Book Description
New York Times columnist Frank Rich examines the trail of fictions manufactured by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, exposing the most brilliant spin campaign ever waged.
When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority was not to vanquish Al Qaeda but to consolidate its own power at any cost. It was a mission that could be accomplished only by a propaganda presidency in which reality was steadily replaced by a scenario of the White House's own invention-and such was that scenario's devious brilliance that it fashioned a second war against an enemy that did not attack America on 9/11, intimidated the Democrats into incoherence and impotence, and turned a presidential election into an irrelevant referendum on macho imagery and same-sex marriage.
As only he can, acclaimed New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a step-by-step chronicle of how skillfully the White House built its house of cards and how the institutions that should have exposed these fictions, the mainstream news media, were too often left powerless by the administration's relentless attack machine, their own post-9/11 timidity, and an unending parade of self-inflicted scandals (typified by those at The New York Times). Demonstrating the candor and conviction that have made him one of our most trusted and incisive public voices, Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness," and the ways in which a bungled war, a seemingly obscure Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the man-behind-the-curtain and the story that had so effectively been sold to the nation, as god-given patriotic fact.
Customer Reviews:
Too much sarcasm.......2007-09-10
Too much sarcasm from start to finish. It's a far-left view of the Bush administration where author Frank Rich seems to be visibly upset at any Republican administration. He uses references to Jon Stewart's, The Daily Show along with Saturday Night Live numerous times to back his opinions on current political events. In my view, an author of his age background and experience should not have written this farcical, liberal montage of jabs at the office of the President of the United States. Better luck next time Frank.
BRAVO!! Succinct yet complete, and thoroughly absorbing........2007-08-23
By his piece-by-piece dismantling of the façade that is the Bush administration, Rich offers the most plausible and perhaps definitive explanation of Bush-Cheney-Rove & Co.'s rush to war, leaving an unparalleled trail of destruction - Manhattan, New Orleans, Iraq, our constitution and civil liberties, our treasury, our international prestige, and perhaps our way of life - so massive in scope we may never recover from the hubris, deception, cynicism, incompetence, and lawlessness wrought by this gang of crooks.
Approximately since LBJ, television has had the effect of focusing then magnifying the character flaws of our presidents, until, appropriately, professional actor Reagan came along and made the camera work for him. With personal guru Rove behind the curtain directing Bush's every move, word, and decision, W. shamelessly honed this skill to big-brother perfection, until the façade could no longer outpace the complete lack of substance - character, wisdom, intellect, ability - beneath. The consequences of Bush being so exceptionally unqualified for the ultimate responsibility he so unlikely attained became too much for even the Wizard to keep up the ruse. And it all came crashing down.
Rich also pays attention to the cultural context - our infinite indulgence for infotainment, the Enron values - that allowed these charlatans to lead us not just into temptation (endless wars, tax cuts and debt that will break us) but infernal damnation.
There's a case for impeachment and conviction on nearly every page. We can sit it out and pray that W. doesn't wreak more devastation before it's all over, or we can impeach him and Cheney now. That's assuming we can evict them both without them taking us down with them. More than Nixon and all the crooks before or since, these guys belong in prison.
Kudos to Rich for a thorough chronicle of our national nightmare since September 2001. Read it and weep for our country and all we've lost.
Hubris Without Limits.......2007-07-22
There can be little doubt that George W Bush is a lightweight. I can say this from a distance as I am not an American but simply an observer of events. It is a great shame that so many people judge America by his actions. This is most unfair. America is so much more than this simpleton.
I read "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" with keen expectations of gaining some insight to the machinations of American political life. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. This book is very superficial. Even with the benefit of hindsight where we can see events with greater clarity than when they are actually unfolding, Frank Rich sheds little light on matters. This is unfortunate. He was working with such potentially great material.
We all know what a monumental error it was for Bush to land on an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" sign in the background. This was hubris of immense proportions. A wiser head would never have been involved in such stupidity. I'm certain earlier presidents would have at least thought twice before going ahead. But not this man. His naivety is without bounds.
Where to now? Iraq seems like a giant vortex. Civil war has been unleashed and outsiders seem to hold no sway. Perhaps it is best to just stand back and let time determine an outcome.
Overall, Frank Rich's book has value only in so far as we are reminded of Bush's mendacity. But do we really need reminding? How could we forget?
Best Yet on Iraq and Bush.......2007-07-14
I've read one book after another in my effort to understand how America has gone so wrong so fast. This is the best, right up there with Fiasco and One Percent Doctrine. I look forward to Rich's next foray of book length and hope he will attack the most important and as yet unanswered question of this era --- in the face of a cheerleading national press corps, how did the American people nevertheless reject this war and its leaders even before Katrina,etc. had disclosed their utter incompetence, stupidity, and disdain for us all.....in the answer to this question lies the future of all that is decent in our nation.....
A Soldier is Surprised When He Wakes Up One Morning.......2007-06-20
Imagine if you were one of several soldiers wounded in the Iraqi war who woke up one morning to find that there was a letter to the editor in your newspaper that supported the war and had your signature on it, but you didn't write that letter, and knew nothing about it.. The letter was written by the PR team in your federal government. Or picture this: President Bush is standing at night in the now brilliantly lit Jackson square in New Orleans talking optimistically about the city. Well at least the square seems lit up nicely so we guess the electricity is back on. The speech ends, the flood lights go off, and the square is plunged into total darkness.
This is a book detailing how the government lied and created propaganda to further their cause in both the war, and in the aftermath of Katrina. It's a fascinating book because it follows a time line that shows clearly how the public comments made by public officials changed over time. In fact there is a 78 page time line appendix in the book that details these morphing statements date by date. The book tells about the fake reporters at press conferences, the fake news columnists, and the fake "news" articles that the government distributed to gullible media. As one government person stated, "we create our own reality." When Specialist Wilson asked Rumsfeld why he and his men didn't have adequate armor Rumsfeld said it was a matter of production and capability. That was a lie that was outed quickly when it was revealed that one supplier, ArmorWorks said it could quickly increase production by 100%. During the battle in Falluja we were told that there were 3000 Iraqi soldiers fighting the battle. Reporters on the scene said that the Iraqi soldiers showed up after the fighting was over, posed in their neat, clean uniforms and departed. Certainly you remember the frequent comments about the thousands of Iraqis that have been trained or are almost completely trained. Somehow they never seem to materialize.
You've probably heard a lot of this stuff, but Mr. Rich brings out the deceit of all the Washington shapeshifters in wonderful - or perhaps the word should be horrible - detail. You see the action flow, and learn about a lot of governmental skullduggery that will make you cringe. It's spellbinding reading.
Book Description
A manifesto by America's most controversial and celebrated town planners, proposing an alternative model for community design.
There is a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and to replace the automobile-based settlement patterns of the past fifty years with a return to more traditional planning principles. This movement stems not only from the realization that sprawl is ecologically and economically unsustainable but also from a growing awareness of sprawl's many victims: children, utterly dependent on parental transportation if they wish to escape the cul-de-sac; the elderly, warehoused in institutions once they lose their driver's licenses; the middle class, stuck in traffic for two or more hours each day.
Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of this movement, and in Suburban Nation they assess sprawl's costs to society, be they ecological, economic, aesthetic, or social. It is a lively, thorough, critical lament, and an entertaining lesson on the distinctions between postwar suburbia-characterized by housing clusters, strip shopping centers, office parks, and parking lots-and the traditional neighborhoods that were built as a matter of course until mid-century. It is an indictment of the entire development community, including governments, for the fact that America no longer builds towns. Most important, though, it is that rare book that also offers solutions.
Customer Reviews:
The "A-ha" moment.......2007-09-10
I really must thank the authors for putting this together. I just finished Suburban Nation and I now know why I'm so stressed out all the time living in this "ticky-tacky" world (to borrow a line from the Weeds theme song).
I wish I could do more to help combat sprawl at the moment. However, I'm keeping my eyes open all the time for what works, what doesn't work and I will continue to study this subject so that if and when I'm in a position to either make a move or be part of a decision making body, I will be able to intelligently make my opinion known.
The Suburbia Style In Its Worst - And Real - Perspective + Solutions For The Future Ahead.......2007-07-30
It's no wonder that the suburbia style brought so much finance and - why not - mental damage to our everyday lives. We gave up living smartly for living in beautifulness.
I believe that the sense of ownership prevails in suburbia much more than the sense of community. If you live in one for a long time, you probably know what I am talking about. Even if you don't, you might imagine how it feels to be in one.
I lived in one for quite a long time and must recognize its benefits: peacefulness, plenty of space to stroll around and not much of noisy neighbors. Surely it has its advantages. I really admire how beautiful some neighborhoods really are and can remain when apart from the hassles of the inner city.
But the need of taking my car to do absolutely everything from my basic needs just started to bother me as time went by and as my bills started to rise from such crazy oil consumption. One of the reasons why we are the biggest spenders in the entire planet is certainly the suburb predominance all over the country. Any doubt about it?
This book is absolutely wonderful. It traces back to the WWII era when everything started out. Government has promoted all of the land development we see today and which is still in high demand, unfortunately. What once was a success formula to promote economic development is today a "cancer" that we have to live and deal with. We were imposed to a lifestyle that we didn't necessarily want to live, and we now pay high taxes just to keep this "monster" alive. As the book brightly states on its pages: suburbs were made for cars, not human beings.
At some point in the book, authors state something that for me it is absolutely true: the archictecture is a science which is very undervalued in America. Obsolete and outdated zoning ordinances, traffic engineers more worried about the flow and the trucks that could pass on the streets and, most of all, community planning based on numbers and not aesthetics are the major rules when a new development takes place, leaving no room for smart development.
Smart growth requires a lot of thinking, and for the long run, but thinking isn't really one of the best characteristics of land developers and home builders who have no expertise on archictecture issues, but only on how to make money fast and effortlessly. However, I have to recognize that it's not all their fault. Smart growth will also require a major cultural shift from a society which became used with such sprawl standards, whether living this way is beneficial or not.
The book not only shows what went wrong with such aged growth policies, but also proposes solutions for building smarter towns and stimulates the creation of a community sense that today is just missing. Carefully written, is a reading that won't put you at sleep.
A must read for anyone involved in real estate development.......2007-01-16
The authors point out some obvious and not-so-obvious trends and benefits of recent architecture and urban planning. As a small builder and developer of urban "in-fill" housing, I thought this brought an excellent perspective to our industry on the changing climate of urban development in America. Immediatly bought ten copies for our employees to read (and reread).
Good Intro to Urban/Regional Planning.......2007-01-09
This is the first book I've read in the field of Planning. Very easy to read, informative, and really gets you excited about the material. I would recommend it highly
One of the Most Important Books of the 21st Century.......2006-12-13
This book, written for people, sets the stage for one of the most important movements in American: New Urbanism. I've bought a dozen copies thus far, for distribution to friends. The book explains proper community building and lifestyles in terms that can be understood by all. Be prepared to change your way of thinking and living.
Book Description
The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon discovers and identifies key suspects - finding some of them in the highest echelons of American government - by showing how they acted in concert to guarantee that the attacks produced the desired result.
Crossing the Rubicon is unique not only for its case-breaking examination of 9/11, but for the breadth and depth of its world picture - an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism - without which 9/11 cannot be understood.
The US manufacturing sector has been mostly replaced by speculation on financial data whose underlying economic reality is a dark secret. Hundreds of billions of dollars in laundered drug money flow through Wall Street each year from opium and coca fields maintained by CIA-sponsored warlords and US-backed covert paramilitary violence. America's global dominance depends on a continually turning mill of guns, drugs, oil and money. Oil and natural gas - the fuels that make economic growth possible - are subsidized by American military force and foreign lending.
In reality, 9/11 and the resulting "War on Terror" are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil - the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization - is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control. Crossing the Rubicon is more than a story. It is a map of the perilous terrain through which, together and alone, we are all now making our way.
Customer Reviews:
A must read!.......2007-08-05
A timely revelation of facts and events that the lamestream media has conveniently omitted. Much of what we hear in the news makes no sense in the backdrop of what we see from the misleading perpectives of the "right " or left" , but this book explains the process behind much of what is going on. Being aware of the government's role in 9/11as described by Ruppert and watching the constant consolidation of power by the administration enables one to predict with some certainty the future: decreasing oil supplies not meeting population demands, resource wars (the imminent Iranian attack) to maintain our lifestyle, massive population declines as oil-based food production drops dramatically, and the imposition of martial law over an increasingly pacified Congress and "terror-conditioned" population.
Good, yet I'm not totally convinced.......2007-06-28
There is an overwhelming amount of more than just circumstantial evidence here that our goverment aided the 9-11 attacks. As for peak oil being the prime motive, I don't know, if that were the case, wouldn't the world have unraveled even more by now? In any case, it was also entertaining, not your father's conspiracy theory. If Thomas Malthus, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Oliver Stone got together to write a book, this would be the result.
Wake up - be alert - question.......2007-06-19
Riveting, provoking and disturbing are the three adjectives for Crossing the Rubicon. It is a page turner, filled with fascinating details about 9/11, the CIA and our government. Surely, for the truth seeker, this book is captivating.
Be alert, sober and a critical thinker. Be willing to question all that you learned...for things are not as they appear...or what we have been indoctrinated to believe.
Read the book.
Also, take a look at Catherine Austin Fitts' website solari dot com
Excellent analysis of the evidence available .......2007-06-12
This is a well done researched book that taps into the Official 9/11 Commission Report myth. Who was behind 9/11, what prompted it, and what was the purpose and consequences for the US political process. The books delineates in detail the CIA's involvement with the drug trade and arming foreign guerillas to meet their own needs and their involvement with events leading up to 9/11 along with the FBI, Military Industrial Complex, and Wall St. This detective journalism at its best. If you ever wanted to know what and who was REALLY behind 9/11, I highly recommend this book. It is quite extensive with lots of hard factual information. If you are looking for stats like the guy below, this is not for you. Instead, the book acts like a "connect the dots puzzle" that flows consistently throughout the book. I think this will seriously change how you view the US political and governmental system.
