by Catie Marron ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016
They’re not all hits, but this is a worthy celebration of the “one essential urban space.”
Literary disquisitions on a fundamental feature of urban life: the public square.
Red Square, Tiananmen Square, Tahrir Square: these are the places around which history has been made. However, writes Michael Kimmelman in this companion to chief editor Marron’s City Parks, such squares are, well, “rarely square”: they may be oval, round, roughly parallelogrammatic, or even free form; when they are square, such as Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, sometimes not a lot of note happens on them for large stretches of time. This handsome little book belongs on urban-studies bookshelves for many reasons, foremost of them the photographs. Together, the dozens of images make a grand testimonial to how people live their lives in public spaces, some of which have been public spaces for thousands of years, others of which are relatively new, the creation of urban planners or accidents of history. In this regard, British writer and diplomat Rory Stewart writes meaningfully of a forlorn space in Kabul, “layered like a mille-feuille cake with bright blue bags and sprinkled with the feces of men and goats,” unlikely to become the tourist destination that the Place des Vosges of Paris has recently transformed into, a place, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik memorably notes, in which “to buy an overpriced lunch in cafés filled with waiters who speak some weary bad-tempered English or German.” Some of the authors, such as Elif Shafak, who writes of Istanbul, and Alma Guillermoprieto, who portrays the Zócalo of Mexico City, should be better known to American readers; others, such as Gopnik and Zadie Smith, are a little overexposed, and Smith’s essay in particular seems tossed-off. Most of the contributions, however, are thoughtful and sometimes even surprising, and if they don’t always make you want to visit the places in question—Kabul comes to mind—they lend an appreciation for the depth of history surrounding them.
They’re not all hits, but this is a worthy celebration of the “one essential urban space.”Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0062380203
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
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by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2018
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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by Bari Weiss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2019
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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