People on the Carleton College alumni e-mail list often suggest good reading to one another. Susan Schnur is someone who added membership in this little group to her participation in the Carleton list. I was impressed with her wide-ranging reading and cogent recommendations. Last spring, she wrote from Maine about these books:
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Well, I have finished Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke. As I read it I had different thoughts with every chapter culminating with "WOW!" when I finished. So I will start with the first chapter. It starts with September 11. As we all can do, he describes the day in minute detail. I was greatly impressed with the actions of everyone in the administration that day as he described them. (I know many criticize the fact Mr. Bush was flown from place to place and didn't come back to the White House until evening, but I have always believed that was exactly the right thing to do. This book reinforced that belief.)
The main body of the book gives history of terrorism as it relates to the United States. Richard Clarke has been much involved in defending the United States against terrorism. There are many events in the last twenty years or so that, if I knew about them, it was only peripherally. Suffice to say, much of the planning that allowed the government to behave impeccably on 9/11 happened because of Richard Clarke and a number of named people in the book.
He goes into the frustrations of dealing with the Bush administration. He seemed to think Bush is intelligent enough, but the administration itself was set up so he is isolated from opinions of the professionals and only hears one side of any position. Clarke was very kind about Condoleeza Rice whom I believe to be completely incompetent. Most of this part of the book is stuff we knew from other news reports.
I think, although it was not explicitly stated, that, had the administration gone on to really fight a war against terrorism, he might never have written the book. After all, although people, the FBI in particular, messed up prior to 9/11, it is the danger into which the post 9/11 actions have put us that have caused him to jump up and down and wave his arms and say, "STOP!"
Overall, I think the book was a must read. I really want to hear what the rest of you have to say.
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I hadn't read the book The Price of Loyalty partly because I thought it would be mostly economics which I find very hard going, and partly because I was bigoted enough to figure I wouldn't be interested in a book about someone who had been CEO of Alcoa and Treasury Secretary under Bush. I recognize that bias in myself, however, and I decided I had better read the book, especially as John Dean cited it in his book.
As it turned out, had I been paying attention, I would have learned that The Price of Loyalty was written by Ron Susskind, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Thus it was not the least difficult to wade through.
I disagree with about two thirds of O'Neill's fiscal positions, but I entirely agree with his pragmatic outlook. One will seldom find O'Neill making decisions based on ideology.
I found this book fascinating because it shows the inner workings of the Bush administration. Richard Clarke had not met regularly with Bush and his cabinet, but O'Neill was very much the insider, meeting with Bush alone regularly as well as meeting with the cabinet. You can't get much better than that with this super secret presidency. As another plus, O'Neill is a good friend of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan so we get a look at him too. I urge everyone to read the book.
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I just finished Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883. It was a great read. Since it was written by a geologist, I had not expected as much about the times and the history, but the author, Simon Winchester, spent a lot of time researching the minutiae of people's lives in the 1800's. This is the kind of thing that fascinates me. He has produced a book that is a slice of life at the time of the eruption of Krakatoa. He goes on to put the whole event into the context of social change.
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Thank you, Susan. As these books fade from the front pages of current events, it's perhaps time to reflect on them again.
Write Tell a little bit of the world what you think.
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By Ken Wedding. 08.19.02 Updated 08.17.04.
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