Reviews for America in search of itself

The average rating for America in search of itself based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-28 00:00:00 Richard Taleghani White, who died in 1986, was well-known for his Making of The President series, which began with his book on the Kennedy-Nixon Presidential race in 1960 and ended with his coverage of the Reagan-Carter battle in 1980. With this 1982 book, which turned out to be White's swan song, he took a look back at all of the elections from 1960 to 1980 as a way to summarize where our country had been and where it seemed to be headed. He declared that with the election of Reagan there looked to be a complete political realignment happening (correct), and lamented the ways in which television and outside money were corrupting influences in our democracy (correct). He also wrote presciently about the ways in which immigration was becoming a huge political time bomb (while I'm thinking out loud, "Oh lord, if you only knew how much worse things would get in 35 years, Theodore White"). White was an old school journalist, and a good one, but much of his language has not aged well-modern readers will wince as White refers to African Americans multiple times throughout as "the blacks" (he also says "the Italians, "the Jews," etc). It's positively cringe-worthy, but also important to keep in mind that such language was simply the vernacular of the time, and not meant as disparagement. He also seemed a bit sexist (I recall Nora Ephron wrote a scathing satire of White sometime in the mid-to-late-70's). But I gave him a bit of latitude as he was an aging Caucasian male in the early 80's - he certainly didn't come across as a neanderthal, but rather a political moderate, quite critical of both parties, jealously maintaining his reporter's impartiality, and possessed of a general level-headedness and some wit. He's likely turning over in his grave at the mess we are in at present, but likely morbidly fascinated as well, wishing he could still take notes. Though somewhat outdated at this point, America in Search of Itself is still a worthy read for political junkies interested in charting our country's rocky course through the decades. I give it three to three-and-a-half out of five stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-01-14 00:00:00 Lou Rzepecki I haven't read a book by White since 1995-96 and this is reminding me why I loved him so much the last time. The biggest lesson I have received from reading this book is that issues have not changed in 28 years or even 52 years. Big issues of the past: -Terrorism -Falling dollar -America's position in the world -Immigration