Category Archives: Non-Fiction

08.09.17
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EAST TO THE DAWN/ AMELIA EARHART BIOGRAPHY/A VERY DIFFERENT STORY

Forget for a moment the doomed 1937 round the world flight and all of the continuing speculation that continues to this day.  Set aside temporarily that Earhart was the first woman to solo across the Atlantic. Put in perspective all of her pioneering accomplishments as the world’s most prominent woman in aviation. Then settle in to read this marvelous perspective of a truly remarkable person.

Biographer Susan Butler got the Amelia Earhart story right in 1997 when she completed ten years of research and published EAST to the Dawn, The Life of Amelia Earhart. It was the sixtieth anniversary of Earhart’s fateful last flight. Of course the aviation story is extremely well told but the real story is how Amelia Earhart used her celebrity and incredible energy to universally advance the cause of women during the 1920s and 1930s.

Amelia the social worker, the world-wide lecturer on behalf of women’s rights and the establishment at Perdue University of a permanent foundation designed to advance women in the profession of aviation engineering and development.   One can only imagine her further impact had not her life ended in tragedy somewhere in the Pacific trying desperately to find tiny Howland Island  on the next to last leg of her round the world flight.

Amelia Earhart’s  celebrity was earned.  She came from Atkinson Kansas, the daughter of an alcoholic father  whose many jobs took the family east and west.  Her formal education was thwarted but she persisted, became a social worker and by sheer chance became exposed to aviation. Once hooked she never looked back. All along her rise to unimaginable celebrity she never once forgot that she represented professional career opportunities for all women.

Amelia earned her just celebrity and acclaim as an aviator but had she lived, understanding her as Butler’s book reflects, her contributions to society and women’s advancement would have been far greater than being the first woman to fly around the globe.   Having read Butler’s book I am convinced Amelia Earhart would have  unquestionably made that her lasting legacy.

In 1932 the American Women’s Association presented Margaret Sanger its first annual award.  A year later the second annual award was presented to Amelia. The presentation to Amelia was made by Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, the renowned industrial psychologist.  In her closing remarks, Gilbreth chose these words: Miss Earhart has shown us that all God’s chillun got wings.

This is the 80th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s last flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

06.14.17
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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON/DAVID GRANN/THE OSAGE TRAGEDY

David Grann’s extraordinarily researched work of non-fiction, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, details  yet another contemptible and murderous abuse of  Native Americas.  The killing of many dozens of Osage Indians in Osage County, Oklahoma were conceived and carried out by the white establishment over a period of two murderous  decades.  The motive?  A common theme of greed, in this case stealing from the Osage the mineral rights to the booming oil field discovered on their reservation  in the early 1900s.

When J. Edgar  Hoover  was first named head of what was  later to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation he prioritized the solving of the Osage Indian murders and turned to Texas Ranger Tom White to lead the investigation. The details of this tragedy are shocking. It was a conspiracy the specific purpose of which was to kill Osage and their descendants in order to steal the valuable mineral rights that had made the Osage among the wealthiest per capita people in America.  Local law enforcement was major part of the conspiracy.

Grann spares no detail in uncovering the horror of this injustice.  The accolades he has received from the literary  community speak to the importance of this work. High praise from Jon Krakauer, Erik Larsen, John Grisham and S.C. Gwynne.

David Grann also authored The Lost City of Z and The Devil and Sherlock Holmes.

 

 

 

06.07.17
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IN THE KINGDON OF ICE/ THE USS JEANNETTE

Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldier and Blood and Thunder has impeccably researched and brilliantly written the saga of the ill-fated  North Pole quest of the USS Jeannette. In The Kingdom of Ice is an adventure narrative that keeps the reader gripped to the pages throughout the journey.  If you have read the story of  Ernest Shackleton’s  expedition with the ship Endurance you will be astounded  by the incredible story of  George De Long and his ship the Jeannette.

Within these pages, author Sides unfolds the parallel story of James Gordon Bennett Jr , owner of the New York Herald, adding  historical dimension to this work of non-fiction. Publisher Bennett, always seeking ways to dramatically promote his newspaper’s  circulation , stepped forward to underwrite the entire cost of De Long’s quest for the North Pole. Bennett was the same publisher who sent Stanley to find Livingstone, thought to be lost in the depths of Africa. That story, as would coverage of the fate of the Jeannette, became a sensation as it unfolded in the pages of the Herald. 

I recommend this read with great enthusiasm.  You will be unable to leave these pages until the fate of every man who sailed aboard the Jeannette is known.