There should be a million more books like this on the shelves........2007-06-12
This books absolutely blew me away. I don't even know what else to say.
Ruppert argues his case in the book as if presenting to jury. The only defense to the book's logical conclusion is that Cheney and Co. weren't cross examined; but since the Administration refused at all cost the 9/11 Commission's establishment and their own sworn testimony before it, that's about all the proof we need of their treason.
READ THE BOOK. Read the 9/11 commission report, and then Whiteout (by Cockburn and St. Clair) and every other expose of CIA drug dealing and covert terrorism in alliance with Nazis and neo-Nazis...I mean, neo-conservatives. You'll be convinced, if you can handle it that is.
Book Description
The Geography of Nowhere traces America's evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.
In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. "The future will require us to build better places," Kunstler says, "or the future will belong to other people in other societies."
Customer Reviews:
luddite indictment of a car .......2007-05-22
The book is well written and provides a lot of facts, though many of these may be known anyhow. However, the author's pet idea - that the car is THE reason for aberrations in suburban development - begins to be more and more irritating as we read on; there is one large chapter devoted to the car and road planning, but if this were not enough the point gets reiterated every few paragraphs. Perhaps indeed the car is the ultimate evil of modern civilization; if only we didn't have to reread this again and again.
As a form of compensation, we get very limited look at the social, economic and demographic causes of all landscape changes during past century. Yes, there is a mention of some historical events, such as WWII, but it disappears under the weight of all those cars blamed for commercial strips, parking lots and suburban housing. Somehow, the population growth, which the strips, suburbs, parking lots and cars try to accomodate, gets overlooked. But then, we get also a healthy dose of nostagia after the goode olde times, when towns were small, kids could play in the streets without a risk of traffic accident, and farms were the base of economy. I could not escape the impression that the author's leading motive was to lament the lifestyles gone.
A Worthy Rant.......2007-02-08
This is book is largely a rant--well-researched and eloquent--but a rant nonetheless. Overwrought with cynicism, it is hard to distinguish Kunstler's reasonable concerns from his own sense of nostalgia. He draws some erroneous parallels (e.g. holding Disney World to the standard of anything but an amusement park) but does make an effective point regarding how U.S. citizens were ill-prepared for the after effects of the heyday of the automobile.
Fundamentally, Kunstler's cynicism aside, he's an advocate for renewed interest in civic planning, decreased dependency on fossil fuels, and models of sustainability. He presents Portland, OR as the best model for a city and the community of Seaside, FL as the model for a smaller town. He sees urban planning as the opportunity to develop while respecting the present landscape and enriching sense of community and public space.
The weakness of the book lies in the author's bitterness, which disguises his very real passion for the topic. The saving grace is that given most of his likely readership, he is preaching to the choir who understands his anger. This choir will understand that Kunstler embeds important lessons in his bleak diatribe--lessons worth embracing.
Kunstler's Gift of Entertaining While Informing.......2006-11-29
I have little more to add to the many thorough reviews already posted, so I'll just note what grabbed me: it was the rare book that was fun to read, even while dealing with serious societal problems in a thoughtful manner. A great introduction to community development issues.
highway to hell.......2006-02-01
Last night in his State of the Union speech, G. W. Bush pointed out the obvious fact that America depends far too heavily on oil to support its lifestyle. Whoever programmed him to say that must have been reacting to the mounting unrest over the crises associated with big oil: war, pollution, corruption, and extreme flabbiness.
Most of the problems associated with oil are problems associated with cars, and cars are the focus of J. H. Kunstler's book. Published in the early 90s, The Geography of Nowhere describes the impact of automobiles on the development of the U.S. Apparently, things started to go south during the Depression, when people were driven out of cities by poverty and the diminishing quality of life in the tenements. Fueling the flight to the suburbs were New Deal programs to build roads and cheap houses. In the ensuing decades the American landscape was built to serve cars rather than people, and that is what Kunstler is angry about. His main criticisms are:
1) A lot of the architecture, both residential and commerical, is very ugly. Buildings are constructed quickly and cheaply, and without regard to their surroundings. After all, what's the point of worrying about your surroundings if people are just going to drive directly to their destination? On this point, Kunstler is angry and sarcastic, though often funny. However, his tone is unfortunate, because ugliness is ultimately a matter of opinion, and I would bet that most people would say they are quite happy living in their suburban boxes. Kunstler argues that people are happy this way because they don't know any better, and he's probably right, but as far as I know there is no good way to force people to appreciate beauty.
2) When you step back from the individual buildings, and look at the organization of towns and cities, things start to look really grim. Here Kunstler's got a good point. Throughout most of America, the landscape is zoned into residential and commercial districts, which are separated by long stretches of four-lane roads. The residential zones are further divided by income (and to a lesser extent, by race and ethnicity), impeding the development of anything like a genuine community. The result is a weird mix of intolerance and paranoia that pervades the culture of what has historically been a relatively progressive nation.
3) At an even larger scale, the impact of cars on the nation and on the world seems absolutely dire. The Geography of Nowhere was written before car companies had figured out how to trick yuppies into buying pick-up trucks, and by now there is a broad scientific consensus that the Earth's climate is getting warmer as a result of human activities. Yet people continue to buy bigger and bigger SUVs, and to drive them longer distances to get to work or to buy their microwaveable burritos. It's like a hideous inversion of the idea of public transportation, in which every individual drives his or her own bus to work. Here it's not merely a matter of personal preference -- it's only possible for an individual to drive an SUV if other people subsidize the cost of cheap oil and environmental degradation. In all likelihood these other people haven't been born yet.
Ultimately, someone has to make decisions about the development of towns and cities, and there's no reason in a democratic society why these decisions have to be based on short-term economic interests. Although most suburbanites are probably not miserable in their surroundings, I doubt if anyone would consider their dependence on cars to be ideal. The Geography of Nowhere is a good way to start thinking about kicking the habit.
The Rise and Decline of Humanity.......2006-01-01
I believe that many of the ways we view our lives and live it is directly related to the relation of space, especially where our homes are and what we do daily.
Kunstler points out very cunningly and sometimes with anger how horrible America has set up its cities - cities of which I usually refer to as 'Suburbia World' and America, for a large part, really has turned into a world of suburbia, of endless homes stacked next to each other in a large sea, of which all its inhabitants commute to a Office park some 30 miles away.
Anyway, although Kunstler does not cover as in-depth as I believe he should, he points out many architectural and planning elements that even I, as an architecture student in Los Angeles, have never truly observed. He so well argues against suburban development that I am, even more than before, inspired to work on architectural projects that have nothing to do with suburban qualities (although this shall be very difficult).
