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Sustainability Man

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Compelling portrait of America’s most influential and powerful bureaucrat

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-11-24

A well written, well narrated, frankly epic biography of the man who managed to stay in power at the head of the FBI from the 1920s to 1970s. It is fair and objective about his flaws and excesses as well as about his skill in building a professional national law enforcement service.

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The best book about Trumpism to date barely even mentions Donald

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-30-24

An absolutely brilliant book painstakingly tracing a whole tapestry of threads in the early nineties that constituted early symptoms of the cancer of MAGA fascism with which the American body politic has been afflicted since 2016. Many of the connections are so subtly drawn that a reader/listener who has not paid close attention to the horrors of the Trump years may miss some of them, but it is food for thought for all.

There’s David Duke’s mainstreaming of Nazism, John Gotti making NY gangsterism fashionable, right wing police thuggery in LA and NY, Ross Perot building a populist movement on the basis of POW-MIA conspiracy theories and a billionaire’s cash, and more. Honestly the best book on the MAGA phenomenon yet, with its creatively assembled mosaic of the movement’s prehistory. Should be a model for studies of contemporary American politics moving forward.

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Reads like a novel

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-19-24

Isaacson refuses to pull his punches, producing a book that caused Kissinger to not talk with him for years. But neither does he neglect to show his subject’s brilliance and wit - even as he endlessly slams his immorality. The result is a fascinating, entertaining and enlightening book, well worth the listen.

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A great inspiration

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-01-24

Though I’ve read a number of books about MLK over the years, the man’s life and words always blows me away.

The story that most sticks with me from this book is the one about the speech where a Nazi jumped up from the audience to punch King in the face. MLK dropped his hands, refusing to defend himself and even inviting the man to return to the audience after the attack. I can’t think of anyone so deeply committed to their values in this day and age.

In addition to the engaging writing, the narrator is superb - he does an excellent imitation of King but wisely does not try to imitate the voice of other characters.

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History written like a novel

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-10-24

As in her other books, Millard brings this piece of history to sparkling life as if it were a novel, with great character studies, gripping scene setting and beautiful prose. And Churchill is always a fascinating subject.

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A brilliant, challenging work

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-15-24

At a time when a determined minority of the US is trying to shut down even the most benign education of our children about the history of race and racism, here comes Ghosh’s book which pulls no punches while pulling back the curtain on the linked history of colonialism and the destruction of the environment - the subjugation of human beings and of nature working hand in hand.

Brace yourself - this is not easy stuff to listen to, as he delves into true stories of genocide as well as ecoside that have many of our ancestors’ fingerprints on them.

But the brilliance of his analysis make the ride worthwhile - I particularly admired how he repurposed the science fiction conceit into a concept to explain colonial history. Here in the US, we wiped out the buffalo and all those old growth forests and thereby both destroyed and remade the environment in which the Native American lived and thrived.

The narrator is good except when he tries to twist his British accent to imitate an American, at which times his voice sounds kind of awful.

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Drawing hope from the ashes of tragedy

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-19-23

It is impossible to fully understand American history without grappling with the violent extremes to which racism has driven some and the incredible hurdles and traumas that others have had to fight their way through in order to survive and prosper. This engaging book is about both.

I know, being Jewish, that historical trauma is a real thing with consequences that extend across generations in ways that it is really hard for those who don’t have such trauma in their psyches to comprehend. This book is about the before, during and after of the Greenwood massacre, an event so senseless and incredible that it is frankly hard to believe such a thing could happen in America.

But it’s not a downer - the massacre takes up about two chapters preceded by the incredible story of black people freed from slavery just 50 years past building their own very business-oriented community. Many chapters follow afterward about the people of Greenwood rebuilding their legacy after having everything stolen away from them.

Though the book is a bit long, I was never bored by this narrative of the life of the black middle class anchored by the incredible Williams family and the newspaper they kept grounded in the community for a century.

Great narrator, BTW - with a flat tone like you’d expect from the storyteller of an old fashioned detective show but with appropriately dramatic intonation when portraying the characters. You really get to see life as they have lived it.

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Riveting, searing account of the deep roots of white supremacy in America

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-11-23

Powerful account of the rise and fall of a major KKK leader in the ‘20s. Hard to stomach at times for its descriptions not only of the repellent racist and antisemitic acts of the Klan but of the lead character’s genuinely beastly assaults on women.

Author does not shrink from discussing the deep roots of prejudice in America and how much the KKK succeeded in putting its platform in place for years afterward, from immigration restrictions to eugenic sterilization. An important reminder that the MAGA movement did not come from nowhere but reflects political currents that have always been present in US society.

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A well-grounding manifesto against the right wing takeover of the SCOTUS

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-08-23

A solid discussion of how the court got to where it is right now, in the grips of a majority packed and shaped by the right wing. The author does not pull any punches but also backs up his take with tons of historical background and reasoning .

My favorite part of the book was the ongoing mini biographies of each Justice - e.g., how Neil Gorsuch’a perspective was shaped by watching his mom Anne Gorsuch get rightfully hammered for her illegal and immoral efforts to demolish the EPA under the Reagan administration.

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Like a novel

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-26-23

A terrific listen - the author keeps it interesting as well as fair, with an honest assessment of Reagan’s strengths and weaknesses. The narrator is a perfect choice, with the kind of straightforward, aw shucks delivery that fits the subject like a glove. Thoroughly enjoyable, even for someone like me who can remember almost every major event and issue discussed.

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