic to one group or utterly lacking in another.<br />
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Generally, the group Philbrick refers to as the “Leideners” or those separatist English who had left England and moved to Holland because they could not, in good conscience, remain in the Church of England (a legal requirement at the time) come off well. They were extreme in their religious beliefs, and would later deny others the freedom to practice their religion that compelled them to sail to America in the first place. Still, they were dedicated to their God, incredibly brave and determined to establish a place for themselves where they could live the way they thought proper. For the most part, their dealings with the Native Americans they encountered were judicious and wise, and the Thanksgiving story we’ve come to know is, surprisingly, mostly correct if incomplete.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOfIlz16AyDgQQan2w2mhXlvPhSyS6ZoiIElf8djVUh26vXWr85-NDUpTvEh0f9RHa_zAlqrkg98t_o1XDJxCa5QhvQzvvhZURG6I4ILsQ6VTLv-EZQvRZDVeb9ERHkn2SE6ogqWoXyQ/s1600/Benjamin+Church.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOfIlz16AyDgQQan2w2mhXlvPhSyS6ZoiIElf8djVUh26vXWr85-NDUpTvEh0f9RHa_zAlqrkg98t_o1XDJxCa5QhvQzvvhZURG6I4ILsQ6VTLv-EZQvRZDVeb9ERHkn2SE6ogqWoXyQ/s200/Benjamin+Church.jpg" width="129" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The David Patraeus of<br />his day, Benjamin Church<br />revolutionized the New<br />Englanders' way of war</td></tr>
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Philbick’s telling leaves a little to be desired when explaining precisely how the Native Americans came to find themselves in the desperate position they were in when Phillip decided to war against the English. In fact, it sounds as though they were desperate to keep purchasing English goods but unwilling to engage in the sorts of work necessary to earn them. Finding that their agricultural way of life no longer sustainable they chose to sell their capital (land), leaving them in an even worse position. Philbrook lays this out but can’t quite bring himself to say that it was the Natives changing in some ways (longing for English goods) but not others (a willingness to adapt to the changing economy) that forced their hand. He also fails to go into any detail as to how the English governed themselves, mentioning their ultimate decisions but skimping on the decision making processes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvr5Pmg2sQvZLsZel1jNPNfRVE0_tYeG6ajwQdqBgTLPhlxF__SXFd8gVJWbPPTv36vM1TeWKbLnbzk4Hsaa_XjNnZVQnsN1gox7VGwxVvgzVkPtSmt6Ov5YhIou29Jf9pumt_54PySd8/s1600/squanto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvr5Pmg2sQvZLsZel1jNPNfRVE0_tYeG6ajwQdqBgTLPhlxF__SXFd8gVJWbPPTv36vM1TeWKbLnbzk4Hsaa_XjNnZVQnsN1gox7VGwxVvgzVkPtSmt6Ov5YhIou29Jf9pumt_54PySd8/s200/squanto.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hardly the benign savage<br />of legend, Squanto was a<br />shrewd go between who<br />exploited the Pilgrims and<br />Natives' ignorance for his<br />own purposes.</td></tr>
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Philbrick's judgment of Englishmen and Natives is balanced and he carefully analyzes the judgments and misjudgments that led to a war no one wanted or expected that proved so catastrophic for the region and all of its peoples. Readers will likely see parallels to the War on Terror in many aspects of how the English initially fought but then came to adapt when their traditional methods proved unsatisfactory. In sum, MAYFLOWER stands as a very good introduction to the story of the English settling of New England and the first period of the New England colonies’ history.
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-64992034973831012382012-11-28T19:27:00.002-08:002012-11-28T19:31:09.717-08:00Gentleman's Gazette Review of Churchill Style<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MI5Q6l1WXGCtteXkoAPXd6ERKHvMRaCcQ9CXM_jQVHAKkh67rUenjpJE4SXDzr1-LGN6EyM_1c9udgE8OKaXB_QdqusM-xN6qcRGlF18jW6kXqyBtpYCJs6jRrnLixLX_VBvY5fhBgc/s1600/Churchill+Style.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MI5Q6l1WXGCtteXkoAPXd6ERKHvMRaCcQ9CXM_jQVHAKkh67rUenjpJE4SXDzr1-LGN6EyM_1c9udgE8OKaXB_QdqusM-xN6qcRGlF18jW6kXqyBtpYCJs6jRrnLixLX_VBvY5fhBgc/s320/Churchill+Style.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Review of Churchill Style</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Barry Singer</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2012, 240 pp.</span></div>
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(Published in a slightly altered format in Gentleman's Gazette Ezine)</div>
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<a href="http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/churchill-style-book-review/">Link to the published version</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R2KIYQVT37TW4C/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=081099643X&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=">My shorter review appears at Amazon here</a></div>
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Winston Churchill is both one of history’s greatest and most
stylistically evocative figures. The
British statesman served in numerous government posts of one of the world’s
great imperial powers at key moments during the course of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century. He was called to head the
Admiralty (navy) during World War One, serve as Secretary of State for the
Colonies during the creation of the Irish Free State, take charge of the
Exchequer (treasury) during the tempestuous 1920s and, finally, to reside at Number
10 Downing Street as Prime Minister during World War II (a post to which he
would be recalled during the Cold War). He
also wrote numerous books that included several multiple volume histories and
delivered countless rhetorical masterpieces in the House of Commons. But then there is also the exuberant
Churchill of great style, the Churchill that was “easily satisfied with the
best” in creature comforts ranging from cigars, scotch, automobiles, country
homes, food and champagne, right down to his silk underwear and pajamas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Ljk0VIFrGUwRDSocV_D4BBPQAkCtY-CFOi5fpov95Sa2CaK2pSKBkDpIIq_LSX1wNxeNBBe8g3-AYY8mjifSgmIhKq3gRVTuh6cJC1vV2y2MyyqvaAIEZZRtrVSouKXyM_4hlLYQ6Wg/s1600/Churchill-Style-The-Art-of-Being-Winston-Churchill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Ljk0VIFrGUwRDSocV_D4BBPQAkCtY-CFOi5fpov95Sa2CaK2pSKBkDpIIq_LSX1wNxeNBBe8g3-AYY8mjifSgmIhKq3gRVTuh6cJC1vV2y2MyyqvaAIEZZRtrVSouKXyM_4hlLYQ6Wg/s640/Churchill-Style-The-Art-of-Being-Winston-Churchill.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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We often portray style and substance as being in tension if
not outright incompatible, but Barry Singer’s <i>Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill</i> illustrates how
Churchill’s lifestyle furthered his substantial career. As a bonus, the book’s details add a good
deal of gloss to the Churchill story, helping us to feel as if we know the
great man just a little bit more intimately, just as we know our friends by the
brand of beer they drink or the type of car they drive and the other everyday
items they love that we come to associate with them. It’s as if Yousuf Karsh’s famous photograph
