An intelligent, witty perspective on the Trump years.
A veteran columnist chronicles the Donald Trump administration.
Even with his seasoned career as a senior producer for multiple PBS election specials and chief political correspondent of The Week Behind since 1995, nothing could prepare Connolly for the unprecedented nature of Donald Trump’s presidency. In this edited compilation of Connolly’s commentary, readers can relive the tumultuous Trump presidency through the lens of a battle-hardened political observer. From its opening page, which begins with a 2012 Sarasota County, Florida, “Statesmen of the Year Award,” the dissonance of Trump becomes wildly apparent, as the then-host of The Apprentice lambasted the media and political establishment for its unfair, “terrible” treatment of Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton—two figures he would himself harangue just four years later during his successful presidential campaign. Connolly’s smart, acerbic commentary walks readers through the Trump presidency, with concise editorials on the 2016 campaign, impeachment, mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, post-election tantrums that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, and more. Unsurprisingly, Trump presents as “mean, stupid, selfish…and unfit to be president.” Moreover, Connolly reminds readers that the ideologically nondescript Trump himself only took stances that favored his political or financial endeavors. On climate change, for instance, Trump fought “tooth and nail” against proposed wind turbines adjacent to his golf courses yet was equally passionate about building seawalls on an eroding Irish coast that threatened his property. While mostly centered on Trump, Connolly’s commentary also provides insights into his sycophants, like Sean Hannity, and rivals, like Hillary Clinton. Without minimizing the grave consequences of Trump’s actions, Connolly successfully balances astute analysis with humor. Ample altered images and other gags (such as a mock letter from Trump to Biden left in the Oval Office) complement this approach. Like all political commentary, particularly that which is read retrospectively, readers of all ideological persuasions will find passages that they politically disagree with, but many would likely agree that Connolly is a shrewd observer.
An intelligent, witty perspective on the Trump years.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2002
ISBN: 978-1-87-965229-3
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Dead Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An overdue upending of art historical discourse.
An indispensable primer on the history of art, with an exclusive focus on women.
Prominent 19th-century art critic John Ruskin once proclaimed, “the woman’s intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision,” and traces of this misguided and malignant sentiment can still be found over a century later in art institutions around the world. A 2019 study found that “in the collections of eighteen major US art museums, 87 percent of artworks were by men, and 85 percent by white artists.” There’s a lot to be mad about, but London-based art historian Hessel nimbly pivots that energy into a constructive, revelatory project. This book is not a mere rebuttal to the aforementioned discrimination; deftly researched, the text reveals an alternate history of centuries of artistic movements. With palpable excitement, the author shifts the focus from widely known male participants to the unsung female players of the time. Art aficionados will delight in Hessel’s sleight of hand and marvel at her wide, inclusive reach. Spanning from Baroque art to the present day, she effortlessly removes “the clamour of men” and, in a series of short biographical profiles, shapes a historical arc that still feels grounded even without a familiar male presence. Art history must “reset,” Hessel writes, and she positions her book as an important first step in that reconfiguration. While the author progresses mostly movement by movement, her broader tangents are particularly profound. One of many highlights is a generous overview of queer artists of the Weimar era. Hessel is occasionally uneven with how much content she allots each artist, and some perfunctory profiles feel like the result of trying to highlight as many names as possible. Nonetheless, even the shortest gloss provides enough intrigue to be a successful introduction to an artist who might otherwise be forgotten.
An overdue upending of art historical discourse.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780393881868
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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