5 comments about Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics.

1. I am a self confessed Democrat and even I loved this book. The author is as about as right leaning as they come, but that did nothing to diminish the enjoyment any political junkie would get from the book regardless of what side of the spectrum you are on. The author has been involved in Republican politics sense the Nixon administration and in this book he givens a well written, interesting and humorous account of what he has been a part of. I would not call this book a kiss and tell, but he does give you the facts in a straight up manner, regardless if it makes his clients or himself look bad.

   I found the time he spent on the Reagan and Perot campaigns the most interesting. The Reagan campaign because he really lays out the best way to run a campaign. This section of the book could almost be used as a how to tutorial on how to win a race. I found the Perot campaign info interesting for the exact opposite of the Reagan section. This guy was a flake and the author captures every odd, weird and down right stupid thing that happened. The author also talks about his relationship with the first President Bush and lets just say it is very eye opening. Everything he says about the father can be seen in the son today. His main point is that the Bush family feels loyalty is the most important trait a person can have and if you cross that line you will be paying for it for years.

   I enjoyed the fact that the author did not spend exorbitant amounts of time on his pre political history or his family situation, just enough to set the stage. I may be unique in this regard so if you are looking for an in depth view into his family this is not the book for you. Overall I really liked the book. It read fast and it is so interesting I just did not want to put it down. I read a lot of political books and this ranks up there as at least one of the more entertaining. If you are interested in the campaign process or the Reagan and Bush years then I would recommend this book regardless of your party affiliation.




2. Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms is political consultant Ed Rollins' journey as a political strategist in American politics. First of all you have to read this book just to receive the insight on Ross Perot and his insanity. I read this book awhile ago when I was in High School and laughed for hours about Perot. Also I love just hearing about the day to day operations of a political campaigns. If you are interested in politics or political campaigns this book is a must read and has to be in your library.
   
   Rollins covers working with President Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, Christie Todd Whitman, Michael Huffington (another great wild chapter) and George Nethercutt. Read this book if you want to hear a great story about Frank Sinatra from the Reagan campaign. It is a great window into the workings and thought of the Reagan administration as well. Another great political consultant read was "Bad Boy" about the late Lee Atwater, this one might even be better. If you are a Democrat or Republican this will be a great laugh and amazing insight. You will not be able to put this book down, and once you finish you will go through serious withdrawls which may include chills, shakes, or foaming at the mouth.



3. I would love to hear Ed Rollins opinions concerning the present President Bush. His book descibes the problems with the first Prsident Bush adminastration (such as putting a higher price on staff and administrators with blind loyalty to those who knew what they were doing)
   Rollins book was very funny and a nice peek at the inside of political campaigns. He was very honest in the way he dealt his stories of former Presidents Nixon and Reagan. he did not try to gloss over the failings of either presidency or try to sugar coat anything. He explained his admiration of both Reagan and Nixon, and making a reasonable explaination for liking Richard Nixon can't be easy in a time when even the Republican party tries to forget him. But Ed Rollins does so in a manner which make sit possible to see that there was another side to the man.



4. Being a political operative seems like a glamorous profession. While there certainly are perks -- there are an equal number of disadvantages to this career choice. Rollins' depiction of what it's like to be a campaign manager is the truest I've read. It's not always a glamorous lifestyle. Even the best campaigns are full of fast food, headaches and heartaches (now there's a title)! Rollins does a great job of telling "the real" story of being a campaign manager...the good, the bad, and the ugly...



5. In Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics, Ed Rollins details his careers as a Political Operative learning the trade from California Democratic Speaker Jess Unruh, his philosophical transformation into a conservative Republican, alignment with the Reagan revolution and his time as a Senior White House Staffer and heavyweight Political Consultant.
   
   Rollins delivers this in a entertaining and salty style that seems appropriate given the blue collar background he repeatedly mentions in the book.
   
   Any political junkie will find this a great book, although many of the "saints" of Washington DC are not always shown in the most favorable light.
   