If you are looking for a book to explain how horrible our cities really are (especially in the suburban world) and have never had the vocabulary to express that please read this book, it is something I wish everyone could understand and react to.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best intros to DC politics and Marion Barry.......2005-07-13
The Barry era was more than just the grainy footage in the hotel room, and Jaffe does an excellent job of recounting the hope and promise that many Washingtonians held when Barry was first elected Mayor as part of an grassroots coalition of low-income blacks, liberal whites and a growing gay and lesbian community and how badly that promise was betrayed.
There is no doubt the 80's were an awful time for DC. Crack, violence and economic abandonment by the middle class, nearly killed DC. Most major urban centers faced similar problems in the 80's thanks to Reaganism and white flight but Jaffe clearly documents Barry's inability to anything besides compound the problems faced by DC through financial irresponsibility(largely due to patronage) incompetent and criminal staff and Barry's growing personal addictions to drug and sex. He documents Barry's failings without demonizing him or resorting to the disguised racism of many of Barry's detractors.
It should be added that Barry was recently elected back onto City Council, representing the nearly all black and poverty stricken Ward 8. Many outside DC couldn't believe that DC residents would want this guy back on the City Council, but those folks don't know Ward 8 or Barry's appeal. While DC is booming economically, Ward 8 continued to be ignored by the rest of the city and the Mayor. By voting for Barry against a Mayoral ally, Ward 8 was warning the rest of the city that they will not be ignored.
Good look at a complicated city.......2005-03-01
The urban problems of Washington D.C. are laid bare with some wonderful historical perspective. This is a city where the normal municipal politics (race, poverty, patronage) are complicated by the national politics that weild a veto power over this city.
This book easily could have been an unreadable tome, but the authors did a great job of keeping the book moving and putting the charachters in proper perspective.
A must read for those involved in city politics.......2000-12-26
Fascinating read. Great background.
Needs a Sequel.......2000-10-14
"Dream City" compares with Mike Royko's "Boss" as an excellent expose on urban politics. But while Royko's protagonist, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, at least had his city's best interests in mind despite the shortcomings of his political machine, Marion Barry only cared about one thing, Marion Barry. That this vulture perpetuated his own power on the backs of the powerless who were his strongest supporters is sickening and fascinating at the same time. "Dream City" was published in 1994, right before the leech Barry returned to the Mayor's office to do four more years of damage to the capital city. Under Daley, Chicago was "The City That Works." Under Barry, DC was the city that didn't.
Will the real Marion Barry please stand up.......1999-12-15
This fascinating book about the current state and recent history of our nation's capital focuses largely on the story of Marion Barry, who was, when the book was written, both a once and future mayor of the city. How much blame Barry must shoulder for the city's social and economic problems is a question that remains to be answered, but the detail provided by the authors, both journalists with long experience of the city and its politics, offers fascinating glimpses into the reality behind the mask. One story alone is worth the price of the book: Marion Barry, who has long tried to identify with the city's most downtrodden, at one time (when he first went into politics) hired an exconvict to teach him how to 'talk street' so that he wouldn't sound too educated (he has an M.S. in Chemistry and was working on a Ph. D. when he became involved in the civil rights movement - not the Marion Barry I thought I knew).
This is a fascinating book. A bit out of date now, but containing material I have not seen anywhere else that helps explain some of the very bad times D.C. has experienced in the last few decades.
Book Description
The history and founding of America is almost a fairy tale of providence and good fortune. As Senate Chaplain Dr. Peter Marshall has recounted in his classic book, The Light and the Glory, no other nation has been blessed with such an abundance of material wealth and spiritual heritage as the United States of America. In 1787, our Founding Fathers established a near-perfect system of representative government and sound monetary policy. Yet, as our nation enters the 21st Century there is a great foreboding that our financial infrastructure is facing unprecedented challenges in addition to serious geopolitical developments that threaten our very existence. How has this happened to the most powerful nation on earth, and what will be the likely outcome? To answer these questions it is necessary to examine the monetary history of the U.S. up to the present hour and also look back to ancient prophecies that are contained in the Bible. Here is a gripping account that will captivate and enlighten you. It is also a message of hope and inspiration that you will want to share with others. There is no need to "close our eyes" if we can confidently look into our future.
Customer Reviews:
What happened to all of our money?.......2007-10-06
Have you noticed no one is talking about social security anymore? We all know there's no money for us who have not yet retired. If you want to know why, then this book is for you. Regardless of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, Christian or not, this book is a real eye opener. Hard to put down. Eye-opening...giving us a different perspective on long term and short term investment strategies.
Must Reading for All Who Seek the Truth!.......2007-06-12
I have read "America's Financial Reckoning Day" and I highly recommend it!In its pages, one can finally learn why our once great nation is now in such a noticable decline and how the nation destroying economic and monetary policies of a small group of powerful men controlling our government have brought about that decline! Mr Coppes does a superb job of showing that both our dollar and all dollar denominated investments are dangerously close to collapsing and provides specific alternative investment suggestions for those seeking to preserve their money! Most importantly, the author clearly spells out how all that is happening in the world today - above all, an organized move towards a totalitarian world government - is clearly predicted in Bible prophecy! What really sets this financial book apart from others is the GOOD news the author offers! After presenting much sobering economic information and a way to protect ones assets, Mr. Coppes provides the best news of all! He tells us clearly how we can have inner peace and hope for the future in spite of what may happen financially and... how we can each be spiritually prepared for the future! This alone is worth the price of the book!
Right on the Monay.......2007-05-12
Great book with real insight. The author has done a very credible job of researching the subject and combining that wealth of knowledge with his own insights. I've bought copies for friends!
Book Description
Unless Europe takes action soon, its further economic and political decline is almost inevitable, economists Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi write in this provocative book. Without comprehensive reform, continental Western Europe's overprotected, overregulated economies will continue to slow--and its political influence will become negligible. This doesn't mean that Italy, Germany, France, and other now-prosperous countries will become poor; their standard of living will remain comfortable. But they will become largely irrelevant on the world scene. In The Future of Europe, Alesina and Giavazzi (themselves Europeans) outline the steps that Europe must take to prevent its economic and political eclipse.
Europe, the authors say, has much to learn from the market liberalism of America. Europeans work less and vacation more than Americans; they value job stability and security above all. Americans, Alesina and Giavazzi argue, work harder and longer and are more willing to endure the ups and downs of a market economy. Europeans prize their welfare states; Americans abhor government spending. America is a melting pot; European countries--witness the November 2005 unrest in France--have trouble absorbing their immigrant populations. If Europe is to arrest its decline, Alesina and Giavazzi warn, it needs to adopt something closer to the American free-market model for dealing with these issues.
Alesina and Giavazzi's prescriptions for how Europe should handle worker productivity, labor market regulation, globalization, support for higher education and technology research, fiscal policy, and its multiethnic societies are sure to stir controversy, as will their eye-opening view of the European Union and the euro. But their wake-up call will ring loud and clear for anyone concerned about the future of Europe and the global economy.