of Churchill had blossomed into glorious color.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUq7RYOkNpeHve87rfeW7AEBcN_QapvruYv-ez2Zuld4C925WLarMWCZcT9AqTDpZKQfmg6FD1qbxmEWVaYkMh6BNN3etGI3sdSbvl7SGIvZU9IuB0WEJRopReGxGnH55CZLlf3Igro0/s1600/Karsh+Photo+Churchill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUq7RYOkNpeHve87rfeW7AEBcN_QapvruYv-ez2Zuld4C925WLarMWCZcT9AqTDpZKQfmg6FD1qbxmEWVaYkMh6BNN3etGI3sdSbvl7SGIvZU9IuB0WEJRopReGxGnH55CZLlf3Igro0/s320/Karsh+Photo+Churchill.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karsh's famous photo</td></tr>
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And much of <i>Churchill
Style</i> does concern itself with the items most famously associated with Churchill:
the ever present cigars, bow ties, homburgs, dark suits, and whiskey and sodas,
the seemingly endless amounts of cognac and champagne, and his ever present, trademark
“V for Victory” hand sign. Singer, the
owner of the Churchill-focused Chartwell Books, covers Churchill’s homes and
his past times, such as his polo playing, painting and reading. Readers will be treated to the intimate
details of Churchill’s life, often hinted at in other works, via such exhibits
as railroad service instructions telling stewards precisely how to stock Sir
Winston’s private railway car (canapés, coffee, tea, Johnny Walker Black,
Martell extra cognac) and serve his breakfast (tea, juice, eggs and sliced
meat), detailed book orders, and the ubiquitous tailors’ bills that were an
ever present irritant in the life of a Victorian or Edwardian gentleman.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9os9rPBROB2dac0IjjTG8VciNJLRo0Z0xhBslsQsXdtHn-h3VDL4zSZ_7yrFxp7OX_AlmJzub-jQxHbwmqoGA_YNGVBY64JuSCfd6vztWtTh_6piB7guFeL-OaoKRAODxfID1Ay4j5kk/s1600/Siren+Suit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9os9rPBROB2dac0IjjTG8VciNJLRo0Z0xhBslsQsXdtHn-h3VDL4zSZ_7yrFxp7OX_AlmJzub-jQxHbwmqoGA_YNGVBY64JuSCfd6vztWtTh_6piB7guFeL-OaoKRAODxfID1Ay4j5kk/s200/Siren+Suit.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of WCs many "Siren Suits"</td></tr>
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Churchill’s wardrobe is also covered in extensive
detail. Singer explains the origins of
Churchill’s preference for bow ties, relates the criticism Churchill received
from <i>Tailor and Cutter</i> magazine for
his choice of wedding apparel and explains his penchant for the odd looking “siren
suits” (front zippered jump suits). A
full blown “Churchillian Shopping Guide” is appended for those who wish to
purchase their clothes and accessories from those same shops frequented by
Churchill that remain in existence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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These are, however, only the small and superficial elements
of a much broader and meaningful conception of style, namely the approach by
which Churchill rose to power in just the right place and at the right time to
play perhaps THE critical role in the history of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century. For Churchill, style and substance
were not competing elements or even in tension.
Churchill’s style was a vital aspect of his very being and it is the
book’s subtitle, <i>The Art of Being Winston
Churchill</i> that best conveys the book’s principle value by describing how
Churchill’s lifestyle served to sustain his meteoric, if highly volatile,
political career and the writing that ultimately earned him a Nobel Prize.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Picasso himself remarked that Churchill could have earned a
living by his landscapes. For Churchill,
however, painting provided a much needed psychological break from the burdens
of leadership. He even went so far as
to claim that he couldn't have born the strain without painting as one form of
self-expression that he found necessary to live. Less well known among Churchill’s past times
was his passion for horses, both in the form of playing polo and owning race
horses. He also did not shy from manual
labor despite his illustrious upbringing, and was proud that his brick laying
skills developed to the point of earning membership in a bricklayers’ union. The never ending projects undertaken to
improve Chartwell, his country home, were also doubtlessly a great source of
diversion and stress relief.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFh674O-HrJN37fRBokzeaEHaOqTJ4VT5S1tTRTXjtCBSjsptK_PnQ_muRz-E19p9MzKtqBLXHQANd7Eip_OItn2JTsgoi3xvIE-x20Rl6T2wc6tXoi6cMkqergQTJx7-4wXzT_IiLLI/s1600/Chartwell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFh674O-HrJN37fRBokzeaEHaOqTJ4VT5S1tTRTXjtCBSjsptK_PnQ_muRz-E19p9MzKtqBLXHQANd7Eip_OItn2JTsgoi3xvIE-x20Rl6T2wc6tXoi6cMkqergQTJx7-4wXzT_IiLLI/s640/Chartwell.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chartwell: Churchill's country estate and home base</td></tr>
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Singer does not neglect the other vital roles that Chartwell
played in his career. A day away from
Chartwell was wasted according to Churchill, and it was both the center of his
political life as well as his retreat from it.
A decaying structure dating back to the Elizabethan period, Chartwell
was a money pit that helped keep Churchill close to bankruptcy for much of his
life. As Singer puts it, “His singular
gift was a stalwart ability to live as he wished, even if it was often beyond
his means.” Yet, it was the need to
finance the lifestyle that Chartwell entailed that drove much of Churchill’s
journalism and writing. If necessity is
the mother of invention, Chartwell certainly played a major role in Churchill’s
literary output.</div>
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To be clear, one does not have to emulate Churchill’s
particular lifestyle to lead a life of substantial accomplishment. For at the end of the day Winston Churchill’s
style was more than a mere accumulation of homes, horses and autos. The cigars and brandies were, in fact, mere accouterments and a fascinating diversion for readers. At its heart, writes Singer, the essence of Churchill’s
style lay not in mere things but in “the ambition, the energy, the
resourcefulness and the boundless self-confidence…his infuriating conviction he
was bound for greatness, as well as fearlessness in pursuing it…” It was these last elements that allowed him
to survive political catastrophes that would have felled a lesser man. His career could well have been ended
(undeservedly) by the failed Dardanelles campaign in 1915, with which he was
closely associated or as a result of the decision to return Britain to the gold
standard, an ill-fated endeavor he oversaw as Chancellor but of which he did
not approve. As a result his career was
viewed as being in such a shambles that when asked by Stalin himself about
Churchill’s political future in 1932, his nemesis, Lady Astor, replied simply,
“Churchill? Oh, he’s finished.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbpm5J4EQA8FLGIlPMmIm2Ernthqrzr1GpLqH-KlMqEcb9oeSrMGn6Wl5DD8vn3qlJup3a5RRZvGz_KBbrc8bY2_ehBmsu2zDPJflASfEBA3tnVCLf-37x_PWMtde_7C9X2ZUFIZD7BY/s1600/Nancy___The_Story_of_Lady_Astor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbpm5J4EQA8FLGIlPMmIm2Ernthqrzr1GpLqH-KlMqEcb9oeSrMGn6Wl5DD8vn3qlJup3a5RRZvGz_KBbrc8bY2_ehBmsu2zDPJflASfEBA3tnVCLf-37x_PWMtde_7C9X2ZUFIZD7BY/s400/Nancy___The_Story_of_Lady_Astor.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nancy Astor: Churchill's bete noir</td></tr>
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Diverse audiences will find much to enjoy in <i>Churchill Style</i>. While it is not the ideal volume for a reader
wishing to read only a single book about Churchill, it will serve to whet the
appetite and make most neophytes wish for more.