   Rollins gives his take on his time as Political Director of the Reagan White House, and Campaign Manager of Reagan's re-election campaign in 1984. He tells of his break with George Bush (41), when Rollins led the efforts of Presidential Candidate Jack Kemp, who according to Rollins was a more fitting heir to Reagan's crown.
   
   The chaos of the Perot 1992 campaign, controversy of the New Jersey Governor's race in 1993 and Rollins' self-described "redemption" with George Nethercutt's upset of Speaker Tom Foley in 1994, as well as other campaigns give the reader a great insight as to the experiences one may have working as a high level political operative.
   
   Rollins, often a controversial figure, does not pull punches. He gives his open opinions of many well known and respected figures in national politics.
   
   This book is definitely a keeper.

2 comments about Miles Gone By.

1. MILES GONE BY is a compilation of William F. Buckley essays, columns and anecdotes which tell the story of his life. His writings are so prolific that the better parts of his life had already been chronicled, by himself no less, prior to his death.
   
   I began reading National Review in 1978 as a young liberal college student. Buckley was my cure for liberalism along with the practical demise of liberal theology under Carter. He was also a mentor and hero as the Reagan Era rushed in and changed the world. I dug deep into Buckley's lore reading the Blackford Oakes novels, his journal at the United Nations, and his sailboat chronicles (AirBorne and Racing Through Paradise).
   
   WFB was a classic conservative voice at a time when conservatism had few national voices. Goldwater, Reagan, Milton Friedman, Gingrich and others would emerge as leaders but Buckley was always the apologist for the right. His bully pulpits were the National Review and Firing Line television program. At times I wondered if he befriended people like John Kenneth Galbraith to keep them busy while conservatives were busily furthering their agenda.
   
   Besides being the voice and conscience of the conservative movement in America, Buckley will be remembered for his civility. He was a gifted host and debater who confronted and entreated opponents with grace, tact, and utmost civility. He raised the national debate to a higher level of discourse. It would be difficult ot find another personality who so delighted in the excellence of communication. He positively thrilled to witty, bright, clever conversationalists like Galbreath, Muggeridge, and other intellectuals of the day.
   
   America is poorer for his passing.



2. This is just a wonderful parting gift from WFB. He reads essays (unabridged) from his literary autobiography , using decades of writings to illustrate the course of his own life.
   
   You simply cannot get his unique voice and cadence out of your head after listening to this. And not surprisingly, you find he speaks it with a bit different emphasis than you would think upon reading it - added value.
   
   The best thing I can say, is that listening to these discs gives you the palpable feeling that Bill and you are sitting in Stamford on the Long Island Sound as he tells you all about his life.
   
   An absolute treasure for those who loved him.
   
   Ave Atque Vale

5 comments about Is Our Children Learning? : The Case Against George W. Bush.

1. Begala's tone is often disparaging and nasty, but it doesn't seem all that bad when you consider who's occupying the White House.
   I gave it four stars because I want to see Bush make for Texas as much as Begala does.



2. I just bought this book because I thought it would have some funny Texas Bushisms. However, this book was written by Paul Begala (cohost of CNNs Crossfire) about why Bush should not be elected as President in 2000. This insightful book gives details on how Texas's surplus was pandered, a 125 year ban on concealed weapons was overturned (people are even allowed to bring weapons into churches!!) and public school funding was cut, tax cuts to the rich were given and many other things happened where the people of Texas suffered and rich people get very happy. Begala predicted all these same catastrophic events would happen if Bush was elected President. Now it takes guts to have all these assumptions of Bush before he became President in 2000 and Begala did. But what is even more devastating is that every single thing that Begala thought would happen - did!
   
   I wish this was just a horror novel, but unfortunately, it is all non-fiction.



3. Well, here we are in 2005
   Freedom of speech is barely alive.
   Making his mark
   While most the world shudders
   We sit here silenced for fear of what's uttered.
   
   We tried to vote and save the day,
   But that is not the Diebold way.



4. I HAVE read the book and it is great. Don't review(8/9/04) a book you haven't read.



5. For all of you that voted for him because you were AFRAID OF CHANGE, you get what you deserve. Please by all means read about your emperor. No self respecting rocket scientist would would be caught dead at the same party. So when all you good voters see your social security checks, your lack of health insurance and a cobwebbed covered vehicle in your driveway that you cannot afford to drive, I think you know you is responsible. Like my mom said, "Just because you have money and priviledge does not mean you have brains and couth." Bravo, Mr. Begala.

