by Daniel Blackman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2019
A convincing but fairly boilerplate critique of Trump’s America from a progressive politician.
A debut political work proposes a kinder, more inclusive patriotism.
Nationalism has meant different things at different times in different places, some of them positive and many of them decidedly not. Blackman sees the current surge in nationalism in Donald Trump’s America as one of the most pernicious types: one built on demonizing groups already marginalized in society, including immigrants, racial minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community. But is there another form of nationalism available to the United States at this critical moment in the country’s history? “We can reinterpret nationalism for the coming generations,” writes the author in his introduction. “Nationalism could be more than a collection of symbols, flags, anthems, and languages. It could be about the unseen, the virtues we can share and the spirit of humanity that binds us together.” Blackman is himself the son of Barbadian immigrants, one of whom served as an Army Ranger. The author was also a Democratic candidate in 2016, running unsuccessfully for the Georgia State Senate against a man who would later adopt some of the most dehumanizing tendencies of Trump’s nationalism. Relying on his own experiences for guidance, Blackman identifies the country’s failures of compassion in recent years and describes how Americans can build a better sense of national pride by improving the way they treat one another. The author discusses a wide range of subjects in an accessible, sometimes-oratorical prose: “We’re on the verge of, if not living in, the first generation of humanity to passively accept large-scale government surveillance, and it’s not just young people. The Patriot Act wasn’t passed, or supported, by the teenagers of today.” His positions are rather typical of what one might expect of a progressive American politician in 2019 (and one can’t help but wonder if this book isn’t written as a statement of intent for some future campaign). There is a rushed quality to the writing that suggests it would have been improved by another round of edits. Even so, it’s hard to disagree with many of the points Blackman makes about the ways in which various American systems have broken down due to the neglect and apathy of the majority.
A convincing but fairly boilerplate critique of Trump’s America from a progressive politician.Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63183-621-3
Page Count: 199
Publisher: BookLogix
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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