5 comments about Introducing Machiavelli, Third Edition (Introducing...).

1. I knew very little about Machiavelli before reading this amusing illustrated book. I had heard many 'negative' remarks about him, but just like Nietzsche, Machiavelli is not at all that simple. A fascinating character with much to say that is still quite relevant to our world today. I will definitely go on to read Machiavelli's books. The cartoon sequence featuring Mussolini and Gramsci in a dialog moderated by old Nick was great. Go out and get this book!



2. I picked this up from a sorting shelf this afternoon, and I am very very glad I did so. This book introduces you to Machiavelli's life and ideas, and then deftly compares his writings to contemporary and recent history. The "running commentary" by Machiavell is fascinating. It's opened my eyes to just how switched-on Machiavelli was, and how earnest and well-intentioned. I'm definitely going to be reading more about Machiavelli - indeed, this book was so good I'm considered changing out of science and into arts to pursue the topic more closely!



3. Less then half of the book is about the life or philosophy of this great thinker. More then half the book is leftist propaganda disguised as objective reasoning obviously intended to indoctrinate the novice - its intended audience. One example should suffice. Margaret Thatcher is made to say: "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." Machiavelli then responds: "Nothing I ever wrote was worse - this is a republican nightmare and a sure recipe for social and political disaster!" If you do not recoil from this exchange then you have already been indoctrinated. Quickly pick up John Locke or the Federalist Papers to recover. Then help the young readers of this book recover.



4. Many people will read the Prince, The Discourses, or the Art of War and not know what the hell Machiavelli was talking about. I picked this book up, and right away I figured the other books out. This is a required reading if you need to read the Prince, or the other books by Machiavelli.



5. Who was Niccolo Machiavelli? Why is his name synonymous with deceit, skullduggery, stiletto knives and J.R. Ewing?
   What did he really believe and how would his philosophy be applied throughout time -- even to our current crop of kakistocrats in office?
   This book uses illustration to put good ol' "St. Nic" (as I refer to him tongue-in-cheek) in modern situations, each time offereing some pithy comment on the situation. Quite intriguingly done.

4 comments about Raising Hell for Justice: The Washington Battles of a Heartland Progressive.

1. This is a great book that should be read by anyone interested in Wisconsin politics and history in the last half of the 20th Century and beyond. It also gives an inside view of 40 years of a life in Washington D.C. as a member of Congress. Dave Obey is a unique leader, one who is confident enough to speak his mind and stand for his principles even when the wind seems to be blowing in his face. I admire that year in and year out he has fought for so many changes that help the average working and farming families that he represents, in spite of the fact that it seems that the local press doesn't always mention those significant accomplishments. I especially enjoyed the stories about his Wisconsin legislative and political colleagues, such as Harvey Dueholm, Bob Huber, Linda Reivitz, Frank Nikolay as well as the stories of Obey's early career. The stories about his family are especially touching and show that his roots are with those in our society who aren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths. I am proud that Dave Obey has represented Wisconsin and the Nation with such vigor and tenacity. I highly recommend this book, it is a great way to learn why our country is in the mess that it is in and what we can do to share the American dream with everyone.



2. This was a fascinating look at the working of our government and eye opening appraisal of the political players on both sides of the aisle told by a man who has the backbone to stand up for what he believes and the smarts to know when he has to play the political game to get the results he wants. I was heartened that Dave Obey so often worked with people on both sides of the aisle to get results and would be battling those same people on other issues at other times. The issues and principles are what is important.
   
   Current movie goers would be interested to read Obey's mention of Charlie Wilson. "Another key player was Charlie Wilson, the most conservative Democrat on the committee. He was a frank, able, informed, fun-loving, tough Texan. Charlie was no romantic in anything except his relationship with women. He was a hardheaded pragmatist I often used in order to pull my most liberal members back to tactical reality. His credibility with conservatives in the Democratic caucus was absolutely crucial in convincing them that the bills we produced were tough-minded enough for them to support."
   
   Obey evaluates the seven Presidents he has worked with over his 40 years of service. He concluded that Gerald Ford had been best for the country. "About a year before he died, Ford paid us a visit on the House floor. When I told him that I was writing a book in which I would say that he was the best president I had worked with, he grinned, put his hand on my shoulder, and said 'Slim pickings, wasn't it Dave.'"
   
