Reviews for The political presidency

The average rating for The political presidency based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-03-13 00:00:00 Rory Lozano This is one of those books that does its job in a workmanlike manner, presenting information that's not readily available anywhere else in an unremarkable style. Andrew is correct in presenting YAF as the right wing's equivalent of SDS, a group of highly motivated, essentially ideological young people disillusioned with the self-satisfied middle-of-the-road consensus of the Eisenhower era. He tracks the internal dispute between the various sorts of conservatives-- traditionalists ideologues, John Birchers--from the defeat of Nixon (who they viewed as the heir of Ike's "modern Republicanism"--to the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964. He correctly identifies the Sharon Statement of 1960 as the conservative equivalent of SDS's Port Huron Statement, which came a couple of years later. (One thing that's probably beyond the purpose of his book is a detailed comparison of the two documents. For all the conservatives' claim to the moral and intellectual high ground, there's no question about the superiority of the PHS in intellectual terms. It's the difference between a detailed engagement with the issues and a somewhat windy rhetorical statement.) Like SDS, YAF was riddled with both ideological and personal conflicts, and it never really quite figured out how beholden it was to its elders, particularly William F. Buckley and the group surrounding the National Review. The book itself is a bit pedestrian. Each chapter reads like an essay from an academic journal, detailed, cogent and basically safe. I was never quite sure to what extent Andrew sympathized with his subjects, and it really doesn't matter. The one place it became problematic involved race. The YAF leadership rarely talked about race in other than abstract terms, claiming to be against discrimination but in favor of "state's rights." At the time that was clearly a code for white supremacy, and it would become the centerpiece of the post-Goldwater conservative attempt, largely successful, to redraw the map of American politics. Andrew gives the YAF cadre a pass on that and it's a real flaw in what is otherwise a useful monograph on a subject that deserves a great deal more attention.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-10-11 00:00:00 Matthew Rasanen There are some amazing insights in this book that can only be learned or expressed by someone who has started and lived in community for a period of time. No theory here but real and practical advice that I really appreciated reading. I told my wife that there are two or three profound thoughts here that may be the most important I have read in the last ten or twenty years. If you are into developing church community, new testament churches, body-life church, the priesthood of all believers, organic church or the emerging church, here are PRICELESS insights you should absorb into your lifeblood! I wouldn't worry about those that question the current movement, as this was written quite a number of years ago when the movement was new and still the first-generation alive to the call of Christ. I cannot say that this is not still absolutely true, it may well be. Only I know some are put off by the communal aspects of the movement and they shouldn't be. Critical reading for believers whether one chooses to live in a communal way or not.