Average customer rating:
- Historical analysis as it should be written (well, almost)
- Intresting, but is it reliable?
- the coming new world disorder
- Historical Pessimism Absent Recommendations for Change
- Insightful!
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The Rise and Decline of the State
Martin van Creveld
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ASIN: 052165629X |
Book Description
The state, which since the middle of the seventeenth century has been the most important of all modern institutions, is in decline. From Western Europe to Africa, many existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart. Many of their functions are likely to be taken over by a variety of organizations that, whatever their precise nature, are not states. In this unique volume Martin van Creveld traces the story of the state from its beginnings to its end. Starting with the simplest political organizations that ever existed, he guides the reader through the origins of the state, its development, its apotheosis during the two World Wars, and its spread from its original home in Western Europe to cover the globe. In doing so, he provides a fascinating history of government from its origins to the present day. This original book will of interest to historians, political scientists and sociologists.
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The state, which since the middle of the seventeenth century has been the most important and most characteristic of all modern institutions, is in decline. From Western Europe to Africa, many existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart. Many of their functions are being taken over by a variety of organizations which, whatever their precise nature, are not states. In this unique volume Martin van Creveld traces the story of the state from its beginnings to the present. Starting with the simplest political organizations that ever existed, he guides the reader through the origins of the state, its development, its apotheosis during the two World Wars, and its spread from its original home in Western Europe to cover the globe. In doing so, he provides a fascinating history of government from its origins to the present day.
Customer Reviews:
Historical analysis as it should be written (well, almost).......2006-02-13
I will start my review with what I consider two weaknesses of this book.
First, one of the previous reviewers commented on questionable accuracy of the historical facts presented in the book. I found one minor factual error and one mistake with the events I personally witnessed (p. 375). The factual error is the statement that Andropov started campaign to tighten discipline and, as part of it, he launched a campaign against drunkenness. In reality, Andropov indeed started wide-spread disciplinary measures, but the "credit" for the disastrous anti-drunkenness campaign of 1985 goes to Gorbachev.
The mistake is van Creveld's statement that after Afghanistan "adventure ended in defeat, in 1988, the Soviet leadership was left without an armed force which could have imposed unity on the country." This is nonsense. It is equivalent of saying that as a result of defeat in Vietnam, the US Army was destroyed. In fact, Soviet Army was used successfully afterwards exactly for the purpose of maintaining internal stability: in January of 1990 26,000 Soviet troops stormed overnight Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan) effectively "restoring the order" and killing 130 and injuring 700 people in the process. Also, in 1991-1992 the 14th Army under the command of General Lebed had effectively stopped the civil war between Moldova and Transdnistria and restored peace in the region. Only several years later, by murdering General Rokhlin and starting the First Chechen War, KGB started in earnest the destruction of Soviet Army as a fighting machine and political force (General Lebed was killed later).
The second weakness of this book is its writing style. Unfortunately, Professor van Creveld has an intractable predilection for large, convoluted, and unwieldy sentences, especially in the first two thirds of the book. Combined with the book's poor editing, it leads sometimes to outright blunders. Here is an example of a sentence taken from page 350 of the paper-back edition:
"The idea that complete sovereignty, including the unrestricted right to wage war, was too dangerous to entertain in the age of modern technology suffered another blow as a result of World War I and the 10 million casualties (in dead alone) that it wrought."
Not only must you parse this phrase in order to understand it (and you, by necessity, will become good at parsing by page 350 of this book), but this sentence, judging by the context, means exactly opposite: the idea that sovereignty understood as a right to wage war has become too dangerous did not suffer any blows, but was, in fact, confirmed by the horrors of World War I.
My purpose in pointing this out is to allay the anxiety of the future readers of this book. If you cannot understand some passages, this is not because you are stupid, but because of the regrettable way this book was written and edited.
Why would you bother to read a book which is difficult to read and may not be very accurate? There are a few reasons:
First, Professor van Creveld excels in making sense out of the heap of seemingly unrelated historical events. The breadth and depth of the scope of this book is so immense, that it must have inconsistencies by definition (because, for example, historians frequently disagree on the meaning and significance of historical events). This book is not meant to be a source of exact historical information, and you should not use it as such.
The historical analysis offered in this book is essentially Hegelian, i.e. the author presents different forms of political organization at the dawn of human civilization and then shows in minute detail how those organizations changed in time to become the modern state. The author combines an enormous amount of information - facts, dates, historical anecdotes - in order to prove that the modern state is not "the end of history," but only another stage of political development of human society. The author further shows that the modern state had outlived its usefulness and is due to be replaced by a different form of socio-political organization.
The second reason to read this book is the pleasure of following Professor van Creveld's process of historical thinking. Very few historians can match his erudition and intellect, and you can learn a lot simply by reading his thoughts on the subject.
Except for a very vague outline in the last five pages, there is no prediction of the future in this book - Professor van Creveld is too wise for that. Don't look for any practical advice either. If you need to know what kind of shelter to build, what gun to buy, and whether you must invest in ammunition, or gold, or both - look somewhere else. This book is a purely academic exercise, albeit of the highest order.
The Rise and Decline of the State was first published in 1999. Despite all the events of the last 6-7 years (9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) this book holds its own remarkably well. I only want to comment that the extent of the UN "oil-for-food" corruption scandal was not known in the late 1990's, otherwise Professor van Creveld would probably expand on his opinion about the role of the UN (p. 385). It may well turn out that a hundred years from now historians will admire the honesty, dedication, and accountability of our state bureaucrats compared to their ruthless and corrupt non-government bureaucracies.
Overall, I think that The Rise and Decline of the State is well worth the time and effort necessary to study it. You will look at the current political and social events from a completely different perspective after reading this book. Anyone interested in history and politics must be aware of and pay attention to the discussion presented in this book.
Intresting, but is it reliable?.......2002-09-13
Lots of good thoughts here, and an interesting historical account of the rise of various types of governance. Unfortunately, when van Creveld talks about things I know about already, he gets a lot of them wrong -- for instance, p222, where he asserts that by 1939, 'every American' was 'issued his or her social security card', and that 'the Dept. of Health and Human Services had been created.' HHS was created in the 1970s, under Carter, and to this day not every citizen has a Soc. Sec. card.
So if so many details are wrong where I know the facts, what about the places where I don't? And if the details are wrong, how good is the big picture?
This book makes you think, and has a lot of good references, but I don't trust its conclusions.
the coming new world disorder.......2002-03-11
This work illustrates that Martin van Creveld is more than one of our premier military historians and theorists. It demonstrates a grasp of political theory that escapes most of the learned professors that infest the upper strata of our current pundits and political science intelligensia.
Historical Pessimism Absent Recommendations for Change.......2001-11-13
Anything Martin van Crevald writes is a five, and this book, although over-priced (...), is as as good as history can get. His notes are world-class, including a highly relevant note in the final chapter, to wit, that according to Soviet General Lebed's 1997 public statement that, "out of 100 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs manufactured for the Soviet Union's special forces, two-thirds could no longer be accounted for."