5 comments about Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine.

1. Listen to an exclusive interview with Candice E. Jackson Live by She Unlimited Magazine http://www.sheunlimited.com
   
   Candice E. Jackson Sets forth our mission and vison. This interview will shed some light on the books mission and points that author this book.
   
   It was an honor!!!



2. While purportedly written about a group of women who allege atrocious treatment by Bill Clinton, this screed by a fringe journalist from a fringe publisher instead focuses on an indictment of liberalism.
   
   The "facts" for the accusations of felonies against the 42nd president stem from the chiefly uncorroborated accounts of the several women. How could anyone so brutally raped with a mangled lip from a bite as Juanita Brodderick claims not have taken photographs and had a physician collect semen samples? Certainly the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Office in a Republican administration would have listened to her and pursued a criminal investigation if state authorities would not have.
   
   These women could have secured legal representation, even if funded by arch conservatives as was Paul Jones' counsel, to pursue civil damages.
   
   The author's extreme right-wing credentials are clearly demonstrated by her education and experience. If these terrible allegations were true, they would be more powerfully presented by a mainstream journalist.
   
   What's lower than an Amazon rating of one star? One can't give it here.



3. Candice E. Jackson is a lawyer who worked for Judicial Watch, an organization whose founding principles appear to include drowning the the court system with a blizzard of lawsuits against the Clintons.



4. Oh, Liberals don't lie? Only Republicans lie? Put your hippie pot smoking BS out the window. Liberals lie too. LBJ lied to the American people about Vietnam and he was a dumocrat, ooops democrat, I keep getting those two mixed up.



5. Excellant read - verifies much of what many with half a skull already knew or suspected - all the more reason to "Let Lying Dogs Sleep!!!"

2 comments about John Tyler : A President of Many Firsts.

1. This expensive booklet of less than 70 pages (including many illustrations) is intended as a souvenir of Tyler's restored plantation house. (Incredibly, although Tyler was born in 1790, the restorer is a grandson, still alive at the time of publication in 2001.) The pamphlet, based completely on secondary sources, is deliberately uncritical and minimizes the more unsavory features of Tyler's presidency. The three-page sketch in American National Biography provides a far more accurate understanding of the tenth president and his administration.



2. I was hoping for more family history with this book. I've been looking for years for Pres. Tyler's parents, his father's siblings and forward ancestry, in hopes to open a snag I have in my mom's Tyler line, as her ggrandfather was a first cousin to Pres. Tyler, as my grandfather and siblings often stated. Maybe this John and mom's ggranfathers were brothers or their fathers were connected. I just need a better lineage.
   Thanks,
   Bonnie

5 comments about The Death of Ben Linder; The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua.

1. If you are one of the many people who risked their lives when they traveled to Central America during the 1980's this book is for you! If you missed that experience but want to know what would motivate someone to risk their lives for peace and social justice by going to Nicaragua and participating in the revolution then, this book is for you!

   During the 1980's U.S. foreign policy in Central America was driven by an obsessive effort to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas had overthrown a dictator and were developing a society that put people before profits. They set up free health care, carried out a massive literacy campaign, and gave land to small farmers.

   This threat of "a good example" was countered by the U.S. which created a mercenary army (the Contras) who set out to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Tactics included killing teachers, destroying health clinics, and forcing the Sandinistas to spend more and more of their resources on the military.

   Ben Linder was an engineer from Portland who put his life on the line to support the people of Nicaragua. Ben was also a clown and often put on his red nose and clown make-up to juggle and unicycle in poor neighborhoods, where children had never seen a clown. He worked in a small rural village in Northern Nicaragua, maybe 30 miles from my communities sister city of Telpaneca, near the Honduran border. Like the Fresnan's who built a school in Telpaneca during the Contra War, Ben was working on a hydroelectric project trying in a positive way to support the revolution. THE DEATH OF BEN LINDER, THE STORY OF A NORTH AMERICAN IN SANDINISTA NICARAGUA is an insightful book that reminds us why people are willing to put their lives on the line for a cause they believe in. It shows the tragic results of U.S. foreign policy that seeks to make the world safe for corporations seeking to maximize profits.