Alternatively, dedicated Churchillians will revel in Singer’s numerous
details about Churchill’s personal life and the list of Churchill’s chief purveyors
still in operation should they wish to imitate the great man’s lifestyle. All readers will appreciate Singer’s highly
intelligent observations about how Churchill’s style contributed to, and was
ultimately an integral part of his brilliant career, putting to rest any notion
that one need choose between style and substance.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_cQr4pWl6EerQl-EpcZcKPmt1KmNfWbVnvn2Kto-R_ywLuimGarHtyH0B5LaPcYRWjQNQUIaJJ5yUxX_Bb9cLMWi6WfLp0Rdwvjs3iTxFC4O36LXDppU_E_oyHF7LpDBV_yrjHvpQrY/s1600/Churchill_waves_to_crowds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_cQr4pWl6EerQl-EpcZcKPmt1KmNfWbVnvn2Kto-R_ywLuimGarHtyH0B5LaPcYRWjQNQUIaJJ5yUxX_Bb9cLMWi6WfLp0Rdwvjs3iTxFC4O36LXDppU_E_oyHF7LpDBV_yrjHvpQrY/s640/Churchill_waves_to_crowds.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Churchill waves to the crowd outside Buckingham Palace after the German surrender</td></tr>
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Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-15276277556677521212012-11-05T11:26:00.001-08:002012-11-05T11:26:30.631-08:00Amazon Review of Eisenhower in War and Peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9aY5KqWSpMih5xkrzG7xQsAVjzEZ5SmOwHAP5JgN8_jF3z25yO9dATZ8zQ_rV6jTwhszKbSP2g8N8Aoj0Ub2937rKZkrYF0alR0pgaXB_m_zptbxL2EEXSwao81nQMHBtpNcpqli3T8/s1600/eisenhower_war_peace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9aY5KqWSpMih5xkrzG7xQsAVjzEZ5SmOwHAP5JgN8_jF3z25yO9dATZ8zQ_rV6jTwhszKbSP2g8N8Aoj0Ub2937rKZkrYF0alR0pgaXB_m_zptbxL2EEXSwao81nQMHBtpNcpqli3T8/s320/eisenhower_war_peace.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Eisenhower in War and Peace</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Jean Edward Smith</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2012, 976 pp.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R29SUTOKGLIRMJ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm">Amazon review is here</a><br />
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Perhaps because of the division in 21st century America between two parties in thrall to extremes, centrist Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower is very much in fashion today in the publishing world. The crown jewel of recent Eisenhower-related output, however, is likely Jean Edward Smith's Eisenhower In War and Peace. Smith, the author of multiple military, political and judicial biographies is the ideal biographer of Ike, and he delivers as perfect a product as could be hoped for in a work that stretches over 900 very well written pages.
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Smith begins with the Eisenhower family history, dusting off legends and revealing some uncomfortable truths about Ike's father in particular. Still, he does not dwell too long on family and upbringing and by the end of the first chapter Ike has just graduated from the US Military Academy. The book is fast paced, with each chapter containing a new, interesting episode in Eisenhower's military, academic and then political life. It nicely transitions from Ike's military to political career, noting his speeches upon return to the US. The war's impact on the statesman's understanding of foreign affairs is evident when Ike tells an audience in New York City about the need to remain both strong and tolerant, always considering the rights of others while being unafraid to assert the US's own rights. Smith is fluent in the most recent scholarship. Readers will be presented with an up to date account of every significant aspect of Ike's life and career and Smith's well considered views on many of them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxJGT_jPQGWUiO8VrXir4k9fK3epw1H1SuopewrHp6fQwC1iMG4vzy9tgeDsU5ymE6-urAdPCMJERZzZD5pKeQD1DWUMuHFQOeviiWYuVi7LLuxJ3dng5-g_oppKM5DVhbcAog_8WdVI/s1600/Ike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxJGT_jPQGWUiO8VrXir4k9fK3epw1H1SuopewrHp6fQwC1iMG4vzy9tgeDsU5ymE6-urAdPCMJERZzZD5pKeQD1DWUMuHFQOeviiWYuVi7LLuxJ3dng5-g_oppKM5DVhbcAog_8WdVI/s200/Ike.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
Although Smith makes clear up front his vast respect for Eisenhower as a soldier and statesman (ranking him only second to FDR among 20th century Presidents), he does not spare the criticism. He notes with disapproval Eisenhower's sometimes leisurely lifestyle during his command in World War II, frequently having large villas and homes secured for his official "family" and always finding time for riding, socializing and card playing. Smith sides with contemporary military historians in faulting Ike as a battlefield commander (as opposed to a theater commander) in operations in North Africa and Europe and is especially harsh of Ike's handling of the drive to Germany and decision to adopt a campaign that pressed equally along all fronts (in conformity with dated US military doctrine long since abandoned by other nations - such a decision prolonged the war, adding countless military and civilian deaths, concludes Smith). He also ranks President Eisenhower's use of the CIA to topple democratic governments in Iran and Guatemala as a wartime mistake on par with Lincoln's suspension of Habeas Corpus and Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans.
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Smith rarely falters. A notable example is his characterization of Hoover's reaction to the Depression ("watch[ing] from the sidelines, convinced that natural forces would set things straight"), an outdated view long since abandoned by historians. It's a particularly odd mistake for Smith, whose last work was a major biography of FDR. Another slight failing is Smith's occasional reference to military positions and entities without an adequate explanation for the novice (understandable given his immersion in military affairs for other books). The discussion of the Court's opinion in Brown is a bit muddled. Finally, his unsupported explanation of Ike's renaming of Camp David as "evidently hoping to erase the memory" of his war time patron FDR seems both odd and petty. These, however, hardly detract from what will be the crowning achievement of one of our most gifted historians, and a strong candidate for a Pulitzer Prize. Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-44489198380561152862012-11-02T08:37:00.000-07:002012-11-02T08:37:13.904-07:00Point of Order Review of Mr. Speaker!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFu12VzPDSM6nECKq62i6A1fFp1O54EjPNtmjhCTX48QJ2M0y-akRelqwVCo18-vf1x3iOxmweJLWvELM2aatlpzUbYonwBTiAJtpvI9yQZMD_l0wJOnBoxjruByenim27Dp2SAT1nJGU/s1600/Mr+Speaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFu12VzPDSM6nECKq62i6A1fFp1O54EjPNtmjhCTX48QJ2M0y-akRelqwVCo18-vf1x3iOxmweJLWvELM2aatlpzUbYonwBTiAJtpvI9yQZMD_l0wJOnBoxjruByenim27Dp2SAT1nJGU/s320/Mr+Speaker.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed: The Man Who Broke the Filibuster</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">James Grant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2011, 448 pp.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.pointoforder.com/2012/02/14/alec-rogers-on-mr-speaker-the-life-and-times-of-thomas-b-reed-the-man-who-broke-the-filibuster/">Link to Point of Order review</a><br />
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James Grant is best known for his financial analysis, shared with those willing to part with a pretty penny, via the eponymous Grant’s Interest Rate Observer (current subscription rate: US$910). For decades, Wall Streeters have prized his contrarian, quirky insights, and those that have been willing to act on his skepticism even during the most bullish of markets have seen their investments in his publication returned countless times over. The Observer has never wanted for historically based pieces, looking into America’s financial past for insight into contemporary markets.