To begin with, Van Crevald damns the state for its consistent increase of taxes and its decrease in public services. The state has become, in a word, incompetent and archaic--its grossly over-funded militaries are increasingly helpless in the face of covert and guerrilla violence, at the same time that states are spending more and more on police forces and less and less on a rapidly growing politically deprived disenfranchised underclass.
He ends, as a historical purist, without making recommendations for change. Indeed, he quotes Mao Tse Tung, "The sun will keep rising, trees with keep growing, and women will keep having children."
In many ways Van Crevald's book serves as a capstone to the fifty or so books I have reviewed in the past year, most of them about strategy, threat, intelligence, and the so-called revolution in military affairs, for what I take from this work is that the state does have an extremely important role to play in assuring the common security and prosperity of the people, and we abandon the state at our own peril.
Every nation, but especially the most prosperous nations that have allowed virtually out of control immigration and set no real standards for citizenship, must very carefully examine its policies and premises, both with regard to what constitutes citizenship and loyalty, and what services it must offer to preserve and protect the commonwealth.
I am told that the FBI was prevented from searching the homes of several of the suspects in the weeks prior to the 11 September attacks, because we have granted to our visitors--illegal as well as legal--all those rights that might better be reserved for proven citizens. Van Crevald's work is not, as some might take it, the death knell for the state, but rather the bath of cold water for the statesmen--and for those citizens who care to instruct their politicians on our demand for renewed focus on resurrecting the connection between citizenship, taxation, representation, and security.
Insightful!.......2001-11-03
In this comprehensive history of the modern state, author Martin Van Creveld weaves together disparate threads and illuminates hidden connections in forceful, energetic language. Thus, his book is both scholarly and entertaining. Van Creveld takes a generally dim view of governments and the state. The greater the state's power, the more he regards it as a monstrosity, and he's not shy about saying so. The anti-government political right will like this book, but Van Creveld's greatest contempt is reserved for nationalism, militarism and the state at war, which ought to entertain the left. He sees the state as a dubious, archaic institution and, as his narrative shows, his position transcends notions of conservative and liberal. Readers are likely to think of their nations differently after reading this book, which we [...] recommend primarily to students of politics and government and policy makers.
Amazon.com
Robert Bork will go down as one of history's footnotes. Nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1987, he was voted down by the Senate following a no-holds barred confirmation fight. Almost a decade later, he returns to reopen old wounds with Slouching towards Gomorrah, an extended attack against everything liberal. From pop culture and our universities to the church (Protestant and Roman Catholic) and the Supreme Court--the very institution he once fought so hard to join--Bork finds fault wherever he looks. This is a bitter book from a passionate man who has very little good to say about the world he lives in.
Book Description
In this New York Times bestselling book, Robert H. Bork, our country's most distinguished conservative scholar, offers a prophetic and unprecedented view of a culture in decline, a nation in such serious moral trouble that its very foundation is crumbling: a nation that slouches not towards the Bethlehem envisioned by the poet Yeats in 1919, but towards Gomorrah.
Slouching Towards Gomorrah is a penetrating, devastatingly insightful exposé of a country in crisis at the end of the millennium, where the rise of modern liberalism, which stresses the dual forces of radical egalitarianism (the equality of outcomes rather than opportunities) and radical individualism (the drastic reduction of limits to personal gratification), has undermined our culture, our intellect, and our morality.
In a new Afterword, the author highlights recent disturbing trends in our laws and society, with special attention to matters of sex and censorship, race relations, and the relentless erosion of American moral values. The alarm he sounds is more sobering than ever: we can accept our fate and try to insulate ourselves from the effects of a degenerating culture, or we can choose to halt the beast, to oppose modern liberalism in every arena. The will to resist, he warns, remains our only hope.
Customer Reviews:
BAM!!!.......2007-09-23
Never before have I read a review summarily describing the rise of the Leftist movement (at least in modern times and in American culture) than I have seen here. Bork is excellent and presents a very smart argument, one that (since most words are 5 syllables or more) may not be easy reading for everyone, but if you're brave enough to push through and gain the understanding of the meaning of the terms used, will find yourself with a great foothold of where we stand as a country today and why. If you don't know what a syllable is, don't even bother reading this book.
I have read the 1997 paperback edition and it would seem that society will continue to revisit the same issues until something definitive happens, as per his comments and quotes regarding the Vietnam War, which is a shocking parallel to the antagonistic and in some cases Anti-American views regarding the War in Iraq, which seems to indicate that there has been no slowing of this Leftist movement and in fact, their children will soon be throwing their hats into this arena, if not already.
As a Christian in America today, one finds that the easiest and apparently most profitable way for the enemy to bring about the destruction of the family, marriage, children and the church itself is the agenda of the Left movement. Bork, in his observation that until now the work to halt the Leftism in this country has been fragmented and disorganized at best, is correct.
The drive for radical individualism and radical egalitarianism is rampant in society today and one that is not limited to America, either. As morality declines and the threshold of tolerance for all things inherently evil increases, there can be no other assumption but that things will indeed continue in this way until at last, the Leftist movement will have succeeded in accomplishing its goal for a "self" driven, socialist society which at that point will be farther reaching than even they had imagined and will be beyond the point of their control.
Bork's book, though secular, should be a wake up call to Christians and non-Christians alike regarding where this country is headed. A Christian need only read the Bible to tell where indeed the world is heading.
5 stars...a must read.
recommended.......2006-07-23
Reading much of the conservative literature, one can easily get the impression that conservatives are ill-informed, prejudiced and given to widely illogical arguments to advance their causes. Bork is different. He is well-read, careful in his reasoning and respectful of the opinions he disagrees with. One of the ironic side-effects of this reasonableness is that conservative readers will not be enthusiastic about Bork's book because it does not shout their claims with the vindictiveness and emotional abandon they can find in other authors.
Another unfortunate side-effect is that the people who most need to confront these arguments, even if they ultimately disagree with them, will not read this book because it bears the label "conservative."
The first two chapters provide a capsule history of the Left-driven events of the 1960s. In the next two chapters, Bork ventures out of his depth into political philosophy with a discussion of freedom and the limits to freedom, in which he conveniently ignores all the philosophical writing on the subject in the past hundred years. Readers interested in these problems should consult the book What Freedom Is.
In succeeding chapters, he discusses the opinion-shapers of our society (schools, press, TV, pop music), the Supreme Court, popular culture, crime, abortion, feminism, race, education, and religion, finding them all dominated by Leftwing thinking.
For instance, here is some of his take on race. "Affirmative action...is a perfect prescription for racial animosity." (p. 231). Bork discusses the changes in affirmative action law and practice from a temporary outreach program whose purpose was to find qualified minority candidates into a quota system and then into a system of preference based on race. He indicates the thousands of remedies available if discrimination is provable and says that this has led to the invention of the idea of "institutional racism", pointing out that this notion is "simply an admission that actual discrimination cannot be shown." (p. 237). These practices also are "inflicting permanent harm on individuals [white males] who have done nothing wrong." (p. 241).