2. The book is, predictably, awash in Left Wing garbage. I would not waste my time with it if I were you. Linder simply made the choice to align himself with the wrong people, namely, Red Danny Ortega's Communist punks. Ortega was in bed with the USSR, and why anyone would support Ortega's regime is beyond comprehension. President Reagan came along just in the nick of time. Too bad Linder got in the way, but sometimes we make bad choices that are very costly.



3. Anyone who wishes to understand the current administration's policies needs to read this book. At the time of Linder's assassination, the first George Bush declared his death okay because he was "on the other side". Pat Robertson blessed and funded his killers. The US State Dept. interviewed and released them. Their US controller in Honduras, Negroponte, remains big in the Bush administration and just got the CIA head, Goss, replaced after a personal conflict.
   
   I was in Nicaragua at the time with WItness for Peace working as a photo lab technician and translator. I received the first photographs of Ben's body and tried to recover something from the very poor focussing. I also served as translator as a US journalist from a major New York newspaper did an in depth article on Linder. I am very grateful for this book. We must never forget those times, nor Ben, a courageous, unarmed wtieness for peace and justice and progress. Never forget. Learn the truth. ACT.



4. This book contains page after page of detailed accounts of attacks by the U.S.-bought-and-paid-for FDN-Contras, which can ONLY be described as terrorism: military assaults on agricultural co-ops (with loss of men, women & children and burning of health centers and private homes); assassinations and kidnapping of health workers and teachers (mostly women), as they walk from village to village in the Segovia Mountains; public-transport buses hitting land mines; and dynamiting of food caches and fuel caches. I would like to hear a Reagan fan dispute the veracity of these accounts!
   
   So the U.S. is currently locked into its own "War On Terrorism", while the new "Sec. Def." of the U.S., Robert Gates, played a major role in sponsorship of terrorism, as he was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra affair.
   
   Ben Linder and his great internacionalist cohorts, especially Don Macleay (a genius) and Mira Brown, are real heroes.
   
   And how many times in the U.S. press do you read that Ortega "has renounced his Marxist-Leninst" past? Well, the Sandinistas always advocated a mixed economy and did indeed hold a fair election in 1984. Which is why such an individual as Reagan ever gained popoularity- because of the lies that are spread about.
   
   So, I highly recommend this book as a great source for knowing what it was like to be on the ground in the Segovia Mtns. during Reagan's War.



5. This book doesn't try very hard to hide its leftist agenda, but even if that's what you're looking for, this book is poorly written and an uninteresting read. I got the feeling that a family member or an ex-girlfriend commissioned it. This book sells itself as a persona-based history of that period in Nicaragua. It's weak on facts and gave me the feeling that Linder was too. Maybe it was poorly researched or maybe he really was just clowning around. Depressing on all fronts. Don't bother.

No comments about Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon, 1715-1723: Fatal Weakness.

3 comments about Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President.

1. This book has been described as an unbiased look at Hugo Chavez but in my opinion it doesn't quite live up to that description. The Authors' Note touches upon the difficulty of such an endeavor, quoting Georg Lichtenberg from the 18th century: "Even impartiality is partial." My impression is that the authors recognized a need for change in Venezuela in the 1990s -- and may even have had sympathy for such change -- but they don't believe Hugo Chavez is the proper man to lead the nation forward.
   
   The authors' overriding point seems to be that Chavez is power mad, driven by an unquenchable desire for ever more power. An example: "He was the man of the hour and he enjoyed it, though he never lost sight of his real goal: power and everything that went with it." But it would be the rare political leader for whom this claim could not be made, especially one seeking such a major shakeup as Chavez. And while there is little doubt that Chavez enjoys being in the spotlight, it's also true that his antics bring worldwide attention to issues he feels need to be addressed. At another point in the book, the authors relate an unflattering personal incident then add, "All of this, however, remains in the murky terrain of speculation," as if the incident was too juicy to leave out, even though it was perhaps unfounded.
   