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Grant’s love of history, however, has led him to venture into writing full length biographies, the subjects of which have been themselves quirky, interesting characters (e.g. the financier Bernard Baruch, President John Adams). The subject of his latest book, Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man who Broke the Filibuster, however, really demonstrates Grant’s talents for uncovering undervalued assets. The result is an intriguing trip with a fascinating guide into a part of American history that’s all too quickly rushed through in a typical history class.
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Thomas Brackett Reed is not exactly a household name, perhaps not even in the home of a political historian. A Mainer born and bred, Reed was a Member of Congress and eventually the Republican leader in the House during much of what has now become known, thanks to Mark Twain, as the “gilded age” for what Twain perceived as being only a superficially elegant surface covering a corrupt underbody. Reed rose to the Speakership when the Republicans held the majority in 1889 and 1895 for a combined six years. It was there Reed was to make his mark on the House if not the country.
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To fully appreciate the story, it’s important to understand that Reed’s tenure in Congress and Speakership occurred mostly in the period before the Presidency had matured into the powerful office of today. Prior to William McKinley, the occupant of the Oval Office was still more of the “chief magistrate” that earlier generations of Americans had mostly known. Only during crisis such as the Civil War had they seen glimpses of what the office could and would become once America became a world power. As a consequence, Reed and his ilk were able to be far more influential than we might otherwise suppose, living as we do during a time when the President is seen as virtually synonymous with the federal government itself.
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Reed himself is a fascinating subject. A very talented lawyer who used his skills in the thrust and parry of congressional debate, he could be at times the most cynical of party hacks, rising to the very top of the greasy pole during an era when corruption and graft were vital parts of American politics. Yet, Reed himself was fiercely honest, living off his congressional salary and living a modest lifestyle when others, such as his Maine rival James Blaine were somehow living the life of a corporate plutocrat on a public salary. In addition, Reed could be deeply principled. He was devoted to women’s suffrage and strongly opposed to the growing bellicosity of US foreign policy. He would resign his seat rather than carry his party’s water during the Spanish-American War. Readers will revel in Reed’s caustic wit and his penchant for one liners and put downs.
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Chapters are devoted not only to Reed’s personal life and career (indeed his personal life is given particularly short shrift) but to the important issues of the day. To read Mr. Speaker is to take a course on the political economy of America in the latter half of the 19th century from a writer who has earned a small fortune explaining the most technical, mundane aspects of finance in clear, colorful prose. Grant covers topics such as the commission examining the election of President Rutherford Hayes in which both parties had dirty hands, but where the allegation of a “stolen election” was likely true. Another chapter serves as a masterful introduction to the challenging but vital issue of currency. Much of the politics of the late 19th century revolved around the debate between those who wanted to maintain gold as the only acceptable US currency and those looking to temper the tight monetary effect of the gold standard with silver coins or, horrors, paper money. Paper money that was not convertible to gold had been introduced to pay for the Civil War. After a decade and a half of wrangling, the US returned to the gold standard in 1879. Paper would stay in circulation, but exchangeable for gold at $20.67 an ounce. This of course had the effect of limiting the amount of paper that could be circulated, which both led to tight money and served to guard against inflation. The amount of paper exceeded the amount the US had in gold at this time. The US only had enough gold to redeem $141.9m but there existed $346.7m in paper money. There was the very real threat the U.S. would be asked to redeem more than it could pay out in gold. Yet, when the time came, the American people decided that paper was more convenient after all, and that merely knowing the money was convertible was enough.
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Interestingly, the partisan aspects of politics of the late 19th century were almost completely opposite of today’s. Republicans loudly proclaimed their support of the system of “American Protection,” or high tariffs designed to fund the Treasury without the need of the Civil War income tax and bulking up the wages of those employed by protected industries (not to mention the profits of their owners and party supporters). Democrats decried the tariff as just another form of taxation, noting that the inflated wages and profits of those in politically favored industries came at the expense of all Americans in the form of higher costs. The rich government surpluses from high tariffs, in turn, led to “extravagant appropriations,” Democrats charged, which meant an expansion of government far beyond what their still revered Thomas Jefferson would have ever countenanced.
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The climax of the book, however, lies in its subtitle “The Man Who Broke the Filibuster.” In Reed’s day, a majority of the House needed to record themselves as “present” during a quorum call in order for the House to vote to pass legislation. Members standing in the Chamber opposed to a measure needed only not answer the roll call, and if the House lacked a quorum (as it often did in the days before the age of modern transportation) it could not proceed, allowing a non-vocal minority to obstruct the People’s business on a frequent basis. Both parties invoked this version of the filibuster often, not least of which was House minority leader Thomas Reed. Yet, eventually Reed’s belief in majority rule led him to dramatically alter the rule while he was in the Chair, directing the clerk to record the presence of those silent members whom he spied. This resulted in an outraged minority who reversed Reed’s ruling when they retook the majority. Yet, after a few years of suffering from Reed’s masterful obstruction tactics, Democrats tacitly acknowledged the wisdom of his views and adopted the Reed rule and similar changes Reed had made to the chamber’s rules making it the relatively more efficient legislative body it is today.
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Readers of Point of Order will likely find Mr. Speaker! a fascinating account of the House in the latter half of the 19th century and of the key political issues of the time. Those less versed or interested in political history find may find Grant’s recounting of the minutiae of House debates and his treatment of the gold standard and tariff more tedious. At the end of the day, however, Grant deserves much credit for his lively portrayal of this pivotal 19th century congressional giant and his great impact on the shape of the institution.