My major problems with this book are the use of high-level generalizations or abstractions as explanatory factors, especially "-isms". Individualism and egalitarianism are frequently cited as causes of the decline of American culture. Such broad claims would be impossible to support with evidence.
Like most people, Bork is unaware of how the Left managed to get itself so thoroughly in control of so many American institutions, especially since it (the Left) appeared to be finished in the late 1970s. For a blow-by-blow account of how and why this happened, see The Rape of Alma Mater. Some of his generalizations, however, are accurate: "The splintering of the New Left proved to be an advantage because the movement became less visible." (p. 53). "Yet these groups are in touch with one another and often come together in a coalition on specific issues." (p. 53). "The transformation of the New York Times illustrates what has happened to prestige journalism generally." (p. 52).
The current climate in America is beautifully illustrated by a case that Bork cites: "In a faculty sensitivity session at the University of Cincinnati a woman was forced to stand up and be mocked as `a member of the privileged white elite' because she was blond, blue-eyed and well educated." (p. 246).
For a broader perspective from a Moderate point of view, see the new While America Sleeps: How ... and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within - While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within. In spite of the provocative title, this is a thoroughly documented, carefully reasoned book.
North Vietnam Won Because of the American Left.......2006-06-14
Robert Bork shows how the left wing elites have worked to try to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage. He has a pithy way of expressing the way we have lost our moral bearings in a manner which compromises public morals. For instance, when it comes to raunchy programming, he cites Michael Medved to the effect that saying "Don't like it, just turn if off" is like saying "Turn off the smog if you don't like it." Bork suggests that Rush Limbaugh is popular because he is like the underground satirists in the old Soviet Union. Most interesting is his description of how the left wing caused America to lose in Vietnam. Bork cites Bui Tin, a former North Vietnames military official, who makes it clear that the US antiwar movement gave the North Vietnamese confidence, even in the face of military defeats, that US resolve would crumble with time. Intrigued, I looked up the cited article in the August 3, 1995 WALL STREET JOURNAL, p. A8, and found it quite revealing. But I suspected all this long ago. Even as a child in the 1960's, long before I even knew what a liberal was, I noticed the inordinate media attention to the antiwar movement and almost total silence on the cruelties of the Communists.
PROBABLY WORTH READING.......2006-01-09
In this book, Bork explores America's swing to the left since the 60's, and how it has sent the country 'slouching Towards Gomorrah'. All the major political issues of the day are included here, from abortion to the O.J. Simpson case. Bork's legal philosophy is explained, and he points out how insane our mindset has become, in that ideas once thought crazy are now accepted without question. As expected, numerous examples of left wing madness are given, and these alone probably make the book worth reading.
Unfortunately, there is little new in this book from a conservative perspective. Educated readers will have heard most of the arguments before, and so one learns little from the work.
One can also take issue with some of his views, even from a right perspective. Bork supports censorship, for instance, citing pornography and filthy rap and rock lyrics. Here here is on very dangerous ground. For who would do the censoring? As things stand now, the liberal elite might be in charge of that, and they are unlikely to stop much obscenity. And even if they did, it would surely go hand in hand with censorship of conservative opinion. Politically incorrect statements and works would be banned as 'offensive'. I doubt Bork would like that.
Shortsighted tripe about an America that never was........2005-11-02
I always laugh at radical conservatives that long for "the good old days". Like most righties, Bork thinks America should revert to a more simple time. A time when blacks knew their place, women stayed pregnant and silent, the average life span was 50 years, and the police ( J. Edgar Hoover was the worst one of the bunch)could spy on an unsuspecting public with impunity. You betcha!! Those were "the good old days". I suppose, speaking from a strict constructionist perspective of course, that we should repeal all the amendments of the constitution. I mean, the founding fathers were infallible right? If that happened we would still have slavery, and only land owning men would be allowed to vote. Dare to dream huh Bork.
Customer Reviews:
Bad News, Bad, Bad News!.......2006-08-01
Tom Fenton has a bone to pick.
As a veteran foreign correspondent for CBS News, he watched as his industry gave up investigative antagonistic independent journalism for "puff pieces," Barbara Walters/Geraldo Rivera-style entertainment, and rebroadcasting corporate and/or government packaged reports masquerading as "news." He's completely right that for at least 20 years the evening news has been a sham.
Economics is part of it, as Fenton describes how a couple tenths of a percentage point in the ratings means millions in advertising revenue. By pandering to the lowest common denominator, the major networks have guaranteed that the LCD is the only demographic served.
Also part of it, as Fenton takes great pains to point out, is the coziness of news bureaus with the current administration, which freezes out journalists who do not toe the party line. When lying to the public has become such an art, exposing the man behind the curtain is a sure trip to the Nowhere Idaho beat, or an IRS audit, or both.
Fenton has stern words for the current Bush Administration, as well as the Clinton and Bush Sr. Administrations before it. He seems rather soft on the Reagan Administration, even though this was when the run-up to Wall Street tyranny began.
The first third of the book is a little annoying, as Fenton takes every opportunity to place himself on a short list consisting of "Cronkite, Brokaw, Rather & Fenton." Frankly, I don't think he belongs on that list.
Nevertheless, having established his credentials the second third of the book details the failings of the TV news industry, how foreign bureaus were trimmed or eliminated completely after the fall of the USSR, and how American news turned inward and downward -- to our great detriment. In large part the developments in the world-at-large went unreported for two decades so the events of 1998-2001 caught many of us by surprise.
The last third of the book explains why this situation is so dangerous. In a nutshell, with nobody trusted & respected to report world events accurately, the Administration is free to contradict facts bold-facedly and the public either buys the lies or is willing to entertain the notion. In a state where the "Fourth Estate" does not function, the truth is a casualty and becomes open to interpretation -- or spin -- or outright political manipulation. You can't have Democracy without an informed populace.
Tom is right, this is unacceptable.
His book is unusually forthright, startlingly direct, and surprisingly it names names. That it came to print at all is a glimmer of hope that a free press still has a chance to resurrect itself, and the tide may yet be turned.
We can only hope.
Fairly weak and assuming........2006-07-11
If you buy the role Fenton proposes for the media, then perhaps you might like this book more. But since he simply posits that the media is there to protect the country, promote unity, and a whole list of other (about 10 total) roles of the media, and then fails to explain why this is the media's role.....I sit there questioning this expansive role of news.
I see the newsmedia as a source of information. They are to provide the people with the who/what/where/how and why of what is going on in the world at large and locally. They are NOT to be ideology machines, whether good or bad ideologies.