   David Obey continues the fight for Justice. Read the book and cheer him on as he wages the good fight against all odds.



3. Obey's autobiography is a great book about Wisconsin politics in the 60s and 70s, Congress, and American policies over the past thirty years. The early sections are the richest, as Obey takes real time to talk about the state of play in Wisconsin politics and the local issues. Not being a Wisconsin resident, I was surprised how interesting I found the initial sections. Unfortunately, Obey's focus shifts so fully to Congress later in the book we do not hear much about developments in Wisconsin politics, redistricting, or most of his Congressional races. Of course, Obey's focus may have shifted as well.
   
   The sections on Congress offer great insight into the progressive and reformist movement in the Congress. Obey's insight into most progressives not being operational seems dead on, but he certaintly offers a counter to that as someone who not just hopes for results, but gets things done. The book also offers a reminder of how many people in our government help mold policy decisions. Something that took place during the Nixon Administration for example had many people shaping it.
   
   The autobiography also captures Obey's personal tone. There are great Obey moments, like when he tells Jim Wright he voted for him to be his leader, not his conscience. Or told the Democratic Caucus giving him a standing ovation that he wanted their votes, not their applause. Some readers may see comments like these and hear about Obey discuss his accomplishments and think he is a bit of a blowhard, but anyone who pays attention in Congress knows how effective he is as a legislator with strongly progressive leanings.
   
   One downside to the book are the typos. ANWR becomes Anwar (as in Sadat) and Congressman Norm Dicks, a colleague of Obey's on the Appropriations Committee, is referred to as Dix multiple times. But typos aside, the book is a good read about how Congress works and how one member can be both progressive and pragmatic, leading to effective legislating.



4. For those who believe that a good guy who cares deeply about the issues can succeed in Congress, this is the book for you. Congressman Obey is now Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who never lost his drive to care for those who can't care for themselves tells how he managed to achieve his position without having to sacrifice his moral compass. He describes how he learned to get what he wanted by becoming a work horse and letting others take the credit for his achievements. Its a great primer for those thinking about going into politics.

3 comments about Prisoner of Love (New York Review Books Classics).

1. This book is absolutely essential to any understanding of the Palestinian situation. It is also the mostimportant work of Genet's entire career.



2. Genet allows you to feel the immediacy of the Palestinian situation with particles from lives,from ill-defined fragments of lives disrupted with no future,he stayed with a family in 1980 a half-day and a whole night where the young son,Hamza a fedayee went off at night to fight. Genet hearing gun fire in the distance inhabited his bed and was brought Turkish coffee and water in the night as a replacement for the young man,by his mother. Genet is a writer/poet,a political thinker,but never a man of politics, a deeply sensitive man,a virtuoso of the sensual image, as the starry-night reflected against the curtain in his room with the small blue table. "Of course it's understood that the words,nights,forests,septet,jubilation desertion and despair are the same words that I have to use to describe the goings on at dawn in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris when the drag queens depart after celebrating their mystery,doing their accounts and smoothing banknotes out of the dew."

   Genet was allowed with special permission to visit the massacre site at the camps at Sabra and Chantila,smelling the rotting flesh, "They happened I was affected by them. I talked about them. But while the act of writing came later, after a period of incubation,nevertheless in a moment like that or those when a single cell departs from its usual metabolism and the original link is created of a future,unsuspected cancer,or a piece of lace, so I decided to write this book."

   Genet has an intense need for passion of any dimension,scouring the vigours of whatever parts of fragments of the lifeworld's complexity presents itself to him. I once thought of this book as a romantic means of portrayel a betrayel of a political situation,one, the only one that excited Genet.It means something that only encounterings lives in struggle,bent into a repressive state that Genet finds the only life worth encountering,sensing and feeling about. This book was completed in 1986 after suffering from throat cancer, he died on the night of 14-15th of April,1986,while correcting proofs.