   Having said that, the bias I perceived did not much interfere with the book. For one thing, not all of Chavez's life story is admirable, such as the years spent plotting the failed 1992 coup while serving in the the military. As you are perhaps aware, in an odd turn of fate, this failed coup -- or more accurately, the televised "for now" speech given after his surrender -- turned Chavez into a folk hero and served as the springboard to his future political success.
   
   It is important to note that the book is much more a personal biography of Chavez than it is an analysis of his policy initiatives. Some of the most interesting information is from his childhood. One incident regarding his first day of school stands out: He and his grandmother were turned away from the schoolhouse because the boy's shoes were too shabby. Such an event leaves a lasting impression and helps explain Chavez's bonds to the nation's poor. As he grew older, Chavez became a voracious reader and read many books from the political left, these books being readily available at the home of two of his friends.
   
   While roughly the first half of the book is chronological, the chapters in the second half are topic oriented, such as the one devoted to Chavez's relationships with women. The departure from chronology is not much of a problem, but it did distract me earlier in the book when his second wife, Marisabel, was mentioned in passing, then mentioned again as an ex-wife -- all before she'd been introduced to the reader. I was suprised so little was written about the actual campaign leading up to the 1998 presidential election. We read that Chavez is polling at only 7% and then, before you know it, he is being sworn into office, his support having somehow risen to 56%. The 2002 coup attempt was of course covered, and here I felt the authors were quite successful in describing it with impartiality.
   
   This book was originally written in Spanish by the two Venezuelan journalists in 2004, updated in December 2006, and translated into English in 2007. It is packed with interesting quotes about Chavez from friends, foes, and family, and the authors took great pains to point out the quotees' biases toward Chavez, often using descriptive phrases such as "friend of Chavez" or "opponent of the Chavez government." The authors also did a nice job selecting the 30+ photos included in the book.
   
   All in all, the authors did a good job of covering Chavez, and I liked the fact that they were Venezuelan and lived through the times and events described in the book.



2. I bought this book for information for a twenty page college paper on Hugo Chavez, largely on the reccomendation of The Economist. This book was extremely helpful in providing me with an insight into Chavez's personality and potential motives. What I found most interesting was that it demolished the notion of an oil-intoxicated buffoon and replaced it with a shrewd, calculating leader who has mastered the art of theatrics for his own purposes. The authors make a strong case for regarding none of the contreversial president's actions as accidental or the rantings of a madman without sounding like conspiracy types. That being said, they also show a man with a highly unstable personality: volitile, manic,insecure, and in desperate need of affection. Chavez, by their telling, seems to be the product of a brilliant madness, one that produces a control freak who very well knows how to gain the control he needs. The book does not make this argument as carelessly as some; it draws extensively from interviews with those who knew him from childhood, or met him in the army, or through politics. The effect is that the anecdotes vividly potray the transformation from the poor llanero to the conteversial president bashing the rich while dressed in fine Italian suits. As has been stated by a previous reviewer, the book is not a political analysis, but understanding Chavez is crucial to understanding his politics. There is, for him, little seperation between personality and politics. I highly reccomend this book to anyone seeking an in-depth potrayel of the Venezuelan president.



3. this was an interesting biography. the first half of the book does get too involved with names, places, and dates; making it seem like technical reading. however, it does give the impression of an honest attempt to not only portray the man, but to also ponder the question of which way he's taking the country. the authors of the book seem somewhat comfortable with the view that what he says is popularist propaganda in an artistic sense. what hugo does - lives exhorbantly, travels in a giant airbus plane, nepotism for his entire family - leads to the conclusion that the attractions of power and wealth have truly taken over. his friend may be fidel castro, but unlike fidel, he likes money - a whole lot!

5 comments about A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950.

1. Schlesinger writes a book of personal recollections that reads much like a grandfather relating his rich and rewarding life onto his next generation. It is not a hard facts history book, and it will not be remembered as such (regardless of Dr. Kissenger's overly optimistic review on the dust jacket).
   