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-26776574899818124032012-11-01T10:34:00.000-07:002012-11-01T10:34:04.414-07:00Amazon Review of American History: A Very Short Introduction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnOXf6vvh8Ysmh7PjcWwYAPtkSqHEhC9wINYZuW0E1Yptckujo687xbC9SqtPHDK4_uM8lKNNg1RyiNJToOXvb10Trz0MGE-wpncK2Qo-lLYte9yV_MblopnO_QqoZE6TRy0x8Hmc85c/s1600/American+History+A+Very+Shoer+Introduction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnOXf6vvh8Ysmh7PjcWwYAPtkSqHEhC9wINYZuW0E1Yptckujo687xbC9SqtPHDK4_uM8lKNNg1RyiNJToOXvb10Trz0MGE-wpncK2Qo-lLYte9yV_MblopnO_QqoZE6TRy0x8Hmc85c/s320/American+History+A+Very+Shoer+Introduction.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">American History: A Very Short Introduction</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Paul S. Boyer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2012, 184 pp.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R2H80ST37N7VDM/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=019538914X&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=283155&store=books">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
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American History: A Very Short Introduction provides its reader with as comprehensive a look at American political, social and cultural history as is possible in under 200 small pages (the standard format for the “Very Short Introduction” series, whose books are not only short but small as well) and in a well written manner. Virtually every event, person of significance and movement in American history receives at least a mention, which must have been a difficult task to accomplish given the strictures. What it does not do, however, is provide consistently up to date scholarship or a proper sense of proportion of America’s triumphs to failures. It also contains a few errors and some of Boyer’s interpretations of events will provoke disagreement with those who do not share his political leanings.
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Boyer essentially begins with the English settlement of North America, dispensing with the pre-Columbian native peoples, Leif Ericson and non-English Europeans in only a few pages. The colonial period is one of the book’s strengths as Boyer explains the development of the English settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth and the social development of the New World as different from that of the Old. The events leading to the Revolution are also nicely cataloged, and Boyer takes us from the post-Revolutionary war period through the Gilded Age in a fairly conventional manner.
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Some of Boyer’s interpretations of events rely on dated scholarship, however. A simplistic search for foreign markets accounts entirely for the Spanish-American War. His account of the New Deal places the stock market crash in the role of catalyst of the Great Depression failing to mention the role of monetary policy, which is at the core of today’s economic understanding. He also dredges up the traditional misconception that Americans’ fondness for coffee dates from the Boston Tea Party and incorrectly cites the date of England’s Glorious Revolution. Boyer also cites a famous utterance by Andrew Jackson in defiance of the Supreme Court that is considered apocryphal.
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Although explicitly Boyer strives for objectivity he does not always achieve it. His account is generally well balanced through Reconstruction, but his leftward leanings emerge shortly thereafter and his interpretation of events from the Gilded Age to the present too often becomes predictable and selective. Progressives are, unsurprisingly for a University of Wisconsin professor, lauded and nearly every legislative enactment of the New Deal and Great Society is given space. Like many historians, though, Boyer mistakes these enactments as achievements in their own right, and rarely analyzes whether they, in fact, accomplished their goals. For instance, he credits President Clinton with welfare reform but never asks why a Democratic president would see the need to reform it in the first place. His characterization of today’s Tea Party as an offshoot of the religious right ignores the firestorm that occurred a result of policies that were perceived to “bailout” the impecunious (whether on Wall Street, in the housing market or the auto industry) at the expense of those who had behaved in a fiscally responsible manner in the Tea Party members’ views.
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Boyer concludes by cataloging America’s many challenges and faults as he finds them today. Nonetheless, he concludes that “when the balance is drawn, America’s record of achievement in advancing human well-being may ultimately outweigh the rest and prove a more lasting measure of national greatness than transient imperial power, military might, or a mere abundance of ephemeral material goods.” The reader will likely need consult another book to understand, however, why that is.
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-87266997794931693962012-10-28T10:00:00.003-07:002012-11-10T01:47:55.700-08:00Amazon Review of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Jon Meacham</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2012, 800 pp</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R3JXCYS3TQNEWA/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3JXCYS3TQNEWA">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
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Throughout our history Presidents as politically diverse as Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, Kennedy and Reagan have enthusiastically embraced the legacy of their predecessor, Thomas Jefferson. Recent scholarship on the Founding generation, however, has unfairly diminished Jefferson in Jon Meacham's view. Biographies of Washington, Adams and Hamilton have all tended to reduce Jefferson to the role of an intriguer lurking in the background, a foil for Hamilton and Adams in particular. In Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Meacham reclaims Jefferson's prominence in setting America on her course, asserting that most of the Presidents who served between 1800 and 1840 were Jeffersonians, and holds Jefferson up as a role model for today's politicians struggling to reconcile political idealism with the realism needed to traverse the rough waters of democratic politics.<br />
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The Art of Power is a very well written narrative and moves at a fast paced with chapters generally ranging from 10-15 pages. While Meacham clearly admires Jefferson, though, he is able to acknowledge Jefferson's failures and contradictions as well. However, there are several shortcomings that detracted from my enjoyment of the Art of Power.<br />
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First, while The Art of Power covers Jefferson's personal and political lives thoroughly, Meacham appears to have been poorly served by certain curious editorial choices. His summation of Jefferson's legacy appears in the Author's Note, and much of the detail necessary to inform the reader of vital details is contained in the nearly 200 pages of end notes. For example the text makes it appear as if there is no question whatsoever regarding Jefferson's paternity of his slave's children. Only in the footnotes will the reader learn of the controversy and evidence supporting both Meacham's conclusion and other possibilities. The complexities involved in other details of the Jefferson story sometimes also seem slighted in order to ensure the narrative pace remains speedy.<br />
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Next, despite his theme of a politician who mastered the art of power to successfully reconcile philosophy with practicality Meacham treads lightly on Jefferson's philosophy (one of very few omissions in his lengthy bibliography, tellingly, is Jean Yarborough's study of Jefferson's political and moral philosophy). This is a shame because his portrait of a Jefferson that does not fit the libertarian mold is provocative and interesting. Meacham's Jefferson is less antipathetic to large government, federal and executive power and commerce than is commonly understood today, but Meacham does little to explore further Jefferson's thinking on these and other matters, nor does he attempt any explanation of why the Jefferson of common perception does not fit Meacham's own reading, which would have been very interesting to me. His is a Jefferson more of action than thought.<br />
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Readers looking for a high readable introduction to the political events of Jefferson's time or personal life will enjoy this work, and it seems to fill the need for a good medium sized Jefferson biography to fill the gap between R.B. Bernstein's very perceptive short study and Merrill Peterson's 1,000 page tome. Those seeking a more rounded treatment of all Jefferson's facets may find themselves disappointed, however. Similarly, readers looking for a more robust treatment of the period may wish to utilize Meacham's exhaustive bibliography for further reading.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-83048753220378462832012-10-26T17:19:00.003-07:002012-10-26T17:19:28.777-07:00Amazon Review of The Greater Journey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0X1rJnQVgPIxrTOSc0brDITC-kidXZUm2KtF6yeJiOmqYLuS_LVA9g-YI4Lc9LoxRAhyNlp9_OQUdedT1Llp2qYH1dSTWrxjhu2JLbkzjJS71uFCzj9OATsRDCNWSck6Ud4RJXxS7C8U/s1600/TGJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0X1rJnQVgPIxrTOSc0brDITC-kidXZUm2KtF6yeJiOmqYLuS_LVA9g-YI4Lc9LoxRAhyNlp9_OQUdedT1Llp2qYH1dSTWrxjhu2JLbkzjJS71uFCzj9OATsRDCNWSck6Ud4RJXxS7C8U/s320/TGJ.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>David McCullough</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2011, 576pp</b></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R2O1K8OMR9DUIA/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1416571760&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=">Link to the Amazon review</a><br />
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The City of Lights captivates Americans like no other. As true as this has been in the 20th century, it was equally true in the 19th as well. For many Americans of education, culture and means during the 19th century, time in Paris was nearly indispensable. Not only writers, artists, sculptors, but medical doctors and many others went to Paris to broaden their tastes, perspectives and professional training. There they savored art, architecture, music, intellectual discourse and even the discovery of a more relaxed way to enjoy life, which were all available in far more abundance than America offered even in its larger cities. David McCullough's The Greater Journey looks at the many prominent 19th century Americans who spent part of their lives in Paris and catalogs the details of their sojourns.<br />
<br />
As he has done in numerous works, McCullough once again displays his great skill in inserting his reader into the story. He does not neglect the travel itself, explaining the nuances and rigors of 19th century transatlantic crossings and the coach rides needed to get his subjects to their destination. Once in Paris, we read of the city's many delights. Gastronomy, art, architecture, society, music, theater, etc. are all relayed in a vivid manner sure to delight many readers, particularly Francophiles.
