No comments about Che: Sueno rebelde/Rebellious dream.

No comments about Che Guevara (Critical Lives).

No comments about Heading Home.

1 comments about Man of the House.

1. OK if you want tell all stuff this book isn't for you. Get Fishbait Millers book (doorman of the house). If you wan't some of the low down and nasty of politicts rough language and all get John Farrell's book. But if you want an enchanting story, The story of a people and a culture. A story painting all that is best in America this one is it. The stories of Curley and Rayburn and the early days in the Mass State House are a joy. The stories of Work Buttons and bricklayers make you remember that all wasn't always well or easy in America. More than in the latest volume you see WHY Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill believed what he believed and battled for what he battled. His inability to say no might not serve today, but his belief in what was right yet willingness to respect those against him would be a godsend today. This book like a Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne paints a picture of what is great in America, it's the picture the way we'd like it to be, the way I think O'Neill wanted people to strive for. Its a picture of looking out for the other guy and all the stories of all the regular people that come with it. It's portrait of the regular guy is its charm, and the stories THE STORIES mother's milk for the political junkie. If you want all of the rough edges Farrell's book is probally better, but if you want the essence of a great man this book should be your choice.

1 comments about Green Parrots.

1. "Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary" is a remarkable book with frank reality coming from a true humanitiarian.
   
   Dr. Gino Strada has been been helping victims of war, 90% civilians, for over seventeen years. His experience has brought him to Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Sudan, Cambodia and other countries affected by war. Dr. Strada cuts through the clutter revealing what truely matters.
   
   Government A fights government B with a devastating price being paid by C, Civilians. More than talk or protest, these civilians need real help immediately.
   
   Dr. Strada and his organization EMERGENCY has been offering that help for over ten years but it is still just a drop in the bucket.
   
   Green Parrots is an anaesthetic-free-root-canal into humanity's irrational cruelty and violence and simultaneously and more importantly, it is about profound empathy and the real love countless 'Gods' of this world continuously attempt to take credit for. Green Parrots is about sovereign human conscience driving sovereign human action, collectively of course!"
   
   This book is be required reading. I DECLARE IT! Read it and share it.
   
   And check out [...]
   
   -Jason Bosch, Founder of ArgusFest.

No comments about Boris Yeltsin And Russia's Democratic Transformation (Jackson School Publications in International Studies).

No comments about Thomas Paine (Very Interesting People Series).

5 comments about Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship.

1. Jack Kennedy, precocious squire, meets Lem Billings in Choate School, and a lifetime of friendship is born. While the two chums shared their lives together, what is not often publicly mentioned is that one of them, well Lem, was a gay man. What was JFK's reaction to learning of his friend's interests? A mere yawn, a gentle warning to not cross that bridge with him, and the two became incredible chums. Such is the story spun in the weirdly fantastic and not yet complete story "Jack and Lem".
   
   Pitts chronicles that journey of friendship for nearly thirty years, through war, elections and a fateful assassination one sunny afternoon in Dallas. The two boys meet and become fast friends, and share a remarkable legacy of letters that are quoted throughout the beginning of the book. These letters at first are fun and amusing, the ramblings of adolescent teasing that formulated their friendship. You can see the connection between the two men, as one probably spends years yearning for JFK, and must settle for his close friendship. It must have been both heaven and hell for Lem, doomed to devote his life to Jack.
   
   Soon, however, it becomes clear that there isn't much of story to tell between the two men. The aforementioned letters start to drag the book a bit, as it seems that irrelevant information is shared between the two writers. The author mentions that the letters stop as soon as Lem and Jack are reunited, and that is when the book becomes enjoyable again. Pitts description of Jack and Lem during the White House years is brief, but filled with a few funny stories, and the revelation that Lem had his own room at 1600 Penn Ave.
   
   As soon as Jack dies in Dallas, Pitts claims that a bit of Lem dies too, and the story once again fizzles out a bit. As Lem struggles to find himself a place in the Kennedy clan, he mistakenly gets involved with some of the offspring on a booze and drugs juggernaut which really saddened me towards Lem, no matter how truthful it was. I guess I just preferred to see him engaging in pranks with Jack, or gossiping wih Jackie instead. Pitts chapter on the gay rights movement in general was ineresting, but seemed like an odd "add-in" to the book to make it longer. Perhaps that chapter would have better worked blended into the rest of the story, rather than as a stand alone.
   
   Overall, Jack and Lem is an uneven book, but one that I think I will ultimately appreciate. The fact that JFK had a gay best friend, and the fact that he didn't give a hoot about it, is a resonating message that carries strongly today.



2. David Pitts offers a view of John F. Kennedy which is seldom found in the multitude of other books on JFK. The author had access to new material especially from the Billings material at the JFK library. However, considering all the assistance he acknowledges I can only wonder how a reference to the King of England in the late 1930s would be to "George V". Still, a book worthy of being read for its insight into aspects of JFK often overlooked.



3. David Pitts gives readers a big hint about what to expect in his introduction to this story of JFK and his lifelong best friend Lemoyne Billings: Pitts wanted to write a book about JFK but realized that it would be hard to stand out in that overcrowded field. Then he learned about Lem Billings and thought that the "untold story" of America's randiest president and his gay best friend would be the ticket.
   
   Yes, I'm a little cynical after reading this book. It is remarkable that from the 1930s on someone like JFK (Catholic, image-conscious, arguably a bit too interested in sleeping with every attractive woman he met) could sustain and value a friendship with a gay man. I didn't assume that JFK would have thrown over anyone who could potentially be a liability or who just wouldn't help him get what he wanted, but the depth of the friendship does present JFK in an interesting light.
   
   It's not an exactly untold story. I've read one other book about the Kennedys and Lemoyne Billings was a major source and character in that book. He wasn't exactly outed in it but it didn't take much reading between the lines to understand that he was gay. Pitts does offer new details about the start of the friendship but his focus is on JFK all the way.
   
   Which was quite frustrating for me. Sure, JFK was a congressman, a senator and then president and that's interesting stuff but could Pitts have spared more than a single paragraph about Billings' job? He had one. He was in advertising for decades but he might as well spent the entire time delivering newspapers for all the attention Pitts gives his job. Nor do we get a sense of Billings' romantic life. Was he in a relationship at any time? Or was he required to be the house eunuch to keep his room at the White House?
   
   Worst, when JFK is assassinated we don't get the story from Lem's perspective we get it pretty much as any American alive at the time would have found out, from television reports. His best friend is murdered and Pitts gives us nothing to understand what it meant to Lem. We just read that the next few years were tough for him. Maybe he lost himself in his work and Pitts didn't want to bore us with the details.
   
   Suddenly it's 1970 and don'tcha know, things have changed for gay men. Will wonders never cease! A whole chapter on how things have changed. Except Lem wasn't exactly throwing the first rock at Stone Wall so ... what did it mean for him? Did he come out to his colleagues at work? Did he move in with the love of his life? Did he wear louder ties? You won't find out here.
   
   Nor will you find out the details of Lem's descent into drug and alcohol addiction. Was Lem already an alcoholic before he started spending significant amounts of time with the younger generation of Kennedys? Did he lead tragic David Kennedy astray in a misguided attempt to recreate his lost friendship with JFK? Did they lead him astray? Was it more complicated than that? Pitts just mentions the "problem" in one line and that's it.
   
   In short, you won't find out much about Lem Billings. This is not a joint biography and that's a shame, in my opinion. There was a real opportunity here to contrast the lives of these two different yet similar men but Pitts gives Billings short shrift every time. If you want to learn a bit more about Lem Billings, read The Kennedys by Peter Collier. It's the book that inspired me to read this one. It's not exactly a sympathetic portrait of Billings but it's far more indepth.



4. This might have been an interesting magazine article. There was certainly not enough material to fill 250 pages. The author repeats himself constantly and pads sentences with redundancies and facts that he has already established in previous pages.
   
   As for Lem Billings, it's too bad he didn't have a life of his own.
   
   An interesting if not a compelling read.



5. I enjoyed reading Jack and Lem.
   
   Due to my age, I don't have first hand remembrances of Jack Kennedy - his life or presidency. I was a good student so I do have a learned historical perspective. Also, I am politically aware and involved so Teddy is a presence and Jackie was too.
   
   While I was familiar with many of the events of Jack's life through other reading, David Pitts made these seem new (I guess seeing them through different eyes - Lem's) and helped keep my interest. I thought Lem was presented as a compelling character. His devotion to Jack was very moving and important to reveal. I don't think the friendship could have continued for 30 years if Jack hadn't had a similar regard for Lem. I think the theory was proved that Jack had great character in keeping Lem as a friend. And Lem had every right to make that claim too.
   