3. If the reader is looking for easy explanations to the Palestinian refugees' war with the nation of Israel, Jean Genet's book is not the place to seek them. And I don't advise readers to pick through the text looking for the succinct sentences in which Genet clearly states why he's on the side of the Palestinians, or if he's anti-Israel, or anti-American. There is no proof of reviewer Tim Keane's conclusion that Genet "seethes with hatred of Israel"; there are no such violent emotions in Prisoner of Love. At 430 pages, be prepared to find subtleties of experience shaded by conflicting responses--nuances completely unavailable via print journalism or network news, CNN, or Al Jazeera. But the very fact that Genet wanted to observe life in the refugee camps shows that he had to make a choice. Nearly all the protagonists of his memoir, this textual "souvenirs," are Palestinians and generally Muslim. Indeed, the compelling force which drives the relatively plotless Prisoner of Love are the individuals to whom Jean attachments himself: the dynamic Lieutenant Mubarak, Dr. Mahjoub and the charismatic female doctor, Dr. Nabila, Khaled Abu Khaled and Abu Omar, and an accomplished woman friend, a blond Lebanese guide and translator, Nidal, and dozens of other people. Genet was particularly attached to Hamza and his mother, who he attempts to find again after his absence from Palestine for nearly 14 years. We cannot forget the common fedayee rebel, the fedayeen as a whole who fought to make the Palestinian plight known.
   
   When evaluating Prisoner of Love, it's important to remember that Genet is a writer. Throughout his work, Genet tells us how difficult it is to recount his experiences since he's not sure at times what he's seeing, and he must make his writing conform to the necessities of craft. And whatever writing craft decisions Jean made it is clear that the Palestinians "wrote" him as well; Jean was seldom in control of his experience. As I read, I realized that Genet is the ultimate refugee; he seeks to be with people who are like him. My conclusion is this: Palestine chose him.
   
   Only Genet could have written this book. He is a bruised romantic searching for a resting place that will caress both his homeless intellect and his orphaned body: "A little while ago I wrote that though I shall die, nothing else will. And I must make my meaning clear. Wonder at the sight of a corn-flower, at a rock, at the touch of a rough hand--all the millions of emotions of which I'm made--they won't disappear even though I shall. Other men will experience them, and they'll still be there because of them. More and more I believe I exist in order to be the terrain and proof which show other men that life consists in the uninterrupted emotions flowing through all creation" (361). As an orphan with prison experience, and disaffected from France, Genet was willing to try on other peoples' lives; I suspect that without the structure dictated by the craft of writing, and his talent coming to the attention of well-known writers, Genet would have disappeared into the French prison system.
   
   Another conclusion I came to: Genet shows us the difference between terrorism and Arab nationalism. Is there any hope that the U.S., of which I am a native-born citizen, will ever figure out this difference?
   
   Overwhelmingly, the single image I have of Prisoner of Love is that to read it is to travel the land that dwelled *in* Jean Genet, this traveler who was intelligent enough to let his emotions guide him. And only by reading can I share in living a life which speaks so eloquently of rebellion and blood, of life and death.

5 comments about The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography.

1. It took me a few months to grind my way through this, and I must conclude that unless you are a serious student of history--a professor or grad student, or highly-motivated undergrad--you are not going to get much out of this book.
   
   I've got undergraduate and masters degrees (in computer science), am fairly widely read, and have a pretty good knowledge of history. Nevertheless, I usually could not figure out what Adams was getting at in his overly poetic abstractions. As other reviewers have pointed out, Adams can never simply describe concretely what he sees, but instead has to formulate some sort of generalization, as when the "dynamo"--a machine he sees at a World's Fair--becomes a symbol for the sweeping forces of mechanization and industrialization. That sounds insightful, but did he really need an entire chapter to describe how it upheaved his soul?
   
   Adams wrote this book for his close circle of friends, not the general public. This manifests when he casually tosses around the names of obscure people without explaining who they are, as if we are just supposed to know. I often kept Wikipedia open as I read.
   
   Unless you are already an expert on 19th-century U.S. history, be prepared for a hard slog and, I regret to predict, a lack of fulfillment.



2. The main problem I had with this book was the format. The 7-1/2X9-15/16" and the very narrow margins made reading difficult for me. I had to bend the binding back to read the end of a the very long line of text on the left page and the beginning of a line of text on the right. I also often had to use my finger to return the to the correct start of the next lenghty line. The truly made reading less enjoyable than it should have been. I suspect I would rate it higher in a more standard format book.
   This will be one of my book club's readings this academic year and I can review it after the meeting within 12 months. I suspect many of us in the club will give it higher than 3 stars - which as I have indicated is marred by the difficulty in the physical (visual) reading.
   
