In a warts-and-all but ultimately respectful attempt to capture the manifold contradictions and promise of Bill Clinton and his administration, Walker, US bureau chief for the Guardian (The Cold War, 1994, etc. ), portrays the president as the archetypal figure of America's postwar meritocracy. Walker characterizes Clinton's upbringing and childhood in postwar Arkansas as a quintessentially American story: Raised in a home fraught with pain and conflict, Clinton nonetheless showed early in life a powerful ambition, a deep resilience, and a hunger for success. He brimmed with self-confidence and easily acquired the badges of adolescent achievement: Among other things, he was president of his high school class and a National Honor Society member. During his years at Georgetown University and later as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and at Yale Law School, Clinton never wavered from his determination to return to Arkansas and launch a political career, and he was successful from the start, becoming governor at 32. Walker shows Clinton's many ups and downs as governor; his slow evolution into a national political figure, the most attractive of the ``New Democrats'' offering fundamentally conservative approaches to domestic issues; his problematic 1992 presidential campaign; and the humiliations of his first years in office as his administration became mired in crises and his grand health-care initiative was defeated. Walker also portrays the skill with which Clinton has responded to the Republican challenge since the loss of Democratic congressional power in 1994, with Clinton achieving successes on both foreign and domestic policy fronts and throwing the Republicans on the defensive on many important issues. Clinton, Walker concludes, has demonstrated ``strong grounds to claim his right to reelection.'' This thoughtful political biography shows that Clinton is a consummate politician and that opponents underestimate him at their peril. (b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-517-59871-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
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
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
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