<br />
<br />
To be sure, Paris had its share of disappointments. Charles Sumner, later to become a US Senator and leading abolitionist detested the constant presence of soldiers in the city. Educator Emma Willard was distraught at the high rate of child abandonment and the sight of parentless infants in the hospital. Still, the vast majority of the book is consumed with the Americans' many delights in what the city offered.<br />
<br />
Rather than the travelers, however, the book's ultimate protagonist is the city of Paris itself. The capital of Europe in a sense, it was truly a mandatory destination not just for the arts but other learned professions during the 19th century. What's all too lacking, however, is WHY this was. McCullough slights the city's history and the reason for its great preeminence in nearly all facets of learning in most cases (medicine is an exception - the willingness of female patients to submit to examinations by male doctors and the easy availability of cadavers were the major reasons Paris was a major center for medical education). This detracted from my enjoyment of the book. In addition, he does not give us a great sense of how and to what extent "The Greater Journey" impacted American arts and letters (again, medicine is the exception). The Parisian influence on the US was surely significant given the importance of the Americans who traveled there and back, but McCullough doesn't always give us a clear idea of how or to what extent this was passed on after their arrival back in the United States.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, however, McCullough relates that their time in Paris often reinvigorated the Americans' self-identity and pride in their own homeland rather than adopting a view if French or European superiority as might be expected. Why this is, McCullough doesn't venture an explanation.
Overall, however, readers will delight in the Parisian experience of the book's subjects and those without a background in 19th century American letters, arts and sciences (in this I count myself) will learn a great deal. One wishes for a writer of McCullough's gifts of clear storytelling and a little bit more analytical ability and inquisitiveness, but most will find the Greater Journey highly enjoyable, as I did.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-83937310562591400102012-10-21T04:11:00.000-07:002012-10-21T04:21:53.401-07:00Hardball Times Review of The Imperfect Diamond<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFmw-NuQRzUn2UyDhH4Vy9kiYp_XD77mbXYRAZBzSXYhyphenhyphenDIlGxjAJtYEEQgLeE_Sxe34-zWAAvHuAICz81VTC8OAyGUwFjkNQDpQTvJ1FnuOmL-Jldzncn9ub9rq8RvmnS8nhhutmi3w/s1600/Imperfect+Diamond+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFmw-NuQRzUn2UyDhH4Vy9kiYp_XD77mbXYRAZBzSXYhyphenhyphenDIlGxjAJtYEEQgLeE_Sxe34-zWAAvHuAICz81VTC8OAyGUwFjkNQDpQTvJ1FnuOmL-Jldzncn9ub9rq8RvmnS8nhhutmi3w/s1600/Imperfect+Diamond+Cover.jpg" /></a><br />
<b>The Imperfect Diamond</b><br />
<b>Lee Lowenfish</b><br />
<b>2010, 352 pp</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/book-review-the-imperfect-diamond/">Link to the Hardball Times Review</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 9pt;">He goes where he is
sent, takes what is given him, and thanks the Lord for the life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 9pt;">-New
York Giants shortstop <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/players.aspx?lastname=John%20Ward"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">John Montgomery Ward</span></a></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 9pt;">, reflecting on the life of the 19th century ball player<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm87egyFy-uALGxQmj8AUp0R1vqT-CMljvv-jeCD8Jxla3klWp8cAGMvaHX5RnhtnSPQ1IStWUoXkcfH_OAFgszXG_bayA3UdiQwOiPZRix-DhEW5IzZT2YFSvq0GduZrY0ZCJKhmuTD4/s1600/John+Ward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm87egyFy-uALGxQmj8AUp0R1vqT-CMljvv-jeCD8Jxla3klWp8cAGMvaHX5RnhtnSPQ1IStWUoXkcfH_OAFgszXG_bayA3UdiQwOiPZRix-DhEW5IzZT2YFSvq0GduZrY0ZCJKhmuTD4/s1600/John+Ward.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
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<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Today’s baseball fan is inundated with
information about the Rule 5 draft, revenue sharing and similar concepts that
deal with the business of baseball, because increasingly what we see on the
diamond is shaped by off-field events. What happens in the offices of general
managers, owners, agents and the commissioner is vital to how their team will
play this year (and in the not-too-distant past, whether games would even be
played at all).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">It’s difficult to fully appreciate this
off-the-field activity, though, without at least a passing knowledge baseball’s
labor history and the long struggle players had to undergo to achieve a fair
share of baseball’s gate. It is this history that Lee Lowenfish, a Columbia
University lecturer and the author of </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803224532?ie=UTF8&tag=thehartim-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0803224532"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">a superb biography of Branch Rickey</span></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">, recounts in </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803233604?ie=UTF8&tag=thehartim-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0803233604"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball's
Labor Wars</span></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">, recently released in an updated edition.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">We’ve come a long way from when major league
baseball players were the property of imperious owners free to sell players’
services without restraint and pay them little more than what was merely
necessary to keep them playing baseball as opposed to laboring in some other
endeavor. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In contrast, today’s major league baseball
player earned at least the league minimum salary of $400,000 in 2009, is
eligible for free agency after six years in the big leagues and is eligible to
have his salary determined by impartial third parties through arbitration after
a mere three. How we got from the 19th century world of John Montgomery Ward
and his hard laboring, mistreated colleagues to that of today is a long,
complicated, often discouraging tale.</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Imperfect Diamond</span></i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> delivers on its subtitle <i>A History of
Baseball’s Labor Wars</i> by providing a clear synopsis of the most
significant labor disputes in the game’s past. At just over 300 pages, it
explores the historically significant episodes where various players and outsiders
attempted to challenge the onerous working conditions that existed for them
throughout most of the game’s history.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The infamous reserve clause that purported to
bind a player to the ball club that signed him so long as the club wanted him
(at whatever salary it was willing to pay him), baseball’s judicially created
antitrust exemption that propped it up and the fight to establish a pension
fund for retired players and their families are just some of the subjects
chronicled. With the third edition, Lowenfish is also able to update the story
to include the 1994 strike, the attempts by owners to combat free agency via
collusion, and the steroids controversy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Despite any romantic notions we might have about
a time when baseball was an innocent game, prior to being sullied by profits
and the inevitable disputes they bring regarding their disposition, our story
actually begins as early as 1885. The players, led by Ward, one of the
superstars of the day, formed the first organization devoted to protecting them
from the worst abuses they suffered; e.g., unpaid signing bonuses, players
terminated with little or no notice, etc., the Brotherhood of Professional
Baseball Players.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">This attempt was just the first of many such
ill-fated efforts. The Players’ Protective Association, the Baseball Players’
Fraternity and the American Baseball Guild would all follow over the years. But
none would succeed beyond the short term until the formation of the Major
League Baseball Players Association in 1954.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The familiar stories are here—tales of the
