ERA Reviews

A Brilliant Book from a Brilliant Teacher...Saxe delivers a very adequate description of the politics of Arlington, Texas. Saxe is knowledgable in the field of Politics, and his book is a definate must-read if you are interested in the local politics of an average American city.

Thanks to Larry Keenan's masterful photography, we are left with a visually potent view of the Beat Generation and beyond. Keenan's photo-documentation is necessary, for it captures many essential moments of Ginsberg, Whalen, Cassady, McClure, Dylan, and many others. Without Keenan's illustration of people and events that have already hooked us deeply, we would no doubt be struggling along empty-eyed, wondering where's the color, the depth, the light, and the angle of the Beats? We know their literature; we know something about their personal biographies. Yet equally (if not more) important is knowing what everything looked like. Keenan has provided us the images. He has provided us the most incredible ocular journey, one that goes wham and hits us with sentiment and longing. Keenan wasn't just behind the camera; he was and is part of the rich fabric that wraps around several ripples of 'eras,' including the Beat Generation. Keenan has transcended a few decades of American history and created a movie for us that is shot in still-frames, but which is alive and three-dimension.
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In this short, carefully- and concisely-argued book, the author does an excellent job in situating Lincoln within the political setting of the 1850s and in describing the course of events that resulted in his election to the Presidency. This book is largely an answer to those who would contend that Lincoln showed little promise of greatness before supposedly stumbling into the Presidency, where it is acknowledged even by those critics that he rose to the heights demanded by the times. The author certainly admits to the elements of circumstance in Lincoln's ascent. He was a Whig, or a moderate, in a state Illinois that had become increasingly important in national elections.

While it may have appeared that Lincoln was politically dormant in the early 50s, his behind-the-scenes political activity became obvious when he became a key anti-Nebraska activist in 1854. As a Whig, Lincoln lost a very close contest in the Illinois legislature for the U.S. Senate (legislatures elected senators in that era). From 1854 to 1856 it had become obvious that both the Whigs and the upstart Know-Nothings could not deal with the slavery issue, which led to their demise. By 1856 Lincoln had finished second in the running for the Vice-Presidential nomination at the first national Republican convention, and in the process had firmly established himself as a leading Republican in Illinois.

It was the continued Kansas crisis and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision in March of 1857 and the reactions to them that put Lincoln on the national stage. The court decision had affirmed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in the Kansas-Nebraska Act under a principle of Congressional non-intervention in territories. But Senator Stephen Douglas contended that his doctrine of popular sovereignty continued to hold. Both Lincoln and most Republicans found the indifference or neutrality of popular sovereignty to the spread of slavery to be repugnant. Thus began a series of exchanges and seven formal debates between Douglas and Lincoln before the elections of 1858.

As a senator from mostly anti-slavery Illinois, Douglas had been forced, at the end of 1857, to denounce the machinations of the proslavery element in Kansas in trying to force their constitution on a mostly slave-free territory. In a shrewd and unprecedented political move, Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln for the U. S. Senate to counter the infatuation of Eastern Republicans with the newly recreated Douglas. Lincoln fired the first shot in the senatorial campaign with his famous "House Divided" speech where he insisted that a nation divided over slavery could not stand.

One of the more controversial ideas that emerged from the debates was Douglas' Freeport Doctrine. In skirting Lincoln's question of whether territorial legislatures could exclude slavery, Douglas claimed that such a legislature's failure to pass laws that favorably policed slavery was tantamount to formally excluding it. The Democratic illusion that non-intervention and popular sovereignty were benignly equivalent had been exploded. According to the author "Southerners could see the walls closing in on them, and the defection of Douglas vividly dramatized the growing isolation of slave society." Ignoring Dred Scott, the South began to insist on the enactment of positive slave codes for the explicit protection of slavery in territories.

Lincoln narrowly lost the senatorial contest in Illinois in 1858, but the issue of slavery had been discussed on the national stage, as it never had been before. While Lincoln had asked the hard questions about slavery, he remained a moderate in Republican circles, and, as such, perhaps the only Republican that could have been elected President in 1860. It is clear that Lincoln had no intention of attacking the institution of slavery in the South. The Southern demand for slave codes applicable to territories was simply irrational given the fact that it was generally agreed upon that no territories were even suitable for slavery. It is most clear from reading this book that had the extremists of the South permitted Lincoln to exercise the fundamental decency and strength of character that he had, that there would have been no reason to precipitate the destruction of an entire way of life.

I enjoyed reading this book. It really does great justice to Dylan and Dante. This book is a wonderfull read. It is really interesting and insightfull. I happen to know Jenny Ledeen and she is a true Dylan expert. I will be happy to get you a copy of her book, signed and everything. I will also talk with Jenny soon and get her to write a review for you. If you want this book email me I will send you a copy.

While some of the methods described have faded out of sight (primal scream therapy, est, etc) this book is still a useful (and entertaining) tool in analyzing the continuing flim-flammery of popular psychology. While expressing sensitivity towards those seeking help with real emotional and mental difficulties, Rosen questions the power and effectiveness of pop psychologists and their painful, expensive, and often humiliating methods.

Part I consists of the philosophical concepts relevant to psychology. The central ideas, presented in their essentials, lay the foundation of Branden's approach, illustrated in Part II and all of his future work. Part II deals with the central theme of Branden's life work: self-esteem. His radical approach is in stark contrast the ideas of the time and to the self-proclaimed self-esteem proponents in recent years.

His approach is reality oriented: Branden outlines the inescapable need for self-esteem, its source in reality and the consequence of the failure to live in accord with this need. The contrast between legitimate self-esteem and counterfeit self-esteem help to clarify and define this crucial concept.

The book is, one the whole, theoretical and condensed. I am always amazed to find it shelved in the self-help section. This book should be read in conjunction with his latter works: The Disowned Self, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem and The Art of Living Consciously. The journey will be rewarding.

I have read this book, and it rocked my world, literally! In addition, the author is impossibly sexy. If you can get a hold of a copy, I guarantee you will go to bed with it under your pillow every night.

Douglas Anderson has managed to produce a rich and extremely stimulating intellectual biography of Benjamin Franklin. He traces Franklin's ideas as reflected in his various writings throughout his life, with special focus on his literary and philosophical influences. For instance, he shows that Franklin, even in his teenage years, managed to produce a work of rather impressive learning and erudition, viz. Silence Dogood. This work quotes extensively from the popular English Republican work "Cato's Letters," and reflects explicitly the philosophical ideas of the great moral philosophy Lord Shaftesbury. Anderson ably demonstrates how his ideas changed and evolved with time and experience, as Franklin moved from being a poor apprentice to a publisher, scientist, politician, and revolutionary diplomat. He analyzes the full range of his thought on a myriad of subjects, including politics, religion, and science. In the end, this work is a major accomplishment that offers the interested reader a vast amount of enjoyment and education.

To review F. Lanford Smith's book requires knowledge of the subject material in at least an equal to the author's ability. There are very few of us left that understand vacuum tube design. Most that are around considered Smith's book the Bible for circuit design during the historical evolution of electronic equipment prior to the inception of the transistor. To review this book would be technically arrogant and presumptuous. Instead we should stand in awe and be thankful that he had the drive to record his knowledge with such clarity and leave us with a wonderful historical record of that era.

Reconcilable Differences: U.S.-French Relations in the New Era by Michael Brenner (Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh) and Guillaume Parmentier (Professor, University of Paris II and head of the French Center on the United States at the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales, Paris) is an evenhanded look at modern-day international relations between America and France, especially during the past decade. From economic tension, to clashes in NATO, to the dual face-off of superpower vs. multipolarity, Reconcilable Differences succinctly summarizes the highs and lows of the recent international interactions between the two nations and offers a guarded but insightful relationship projection through the near future. Also available in a hardcover edition ... Reconcilable Differences is a welcome and informative contribution to International Studies reading lists and academic reference collections.