A book of American history for all, but lawyers and journalists will especially appreciate it.
A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian looks back at the 1730s, when a single court case established the first step toward freedom of the press.
Kluger (The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America, 2011, etc.) presents the story of John Peter Zenger (1697-1746). After apprenticing to William Bradford, the appointed royal printer, and serving as his journeyman, Zenger set up his own printing company. It was not as easy as it sounds, and he had considerable backing. This is also the story of the wealthy Lewis Morris. It was the legal engagement required to secure his inheritance that set him on his quest for lifelong learning and power. Eventually becoming one of the strongest politicians in the New York area, he was the senior member of the New Jersey Provincial Council. Kluger also tells the tale of the royally appointed governor serving New York and, after Morris’ successful petition, New Jersey. Historically, governors sent to the Colonies were strong on connections but short on capital. As such, there were many instances of self-serving governors, and Morris’ role in the recall of two of those illustrates how strong his powers were—that is, until William Cosby took over. He immediately took sides against Morris’ faction, siding with the trade barons against him. Here, Zenger met the needs of Morris and his brilliant cohorts. They hired Zenger to publish the New-York Weekly Journal to be an irritant to the governor. Wise to the draconian libel laws, they carefully avoided any illegal steps. Kluger takes some time to get to the meat of the story, but the attempts to indict Zenger and the eventual trial are enlightening and frightening—frightening to see how easily the press could be quashed and enlightening to see how that freedom was secured.
A book of American history for all, but lawyers and journalists will especially appreciate it.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-393-24546-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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