   
   
   
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3. I bought this version and started reading it, but ended up buying another version. This version is poorly printed - the pages are overlarge for a paperback, and the margins at the spine are too narrow. Because of the width of the page it wasn't possible to read one line without moving my head, and since the book didn't lie flat I would have to peer into the spine area to get the last word on any line on the left hand page. Pick another version that's easier to read.



4. Note that this review is for the audio book narrated by David Colacci. I have been on a kick the last year or so of listening to the `classics' on my daily commute. This book has been on several lists of great books and I decided to give it a try. I started out wondering why this book would be considered so good, but after a few hours of listening I learned to appreciate the unique writing style and personality of the author.
   
   The narrator was perfect for the part. His voice and manner of speaking fit the style of the book very well. He sounded just like I imagined Adams himself would have sounded if he had read this book.
   
   I have always been a fan of history, and his perspective as a minor participant in several great events was fascinating. From the Civil War to the Teddy Roosevelt administration, he provided several interesting insights into those events. He knew many of the key players. His overriding theme of obtaining an `education' was also interesting and he looked at it much more broadly than most people would. He lived at a time of great technological change, especially from a perspective of power and seemed concerned that society was not ready to handle that much power. He saw the source of power switching from Christianity (The Virgin Mary) to the dynamo.
   
   I initially didn't like him. He seemed almost too humble and didn't seem to have a strong opinion of right and wrong because he wasn't sure which was which. In the end I appreciated his perspective and thought he would have been an interesting person to know, though I wouldn't consider him as a great leader. I also would have liked to have him talk more of his personal life; note that this book omits the years 1872-1891, which would have included his marriage.
   
   Overall I recommend this book for anyone interested in history and a unique literary style. He was clearly an intellectual and it gives a good snapshot of the intellectual views of that era.



5. I was first drawn into the book "The Education of Henry Adams" when Henry Adams wrote how he was led to "... more than once to sit at sunset on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria di Ara Coeli..." (page 91) Adams wanted to teach people how we can teach ourselves. He wanted to say that knowledge devoid of feeling is of little use and meaning. He said, towards the end of the book and towards the end of his life, "All the teacher could hope was to teach it reaction." Despite his willful, self-imposed criticism of his own inadequacies and failures, he succeeded brilliantly in teaching us how to achieve our own personal Annunciation, as he obviously experienced his, at sunset on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria di Ara Coeli.

3 comments about For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman.

1. Without question, the best of the recent spate of Abbie Hoffman bios. Lucid, well-researched, with more than 200 oral histories. What prevents it from receiving a "10" rating is that Raskin devotes only one short chapter to Hoffman's life in the late seventies and eighties. Despite the lack of attention paid to Hoffman's later life, the material leading up to the last chapter flows nicely, and tells the story of a complex, energetic, and ultimately great American.



2. Abbie survived under fake ID, after a drug bust,but succumbed to personality disorder,for which he took medications, He was America's foremost radical->Activist- of 60's, he fought for the enviroment in 70's.....watch for movie of his life.."Steal this Movie"...



3. I wonder if Raskin would ever be so hypercritical of just about every statement she has ever made, the way she is of Abbie. The book was interesting at first, but I feel she went way overboard in disecting everything Abbie said and how "factual" it really was. After a while it seemed like one big critique of everything Abbie said. Like she set out to prove he lied about everything. "Well, he said this and I went back and interviewed five different people who said it actually happened like this." To me a biography should be about how someone lived, not a dissection of everything they said. She really turned a fascinating story about a very creative and excitng person into almost a police report - "just the facts, mam."

   This book really bugged me!

5 comments about Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, Fourth Edition.

1. Let me say that if you are looking for a biography of Marx's life you had better look elsewhere. There are no long chapters about his school days, his relations with his Sisters, Mother or Father. You will not find detailed references to every argument Marx had or every aspect of his squallid and, at times, extremely personally irresponsible lifestyle. You must look elsewhere for those details.

