5 comments about The Secret Wars of Judi Bari: A Car Bomb, the Fight for the Redwoods, and the End of Earth First.

1. I was left wondering why Coleman wrote this book. Was it just to let us all know that Judi Bari was a bitchy, braless diva? Was it to suggest that she was bombed by her ex-husband? Coleman's tone was so contemptuous of her subject that she weaked her central argument, which I believe was to create a more complex view than the highly idealized one promulgated by left media. I would have been open to that project. I loved the book Scars of Sweet Paradise, which attempts to create a more realistic vision of Janis Joplin, a super-star who was not always likable, even to herself. But the book on Joplin does a meticulous and sympathetic job of placing Joplin in the context of the San Franscisco psychedelic era--something that, as other reviewers here have noted, Coleman fails to do. This book is ultimately neither good journalism nor good biography. If Coleman has a bone to pick with Bari's legacy, that is fine. But she ought to frame her project as a polemic, not a piece of journalism. Her book raises these questions: do we expect all leaders to be "nice" people, or do we have higher standards for certain leaders, especially women? Does the "dirty laundry" that accompanies all human life detract from the significance of their accomplishments? And can we find ways to have leaders without expecting super-human powers?



2. This book read like a detective story and once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. It presents a fascinating, well-researched, convincing and even-handed perspective on the complexity of the personality and motives of its subject, Judi Bari, as well as of others connected with the environmental activist movement on the West Coast. Ms. Coleman's writing is a pleasure to read, and her telling of Judi Bari's story contributes to a better understanding of the reasons for her (and her movement's) successes as well as its failures. It's a good antidote to the uncritical adulation often bestowed on people such as Ms. Bari, whose lives are dominated by a unidimensional devotion to a non-mainstream cause (especialy by others who also espouse that cause).



3. that implied bari didn't follow through at all during redwood summer and beyond? I just read bari's own words in timber wars, and it is easy to tell she followed through in a huge way- she wrote, spoke, and represented a deep ecology that is to be admired- coleman is a gossip monger on a good day- I recommend this book as campfire fuel-



4. I purchased this book by mistake, thinking it was a serious biography. IT IS NOT.
   I knew Judi during the 1970's postal organizing period of her life. The fact that this book was funded by a known right-wing group (the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation)which has funded other books pretending to be serious biographies of people like Hillary Clinton and Anita Hill while chopping them up with distorted facts and outright lies and well as doing kiss-up bios on right wing heroes like Clarence Thomas.
   To prevent this right-wing hit piece from becoming a source book on Judi Bari, her friends, associates and family are compiling a page-by-page list of the errors, lies and omissions in Coleman's text. So far, the list has reached 351 (the ;last time I checked), more than one mistake per page. For a detailed list of the errors and lies in this book check out the Friends of Judi Bari website.



5. While reading this book I find myself thinking that the author really did not seem to like Judi Bari. She was always pointing out Judi's flaws but never anything good that she did. She makes her to be a very unfocused dramatic liar. I don't know much about the woman's story but I really feel bad that the story just doesn't seem fair to her. I will finish it, I love stories about the redwoods, but I think I may look for another book on the subject to try to balance this one out.

No comments about Governor Henry Horner, Chicago Politics, and the Great Depression.

2 comments about Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of the River.

1. It was a great surprise to find that there were no customer reviews for a book that was first published in 1987. This remarkable book is an insight into an American legend, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She began as a young girl to write for the Miami Herald in 1915. The book shows how she was able to achieve a long history of publications and books to her credit. Additionally, this eminent conservationist who died in 1998 at age 108 has been honored with the saving of the Florida Everglades. This book is a must read for all American women because it provides insight into just what can be accomplished when one woman is motivated to take action.