   There are high points and low points to this book. His experiences at Harvard, worn torn Europe, and the ideological battles between communists and liberals over control of the American left were fascinating. However, we are also privy to every movie, play, book, and cocktail dinner that schlesinger ever attended. It's interesting to gain this perspective, but it gets tedious. This book could have used substantial editing.
   
   I'm a Schlesinger fan, but I skimmed through many pages. Despite these shortcoming, Schlesinger still imparts his genious.



2. As a Schesinger fan, I found this book a delightful insight into the life of the best living historian. The book was very well written, and as a current college student, I found his account of his college years particularly interesting.

   I would especially recommend this book to anyone interested in either twentieth century history or twentienth century American culture.




3. For aging baby bombers like myself, Arthur M. Schiesinger's A LIFE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is a trip down memory lane. When I got the recorded version out of the library and realized it was 20 tapes, I figured that I would never finish it, barring a drive across country. However, the melodious voice of Nelson Runger, with whom I have traveled many miles with other recorded books, makes Schiesinger's story not only interesting but memorable.
   
   The book relates much of Schiesinger's life and the hundreds of people that he had close contact with. Many of the people that he mentions are familiar. His war time experiences brought back memories of stories from my parents. There are hundreds of bits of Americana along with Scheisinger's insights into many famous incidents of the 20th century.
   
   There are early glimpses of people who went on to be major figures in American politics and history.
   
   I certainly don't know that I could have read all 680 plus pages of this work, but the 20 tapes passed very quickly and I really enjoyed it.



4. Arthur Schlesinger is one of the pre-eminent American historians of the 20th century. He is a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, for The Age of Jackson (1946) and A Thousand Days (1966), Schlesinger's account of the Kennedy administration for whom he was a special assistant.
   
   The man has seen and experienced a lot which is why this memoir is so interesting and in many ways enlightening. Born in 1917, he claims his motivation for writing this memoir is that he should do it while he "can still remember anything."
   
   The reader need have no fear that Schlesinger is losing anything. The level of recall and sometimes even minutia in the book is astonishing. Much of his source is journals and diaries that he seems to have kept religiously.
   
   A Life in the 20th Century is a very enjoyable read partly because of excellent content but also due to some wonderfully descriptive prose. Schlesinger's ability to paint pictures of characters is a lesson in communication. Friends of his father - also a historian - were "brilliant and effervescent," "dour and trenchant," "jovially caustic."
   
   Schlesinger's memoir also shows how much western society (U.S. particularly) matured during the century in question. The level of Puritanism, distrust, isolationism and racism which permeated the first half of the century has to a great extent dissipated.
   Schlesinger write, "As late as 1939, the Gallup poll reported that a third of respondents thought it indecent for men to appear topless" on the beach. The level of Anglophobia during the thirties is difficult to comprehend today, given as in Margaret Thatcher's famous phrase "the special relationship" between the United States and England. However, there was a virulent anti-British mood, motivated mainly by a belief that the U.S. had been hoodwinked into the First World War. Schlesinger suggests that the level of debate between the isolationists and those who wished to take on Hitler was more vicious and aggressive than even the national debate over Vietnam.
   
   As an Irish person, it is illustrative to read that the great black scholar and activist, W.E.B Du Bois wrote in his memoir, quoted by Schlesinger, that "the racial angle was more clearly defined against the Irish than against me."
   
   The chapter on `The Thirties' is particularly evocative. Hitler's shadow looms ominously through the decade. "We danced the night through, my English friends not knowing when they would dance again, the purple shadows fell, and Hitler's clock ticked steadily on."
   
   Just how close the world came to domination by totalitarian regimes - fascist or communist - can be gauged by the fact that by the end of 1940, there were only a dozen democracies in the world.
   
   The liberal Schlesinger is an avowed anti-communist who paints a very vibrant picture of the anti-communist fervor that ran through America after the war. While writing very critically about communist intrigue, he does give a number of American communists credit for believing - however wrongly, that the best future for mankind was in communism. Schlesinger never hides his anti-communism. Sometimes this interferes with his objectivity about individuals e.g. he describes former Communist Party USA chief Earl Browder in the following terms, "The benign exterior was marred by a pair of shifty eyes.... Each word carefully planned and followed by a crafty smile. His face had an overcrowded look - not enough room between forehead and chin for eyes and nose." Not what I would call objective!
   