   I know there have been questions about a biography of a behind the scenes individual. Since we cannot all be the great one, the one on whom the spotlight shines, I find it helpful to know who is (was) in the background. David Pitts performed a valuable service researching this book - the letters between Jack and Lem reflect on Jack as much as Lem.
   
   Obviously, not every fact or event can be included in any one work. While there seems to be a long-standing rapport between Lem and Rose Kennedy, the limited references to her (absent during Jack's illness while he was a Choate and not attending Kathleen's (Kick's) funeral) make me wonder whether Lem liked her.
   
   There appears to be an error on page 116. The photo credit is 1945, but the pages that precede the photo indicate that Lem went to the South Pacific in 1944 and while the war ended in 1945, it wouldn't be until 1946 that Lem was able to return home. He could not have been in Palm Beach in 1945.
   
   There are a few instances of David Pitts using his authorship to editorialize. These appear in parenthesis. As a resident of D.C., I agree with one of these (the District of Columbia is without full representation). Another is a reference to Tony Blair, (as the current prime minister). These parenthetical statements are temporal so if we - when we - get representation and a different person holds elected office they will date the book. Instead of editorializing, it would have been reasonable to stick to the facts only.
   
   Jack and Lem included some very touching recollections of these two men's lives, separate and together, and made me think about and better understand life in another time. I found "The Sea Change (1933 vs 1973)," the penultimate chapter, very interesting. I have sometimes wondered how much earlier I would needed to have been born to not feel comfortable today as a gay man. Most of my adult life I have been out to my family, co-workers, and neighbors. I'm also not confusing comfort with safety. I'm not naïve. Far too frequently there are press reports of hate and violence against not just gay people (the nooses of late are appalling). But not from the people I am fortunate to be surrounded in my world. I owe much to people in the generations before my own who "fought" for acceptance that I now enjoy. Again, my age limits my first-hand knowledge of events of 1969 and before. I'm grateful for the placement of this concise chapter that provides context to Lem's life and times.

No comments about RAF LIBERATOR OVER THE EASTERN FRONT: A Bomb Aimer's Second World War and Cold War Story.

3 comments about Justice and Humanity: Edward F. Dunne, Illinois Progressive.

1. I bought this book as part of my research for my master's thesis on Midwestern progressivism. I expected the usual rather dull factual account. Instead I was pleasantly surprised by the comprehensive research, highly readable prose, and the profundity of the interpretation. Moreover, I learned far more about the realities of politics and society during the progressive period than I have from far more celebrated works. This is good history, and like all good history it focuses upon the past and not the personal saws of the writer. A bit pricey, I have never regretted the purchase. If you are looking for dynamic history at its best, check this out!



2. Unquestionably the best book I have ever read, or will read, in my entire life!



3. Historian Richard Allen Morton has accomplished a rare feat: while many thesis papers written by graduate students have been adapted for publication as books, few have been written with such brevity, conciseness and precision as to educate, entertain and inform readers who are not faculty members sitting on the dissertation committee. Too many dissertations seem to be compiled by writers who think that history is better if served by the pound and the heavier a book is, the better it is! Not so!
   
   Edward F. Dunne has the distinction of being the only man to serve as the Mayor of Chicago and, later in his career, as the Governor of Illinois. To date, Dunne is the only Roman Catholic to have served as Illinois Governor. He was also an active leader in Chicago's Irish community. Dunne served as the first President of the influential Irish Fellowship Club. In his retirement, Dunne compiled a multivolume history of Illinois and its prominent citizens.
   
   Dunne has been identified as a progressive politician and a supporter of Bryan Democracy. Morton documents how the Progressive political movement faltered in Illinois as political spoilsmen and party regulars such as Roger Sullivan (Democratic) and William Lorimer and his protege William Hale Thompson (Republican) ultimately prevailed over the reform minded progressives in their respective parties. This unfortunate trend has continued to the present day.
   
   The Dunne family remained somewhat prominent in Cook County. Dunne's son and grandson followed in Edward F. Dunne's footsteps and served in the local judiciary. I actually met the late Arthur Dunne when he served in Chancery.