An engrossing history that sheds light on our own fractious times.
A revealing biography of a complex, contradictory political leader.
For more than three decades, James Claude Wright Jr. (1922-2015) represented Fort Worth, Texas, in Congress, including stints as majority leader and, finally, in the position he coveted: speaker of the House. A liberal Democrat from a conservative district, he served under eight presidents, earning a reputation as an astute pragmatist “able to bridge divides.” Flippen (History/Southeastern Oklahoma State Univ.; Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right, 2011, etc.) draws on Wright’s memoirs, diaries, and papers; copious library and newspaper archives; and interviews (including conversations with Wright) to offer a definitive, richly detailed biography. Besides creating an indelible portrait of Wright, the author offers a vivid, eye-opening history of profound change in American politics since the 1950s, when Wright was elected to Congress: “consensus politics giving way to harsher partisan discord, and compromise turning into personal invective.” By the time Wright was forced to resign in 1989, “partisanship and scandal, driven in part by more efficient gerrymandering and the proliferation of new media, now defined government.” No leader is without enemies—and Wright, Flippen reveals, made some poor personal choices—but the successful campaign to oust him reflected a pervasive, malignant “devolution of political civility” incited by a vicious Newt Gingrich. In addition, his style of leadership was undermining his power, with many Democrats resenting “his forceful hand” and his tendency to dictate rather than consult. Wright’s liberal views were circumscribed by his conservative roots: progressive on many issues—the environment, education, and civil rights—he nevertheless supported the Vietnam War; opposed abortion and forced school integration; and upheld citizens’ right to bear arms. Flippen examines his relationships with vastly different presidents, most of whom—Ronald Reagan excepted—he found ways to support. He even found common ground with Richard Nixon, refusing for too long to believe the “litany of dirty tricks and corruption” accusations that led to the president’s resignation.
An engrossing history that sheds light on our own fractious times.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4773-1514-9
Page Count: 540
Publisher: Univ. of Texas
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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