   The author's personality does not come through in the memoir. He does make a number of references to being, or being seen as a rather pompous individual, given to outbursts of anger. There are also very few humorous examples or references in what is generally a very good read. Indeed the only sections where I lost interest were when he referenced the innumerable social occasions, local personalities and the very many `dear friends' he got to meet.
   
   All in all, well worth reading if you want to get a good overview of US and world politics during a very traumatic time. It has definitely given me the motivation to read other works from a fine historian and wonderful writer. Not sure if that is how Arthur M. Schlesinger wants to be remembered though.



5. Art Schlesinger (1917-2007) is a name well-known to any student of politics.
   
   Most notably a name associated with the Kennedys, Schlesinger documents the activities of the U.S. government for a specific window of history. He also gives us a rare peek into the personal lives of the movers and shakers of the period, ending around 1950, and especially of era Democrats.
   
   Schlesinger was a great fan of Felix Frankfurter, an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and researchers should consider this book as an excellent source of information on that significant jurist.
   
   This 2000 work is a fine read and Schlesinger was a great apologist for the root thinking behind the Democrat platform to this very day. I wish his book would have continued on chronologically but for the slot of time discussed, this volume is a rare political treasure. Recommended.

2 comments about Durruti in the Spanish Revolution.

1. This book, EXTENSIVELY researched with meticulous detail, reads like a novel. It is exiting, dramatic, thought provoking, and at times, tear jerking. The author does an amazing job of helping the reader understand not only Durruti's devotion to the anarchist cause within Spain and abroad, but places this man's dangerous life in the context of Spain's history. The great deal of research done is this title should not go wasted: read it, it's worth your time and you will be glad that you did!



2. Abel Paz's biography of Buenaventura Durruti is probably the best work ever written about the life of the famous Spanish anarcho-syndicalist militant. And I say this because I have read a few. One possible problem will be for people who already have a good understanding of Spanish culture, history and politics and especially the Spanish Civil War period already. I say this because Paz diverts from Durruti's life story often with lengthy digressions about the politics and history of Spain and Europe during this period, (1880-1938), and which some might find tedious or overly detailed, especially if they already are familiar with them. However, the newbie reader will find these facts and insights invaluable for understanding the context of Durruti's life, actions, and politics, if they are not.
   
   It is very clear that Paz greatly admires Durruti and so he puts everything he does in the very best possible light, and which is okay, since there doesn't seem to be that many "bad" (as in evil) things that Durruti did. And even when Durruti did make errors in judgment or mistakes, unlike many of his contemporaries in the anti-Fascist movement, that's all they amounted to; errors and mistakes. Durruti never initiated purges, massacres, torture, or resorted to terrorism, as some others on the Republican side did.
   
   Durruti was a true militant however, (and a hard-core one at that), who committed robberies to obtain funds, attempted to assassinate the Spanish monarch Alphonso XIII, and was arrested and imprisoned both in Spain and France for possession of arms and explosives. Durruti's time in prison never broke him either, no matter how badly his conditions of confinement were. The details Paz gives of Durruti's frequent jailings are quite revealing about Durruti's strength of character and his commitment to his cause.
   
   Paz covers the range of conspiracy theories of how Durruti met his end and he seems to feel that the two best explanations are that Durruti was hit by a stray bullet from his own side (i.e., "friendly fire") or more darkly, was deliberately assassinated by a Soviet intelligence operative. The details Paz provides about this are very interesting and there is easily enough plausible evidence for either conclusion. But Paz leaves it up to the reader to decide for themselves. Just as with the JFK assassination, it'll be discussed endlessly by those who wonder if Durruti's end was just his fate or a conspiracy to eliminate him.
   
   I recommend this book to those interested in the life of Buenaventura Durriti, the Spanish Civil War and or anarcho-syndicalism.