A compelling and sensible overview of America’s emerging democratic crisis.
A veteran columnist assesses the state of American democracy in this debut collection.
Donald Trump’s “words, deeds and basic instincts,” this book asserts, “are fundamentally at odds with America’s long-held essential ideals.” And while “American democracy withstood the Trump presidency,” which served as the nation’s titular “stress test,” the United States is not out of the woods given his sustained popularity on the right and the rise of sycophants who follow in his political footsteps. An attorney, Cooper is also an active columnist whose writings have appeared in more than 100 publications. This volume, a compilation of select columns from 2019 through “the first few months of 2022,” argues that Trump represents a dangerous trend in American politics that disregards the rule of law and fundamental constitutional principles; “openly and unapologetically” challenges the outcomes of fair and free elections; and has “descended into a whirlpool of lies, false narratives and abhorrent stupidities.” And while adamant that Trump represents “the foremost threat to American democracy,” the author does not absolve Democratic politicians for actively participating in the “bipartisan race to the bottom.” Most notably, in addition to joining the toxic cacophony of hyperbolic voices that has become a staple in American rhetoric, the Democrats displayed a preoccupation and “overreaction” in their pursuit of Trump’s first impeachment that lowered the standards of the process in a way that jeopardized its legitimacy. Covering topics that span criminal justice reform to the Jan. 6 insurrection, Cooper’s columns, which are organized thematically and accompanied by short, introductory essays, are well balanced and soundly argued as individual pieces. Stuffed together in a book, the columns make for a sometimes disjointed read. Given the nature of newspaper columns, the volume also lacks references and a bibliography. Some readers may also be skeptical of the work’s idealized version of American democratic history, backed by an ample use of inspirational quotes from Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other luminaries. Nevertheless, the book’s reasoned tone and bipartisan critiques are a welcome perspective in an increasingly polarized and heated political landscape.
A compelling and sensible overview of America’s emerging democratic crisis.Pub Date: July 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-913606-68-8
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Eyewear Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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