The Birth of Modern Politics. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828

The Birth of Modern Politics. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 is a historical work that uncannily reflects issues we face today. 

The 1828 election between the patrician John Quincy Adams and the backwoodsman Andrew Jackson was a defining moment.  For instance political parties, which sputtered during the first years of the republic, were solidified.  Even the seeds of a rudimentary kind of polling were planted in 1828.

Four years before, no candidate had enough electoral votes in the 1824 election. John Quincy Adams won through supposed collusion with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Henry Clay; here yet another seed of modern presidential politics was planted: conspiracy theory, paranoia, and personal attack.  

The rematch of 1828 was mainly about the personal qualifications and fitness for office of each candidate.  In other words, it was not about much at all expect demagoguery, misinformation, and sheer rank emotion

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, holds the thesis that we are now at a pivot point, with changes in our economy and society occuring at a rapid pace, in keeping with the changes that accompanied the first effective steam engines.

They tackle the rise of new technologies both from an historical, economic, and practical standpoint.  At this point, the most interesting part of this work is the income inequality that our new technologies have created.   The cite a graph like the one below, where we see an increasingly large spread between those with a higher education, and those without.  

This is a direct outgrowth of the new information economy (one of the factors that brought Trump to power) and therefore very germane to what is happening now.  Those without an education have been earning less each decade, with a dramatic downturn recently.

Overall, this is an informative, enjoyable read, interesting; both engaging and educational – it covers so  many elements of what a great book should seek to accomplish quite successfully.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer is a difficult work to read, written by one of America’s top non-fiction writers.  Krakauer investigates the acts of sexual violence committed by members of the University of Montana football players during the last decade. 

The work is about these cases, but also about the wider problem of violence against women in our country.  He examines the various aspects of rape and sexual violence, from the effects on victims, the involvement of law enforcement, and the prosecution, or lack thereof, of reported rape cases.

This is a challenging book to read; the descriptions of sexual crimes are graphic and distributing.  There is also the palpable sense that we have a problem of massive proportions on our hands, with little in the way of quick answers. Yet this work goes a long way in helping to define the parameters of this horrible problem.  It should be a mandatory book for college freshmen.

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, by Nathaniel Philbrick

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, by Nathaniel Philbrick, is an intelligent and readable account of Benedict Arnold’s career.

Rather than the Arnold of myth, Philbrick delves into the complicated motivations of the man.  Arnold was a bundle of contradictions.  He was brave nearly to recklessness, held his personal honor in high esteem, while at the same time suffering a persecution complex (sometimes with just cause) and an overestimation of his talents.

Philbrick’s thesis is that Arnold’s treason was the cause that rallied the stalled American Revolution.  That is debatable, of course.  Washington’s overall goal was to fight the British in a war of attrition; to grind them away in the wild interior of American.  I’m not sure if Arnold’s defection helped or hurt that strategy.

Regardless, Philbrick’s book  paints the characters of the American Revolution in subtle and detailed shades.  We think we know these men and women; Philbrick throws this into doubt.

True Existence

This Chabad work, titled in Hebrew Mi Chamocha, and in English True Existence, is one of the source texts of Lubavitcher Chasidism.  It was written by the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shmuel of Lubavich in 1869.

This text or sermon is meant to flesh out one of Chabad’s prime theological positions, captured in the Hebrew phrase ein od milvado, or there is none beside him [G-d].  This is part of an overall biblical phrase regarding divine oneness, the classic position of monotheism.  There is but one G-d. 

But Chabad takes this quote in a more radical direction.  As the Rebbe explains, this phrase does not mean there are no other G-ds but G-d, or that God is one in a numerical sense, but that nothing else exists but G-d.  Our existence is radically contingent.  We appear to exist, as does our world, but it is only from our very narrow perspective.  From the divine perspective, there is nothing but the divine –  called monism in philosophy.

So ein od milvado becomes a Chabad rallying cry.  The closer we move toward monism, the clearer we see reality for what it is; in the process, our human concerns transform.  We are less attached to them, even as we fulfill them; we become more calm, compassionate, and involved. 

This book has a lofty goal.  But really, there is no goal.  We just need to open our eyes to what really exists.

Crossing to Safety

Wallace Stegner’s is a great, perhaps brilliant writer, but his work is marred by a distracting and unfortunate misogyny.  This is certainly the case with Crossing to Safety.  Essentially the story of how an overbearing wife destroys a weak willed husband, it has much the same theme as the only other Stegner book I have read, The Angle of Repose.

This is a big and off-putting problem.  Stegner depicts woman as either too strong, or too weak, almost as if the female of the species has no real part in our world but to help or hinder men.  This is a bit of a simplification of how Stegner depicts the women characters in Crossing to Safety, but not by much.  It is a shame that this otherwise brilliant writer and story teller has this flaw at the core of his creative heart.

There Is No Messiah―and You're It: The Stunning Transformation of Judaism's Most Provocative Idea, by Rabbi Robert Levine

There Is No Messiah―and You're It: The Stunning Transformation of Judaism's Most Provocative Idea, by Rabbi Robert Levine, is very much a Jewish Lights production.  It is liberal and open in its outlook, and unapologetic in transforming one of Judaism’s long standing concepts into a form amenable for modern, mostly secular readers.

As the title strongly suggests, Rabbi Levine is not in favor of the messiah as a single person.  Rather, he is enamored of certain ideas of the messianic age, when people will reach greater moral heights, and overcome their evil or bad inclinations.

Who can argue with such a supposition?  For those not familiar with messianic concepts in Judaism, this is also a good primer.  Levine walks us through the evolving ideas of the messiah throughout Jewish history.

Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It

Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It by James Climent is an utterly fascinating story about the unintended consequences of the “slave” republic established the American Colonization Society, which supported the settlement of freed slaves to Africa.

Climent presents us with a tragedy from the very beginning of Liberia’s founding in 1847.  Former slaves establish a colony in Africa, under the best intentions of both the white people who financially supported the colony, and the slaves who settled it.  Yet the settler class, who were often multi-racial, ruled the country to the exclusion of the native Africans.  Liberia was two countries, one in which native Africans were ruled by arrogant and at times corrupt official in the capital, Monrovia.

A bloody civil war erupted in the late twentieth century, essentially ending the reign of Americo-Liberians.  But their legacy remains: Liberia is still a much divided country and poor country, trying to recover from its searing legacy.

Climent presents a fascinating story of this alternate America known to few Americans. Our story is also their story.  This book should be mandatory reading.