Fenton observes how foreign news has drastically declined since the Cold War and how disastrous this has been. Here, describing the ins and outs of his field he excels, and does not spare any administration or political position. Yet he fails to notice that the reason why it was so much easier to report news in the Cold War era, and why his goals of unifying the country blah blah were so much more attainable is because we had an obvious enemy in front of us. In today's society, what foreign threat do we focus upon? Terrorism, the middle east, n. korea, chinese economic expansion, resurgent russian and japanese nationalism? Its unfortunate and a very valid point that the newsmedia seems to focus on NONE of these, at least with their own correspondents abroad. But Fenton's attacks often draw upon the sympathies of a post-911 world. Of course the news, like the government should have paid more attention to Bin Laden and company. We now that NOW. But hindsight is 20/20.
all the news they didn't see fit to print.......2006-06-22
Fenton cites many instances of important events brewing that were never reported, so that when the situation exploded, it seemed to come out of nowhere. An early one was the impending fall of the Shah of Iran, a situation that Fenton personally reported but which was dropped from the broadcasts as not sufficiently interesting. The most spectacular was the news of 9/11 which the New York Times had two days in advance. It chose to put the news on its website but not print it in the newspaper that prints "all the news that's fit to print." (p. 6) Fenton's reporting of this long list of unreported news is the major reason for reading this book. "Had there been a drumbeat of segments on network news showing the steadily rising Islamist threat abroad, we might be living in a different world now." (p. 5)
Fenton's message is that entertainment trumps hard news every time. The causes of this include "underfunding, arrogant insularity, contempt for the view's attention span, loss of mission, corporate greed." (p. 191) News media are now owned by corporations that own many other businesses. Profit, or the bottom line, is their mission, not informing the public. This has led them to close foreign news bureaus and to take their "news" from local feeders. At the same time, salaries for anchors and other stars of the news media have risen from $36,000 for each in the mid-1960s to 12 or 15 million apiece today.
"Anyone accustomed to watching CNN abroad, or the BBC in England, cannot believe what those channels offer in the U.S. market." (p. 223) "They manifestly assume that American tastes simply cannot be raised." Fenton admits that this could be true. "Perhaps Americans, particularly younger Americans, have become too fluff-happy, too incapable of concerted attention." (p. 233) (Virtually every book and article on the American education system confirms this.)
Bias or "spin" also is discussed, and Fenton says that it is getting worse. Much of it is corporate in origin, advertisers, etc. However, "No one ever mentions the influence of ethnic lobbies or affiliations on American media." (p. 99) "Yet neither will you see much on network news about the influence of Saudi money in Washington" (p. 103)
Fenton mentions blogs and ezines but contends that they are mainly pushing a point of view rather than reporting hard facts.
As one solution, Fenton recommends the formation of a news pressure group, perhaps composed of retired newsmen and anchors. The group's first job should be to "out" news executives who turn down important news stories. The group "should run a weekly register of egregious news shortfalls." (p. 236) It should also feature "comparative lists of how the media in other countries reported stories differently from ours, or showed us up in reporting what we didn't."
Perhaps we could add that a good place to get the news you're not getting is to read the many nonfiction books available here on Amazon. One of the most important recent books is While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination are Destroying America from Within.
Bad News.......2006-01-06
Anyone who tries to follow news in the current atmosphere of world events knows that journalism, TV journalism in particular, is in a sad state. Retiring foreign correspondent Tom Fenton is canny to jump on the issue right now, when it's fresh in a lot of minds. He offers a lot of insights into what's wrong now. But in the end he lacks a clear vision of how the industry used to be and how it got to be where it is now.
Fenton points out that the major American TV networks have exactly one foreign bureau these days, in London. At home, "news" often consists of repackaging press releases from the government or Big Business, and abroad, news is regularly purchased wholesale from the BBC and other sources, international bureaus have withered to a few stringers, and many networks (Fox News in particular) have fallen prey to creating "spectaculars" with celebrity newsmen like Geraldo Rivera.
The author is correct to point out that this represents a major decline from the heyday of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. News is on the skids. But as early as page twenty-seven, he reveals why things used to be better back in the Golden Age of newsgathering: the Cold War. Fear of the Soviets justified massive outlays that can't exist in the absence of a monolithic enemy. Any Noam Chomsky acolyte would point out that this means the news was NEVER really about facts, but rather about nationalist propaganda.
And Fenton is contradictory about how things stand today. For instance, he suggests that many news veterans are still stuck in a Vietnam-era liberal mindset and that's why they're eager to let slide on hard news gathering, tossing softballs to world leaders like President Bush and Vladimir Putin. Let me repeat that for you: he thinks that it is old-line leftism that is causing the news to give a free pass to right-wing nationalists like Bush and Putin. Need I explain why this is a ridiculous notion?
Still, there are a lot of ways Fenton is correct. Because newsgathering is toothless today, we have no context to understand forces like Islamist terror and Russian neocolonialism. Frivolous attitudes toward Chinese industrial expansionism and Venezuelan saber-rattling leave the average American unequipped to prepare for what may be our next big national struggle. And our highly overpaid news anchors have a moral responsibility to push their correspondents and stringers for a higher standard of reportage.
Even the solutions Fenton suggests are valid. An hour-long prime-time news show every night would be a good idea, and the success of shows like Dateline and 60 Minutes proves that people would watch them. An FCC willing to enforce the networks' responsibility to the public good would bring news in line with what it should be, and what we certainly need, to grasp our place in the world.
For all this good, Fenton's appeal to false nostalgia and his oddly contradictory view of how things are right now undermines how we see and understand his arguments. (And all this is not helped by odd typographical quirks that suggest the publisher was in a real hurry to get the book out and move on. I think we should expect higher quality from a HarperCollins imprint.)
Fenton is canny to spot a real need and throw his weight behind solutions. And with a little time and consideration, I suspect this book could have been a major contribution to real improvements in the state of affairs. But as it is it's a near miss, a selectively useful and alternately odd book that clouds the issues as much as it clarifies them. If you want to participate in the push for a more responsible press, this book is not the one for you.
a rant fell short to become a poignant criticism but simply joined gossips (which it supposedly was meant to criticise).......2005-12-02
I remember that I thought, at times, that American news shows would do better if they watched BBC or listened to NPR. I simply couldn't find what I wanted to know (i have to confess I skipped a good chunck; i couldn't take it) such as an answer to "Why all the major broadcasting stations chose to use certain words in reporpting the incidents in middle east, war on terror, war o/[i]n iraq, etc? (I still don't know when it actually became a war, in terms of the offical U.S. forein policy). The U.S. disregarding the U.N.'s inspection/judgement was enough at least for some of us to doubt any yet-coming-out proof of existence of WMD's. It is a piece of news, indeed informative one, if we hear a simple truth like it's too risky for reporters to go into certain regions and don't really know what's going on there or the U.S. goverment didn't allow reporters to go to certain areas, etc. Again, some of us figured anyway because we never heard iraqis talk on TV--even now we do rarely on radio (to tell you the truth i haven't had a TV for a long time). I believe that the american media didn't fail to inform the public what they knew, but the
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War
The Worst Person in the World: And 202 Strong Contenders
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
