A former collegiate star athlete and theologian considers the ongoing battle for Black civil rights in America.
“Our lives are not just resistance,” writes Stewart. “Our lives are not just lessons. We are not heroes. We are not villains. We are human—as beautiful as we are terrible.” The recognition of Black humanity forms the core of this eloquent book. The author recounts going from a pious childhood (his nickname was Church Boy) to a college career playing football at Clemson, where well-meaning White Christians took him under their wing and deracinated him to the point that he was close to despising not just his fellow Blacks, but his own Blackness: “I had passed into the other world, the white world, and I had become free, and wet, and washed, and clean, and white as snow, and white as white folk desired me to become.” Then came Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and the slain parishioners at a Charleston church, and the misgivings came. Stewart turned away. “It wasn’t Jesus nor James Baldwin who radicalized me,” he writes. “It was white people. Apathetic white people.” Drawing on a churchly tradition of vigorous sermonizing, Stewart examines the fruits of that radicalization—e.g., the phenomenon of Black rage, which, though “tricky in America,” is a perfectly appropriate response to injustice. While justly enraged himself, he insists on Black humanity and the necessity of embracing not just the struggle and the anger associated with it, but also the very human impulse to love, embrace, and even forgive: “Jesus does not hurt people in order to love them…he did not cover up his pain by enacting it onto others.” Stewart’s Christian message is broadly ecumenical, with its deeply felt demand that things must change in a society that, as far as Black people are concerned, “loves your production, but…does not value your body.”
An inspired and inspiring treatise that deftly blends religious faith with political activism.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-23962-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Convergent/Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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A solid work of investigation that, while treading well-covered ground, offers plenty of surprises.
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An account of the last gasps of the Trump administration, completing a trilogy begun with Fear (2018) and Rage (2020).
One of Woodward and fellow Washington Post reporter Costa’s most memorable revelations comes right away: Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling his counterpart in Beijing to assure him that even after Jan. 6 and what Milley saw as an unmistakable attempt at a coup d’état, he would keep Trump from picking a war with China. This depiction has earned much attention on the talking-heads news channels, but more significant is its follow-up: Milley did so because he was concerned that Trump “might still be looking for what Milley called a ‘Reichstag moment.’ ” Milley emerges as a stalwart protector of the Constitution who constantly courted Trump’s ire and yet somehow survived without being fired. No less concerned about Trump’s erratic behavior was Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House, who studied the psychiatric literature for a big takeaway: “Do not humiliate Trump in public. Humiliating a narcissist risked real danger, a frantic lashing out if he felt threatened or criticized.” Losing the 2020 election was one such humiliation, and Woodward and Costa closely track the trajectory of Trump’s reaction, from depression to howling rage to the stubborn belief that the election was rigged. There are a few other modest revelations in the book, including the fact that Trump loyalist William Barr warned him that the electorate didn’t like him. “They just think you’re a fucking asshole,” Barr told his boss. That was true enough, and the civil war that the authors recount among various offices in the White House and government reveals that Trump’s people were only ever tentatively his. All the same, the authors note, having drawn on scores of “deep background” interviews, Trump still has his base, still intends vengeance by way of a comeback, and still constitutes the peril of their title.
A solid work of investigation that, while treading well-covered ground, offers plenty of surprises.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982182-91-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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