A brief but still highly padded gift to true believers. Anyone else…well, here’s a scowl for you.
Trump, the Campaign Book.
America isn’t winning, writes the author; America is crippled, which makes Trump mad. You can tell because he’s scowling on the cover. His first words are, “some readers may be wondering why the picture we used on the cover of this book is so angry and so mean looking.” Well, it’s because he “wanted a picture where I wasn’t happy,” because it wouldn’t do for him to smile when the U.S. is not winning—and say that word as Charlie Sheen would when you read, “We need a government that is committed to winning and has experience in winning.” Trump lists his qualifications in the third person: “Donald Trump builds buildings. Donald Trump develops magnificent golf courses. Donald Trump makes investments that create jobs. And Donald Trump creates jobs for legal immigrants and all Americans.” How? That’s none of your business, because if he gives you specifics, then he’ll be tipping his hand in the delicate negotiations involved in—well, winning. Thus, Trump complains, President Barack Obama loves a golf game, “but he doesn’t play with the right people.” Who should he play with? Trump’s not going to say, short of, “Believe me, I know how to use a golf course—and golf clubs—to make deals.” So Putin gets a nine iron, and we get the trophy, and all we have to do is accept Trump’s constant refrain: “Believe me….” Specifics are few, but the author’s thoughts come fast and furious all the same: Mexico will have to pay for a wall. Ronald Reagan was a nice guy, able to make us feel “so proud to be Americans.” Throw out Obamacare. And so on. By the end, if you are still unsure about Trump’s many accomplishments, make sure to wade through the 15-page (!) “About the Author” section, which begins, “Donald J. Trump is the very definition of the American success story.”
A brief but still highly padded gift to true believers. Anyone else…well, here’s a scowl for you.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-3796-9
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
The former national security advisor is still a believer in geopolitics after all these years. Like most foreign-policy aficionados weaned on the Cold War, Brzezinski (Out of Control, 1993) has been forced by the disintegration of the Soviet Union to broaden his perspective—but not very far. He sees the US as the only global superpower, but inability to maintain its hegemony indefinitely means that ``geostrategic skill'' is essential. To what end is not specified beyond the vague shaping of ``a truly cooperative global community'' that is in ``the fundamental interests of humankind,'' but in this genre, goals are commonly assumed rather than examined. In any case, Brzezinski casts Eurasia as the playing field upon which the world's fate is determined and analyzes the possibilities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Balkans (interpreted broadly), and the Far East. Like a grandmaster in chess, he plots his strategy several moves in advance, envisioning a three-stage development. Geopolitical pluralism must first be promoted to defuse challenges to America, then compatible international partners must be developed to encourage cooperation under American leadership, and finally the actual sharing of international political responsibility can be considered. The twin poles of this strategy are a united Europe in the West and China in the East; the central regions are more problematic and, for Brzezinski, not as critical in constructing a stable balance of power. This updated version of East-West geopolitics is worth taking seriously but it is also an amazing example of how a perspective can be revised without actually being rethought. (Radio satellite tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 29, 1997
ISBN: 0-465-02725-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This insightful exploration of the varieties of Americans' experience with race and racism in everyday life would be an excellent starting point for the upcoming national conversations on race that President Clinton and his appointed commission will be conducting this fall. Tatum, a developmental psychologist (Mt. Holyoke Coll.) with a special interest in the emerging field of racial-identity development, is a consultant to school systems and community groups on teaching and learning in a multicultural context. Not only has she studied the distinctive social dynamics faced by black youth educated in predominantly white environments, but since 1980, Tatum has developed a course on the psychology of racism and taught it in a variety of university settings. She is also a black woman and a concerned mother of two, and she draws on all these experiences and bases of knowledge to write a remarkably jargon-free book that is as rigorously analytical as it is refreshingly practical and drives its points home with a range of telling anecdotes. Tatum illuminates ``why talking about racism is so hard'' and what we can do to make it easier, leaving her readers more confident about facing the difficult terrain on the road to a genuinely color-blind society.
Pub Date: Sept. 10, 1997
ISBN: 0-465-09127-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
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