   This book is about ideas and the struggle between ideas. It is about Marx emersed in the ideas of his time and how those ideas shaped his thinking, whether changing his ideas, borrowing or regjecting them outright Berlin has a wonderful, at times unique grasp of the issues and the ideas of the times that Marx lived.

   Starting with a broad description of the Rational-Empiricist debate and the Hegelian reaction to empiricism, Berlin describes Marx as a unique German Hybrid of British Empiricism married to a searching German Hegelian spirit, dissatisified with the traditional historical interpertations offered by Hegel and his German offshoots, the Young Hegelians.

   Along the way Marx comes across a uniques set of millenarian and social theorists of his time; Proudhom, Bakunin, Engels, Lasalle, Feuerbach and others, whom all, even though perhaps disliking Marx personally, respected his argument style, his learning, and his deep insight into the problems of the time.

   I would not classify this as a beginning book on Marx. There is a lot of ground covered here and if one does not have at least a thumbnail sketch understanding of the times, the social and political issues, then there will be a chance that the author will loose some of his readership. Berlin's prose has been described variously as dense and hard to understand. It may be for some readers. But Berlin is not excessively wordy (it is a slender volume), but he does have the ability to cover a lot of ideas and currents in a single sentence. It is this juggling and keeping in mind of a lot of ideas and concepts in a single sentence that may necessitate one to reread certain sentences, or at least know the concepts to which he is referring.

   If you do have general outline of the ideas of the age then you will love this book. I sat down thinking that this was my "serious reading." I fully expected it to be a labourious process to get through this book. Instead I was profoundly surprised by the breath and depth Berlin covers in his lucid prose.

   I found it hard to put the book down.

   There is no analysis of whether Marx was right or wrong. Of how his ideas become to become the bible of the oppressed on the earth or how it eventually was transmogrified in some cases to justify the mass killing of those who stood in the way of historical materialism. This is a book of ideas, and as such the ideas discussed of Marx, his contemporaries, and his intellectual primogeniteurs are a ripping good read.




2. Isaiah Berlin's biography of Karl Marx is as erudite as it is compelling. Taking one of the more controversial and laborious men of the twentieth century as his subject matter, Berlin weaves the intricate and sometimes confounding thoughts of his subject into a patterned and complex whole.

   Karl Marx is treated fairly in this book--neither with sycophantic adulation nor with profound cynicism typical of other treatments of Marx and his philosophy. Perhaps because of the political consequences of Marx's ideas, the negative overview's of his life have emphasized his tempermental side, the irony of being funded by an aristocratic Engels, or the silliness of his labour theory of value premise (shared by David Ricardo). Meanwhile, on the other side, there are writings on the life of Marx that stick to his genius, his profound impact on the world, and further entrench his cult status.

   It is this latter part that I found most interesting in Berlin's work--the exploration of Marx's temper tantrums with anyone who should deviate from Marx's conception of how things must be. Proudhon, for instance, is castigated by Marx. So, too, is Feuerbach and the Young Hegelians (Berlin muses about whether or not this has to do with the mighty influence these have had on Marx's own thought and Marx's desire to be seen as a wholly original thinker). Bakunin does not escape public ridicule when they differ on the value of the State as a mechanism to be used by the proletariat. Bakunin, of course, did not believe in hierarchical orderings of any kind--whether in capitalist industry, or in the socialist state--and issued proclamations and gave speeches to that effect, explicitly cautioning people about the possibility of the government violating the freedom it was supposed to secure. Marx was not impressed, and consequently mocked him openly. Engels was perhaps the only man to escape the eventual polemical wrath of Marx, saving himself from such a fate possibly because he simply agreed with whatever Marx said, and indulged him in most everything else.

   Still, what comes across most forcefully is the life of a man steeped in ideas, and interested in the fundamental, radical underpinnings of society as a whole. Marx is often enough considered a genius of the highest calibre, with impeccable literary credentials to back it up. It is this attention to minute detail, and his incredible analysis of society (or rather, the historical 'movement', if you will, of human relationships which reciprocally interact with the concrete, material conditions of their existence) that makes this praise seem a bit understated.