 

05.31.17
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HILLBILLY ELEGY/ A BEST SELLING MEMOIR

Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir written by J.D. Vance , is a brisk read that has established itself on the New York Times Best Seller List.  The book is a captivating personal story with a broad reach into class distinctions within American society.  Vance extends the hillbilly narrative beyond the hollers of his Kentucky heritage.

I am reminded of two similar memoirs,  Jeannette  Walls’ The Glass Castle  and Tobias Wolff’s  This Boy’s Life.  I would not attempt a ranking here but the status of Wall’s book as a best seller in this genre speaks for itself.  Time will tell if Hillbilly Elegy has similar staying power.

J.D Vance’s personal story is  a narrative of a culture that few American’s know or understand.  It’s impact is broadened because it is contemporary and opens a greater understanding of the polemic in which the country finds itself today.

Narrated with  shocking honesty, Vance’s story took  great courage to tell. It is deserving of your summer reading list.

J.D. Vance is a graduate of Yale Law School and is an Investment Banker in San Francisco.

 

05.11.17
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SHATTERED/INSIDE HILLARY CLINTON’S DOOMED CAMPAIGN

SHATTERED is certainly a read for enthusiasts of political intrigue. SHATTERED is not of the calibre of the late Richard Ben Cramer’s  WHAT IT TAKES or political writers  Caro, Goodwin or Meacham. However, Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes tell an insightful story of the disastrous 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign for the presidency.  The book raises a fundamental question of whether Hillary lost the election at the hand of herself and her organization.

A fundamental paradox raised throughout the book is the modern campaign issue of  analytics  and algorithms versus street level  political acumen and gut feeling.  Just as  the media projections of the 2016 election failed because of too much reliance on polling numbers, the direction of  Clinton’s campaign fell upon the same sword.

The writing in SHATTERED casts a broader picture of the campaign than just the numbers. It tells of infighting, sycophants, personalities, favorites and internal  power struggles.

Why did Hillary fail in  what many considered an easy win against Donald Trump ? SHATTERED  offers some answers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

05.08.17
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THUNDER IN THE MOUNTAINS

This well researched work of non-fiction is an important read for those with a keen interest in the great Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and the attendant story line of Native Americans and the Nez Perce War.  Equally important, Daniel Sharfstein’s THUNDER in the MOUNTAINS  places the story of the Nez Perce in an even broader historical context.

 THUNDER in the MOUNTAINS carefully constructs the protracted efforts by Chief Joseph  and U.S. Army  General Oliver Otis Howard to avoid what became the last of the great Indian Wars of the 1870s.   Following his participation in the Civil War, General Howard was named head of the Freedman’s Bureau and placed in charge of bringing the 4-million newly emancipated slaves under the protection of U.S. Citizenship. Howard, possessed of a substantial  ego , was shattered when much of the blame of the failure of the Freedman’s Bureau was placed at his feet.

Upon his election, President Grant sent Howard  to the Northwest to negotiate with Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce bands that as the last hold outs had refused to give up their native lands and move to government  Indian Reservations.

The author brilliantly defines Chief Joseph’s character and intellect and the melancholy of  chief’s arguments having no bearing on the outcome for the Nez Perce.  “All I ask is that my people be treated as U.S. citizens and have the same rights under the laws to pursue our rightful ownership of our home lands.”

As is my custom in this space I will leave the details of the story and the saga’s tragic ending to the telling of the author and the absorption of his readers. ” I will fight no more forever.”

As you read THUNDER in the MOUNTAINS keep in mind the parallels between emancipation and the disposition of the Native Americans and how badly the U.S. Government failed on both counts. I applaud Sharfstein for the literary manner in which he has merged these monumental epics in American History.

Also by Daniel Sharfstein: The Invisible Line, A Secret History of Race in America

I also highly recommend THE NEZ PERCE INDIANS AND THE OPENING OF THE NORTHWEST  by  Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

03.16.17
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MICHAEL LEWIS/THE UNDOING PROJECT/ NOT MONEYBALL/A DIFFERENT READ!

If you are looking for Michael Lewis’ new book  THE UNDOING PROJECT to be another MONEYBALL, THE BIG SHORT or THE BLIND SIDE, you won’t find it.

THE UNDOING PROJECT, published this year, is a cerebral look that undoes common wisdom about how we form opinions and make up our minds.  The subtitle of the book, A Friendship That Changed  Our Minds,  uncovers the relationship between two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who together broke the mold into investigating the human decision-making process.

Most appropriately, Lewis sets the scene for this work of non-fiction by explaining how  the non conventional statistical analysis of the potential of baseball players as  detailed  in his book  MONEYBALL was later used by the Houston Rockets basketball team.  The narrative quickly transforms into an  examination of exactly how psychologists Tversky and Kahneman through extensive scientific research in academia  both in Israel and the United States discovered exactly how the mind works when forming judgements  about  people and their performance potential in specific situations.  The book  advances its own unique theory of a person’s ability to think objectively.