2. When I moved to Florida in 1973 I almost immediately fell in love with the pine forests, the bayheads, the shallow lakes, the hardwood hammocks and the swamps. By then much damage had been done to the state and more was contemplated. The drainage canals around Miami, the cross Florida Barge Canal and other, often quite unfeasible schemes, had either been done, started and then scrapped, or were in the works. It seems like the temptation to "improve" Florida from the late 1800s on was so strong it was almost impossible to stop. A number of people had warned about the fragility of the Everglades and other Florida ecosystems, but few listened. However one talented writer with a remarkable background was able to help along the effort to protect the Everglades. Almost simultaneously with the establishment of Everglades National Park, Marjory Stoneman Douglas published her "Everglades: River of Grass'" now the standard work on the subject. In it she demonstrated that the Everglades was not a worthless swamp, but a vibrant ecological community with a long history. Her book's first printing was sold out within 2 months! Other fights were raging by the time I reached Florida- the Florida Barge Canal, of course, but also efforts to protect the Big Cypress and Fakahatchee Strand. Among the people involved were Archie Carr and his wife Marjorie Carr (the latter is included in a photo in the current book).
   
   Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in her autobiography based on tape recordings by John Rothchild, subtitled "Voice of the River," was an institution in the Sunshine State and her book informs her many admirers of the struggles and triumphs she had in a life that spanned a whole century. It is a fascinating tale and full of associations with the most prominent names in Florida and in literature, newspaper publishing and politics. I recommend it highly to anyone, but especially those who are interested in the Florida that used to be.
   
   This brings up another point, and a very sad one. I got to see some of what was left of Florida's natural environment, including Everglades National Park and the Ocala Scrub while I was in Florida (some in the company of Archie Carr). It was a ghost of what once was! Even though the citizens of Florida voted in monies to buy up thousands of acres of sensitive areas, there were many tragic losses. The state's wilderness has deteriorated further since I left it in 1978. I have no wish now to return and see the result, but what is left in Big Cypress, the Everglades, the Ocala Scrub, and many others, is there because of people like Marjory Stoneman Douglas!

No comments about The Autobiography of Maria Elena Moyano: The Life and Death of a Peruvian Activist.

1 comments about The Presidency of James Earl Carter, Jr. (American Presidency Series).

1. Several years ago, a young co-worker asked me about Jimmy Carter and my response was that he was a much better ex-president than he was a president. His subsequent work in areas such as Habitat for Humanity as well as international relations has been excellent. He has served as a goodwill ambassador, election monitor and has negotiated several international agreements that favored the United States. He has also continued to be a champion of human rights causes throughout the world.
   Contrasting his success after his presidency with his performance while in office demonstrates the reasons why his presidency is generally assigned a mediocre grade. His idealism in championing human rights was the most obvious example of the truism that idealism may help get you elected, but it gets in the way of governing effectively. In the age of the cold war and international tensions, a cold, heartless pragmatism seems to be the only thing that works.
   I found Kaufman's explanations of the Carter presidency to be the most even-handed and honest that I have read. Carter made many mistakes, had some made for him and in other cases was just the victim of circumstances. Nevertheless, he did have some striking successes, the two most notable being the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt and the treaty relinquishing the Panama canal. In these events, Carter showed how much potential he really had as a president. I remember when the networks pre-empted their regular programming as Carter, Sadat and Begin came back from Camp David with the agreement in hand. It was a stunning achievement and it amazed the world. The magic of that moment is captured in the book, as well as the subsequent problems that continue to plague the region. Despite all the violence in the area of Palestine and Lebanon in the years since the accords were signed, the fact that Israel and Egypt still continue to have formal relations and are at peace show how sturdy those agreements are.
   As someone who lived through those years and followed the Carter presidency in great detail, reading this book brought back a great deal of memories. Without attempting to boast, I do have an excellent memory, and the recounting of the events are all exactly as I remember them.
   The author closes with a very important and often overlooked point. Carter's presidency is considered a failure, and yet he refused to negotiate away anything in order to release the hostages in Iran. Reagan's presidency is considered a success and yet he attempted a bribe for the release of the hostages in Lebanon by selling armaments to Iran. There is no doubt that on that point, Carter bests Reagan.
   I would like to close this review with a personal point. Yes, Carter's pushing of human rights did create problems. But, when you consider that some of those whose rights were being violated, Walesa in Poland and Havel in the Czech Republic, rose to the leadership of their nations, perhaps he was just ahead of his time.

3 comments about Fighting for Peace: Seven Critical Years in the Pentagon.