   This singular fact--Marx as a man of ideas, and the fact of the practical consequences of his ideas--is touched upon in a self-conscious bit of irony by Berlin. For Marx explained that it isn't ideas that do anything, really, but are, instead, the consequences of material conditions, these conditions being fundamental. And yet it was the writings of Marx that sparked several revolutions and formed the primary cause of the one in Russia which stuck around for a while (no one is here implying a monistic view of history... the lessons Marx tried to teach are not entirely lost on me).

   What we're left with is an incredibly vivid picture of Marx, the man (not the myth, or the legend; although a little bit of both is tossed in for spice). Berlin does a masterful job, so anyone picking this book up should find it entirely enjoyable.




3. Rereading the fourth edition of this classic short intellectual biography of Marx, one finds it as interesting as on the first occasion, and the result is a crisp portrait of one of the most misunderstood figures of philosphical history. Marx lived in what was not only a rapidly changing social environment,but one in which the social ideologies of modernity where themselves undergoing shifts of paradigm. From the electric world of the now almost unimaginable period of the Hegelian tide, via Feuerbach and the Left Hegelians, we pass to the age of post-Comptean positivism, and the post-Darwinian world view. This divide is reflected in Marx's philosophic development itself, one of the reasons he is almost never properly understood. Berlin's deft account proceeds through this obscurities with a sure touch.



4. David McLellan's Karl Marx: A Biography is a better standard biography. McLellan had access to much more material about Marx's life than did Berlin and he brings it all together in a satisifying package.
   
   Berlin's book, however, provides a superb discussion of the philosophical background to Marx's work. Because of that Berlin's book is extremely valuable.
   
   Readers of Berlin's book must be aware that his interpretation of Marx's social theory is colored by Berlin's anti-communist beliefs. Although many today reject that a close tie existed between Marx's social theory and the USSR, Berlin assumed that such a link existed when he looked at things in the late 1930s. As a result, a tone of worry and concern suffuses Berlin's discussion of many of Marx's ideas and Berlin tends to paint Marx as more of a potential authoritarian than did later biographers.
   
   Despite that, Berlin's book is well worth a read.



5. Because of the way my brain is wired, I take a lot more interest in the historical than I do in the philosophical. Even though Marx spent a good chunk of his life sequestered away in the reading room of the London Library, I still find the narrative details of his life fascinating: his banishment from one country to another, his participation in the 1848 revolutions, the numerous petty squabbles he had with other 19th century revolutionaries, his involvement in the politics of the International, and his last great fight against Bakunin.
   
   It's always a struggle to find a good biography that focuses on the historical instead of on the philosophical. And after reading Isaiah Berlin's take on Marx's life, I am beginning to appreciate how good the biography by Francis Wheen was that I read this past summer.
   
   Isaiah Berlin does a good job of summarizing Marx's life in under 300 pages, but most of the book lingers on Marx's philosophical development, with whole long chapters devoted to topics such as "The Young Hegelians" and "Historical Materialism." I would have preferred more emphasis on the narrative sections, but when reading a biography of a philosopher, I suppose it is hard to get away from the philosophy.
   
   One thing Berlin does which I thought was very interesting was that he emphasized the paradoxes in Marx's legend. For example Marx lived during the age of romantic revolutions in which popular revolutionary figures like Herzen, Mazzini, Blanqui, and Lassalle commanded almost religious like followings. Marx spent most of his life in obscurity in the London library, and yet today his name is still known by almost everyone on the planet. Marx's central thesis, that historical material conditions and not ideas influence history, has been undercut by its very success.
   
   Or how the German and Austrian communists, who followed Marx's advice about organizing from the bottom up, were eventually overwhelmed by the fascists, where as the Bolsheviks, who committed the most un-Marxist act of a revolutionary coup, was the first (and for a time the only) successful Marxist revolution.
   
   Bakunin, as seems to be the case with any biography vaguely sympathetic towards Marx, comes off a bit badly here. I suppose that's to be expected. (When I was in my big anarchist phase at College, I used to read biography's about Bakunin in which Marx came off badly.)
   
   There is no denying that Bakunin had his flaws. Anyone who has read any piece of analysis by Bakunin knows he didn't have the brilliance of Marx's pinky. He was a romantic without a clear ideology, and he didn't share Marx's horror for Revolutions that went off half-cocked with no chance of succeeding. And, as every biography of Marx makes clear, he was an anti-Semite.
   