reserve clause and the abuses it engendered, ill-considered judicial opinions
that credulous congressional committees were hoodwinked into letting stand, and
similar sad affairs. It begins with the 1975 Messersmith-McNally arbitration
that resulted in the effective elimination of the reserve clause as it had
existed for decades. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1004165&position=OF" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">Curt Flood</span></b></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> ’s pitiful saga is also
recounted in great detail.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Other less well known, but equally important
aspects of the story are also present. Among the most interesting is the case
of </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1004513&position=OF" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">Danny Gardella</span></b></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> ,
whose 1947 federal lawsuit (stemming from an attempt by baseball to prohibit
him from playing due to his participation in the Mexican League) resulted in a
decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals that could have effectively ended
baseball’s monopoly had the owners not settled. For the Gardella case and some
of the issues covered in his new epilogue, Lowenfish was able to directly
interview some of the participants, making these passages some of the most
compelling parts of the book, particularly the new material covering more recent
events.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">A good history tells you what happened and why.
The "why" in <i>The Imperfect Diamond</i> would
occasionally benefit from a deeper treatment of external events as a means of
shedding light on why baseball’s labor history developed as it did. For instance,
only occasionally does Lowenfish reference labor conditions outside of
baseball. Additional discussion of other labor movements, developments in labor
law and the public’s perception of labor unions in general would help the
reader understand a little better why some players’ efforts succeeded better
than others at different points in history.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The book contains a couple of factual errors,
none of which undermine the book’s value as a comprehensive history of
baseball’s significant labor disputes. For instance, </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1004285&position=1B" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">Jimmie Foxx</span></b></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> was traded from
Philadelphia to Boston in 1936 rather than 1933.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">More glaringly, because of limitations placed on
what could be altered in the original text, the third edition necessarily
retains the now discredited story that Ford Frick placed an asterisk next to </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1008110&position=OF" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">Roger Maris</span></b></a></span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> ’s 1961 home run record.
(In fact, Frick had suggested that since 1961 represented the first year with a
longer season (162 vs. 154 games) those who kept baseball records (which,
incredibly enough, Major League Baseball did not at the time) should keep a
separate set of records for the 162 game era going forward.) The myth of an
actual, as opposed to a metaphorical, asterisk has been around long enough and
deserves to be put to rest.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">These are quibbles, however. For those looking
for an introduction to baseball’s labor history, <i>The Imperfect Diamond</i> is
a splendid choice. Lowenfish writes clearly, and he is transparent enough to
acknowledge that he takes the players’ side for the most part. It’s hard to
disagree with his position, however. Baseball owners were, like most magnates
of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, imperious and impatient with their
"laborers" and they saw ballplayers as no different than workers in
any other industry.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Things have changed radically in the past
century, however, and major league ball players are, ironically, no longer
viewed as sympathetically; they have moved from being our neighbors to
out-of-reach superstars living in gated communities. How they, and we, got here
is the story Lowenfish tells well.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In the spirit of The Hardball Times, I’ll close
with a "10 Things I Didn’t Know About Baseball Labor Relations Until I
Read<i>The Imperfect Diamond</i>":</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(1) “Revenue sharing” in its original context
did not refer to teams’ sharing revenues among themselves, but compensating
players by dedicating a percentage of the revenues to players’ salaries.
Owners’ counsel Charlie O’Conner put the concept on the table in 1990, but
MLBPA chief Don Fehr wasn’t interested (p. 272-273).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(2) The players fiercely opposed efforts by MLB
to reduce use of illegal non-performance enhancing drugs in the 1980s (pp.
261-263). Also, Fehr’s predecessor lost his job, in part, for his tepid stance
on the issue (p. 253). Could this partially explain why neither baseball nor
Fehr took a harder line against the use of performance related substances
during the 1990s?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(3) Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis had a
fairly enlightened attitude toward the players, especially considering his era
(pp.115-126). He made a number of important pro-player rulings aimed at
allowing talented players to emerge, turning back owners’ efforts to keep many
of them hidden in the lower leagues even while they were playing major league
caliber baseball.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(4) In 2007, Commissioner Bud Selig made $17.5
million—more than all but three players (p. 299).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(5) Baseball’s august counselor at law, George
Wharton Pepper, actually argued in court that the reserve clause was not
legally binding, but merely an “honorary obligation.” (p.106). Rickey told a
congressional committee that perhaps it constituted a “harmless illegality” (p.
175). Apparently someone forgot to tell that players that it was not a legally
binding clause until the Messersmith-McNally arbitration of 1975.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(6) The reserve clause and similar elements of
what was called "baseball law" were not universally as despised by
players as might be thought. Many acknowledged baseball was such a peculiar
enterprise as to require peculiar legal rules outside those that governed the
non-baseball world (p.22). Even Ward stated that the reserve clause has virtue
in that it “compels (rival managers) to keep his hands off his neighbor’s
enterprise” (p. 32).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(7) Baseball not only banned players who had, in
the view of owners, violated their contracts by jumping to the occasionally
operating third leagues; e.g., the Federal League and Mexican League, but
anyone who dared play against them even in an exhibition was similarly viewed
as ineligible (p. 159).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(8) Kuhn, who would be derided throughout much
of his tenure as commissioner, was widely viewed as a marvelous appointee when
first named. The legendary baseball scribe Roger Angell opined that Kuhn had
the potential to be the “best thing to happen to baseball since the catcher’s
mitt” at the time of Kuhn’s appointment (p. 204).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(9) Although this is my conclusion, and not
necessarily Lowenfish’s, the success of players in wringing concessions seems
closely tied to the emergence of (or prospective threat thereof) of another
league, e.g., the 1890 Players’ League, the Federal League, the Mexican Lague,
the Continental League (which never actually got off the ground). Concessions
made, however, would disappear once the threat dissipated. Baseball, it seems,
may have been immune to the laws of man to a large extent, but not those of
economics.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(10) The owners lived in fear that their legal
arguments would eventually be discovered to be the shams they mostly were.
