Civil rights and the crisis of liberalism Book

In the cannon of Howard Hughes bios this book is highly regarded because it's. source is derived from the many memos Howard Hughes wrote to his various minions on the yellow legal tabs that he was never without. Basically the book claims to be Hughes story in his own words and for the most part it is. The trouble is that the book is not a complete story of this iconic American it is only the last part of his extraordinary life; and than only a small part of those years.

It book focuses during the years that Hughes was locked in seclusion in his Las Vegas penthouse long after the Spruce Goose or his achievements in aviation and the parade of Hollywood starlets were a part of his world. This is Hughes as a recluse using memos as the main form of communication to run his empire as he declined into paranoid destitution and drug abuse. The bulk of the memos in the first third of the book are correspondence to his henchmen become right hand man Robert Maheu and though there is some reference to his business empire and the shady power plays that Hughes is known for most of the memos deal with his obsessive paranoia on matters that only affected him and that he had no control over - bomb testing in the Nevada desert, legal decisions concerning his business interests, the quality of the water in Vegas - and though these memos help to paint a picture of a man who tried to ingrain himself into American politics at all levels it all adds up to nought. The bomb testing happens, the legal decisions go against him and the Vegas water remained dirty. This is just a sketch of Hughes even during his reclusive years and I got the feeling that more was omitted from these years than were included. The writers choice to focus on his relationship with Maheu - a relationship conducted almost exclusively via the memos - has made the focus to narrow when someone like Hughes is involved, IMO.

That doesn't mean that this is a bad book but I did feel underserved. Though Hughes was removed from the day to day running of his business empire and he no longer was flying planes there still was a lot that happened during these years. He took his fathers business, ToolCo, public he was sued by one airline and bought another and the Clifford Irving book came out and all these events are skimmed over in favor of the poop in Lake Mead and his temper tantrums with Maheu. Even the collapse of Hughes marriage is under-reported and the only reason for this is because Maheu wasn't involved in any of these dramas. He was Hughes Nevada man and that is where the narrative of this book plays out leaving the reader with an incomplete picture. The memos are certainly interesting to read and the interplay between Hughes and Maheu does have it's fascinating moments but it panders to Hughes obsessive nature and not the sharpness and adventurous groundbreaker that defined him as a younger man. This book would have been a fine if it was the third volume of a massive biography like they write in Europe, but it isn't. It's a stand alone book that only focuses on the last 20 years of Hughes extraordinary life and because of that I was left feeling the need to read a more extensive bio on this man.