   And yet, he was right (well, not about the anti-Semite part). But history has shown all of Bakunin's criticisms of Marx to be true. And, to his credit, Isaiah Berlin does include some of Bakunin's extended quotations:
   "We believe power corrupts those who wield it as much as those who are forced to obey it. Under its influence, some become greedy and ambitious tyrants, exploiting society in their own interest, or in that of their class, while others are turned into abject slaves. Intellectuals, positivists, doctrinaires, all those who put science before life...defend the idea of the state and its authority as being the only possible salvation of society-quite logically, since from their false premises that thought comes before life, that only abstract theory can form the starting-point of social practice...they draw the inevitable conclusion that since such theoretical knowledge is at present possessed by very few, these few must be put in control of social life, not only to inspire, but to direct all popular movements, and that no sooner is the revolution over than a new social organization must be at once be set up; not a free association of popular bodies...working in accordance with the needs and instincts of the people but a centralized dictatorial power concentrated in the hands of this academic minority, as if they really expressed the popular will....The difference between such revolutionary dictatorship and the modern State is only one of external trappings. In substance both are a tyranny of the minority over the majority in the name of the people-in the name of the stupidity of the many and the superior wisdom of the few-and so they are equally reactionary, devising to secure political and economic privilege to the ruling minority, and the...enslavement of the masses, to destroy the present order only to erect their own rigid dictatorship on its ruins."
   
   Berlin gives a surprisingly hostile account of the Paris Commune, which he appears to have based completely off the Bourgesious press. And he also advances the interesting idea that Marx actually opposed the Paris Commune because it was more along the lines of Bakunin's revolutionary ideology, but once it was clear the Commune was going to fall, Marx embraced it for the cynical reasons of the desire to link his name with the most infamous revolution in Europe at the time. Berlin is the first writer I have come across who claims this, and well it certainly is not an impossible conclusion, it would be nice if he gave some more evidence for it.

1 comments about Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal (Bluejacket Paperbacks).

1. I was impressed with this book's scholarship, but after looking into the sources for the chapter on Forrestal's death, I have had some second thoughts. James Forrestal fell from a window of the 16th floor of the Bethesda Naval Hospital in the wee hours of the morning of May 22, 1949. The authors relate numerous details of the Forrestal's actions prior to his going out the window, but none of them are sourced directly to any of the witnesses, the various medical personnel who were on duty that night. Rather, the strongest assertions that support the popular theory of suicide, which they endorse, turn out to be from sources that I was unable to trace, even using the services of the Library of Congress in person.
   
   The best source to start with would have been the official investigation, the work of a review board convened by the head of the National Naval Medical Center, Admiral Morton Willcutts, which took the testimony of most of the witnesses (with a few notable exceptions). Hoopes and Brinkley unforgivably neglect to tell the readers that at the time of their writing that testimony was still being kept secret. They also fail to tell us that the conclusions of the review board were released in brief summary form almost 6 months after the conclusion of the board's work, and that summary concluded only that Forrestal had died from injuries suffered from the fall. It did not conclude what caused the fall, that is, it did not conclude that it was a suicide, and it made no mention of the cord that was tied tightly around Forrestal's neck.
   
   On my third try, I obtained the report, including all testimony and most of the exhibits, using the Freedom of Information Act. It contradicts almost everything that Hoopes and Brinkley have to say about Forrestal's actions prior to his death. (...)

5 comments about Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist.

1. While the emotion of experiencing the Quilt cannot be confined to mere words, this inspiring journey to activism and openness is a fascinating read.

   In 1995, while in San Francisco to say a heartbreaking goodbye to my dearest brother, I entered the NAMES project offices and was instantly overwhelmed by the raw emotion--not just sadness, which is the obvious response, but also a healing, a unity and a strength. I have never been so moved--until I traveled to DC to witness the 1996 display.

   A part of me travels with my brother's panel wherever it goes, and this book was a cathartic reliving of some of my most grueling and gratifying moments.

   'Stitching a Revolution' is a treasure, a reminder that we often forget the power of one voice, and the staggering, wondrous results of bringing together disparate peoples.




