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GUNS OR BUTTER

Name: GUNS OR BUTTER
Author: Irving Bernstein
ISBN: 0-19-506312-0

LYNDON JOHNSON'S PRESIDENCY

by Irving Bernstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1995

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A careful, densely detailed account of a troubled administration. Bernstein follows his Promises Kept: John F. Kennedy's New Frontier (1991) with a long treatment of Kennedy's successor, a tormented man who had served as ``an extremely unhappy Vice President.'' Shunning the psychobiographical approach of many recent studies, Bernstein instead focuses on the complex political maneuverings that Johnsonwho was famously good at complicated politickingused to so much advantage to get his programs through Congress. He notes that Johnson was not embarrassed to change positions with shifts in the political winds, as when he abandoned an ambivalent, please-everyone position on civil rights to sponsor the most thoroughgoing civil-rights legislation in recent American history, arguing that ``a huge injustice has been perpetrated for hundreds of years on every black man, woman, and child in the United States.'' Bernstein emphasizes Johnson's ability to build coalitions of unlikely alliesconservative Dixiecrats, say, and left-leaning northerners like R. Sargent Shriverand to arrive at consensus to further the ambitious goals of the Great Society. Bernstein notes Johnson's failings as much as his successes, notably in environmental issues, to which Johnson often seemed indifferent, and, of course, in his conduct of the Vietnam War. (Strangely, that war figures little in Bernstein's account, which favors domestic over international matters.) His passing remarks are often as revealing as his larger analyses: For example, when Johnson learned that Interior Secretary Stewart Udall had named Washington's new federally owned stadium after LBJ's old rival Robert Kennedy, the president killed an order for a new million-acre national park in southern Arizona, Udall's former congressional district. Such small moments add much to the larger picture that Bernstein so skillfully paints. The author's mastery of historical materials is evident on every page of this useful and welcome book.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-19-506312-0

Page Count: 608

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.