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Collected reviews from decades of reading — organized by subject and written for clarity, context, and long-term reference.
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Never mind the cheesy harlequin romance novel cover, this is a serious book. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Louis Hyman’s “Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink,” the story of personal debt (namely, consumer loans, long term home mortgages, and credit cards) in twentieth century America, is that it hasn’t been written…
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“Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power,” first published in 2003, is something of a “prequel” for veteran-political-journalist-turned-Reagan-biographer, Lou Cannon, who’s heralded critical assessment of the Reagan presidential administration, “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime,” appeared on bookshelves over a decade before this volume. “Governor Reagan” is made up of 30 chapters, each with a…
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The Magna Carta. It’s one of those things that everyone knows, but few truly know anything about. Hip Hop mega star Jay-Z (for reasons known only to him) titled his 2013 album “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” In 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who one would presume would know a thing or two about it,…
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Ronald Reagan isn’t the kind of president that many Americans are on the fence about. Either you love him and believe he belongs in the pantheon of great presidents alongside Washington, Lincoln and FDR or you think he is one of the most incompetent (albeit lucky) chief executives in American history. Lou Cannon’s “President Reagan:…
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I came to this book with a completely open mind. For the past two decades I’ve lived and worked in Silicon Valley as a technology executive, but my educational background and early career experience was in national security and defense, including a stint at the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, the defense department’s internal long-range…
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The Federal Reserve is one of the most controversial government organizations. Many fear its powers; fewer actually understand them. The topic of central banking in America has been addressed many times before, from the classic 1957 study “Banks and Politics in America” by Bray Hammond to William Greider’s 1987 bestseller “Secrets of the Temple.” What…
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The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force (2017) by Eliot A. Cohen
There are, it seems to me, two distinct elements to “The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power & the Necessity of Military Force” by Eliot Cohen. First, and in my opinion far most important, is how should our elected and military leaders think about national security strategy and the decision to go to war?…
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Every February or March, all across America, local Democratic Party organizations hold their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinner in honor of the third and seventh presidents of the United States, respectively, widely regarded as the founding fathers of the party. In 1997, President Bill Clinton helped dedicate the new, sprawling memorial to President Franklin Roosevelt…
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“Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street, 1920-1938” by John Brooks, first published in 1969, is a true classic of American business history. It’s really two books in one, or so I found. First, Brooks brilliantly captures the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties and early Depression years through a number of colorful, but…
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