A passionate call for social change.
An African-American novelist muses upon the world’s enduring racial tensions in this nonfiction work.
Miller (Seeds of Magnolia, 2014) asserts that “Everybody on the planet acts as if they are angry,” but “Although a lot of things are in disrepair, they can be fixed.” Black and white people alike can be racist, he says, and “We should stop making decisions, stop liking, and stop disliking based on the color of a person’s skin.” Referencing recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as his own experiences as an African-American man, he notes, “No one can intelligently argue that Blacks are not targeted by law enforcement officers.” Yet Miller also relates how white parents allowed him to study alone with their daughter. At another point, he notes, “We take it upon ourselves to judge others, but the Bible tells us that we should not” and uses the example of same-sex marriage: “If same sex relationships are wrong, then, according to the Holy Bible, God will judge and then render the punishment should there be any….Telling people who they can or cannot marry is getting too involved in what should be personal choices.” However, he devotes much of his book to detailing why white supremacists won’t let social harmony happen. He describes how a “rogue coalition” will likely mobilize to deal with the fact that white people are projected to no longer be the majority in America by 2042, saying that Asian, Latino, or Hispanic people “will be counted as White in order to maintain the White majority.” Miller also discusses how those seeking “one world government” would likely also assert white supremacy, as well as escalate other atrocities. Miller, who previously tapped into his own mixed-race family history to craft a Civil War–era novel, has written a thought-provoking work that’s most powerful when touching on his own experiences and encouraging others to embrace his stated philosophy: “I acknowledge acceptance of the multicultural diversity of the human race, knowing that every individual is different, yet all are equal.” While Miller may intend his detailing of various nefarious activities to serve as eye-opening warning, readers may wish that he spent more time on how American society could be changed for the better. Still, this book is clearly heartfelt and may serve as a conversation starter.
A passionate call for social change.Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5123-9047-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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