1. Most accounts of the Reagan administration characterize Casper Weinberger as the hawkish pro-military buidup Defense Secretary of the early years and the un-bending, un-yeilding Pentagon chief of the later years before he was "ousted". This book offers Cap's perspective and, even if you don't agree with all his reasoning and policies, provides a different perspective of the Reagan years. You don't get everything that occured during Weinberger's rein, but he does offer his angle of most of the major events and reasons for his being maligned towards the end of his term. His loyalty to Reagan is un-questioned and this story is somewhat biased towards those policies, but it's definetly worth reading (you may have some trouble finding it as it's out of print). Highly recommended.



2. This book was basically the "Reagan's Defense Departments Greatest Hits". The author was the Secretary of Defense for 7 of the 8 Reagan years and this is his recollection of his time in the office. Let me start by explaining what this book is not. It is not a detailed account of the politics the author was involved in with the military build-up and expanding budgets, a blow by blow account of the military actions during the Reagan years, nor a kiss and tell scandal book. The are more then enough detailed books out there about each of these subjects, and to be fair, there would be no way you could detail all these items in one book.

   What we do get is a nice overview of the military actions during the author's term as the Secretary of Defense, a good overview of some of the political issues and a recap of Iran - Contra from his point of view. The reviews of the military actions are at a high level and are very good at providing the reader with why the action was taken, the outcomes of the action, and the other factors that needed to be kept in mind politically. We get a good review of the Grenada invasion, the Lebanon peace keeping, the Libyan attacks and the Kuwait shipping protection from Iran. We also get his views on the nuclear arms deployment in Europe, the KAL 007 shoot down, SDI and Iran - Contra. The author even found time to pick on the Reagan administration's favorite whipping boy - Al Haig.

   Overall the author does a good job. He provides a very readable and interesting book that is written with some warmth. He stays away from any criticism of his performance or the Reagan administration as a whole, but you expect that from a memoir. This book is a nice addition to your collection for anyone that is interested in the 80's or the Reagan administration. There are even a number of interesting facts and details about the Middle East that are still relevant today. You will enjoy each page of this book.




3. This book should be of great interest to future historians since it tells the story of the Reagan Administration from the unique perspective of Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger. The book, however, never managed to catch my fancy.
   
   It failed in this regard for two (perhaps personal) reasons. First, being particularly interested in Ronald Reagan, I was disappointed by the fact that so little attention was paid to interactions between Weinberger and the President. For example, scant mention was made of discussions, pro or con, with the president and his advisors. On the contrary, the impression was given that simply with Reagan's blessing, Weinberger, as Secretary of Defense, was more or less free to operate on his own recognizance. (This of course lends credence to the belief of many of Reagan's critics that he was not a hands-on manager, as was his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. In the case of Weinberger, at least, Reagan apparently set the course for the ship of state and relied upon his appointee to steer the ship to his intended goal.)
   
   Secondly; perhaps it was necessary, as the author states, that each of the major events of Reagan's presidency be compartmentalized in a separate chapter and discussed in isolation, but by doing so the chapters tend to read more like top level executive summaries than as part of a broader on-going saga. Worst of all, for me at least, it wasn't clear that relatively small and discrete events, such as the invasion of Grenada, deserved as much attention as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), Reagan's efforts to stem the tide of Communism and bring down the Soviet Union, or even Iran-Contra.
   
   All that said, however, this book is still quite interesting for a variety of reasons. The introduction, for example, presents Weinberger's view of Ronald Reagan and relates some revealing stories about him which are well worth reading. And, since the book relates Weinberger's experience while Secretary of State, it yields much valuable insight into how he was, and as anyone in that position is, forced to deal with the president, other cabinet members, congress, the senate, the media, and various other Governmental entities and foreign powers. In addition, and of particular interest, the book clearly indicates that although Caspar Weinberger was in agreement with President Reagan on almost every important issue, he didn't agree with selling arms to Iran and did everything in his power to prevent it. But to his sorrow Weinberger finally came to believe that the President had been duped into at least tacitly agreeing to the exchange, i.e., by not saying no.

1 comments about Notes from the Underground: The Whittaker Chambers/Ralph de Toledano Letters, 1949-1960.

1. Read this for graduate American history course. There are a few rare instances in American history when a court case grips the passions of its citizens and serves to define people's political or social beliefs based on which side they believed was in the right. The Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920's, the Rosenberg espionage trials of the 1950's, and the O. J. Simpson case of the 1990's were to some extent examples of this phenomena. However, the Hiss perjury trials of 1949-50 were the epitome of this phenomenon, and helped to create a divide between liberals and conservatives in American politics that is still evident to this day. During the Cold War era, one could easily identify the political persuasion of a person simply by asking them whether Hiss or Chambers had told the truth. Simply put, the innocence of Alger Hiss was embraced by liberals. If Hiss, a well respected New Deal advocate and important Roosevelt administration member, had actually been an American Communist spying for the Soviets since the 1930's, then a whole mass of conservative accusations would gain legitimacy, and all of FDR's New Deal programs and his foreign policy decisions at the Yalta Conference would become suspect. In addition, Hiss' guilt would call into question security breaches in the Truman administration, which was already being besieged by questions of "Who lost China." It is against this historical backdrop, that "Notes From the Underground: The Whittaker Chambers/Ralph de Toledano Letters, 1949-1960 "; whose purpose is to show the intellectual motivations of one of America's most contentious figures in the last half of the twentieth-century, Whittaker Chambers.
   
   A new world was opened to Chambers at Columbia with which he became enamored. He took English composition with Mark Van Doren, who later in life became a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Van Doren quickly saw in Chambers a very talented writer and later remarked that he was the best writer among his undergraduate students in the 1920's. Chambers especially enjoyed the friendship of fellow students, mostly Jewish, whom he found brilliant such as Lionel Trilling, Meyer Schapiro, and Mortimer J. Adler to name a few. "It was the ernste Menschen" (serious men) "who shaped Chamber's idea, never altered, of the intellectual life." However, academic bliss was not to be for Chambers. He ran afoul of the school administration for a play that he wrote which was deemed profane, and thus became despondent and quit going to class--eventually dropping out and never finishing his university education. He tried to travel to the Soviet Union to help build a new nation on the advice of Van Doren, but he only made it to Germany before returning home. He took a job at the New York Public Library which fed his autodidactic nature, and he started to consort with many women. It is at this stage in Chambers' life in 1925, that he joined the 16,000 member Communist Party of the United States, (CPUSA). "So much the better. He was used to being outnumbered. He had at last found his church."
   
   Tanenhaus paints a portrait of a man who dove into his new life as a Communist with a religious fervor. Chambers became a much-respected writer for several party newspapers, which brought him to the attention of party apparatchiks in 1932. Chambers also met Esther Shemitz a Socialist, and they married in 1931. It was after his marriage that he accepted an assignment to go underground and actively spy for the Party. He was made the courier of the "Ware cell" in Washington D.C., whose mission was to pass sensitive information from Communist party members who had infiltrated various departments of the U. S. government to Boris Bykov, a Soviet intelligence agent. One of the best-placed spies in the "Ware cell" who provided information to Chambers, then using the alias George Crosley, was Alger Hiss. However, Chambers became so disillusioned by Stalin's purges and his nonaggression pact with Hitler, that in 1938, he quit the party. Fearing for his life and his family's safety, Chambers turned informer and confessed all of his activities to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle, Jr., who forwarded his notes of the meeting to the FBI, which did not follow up on the case until several years later. In addition, an old friend recommended Chambers for a job at Time magazine, which he was elated to have since he was broke. Tanenhaus once again shows that Chambers' literary acumen and zeal for any new project he took on, propelled him to become one of Time's top editors in the 1940's. The magazine's owner Henry Luce said, "Chambers was the best writer Time ever employed." While a writer and editor at Time, Chambers became a most vociferous anti-Communist.
   
