A thoughtful study, certainly relevant if occasionally one-noted.
Closely observed, somewhat repetitive collection of mostly previously published essays by the author of the award-winning How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (2009).
Chagrined about the treatment of Muslim Americans after 9/11 and still puzzling over even more strenuous anti-Muslim demonstrations since the election of President Barack Obama, Bayoumi (English/Brooklyn Coll.) probes the so-called “War on Terror culture,” which ascribes a malevolent aspect to all things Muslim. As he did in his previous work, observing the lives of young Arab-American men and women in his own town of Brooklyn, the author examines the stories of people targeted unfairly as suspicious aliens simply because of their ethnic background, beginning with the Syrian traders who flocked to the United States in the 19th century. Establishing thriving communities in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, exactly where the World Trade towers stood, the first Arab Muslims suffered the same fate under early exclusionary immigration laws as the Asians, although the courts decided in a number of significant cases—e.g., that of Ahmed Hassan in Detroit in 1942—whether Arabs were white or not and could be excluded from naturalization due to their religion. In a series of essays in which themes and motifs overlap and repeat, Bayoumi critiques the New York Police Department’s invasive surveillance of American Muslim communities (“Fear and Loathing of Islam”); the U.S. government’s program of “special registration” of nonimmigrant men from Muslim-majority countries, which prompted the author’s first book (“White with Rage”); how Arabs and Muslims are “racialized” and demonized as blacks were previously (“The Race Is On”); and how many films and TV shows reflect American culture’s bias and stereotypes about Muslims. Bayoumi sagely points out the reigning ignorance about Muslim culture and how the “right-wing lunacy” has largely co-opted “the direction of global politics” (“Men Behaving Badly”).
A thoughtful study, certainly relevant if occasionally one-noted.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4798-3564-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: New York Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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