by Madelynn Gingold ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2018
An impassioned political screed that’s unlikely to speak to those not already convinced.
This debut book uses the Declaration of Independence, relevant quotations, and satiric verse to argue the case against Donald Trump’s legitimacy as president.
In this work, artist Gingold brings together 16 short pieces that, with scorn, anger, and wit, call for impeaching Trump. Her opening salvo is four quotations: the first three, from presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, argue the legitimacy of striking out against an enemy when you have the facts, and the fourth—from former CBS Chairman Les Moonves—is calculated to raise readers’ outrage. Moonves said of Trump’s campaign: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” The volume’s quotations could use fact-checking and proper attribution; Lincoln’s, for example, appears to be apocryphal, and Trump did not say that Republicans are “the dumbest voters in the country.” Several pieces use rhyming verse, sometimes in the manner of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear, to comment sarcastically on American election politics, Trump’s ties to Russia and President Vladimir Putin, and the mainstream media’s seeming collusion with Republican goals. The meat of the book, though, is its presentation of text from the Declaration of Independence, interpolated with charges specific to Trump. The author’s point is that, if one set of truths arguing for revolution is self-evident, other truths could make the same case for the same purpose. Unlike the Declaration’s solemn air of objective logic, however, Gingold’s language is inflammatory, even name-calling. Her use of bold capital letters to distinguish the original from added text unfortunately gives this section the appearance of a Facebook rant: “A PRINCE WHOSE CHARACTER IS THUS MARKED BY EVERY ACT WHICH MAY DEFINE A TYRANT, immorality, bigotry, mendacity, trickery, ignorance, piggishness, lawlessness, bellicosity, and greed, IS UNFIT.” While a later section, “ALL ABOUT IMPEACHMENT,” gives further foundation to her argument through quotes from the Constitution and examples of how the process worked in the past, the author doesn’t account for opposing viewpoints or the realpolitik of why even some Democrats are holding off on impeachment.
An impassioned political screed that’s unlikely to speak to those not already convinced.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-19241-2
Page Count: 49
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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