2. As an AIDS activist, I would implore everyone to read this account of how one man can take an idea and turn it into a world-wide reality.

   Cleve Jones writes honestly and from the heart - not about sex, not about dirt, but about the true experience of growing up as a gay man, coming out, and dealing with AIDS from the beginning up until now.

   His vision in making the Quilt a reality, and the many stories that go with it bring tears and laughter, while pointing out the universality of both AIDS and The AIDS Memorial Quilt.

   If his book tour comes to your town - run to that book store. His speaking skills are extrordinary as well.

   If only this could become required reading for our youth - the generation that most needs to hear the message and is frighteningly under-educated about a disease which can end their lives.




3. The AIDS Memorial Quilt has been the most humanizing, uplifting and unifying symbol of the battle against the AIDS virus. As an activist, viewer of the Quilt, and twice a volunteer, I read Mr. Jones book greedily. People need to know what he has to say. People need to know the impact their actions can have on world perceptions; that they can make a difference. People need to know the history of the epidemic - reflected in the experiences of a person immersed in the culture impacted first: how the gay community, so brutally attacked, fought back and set up the protocols now being used by all sectors of society all over the world.

   The book is a good read, very accessible, as simple as the concept of the Quilt and as insightful. I thank Cleve Jones for giving humanity the Quilt and this telling of how it came to be.




4. Cleve Jones has done many wonderful things for the gay community. Now he adds this wonderful, heartfelt memior. This volume is more than "just" a memoir, it's a rich and rewarding history lesson, an eye witness account. Throught the past twenty-five years Jones has been a witness to murder, a victim of hate crimes, an activist for gay rights, a rioter, a mourner, a survivor and a an ambassador of hope and good will. This is the story of the AIDS Quilt, from its beginnings to its eventual recognition as an international symbol of peace, reconciliation and unity. Cleve Jones takes a refreshingly candid, warts-and-all approach to telling his story. He depicts himself as an ordianry man responding to extraordinary circumstances in the only way he knew how. Past imperfect, but always willing to do whatever was necessary to bring his message to the people, Cleve helped to put a human face on AIDS.



5. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be in Washington on that cold morning in October, 1987 and see the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt unfurled for the first time, we should thank Cleve Jones for both his idea of the quilt as a memorial to those who died of AIDS and this wonderful book he has written. The quilt has almost become a cliche for some of us now-- we have seen it so many times in so many different variations and sizes-- that I did not believe I could be so moved and relive that intensely emotional and poignant day in October. I was wrong. I was taken by Mr. Jones' sincerity and utter lack of egotism. He is remarkably candid about his own life as he takes the reader through his own experiences as a young gay activist in San Francisco, his role in the history of the quilt and his own diagnosis with HIV.

   Mr. Jones reminds me of things I had forgotten or repressed: a lot about the heroism of Harvey Milk, for example, the awfulness of Anita Bryant, the indifference of the first President Bush who was too busy to see the quilt, of President Clinton, along with Mrs. Clinton and the Gores, who was not too busy to pay tribute to those who had fallen. We get to see some of our national celebrities in a new light: the gentle Rosa Parks, the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor frightened at making a speech, and finally Jane Fonda who can only be described as totally silly in her adoration of Tom Hayden.

   A friend of mine who has seen the quilt in its entirety many times and is active in the Names Project in his hometown in Maine says that he can only read this book a little at a time. Yes, it's very viseral, sometimes painful, and it will make you cry.

   In the Epilogue Mr. Jones writes: "My hope is that one day AIDS will be over and we will have to look upon all its different aspects: how it drew a country together from across cultural, ethnic, and religious divisions, and how it was, like the Holocaust, a crucible of definition. I think the Quilt will have a role in this discussion and a place in our history as memory is preserved and recreated imn this symbol of our natural desire for commuity."

   And you, Mr. Jones, will have a place in that history. Many Americans cannot thank you enough for that.

1 comments about Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal History.

1. This book was a pleasure to read. It is a great way to get some basic insights into the wives of our President's, while creating the desire to learn more about these amazing women.

No comments about The First Ladies Fact Book: Revised and Updated! The Childhoods, Courtships, Marriages, Campaigns, Accomplishments, and Legacies of Every First Lady from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama.