A vivid illumination of the ongoing, painful and perhaps insoluble French dilemma.
Many readers recall demonstrations that followed a recent French law banning the Islamic veil. According to Guardian and New Statesman contributor Hussey (Dean, Univ. of London Institute in Paris; Paris: The Secret History, 2008), these merely continue France’s two centuries of conflict with the Arab world and the nation’s growing Muslim population, now the largest in Europe.
The author begins this perceptive but disturbing account with the 1830 conquest of Algeria, which lasted nearly two decades. Immediately, a flood of French and European settlers poured in, expelled Arabs from their farms and villages, reduced them to a semiserf status, and successfully frustrated sincere efforts from Paris to introduce the purported benefits of French civilization. Arab resentment seethed and finally exploded in 1954 in an uprising that featured unspeakable atrocities on both sides. In July 1962, Algerian independence resulted in the expulsion of more than 1 million Europeans, and the French occupation of Morocco and Tunisia occurred later. Both achieved independence with less violence, but all three nations remain impoverished and poorly governed, and the recent “Arab awakening” has proven to be a bit of a disappointment. Persistent French influence guarantees that North Africans will continue to harbor ill feelings toward France but yearn to emigrate north (now almost impossible), where there are jobs but little sympathy. Although lowbrow racism ruled in its colonies and enjoys growing support at home, educated Frenchmen despise intolerance but dismiss American-style individualism. Americans venerate “diversity.” Frenchmen consider differences sectarian, a threat to French ideals. To be French is to be a citizen of the republic first. Everything else, religion included, comes second. As can be expected, Muslims find this attitude problematic.
A vivid illumination of the ongoing, painful and perhaps insoluble French dilemma.Pub Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-86547-921-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.
A history of the right to vote in America.
Since the nation’s founding, many Americans have been uneasy about democracy. Law and policy expert Waldman (The Second Amendment: A Biography, 2014, etc.), president of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, offers a compelling—and disheartening—history of voting in America, from provisions of the Constitution to current debates about voting rights and campaign financing. In the Colonies, only white male property holders could vote and did so in public, by voice. With bribery and intimidation rampant, few made the effort. After the Revolution, many states eliminated property requirements so that men over 21 who had served in the militia could vote. But leaving voting rules to the states disturbed some lawmakers, inciting a clash between those who wanted to restrict voting and those “who sought greater democracy.” That clash fueled future debates about allowing freed slaves, immigrants, and, eventually, women to vote. In 1878, one leading intellectual railed against universal suffrage, fearing rule by “an ignorant proletariat and a half-taught plutocracy.” Voting corruption persisted in the 19th century, when adoption of the secret ballot “made it easier to stuff the ballot box” by adding “as many new votes as proved necessary.” Southern states enacted disenfranchising measures, undermining the 15th Amendment. Waldman traces the campaign for women’s suffrage; the Supreme Court’s dismal record on voting issues (including Citizens United); and the contentious fight to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “became a touchstone of consensus between Democrats and Republicans” and was reauthorized four times before the Supreme Court “eviscerated it in 2013.” Despite increased access to voting, over the years, turnout has fallen precipitously, and “entrenched groups, fearing change, have…tried to reduce the opportunity for political participation and power.” Waldman urges citizens to find a way to celebrate democracy and reinvigorate political engagement for all.
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1648-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.
Remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Smith (Rethinking America, 1995, etc.).
“Over the past three decades,” writes the author, “we have become Two Americas.” We have arrived at a new Gilded Age, where “gross inequality of income and wealth” have become endemic. Such inequality is not simply the result of “impersonal and irresistible market forces,” but of quite deliberate corporate strategies and the public policies that enabled them. Smith sets out on a mission to trace the history of these strategies and policies, which transformed America from a roughly fair society to its current status as a plutocracy. He leaves few stones unturned. CEO culture has moved since the 1970s from a concern for the general well-being of society, including employees, to the single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment and short-term increases in stock prices. During much of the ’70s, CEO pay was roughly 40 times a worker’s pay; today that number is 367. Whether it be through outsourcing and factory closings, corporate reneging on once-promised contributions to employee health and retirement funds, the deregulation of Wall Street and the financial markets, a tax code which favors overwhelmingly the interests of corporate heads and the superrich—all of which Smith examines in fascinating detail—the American middle class has been left floundering. For its part, government has simply become an enabler and partner of the rich, as the rich have turned wealth into political influence and rigid conservative opposition has created the politics of gridlock. What, then, is to be done? Here, Smith’s brilliant analyses turn tepid, as he advocates for “a peaceful political revolution at the grassroots” to realign the priorities of government and the economy but offers only the vaguest of clues as to how this might occur.
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6966-8
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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