and now for something completely different.....

The influential books of my youth
From middle school to the first years of my professional life, these immediately came to mind.


One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (Signet Classics) (Paperback)
~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I read this book in the 6th grade, probably because my Dad had just finished it and had left in on a table in the living room. It changed my reading habits forever, leading me to abandon my beloved Tom Swift Jr. series for more substantial fare.


All Quiet on the Western Front
~ Erich Maria Remarque

I read this during the summer prior to my senior year in high school while i was recovering in bed from a strange illness. With lots of time on my hands, I read several books, I know, but this is the one that stands out in my memory. With the possibility of being drafted in the coming months if I didn't go to college, I remember becoming more interested in matters of war and peace that summer.

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Looking back, I wonder if my hostility to the war in Vietnam might have been shaped by this work, which I read during my sophomore year in high school.



The Catcher in the Rye
~ J.D. Salinger
I think my appreciation for wry, ironic humor was stimulated by this classic. It led me to books like A Separate Peace, but to The National Lampoon, too. The final book on this list is a selection probably stimulated by Salinger as well.



The Year Of Decision, 1846
~ Bernard DeVoto
I read this in a college course in the History of American Westward Expansion. I loved how he wove separate strands of events together to create this narrative history: the ill-fated Donner party, the Mexican War, the acquisition of Oregon. Great stuff!



Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism
~ Edgar Snow
This was an assigned reading for a course in modern Chinese History, I think in my freshman year of college. It confirmed in my mind that I wanted to major in history.

The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn
A friend from my dorm was assigned this book in his course in modern U.S. History. Kahn opened my eyes to racial injustice.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein
This writer imagined a world without racial distinctions in this sci-fi classic.

Victors' Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial
~ Richard R. Minear
I read this in a college course on Vietnam, taught by the author. It is not just the book that is so memorable, however. He influenced how I teach, as I do what he did, asking my students to become critical readers (asking, as he did of us, who is the author; what is his/her world view; what is his/her thesis; what arguments does the author provide in support of the thesis; were you persuaded?) Before he retired last year I contacted him to let him know how important he was to my career.


The Ginger Man
~ J.P. Donleavy
See The Catcher in the Rye

words for this blog

Given the meaning of "schadenfreude", I plan to work these words into future posts

splenetic bad-tempered, ill-tempered, angry, cross, peevish, petulant, pettish, irritable, irascible, choleric, dyspeptic, testy, tetchy, snappish, waspish, crotchety, crabby, querulous, resentful, rancorous, bilious; spiteful, malicious, ill-natured, hostile, acrimonious, sour, bitter, malevolent, malignant, malign; informal bitchy.



ANTONYMS good-humored.

The Sore Losers of American Politics

In the world of youth sport, we teach children that they should retain their dignity after a loss. In fact, after a youth soccer game it is common for the two teams to go through a hand-shake ritual, with the winners and losers congratulating each other. I thought about this as I watched the political theater the GOP engage in this past week in the aftermath of passage of the big health insurance reform bill. The cheerleaders for the losing team (Palin, everyone on Fox News, Cheney, Romney, Rove, et. al) shrieked that the winning team was unfair to their team. Their team leaders (the legislative MINORITY leaders and the 2008 GOP presidential candidate) wowed that they would never again play against the winning team. They even exhorted their fans to engage in violence against the winning team. It makes me wonder if any of these people know anything about sportsmanship.

Leave it my favorite economist to provide some clarity.

retired Bank of America chieftain loses his private jet

Yesterday it was announced that Bank of America director Chad Gifford will no longer be able to ride the company’s private jet for free. What is it about corporate fat cats that makes them worthy of private jets in the first place? It is all part of the fiction of their indispensability. They all serve on each other's boards of directors so they vote these perks for each other. Then they collectively spin the story that their perks are a response to market forces. Give me a break! Given their performance over the last few years, the leaders of the big banks have proven that ANYONE can do their job. And as for market forces, I don't see any international banks clamoring for the services of these corporate "stars". The time has come to reign in these foolish pay packages, and distribute the money to the investors and the work force.

What Coakley's Loss Means

The Democrats still enjoy a super-majority in Congress. The big question is, will they continue to be timid, or will they use that majority to pass the legislation promised in the 2008 election. It is amazing that Bush did whatever he wanted to do, with a smaller majority, whenever he wanted to do so (Iraq, for example).
So, for a party still in the majority, Coakley's sorry defeat should mean nothing.

Shared Sacrifice

One of the elements that identified the GREATEST GENERATION was its capacity to forfeit immediate gratification for a greater purpose. This carried over into great endeavors, such as the Space Race and staunch opposition to the Soviet Union. It had its low moments, too, such as the Vietnam War. But on balance, I admire the shared sense of sacrifice that animated its policy-making.

We lack that sense today, despite great opportunities for shared sacrifice. We send our treasure (in the form of deficit spending) and a small proportion of our youth to fight two stupid and unnecessary wars. Where is the sense of mission that characterized this political culture for much of our history, and where are the leaders who can articulate a unifying purpose? The GOP offers tax cuts as the great hope for the future, the very antithesis of shared sacrifice, as they prefer to reward those at the top. The Dems appear capable of offering nothing more than "GOP light" proposals (witness the broken campaign promises regarding health care).

A fault-line in the clash of cultures

A belief in free speech is a characteristic of modernity. With all its faults (environmental degradation, to name the worst), it trumps the pre-industrial world preferred by fundamentalist Islamic jihadists . This can be seen in the long-running saga of the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, a book published in 1988. Because we so prize free speech and free inquiry, Westerners, especially secular westerners, view such a anti-modern view with contempt. However, this fault line between two worlds is not so neat a cleavage. I was thinking about the free speech angle the other day, when it occurred to me that an avowed terrorist somehow managed to smuggle an incendiary device onto a flight to Detroit. Despite his father's warnings to the State Department, the son's name was never registered in the "no fly" data base. Contrast this with the treatment of the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, who was denied entry to the United States for his views on Salman Rushdie.

Consider the on-going tale of the Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet with a turban shaped like a bomb. It is depressing to realize that this probably will not be the last attempt on the artist's life. We applaud his courage, as we celebrate his right to free speech. But what of the rights of Yusuf Islam? In the clash of cultures, free speech for whom?