Keeping baseball out of the courts, said Landis’ assistant Francis O’Conner,
was Landis’ greatest contribution to the game for precisely that reason (p.
149). This was because Landis himself harbored grave doubts about the legality
of a perpetual reserve clause, and O’Conner insisted that had a player
requested a contract without one, it would have been granted by Landis (p.123). </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-46994770687497244762012-10-20T12:00:00.003-07:002012-10-20T12:12:04.875-07:00Amazon Review of Colonel Roosevelt<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8OlgZ2TF7aQSUgQHvphtMWdcP3N_dxh7re8PUFUTyc3Gzga3vylltezMd3405Pq8b3KvHf6uM4qAQuUAaUqADrXiUWxc7GolP1A90fpjiOwzosFyyHualE9gv64zdbmUzIXGigmktUsE/s1600/COLONEL_ROOSEVELT_-_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8OlgZ2TF7aQSUgQHvphtMWdcP3N_dxh7re8PUFUTyc3Gzga3vylltezMd3405Pq8b3KvHf6uM4qAQuUAaUqADrXiUWxc7GolP1A90fpjiOwzosFyyHualE9gv64zdbmUzIXGigmktUsE/s320/COLONEL_ROOSEVELT_-_cover.jpg" width="214" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Colonel Roosevelt</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>by Edmund Morris</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2010, 784 pp</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/RTUS3UIAD4AQD/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1">Link to my Amazon review</a></span><br />
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Edmund Morris's final volume of his magisterial biography of
the "Republican Roosevelt" finishes well. As with the first two
volumes, it is extraordinarily well written. Morris paints a colorful portrait
of Roosevelt and his life, making the reader feel as if she knew Roosevelt
intimately, and had experienced the events of his life as they unfolded. All
told, it serves as a wonderful personal portrait of one of the most interesting
men ever to serve as President. As he did in the previous volume covering the
years in the White House, though, Roosevelt the political animal remains just
outside of Morris's grip for the most part.<br />
<br />
Colonel Roosevelt (his favorite form of address, even after departing the White
House) opens with a stunning prologue detailing Roosevelt's post presidential
African safari. It is here in his native Africa that Morris is at his best,
describing the East African terrain and game as it existed in an almost
primeval state at the beginning of the 20th century. He follows with a
fascinating account of the subsequent whirlwind European tour, during which
Roosevelt was treated as if he still were a head of state, even serving as
Taft's special ambassador at the funeral of King Edward VII. Morris is not only
interested in Roosevelt's actions and settings but his thoughts and intellect
as well. Roosevelt's dynamic range of interests and extraordinarily educated
mind are on display as Morris summarizes both his reading and writing on
subjects having nothing to do with politics such as medieval history, nature
and the relationship between science and history.<br />
<br />
Morris's weakness as Roosevelt's biographer has always been his lack of a deep
understanding of American political history, something that served to mar his
biography of Ronald Reagan. One begins to understand Lewis Gould's (the author
of a volume devoted to TR's Presidency) characterization of Morris's first volume
("Roosevelt's emergence as he (Roosevelt) would have described it").
Lacking an independent understanding of the period's politics, Morris is a bit
too quick to present Roosevelt's perceptions as objective reality in many
cases. For instance, opponents to his 1912 run for the Republican nomination
are all "reactionaries" or simply bought men enjoying the patronage
of the "Taft Machine." There is, simply, no principled opposition to
Roosevelt in Morris's account. The 42 states without direct primaries are boss-controlled
"democratic shams," as if there was nothing in between the direct
rule by the people and the dictates of self-serving political bosses. Roosevelt
would have likely viewed it this way and Morris is simply not in a position to
evaluate his views or serve the reader as a guide on such matters. This is less
of a problem in Colonel Roosevelt, however, as politics is no longer the
dominant theme as it was in its predecessor volume.<br />
<br />
Coming close to 2000 pages, Morris's three volumes will remain the most
comprehensive account of Theodore Roosevelt's life we have. It is so well
written that even those who aren't TR aficionados will likely enjoy reading at
least some of it (I'd recommend the first volume). Still, Morris leaves much to
say about many aspects and events of Roosevelt's life and times for future
historians, especially in the political realm.<o:p></o:p></div>
Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016850924620835323.post-52388746663442056432012-10-20T11:49:00.000-07:002012-10-20T11:49:12.506-07:00Introduction: In which I explain what I'm doing here.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7zRl30s7mxC-zDhJ0nf3IxniIfljpvEigfoATrcneIUxl6_yU87xA07T9oSuqIdTXsxUlrGN0tRsMmANhxV4bd-1OCHzkIwH2EPcjzudTy_8nWehb8FH8jIgn8Xx5QwCluds8KPA7WE/s1600/archives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7zRl30s7mxC-zDhJ0nf3IxniIfljpvEigfoATrcneIUxl6_yU87xA07T9oSuqIdTXsxUlrGN0tRsMmANhxV4bd-1OCHzkIwH2EPcjzudTy_8nWehb8FH8jIgn8Xx5QwCluds8KPA7WE/s1600/archives.jpg" /></a><br />
Welcome! This isn't meant to be a traditional blog, which I mainly associate with something regularly added to and focused on a particular topic. <br />
<br />
Rather, it will be added to <b>highly irregularly</b>, and will contain my writings on a variety of subjects. Most will be book reviews, but all will be material that has been published somewhere else on the web (even if its just on Amazon), hence the name "Alec's Archives."<br />
<br />
What you won't see on here is anything of a political nature. In a sense, politics and government is my career, and the related writing is of little interest to anyone other than my employer. <br />
<br />
I enjoy writing, however, and like to explore topics such as history and baseball mainly by writing about them. In a few cases, my writing had to be altered a little bit to fit a publication's format requirements, e.g. length, style, etc. That's fine. But what I'll post here is what I either submitted or would have submitted without those restrictions, so what you'll see here may differ slightly from the final published version.<br />
<br />
For instance, Amazon in particular is a site where I try to limit my writing to about works out to one MS Word page. People reading their reviews are trying to determine whether the book is for them. They don't want a book summary nor a book essay. They want to be told what's in the book and whether the person writing the review enjoyed reading it. So, my Amazon reviews will be shorter and sharply focused on those questions.Alec Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06798740054843742404noreply@blogger.com0