Reviews for The political career of Stephen Mallory White

The average rating for The political career of Stephen Mallory White based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-16 00:00:00 Luis Martorell I would be hard put to more unreservedly recommend to anyone a more engaging and enlightening reading experience than The Nation: Selections from the Independent Magazine of Politics and Culture, a judicious gathering of articles and editorials from this indispensable American weekly publication from its inception in 1865 through 1990. Writers represented include Nelson Algren, Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Albert Einsten (with an urgent 1931 plea for disarmament), Martin Luther King, H. L. Mencken, Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, James Thurber,and other major figures of the period, as well as some worthies who have more or less been forgotten. Eye-opening experiences include reporter Carleton Beals writing in 1928 about his time spent with Augusto Cesar Sandino, who organized armed resistance to early U. S. intervention in Nicaragua. This is part of unfortunate ongoing U. S. policy toward our Southern neighbors that has resulted in today’s unmanagable situation of refugees fleeing toward our Southern border. An August 15, 1921 editorial deals with the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzatti, an event that probably not one American in ten, or perhaps even one in one hundred, is aware of today. The editorial concludes: “Certain it is that if the precdents of history hold true, monuments are likely to be erected to Sacco and Vanzetti and the names of their prosecutors will fade out of history. (This editorial is accompanied by a drawing of Sacco and Vanzetti by Ben Shan that would make a striking commemorative stamp.) The writing is smart and spirited throughout the collection. James T. Farrell’s June 17, 1936 piece on that year’s Joe Louis - Max Schmelling boxing match opens with this: “Over four thousand people were smeared about the Yankee Stadium to witrness the predicted murder of the century." Half-interested, they watched preliminary boxers maul for pork-chop money, and they booed when one decision went to an overgrown Argentine battler. Those in the ringside seats glanced around to see and to be seen.” The adage “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” comes to mind frequently, as when a December 12, 1953 editorial, writtern in the heat of the disgraceful Army-McCarthy hearings, raises questions that ring a bell : “What is the meaning of Irving Dillard’s comment in this issue that the Bill of Rights would probably fail of adoption in a nation-wide referendum today? If so, is this because we fail to see what is happening or are we deliberately rejecting this tradition? Is it any wonder that the Germans are said to take great satisfaction in the spectacle of the American people, under stress, exhibiting much the same susceptibility to demagoguery and the sdame failiure to take timely action against it that we found inexcusable and inexplicable in them not so long ago?” An April 24, 1954 article by Edgar Snow makes clear the folly of all Western intervention in Vietnam. The reader is left to ask why, after France came to its senses and threw in the towel, Amerca blithely entered nonetheless. To what extent did the U. S. military industry, which had supplied armament for France to great profit, influence blind and disastrous U.S. policy? As a Chicagoan, although not native, I was jarred to come to this comment in a December 28, 1963 article by Robert Condon on the Kennedy assassination: “When the fanatic is a ruler, rather than the assassin, the people who permitted him to take power must be blamed — whether they be the Germans of 1933-35 for Adolph Hitler, or the people of Chicago, Illinois, for their local goverrnment.” Damn. Evidently, by the time the late Mayor Daley pere showed his butt at the 1968 Dermocratic National Convention, my city was already on the map as a political cesspool. One of the interesting threads running through the collection is the evolution of U.S.-Israeli relations. An April 1, 1976 article by Arthur H. Samuelson is just one of the reminders that the unfortunate“whatever Israel wants, Israel gets” attitude on the part of both U. S. political parties today has not always been the case. (The Nation today remains sharply critical of Israel as an apartheid state many of whose policies flagrantly violate both common decency and international law.) The late Gore Vidal, who eventually found it intolerable to remain a U.S. resident, was until the end one of the most exacting analysts of the American predicament. It is easy to criticize Vidal’s arrogance and glibness and miss his cold, accurate eye. His January 21, 1986 “Rrequiem for the American Empire” is one of the most valuable articles in the volume, although his concluision with regard to the U.S. and the Soviet Union seems uncharacteistically half baked. Here’s a passage from the article: “Even worse than the not-very-likely prospect of a nuclear war — deliberate or by accident — is the economic collapse of our society because too many of our resources have been wasted on the military. The Pentagon is like a black hole; what goes in is forver lost to us, and no new wealth is created. Hence, our cities, whose centers are unlivable; our crime rate, the highest in the Western world; a public education system that has given up … you know the litany.” Humorous articles are regrettably scarce, but then suddenly beginning at page 353 along come two of them, damned good ones, in a row — Kurt Vonnegut’s ultimately serious December 31- January 7, 1984 “The Worst Addiction of Them All” (which turns out to be war) and Calvin Trillin’s January 11, 1986 “Uncivil Libertties.” (Trillin still appears in the magazine every week as its Deadline Poet.) A few pages later along comes the welcome and ever reliable Molly Ivins. The final section of the book features a selection of durable poems that made their initial appearance in the pages of The Nation, including work by D. H. Lawrence, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, Ann Sexton, Wallace Stevens, James Wright, William Carlos Williams and others. The book opens with an expectedly sharp introduction by E. L. Doctorow and closes with a thoghtful afterword by Victor Navatsky, the immediate predecessor to The Nation’s current editor Katrina Vanden Huevel, who edited the collection. Vanden Huevel did an admirable job. There isn’t anything remotely like a dud in 535 pages. (As I write this, the news has arrved that after a 24-year tenure Vanden Huevel is stepping down as the magazine’s editor.) I would think that anyone who is not a subscriber to The Nation would promptly join up after reading this treasure trove of revelation and opinion the magazine has steadfastly delivered to us for more than a century and a half. It remains a vital resourece to keep our heads out of the sand as the American democracy moves on toward redemption or further collapse.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-10-21 00:00:00 Shane Talbert Great book if you want to learn about Roscoe Conkling and the New York machine. There's alot of information here; his relationships with Grant and Arthur, his feud with James Blaine and his battles with Presidents Hayes and Garfield. A lot of stuff happens throughout this book, but I have no complaints.