One doesn’t have to admire Reagan to concur with Christie’s disdain for the “blustery loser” in today’s headlines.
A long, revealing, and sometimes sort-of-correct stump speech in honor of “the last great president.”
The title seems a neat twist on the fundamentalist what-would-Jesus-do trope, but in his way, Christie is just as much a true believer, one who longs to be seated at the right hand of Reagan. His hero isn’t just the Great Communicator; he’s also the great uniter (who inarguably pulled a lot of white supremacists and government haters), the great statesman, the great friend to all people everywhere. Christie cuts to the chase: “His version of conservatism very much included achieving stuff.” Stuff? Though he had to be dragged to it kicking and screaming, he actually pushed through a little funding for AIDS research, “despite his generational misunderstandings about the origins of the virus.” He may even have saved us from being obliterated by nuclear war. Christie does acknowledge the disaster of the Iran-Contra affair, which “provoked bipartisan uproar, launched televised congressional hearings, and…delivered federal felony indictments to a wide swath of Reagan’s foreign policy team.” Apart from that, “by the usual standards of twentieth-century America, Reagan had had a remarkably scandal-free administration.” There’s the rub and the point, for Christie unapologetically contrasts the presidency of Reagan with the sordidly corrupt presidency of Donald Trump, who at every turn the author presents as the anti-Reagan. Where Reagan saw hope in America and a beacon on every hill, Trump’s “squinting eyes conjured up the exact opposite.” Where Reagan sought to serve the people, Trump sought to help himself to the public trough. As on the campaign trail, Christie is snide, indignant, and excoriating, and his lashings of vituperation are the best and most convincing part of this otherwise undistinguished book.
One doesn’t have to admire Reagan to concur with Christie’s disdain for the “blustery loser” in today’s headlines.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781982160661
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.
A carefully curated personal portrait.
First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781510782693
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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