Reviews for The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life

The average rating for The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-20 00:00:00 Anthony Reyna I first heard about this book while reading Richard Nixon's memoirs and I must say, Nixon didn't spend his time reading anything less than exemplary. This book is more or less a collection of essays and thoughts on various topics. I believe one of the first topics discussed was pornography, along with its causes and cultural implications. Kristol makes a firm and sound case for all of his presented beliefs and reduces much of the rhetoric you'd hear around the time to nothing but fantasy. Nearing the end of the book, Kristol details many of the problems with primary and higher education and he details many of the red herrings that have led our federal government astray. He very much disdains the University system and the professors that won't stand up for true reform because it would jeopardize their position. For the time this was written (early '70s), it's strange that so many of the topics have such resonance and meaning today. Kristol sizes up a media and a culture that is going through much of the same tumult today that it went through then. It's too bad Kristol wasn't still around to provide an incisive analysis of our contemporary problems, but readers may find many of his would-be answers in this book.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-24 00:00:00 Sebastian Weiner This wasn't as funny as I had anticipated it would be...honestly, some of the stories of the function of American government are really frightening. Still, if you're interested in the inner workings of Washington DC, this is a decent read.