A useful explanation for political stalemate—and a cry for reform to let younger voices have their say.
On the origins of Congressional gridlock.
Generations pass, old people depart, young people arrive. So why, given this logical order of time, do party leaders in Congress seem to be unable or unwilling to let their young colleagues have a share of the power? Public policy researcher Kornberg examines three Congressional classes—1974, 1994, and 2018—when a great number of incoming representatives were “younger, less experienced, and came from diverse backgrounds,” all campaigning on the promise of change. When the 1974 class arrived, it was in response to Watergate, a Democratic wave focused on campaign reform. Democratic leadership responded by putting these first-term legislators on important committees, sometimes even at the head, with the result, Kornberg writes, that “votes were allowed on legislation that otherwise might have been blocked by previous, all-powerful chairs.” When Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America class arrived in 1994, GOP leadership took much tighter control of the reins, with most reforms “led by Gingrich rather than the freshmen” and with Gingrich relying on GOP freshmen to support him uncritically rather than share out power. This marks a progression to the present, in which legislators increasingly cling to the party line; as Kornberg notes, when Medicare passed in 1965, it was with the support of 237 Democrats and 70 Republicans, “while Obamacare passed in 2010 with no Republican votes.” First-termers now have little sway and hold few influential committee assignments, thanks to ossified, big-donor-beholden party hierarchies—a lack of power that many try to get around by building their presence on social media “as a way to change public opinion on issues and raise money online.” Given the rise in political violence, though, many prefer to duck and cover just at a time, Kornberg urges, when “Trump’s threats to weaken Congress could galvanize the new class.”
A useful explanation for political stalemate—and a cry for reform to let younger voices have their say.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781421454580
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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