   Although Chambers was vindicated by Hiss's conviction, he entered into a self-imposed exile on his farm in Maryland. Chambers understood how much the liberals hated him. He wrote, "If Hiss is guilty, not the New Deal, but the whole Age of Reason is guilty." However, for the rest of his life Chambers was visited by a small coterie of friends with whom he enjoyed lengthy discussions about world affairs. It is the letters between Chambers and Ralph de Toledano from 1949-1960 that gives insight between the thinking of these two ant-Communists and how they observe current events of their time that makes the book a most interesting read. "Still convinced he had left the winning side for the losing one, Chambers foretold a global Communist victory. Gloomy as his predictions sounded, he was not devoid of hope." He believed that the primary way the West could defeat Communism was with morality and religion and not militarily. Needing to earn money, Chambers went back to what he did best. He wrote his autobiography Witness, which occupied the top of the New York Times best seller list for several months in 1952, and gave him the financial security he desired. More importantly, Witness was an anti-Communist manifesto that for Chambers described, "a struggle between the force of two irreconcilable faiths--Communism and Christianity." Chambers wrote, "history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that became indifferent to God, and died." Witness was a powerful exposé of Communist activity in America and changed the life of one future president, Ronald Reagan. Reagan remarked that Witness was his favorite book and pointed to, "Witness as the book that would shape his political outlook." In 1984, President Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The other person of note that Witness made a huge impression on was William F. Buckley, Jr., who befriended Chambers and offered him the position of senior editor of his fledgling conservative magazine National Review. Both men maintained a very friendly relationship up to Chamber's death in 1961. Though Chambers would write articles for the National Review, he turned Buckley's offer down due to his poor health and his growing reluctance of the tactics that the political right was using--especially those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Near the end of his life, Chambers became friendly with another former Communist and imminent writer, Arthur Koestler. Koestler wrote of Chambers upon receiving news of his death: "I always felt that Whittaker was the most misunderstood person of our time. When he testified he knowingly committed moral suicide to atone for the guilt of our generation. The witness is gone, the testimony will stand."
   
   As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

No comments about Ten Episodes in China's Diplomacy.

No comments about American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the United States Diplomatic Tradition.

3 comments about Adam By Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr..

1. Mr. Powell another of our past heros, not be forgotten. Read about the horrible treatment he received from the US congressmen in his day and his fight for his people.



2. Mr. Powell another of our past heros, not be forgotten. Read about the horrible treatment he received from the US congressmen in his day and his fight for his people.



3. Adam Clayton Powell Jr's autobiography is an extremely interesting read. However, for its true historical significance, it should be read in connection with one of the two biography's that came about about Powell in the early 1990's - KING OF THE CATS by Wil Haygood and/or the Political Biography by Charles V. Hamilton.
   
   Powell's life story is amazing. Unfortunately, his contributions to the cause of civil rights has been loss in the media coverage that he brought upon himself, particularly his explusion from Congress. There are those who are quick to say that Powell's problems were a result of racial discrimination. Sure, there was some of that, but Powell brought a great deal upon himself. His flamboyant life style, his absences from congress, his lavish spending at tax papers expense all did serious damage to his image. Probably the most damaging was his refusal to deal with a law suit brought by one of his constituants who he referred to as a "bag lady" while appearing on a TV talk show. The TV station settled with the woman for $1700 and it went away. However, Powell stonewalled the case for years until he was ultimately charged with criminal contempt of court. The case had gone through dozens of court hearings, several trials and numerous judges. There were even offers from supporters to pay the woman and get rid of the case. But Powell refused. It got so bad that he could only go to his district on sunday. Otherwise, he would have been arrested. He admits that his handling of the case was a major mistake.
   
   In an era when JFK's romantic engagments were kept secret and before the Gary Hart affairs, Powell was able to get away with a life style that was literally filled with wine, women and song. Even his position as a Baptist minister did not limit his life style, his affairs or his three marriages. He was a creature of the time in which he lived.
   
   ADAM BY ADAM was written near the end of Powell's life. In reading Haygood's account of his final days, you see a man trying to hold on to the past. He is alone and sick and abandoned by his former friends. As a result, Powell's accounts of his many friends and relationships rang very hollow to me. His finances were shot, he had no place to go. He was very much alone.
   
   Powell made significant contributions to American life and should not be forgotten. However, in reviewing his life, one wonders if following the old advise - you got to know when to fold and know when to hold - may have been wise. When Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders meet with LBJ, Powell was excluded. He had become damaged goods. At the March on Washington in 1963 he was not allowed to speak. For a man with his ego, it must have been terrible.
   
   However, politicans create their own image. Powell was a loner who never listened to anyone. He had no close advisors. In many respects his life had a sad ending. But still his contribution to African American history should not be forgotten