Interspersed with the science is the personal story of two unlikely collaborators who formed an extraordinary  friendship and dramatically advanced a greater understanding of how initial perceptions can overwhelm reality.  The ” Halo effect.”  How do we examine specific individual qualities separately from the whole? Deep but fascinating.

03.08.17
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THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN GROWTH-AN IMPORTANT READ FOR TODAY

I have not read a more thorough analysis of the American economy and its resulting social implications. THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN GROWTH takes a microscopic look at the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War. From beginning to end, this 666 page work of extraordinary research sets forth a clear understanding of expectations for the economic future of American capitalism.

Robert J. Gordon has the unique ability to treat a complicated subject in a manner that is readable, compelling and enjoyable.   Time and again in reading THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN GROWTH I said, ” I get that.” Not a common response when reading about  GDP, and TFP and the exponential impact of forever life changing one time inventions. Gordon takes complicated subject matter and brings it home to the reader in a straightforward fashion. Even the layout of many dozens of trend graphs are easy to read and understandable.

So much for form.  The importance of the subject matter relates to anyone trying to figure out exactly where the U.S. economy is headed. What is the prognosis for the dwindling middle class, income inequality, immigration, wages  innovation and most important the human condition?  THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN GROWTH places the period of 1870 to 1970 under a  microscope dramatically raising one’s understanding of the impact of the first and second industrial revolutions on the economic well-being of America and in particular the evolution of the middle class following World War II.   Gordon calls 1870-1940 ,” The period of the great inventions, that will likely never be duplicated.” Gordon’s  research carries through to today with a stark comparison of exactly why economic growth has stalled even with the rapid expansion of technology since 1970.

The headwinds against replicating the growth of the American economy that were experienced in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century are formidable.  Gordon sites income in-equality, a broken educational system, stagnant wages and a misplaced understanding of the importance of immigration to bolster the productivity of an aging labor force as key elements that will create further stagnation.

This is an important book for our time and place in America.

Other interesting books on this subject include Thomas Piketty’s  Capital in the 21st Century and Tom Friedman’s most recent book Thank You For Being Late. 

 

02.21.17
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BERNIE SANDER’S “OUR REVOLUTION” ALIVE AND WELL!

” Let’s be clear!”  This familiar quote from Bernie Sanders is the perfect introduction to his recently published book detailing his campaign for the presidency. Perhaps more  important it is a detailed description of his progressive platform

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 Bernie Sanders, Our Revolution is divided into two sections. Part one reviews the origins and the execution of his campaign for the presidency.  It is an insightful glimpse of how the improbable became reality. For Bernie supporters the read is a pleasant and reinforcing journey.

The second part of the book is an excellent and detailed a count on the Sander’s progressive platform. The narrative extends far beyond the sound bites that are dictated by media coverage of campaigns. Fact based examinations of policies and programs lend substance to his ideas regarding income in-equality, climate change, corporate concentration, greed, education and health care. The reader comes away with a far greater understanding  of the depth and the rational for his ideas.  His explanations pattern his familiar straightforward and blunt style.

Having  just read Tom Friedman’s   Thank You For Being Late ( see gordonsgoodreads.com) it is interesting to discover the similarity of ideas and policy shared by Sanders and Friedman. Of particular interest is their common ground on education, climate change and income inequality.

Do not look for a lament on a lost cause because you will not find that narrative in these pages.  Bernie’s  Our Revolution, appears alive and well. I thought it appropriate to quote this battle cry from the final chapter.

” We will not be able to accomplish those goals if we look at democracy as a spectator sport, assuming others will do it for us. They won’t. The  future is in your hands. Let’s go to work.”

Let’s be clear!

 

 

 

 

 

02.10.17
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Tom Friedman’s ” Thank You For Being Late.”

In the world of incredible  acceleration of technology, information, globalization and climate change, Thomas Friedman’s latest book takes a momentary pause to reflect. Thus the title,  Thank You For Being Late.   In reality, Friedman details a world-changing so quickly that civilization itself is now in fact very late, falling far behind Moore’s Law where exponential information changes driven by technology  literally double every two years!  ” Every society and every community  must compound the rate at which it re-imagines and adapts its social technologies, because our physical technologies will not be slowing down anytime soon, ” says Friedman.  Moore’s Law will win out and societal changes will have no choice but to try to keep pace.

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Friedman’s work is not a treatise only on technology. Quite to the contrary, it is a study of the current state of humankind. ” Warning ” writes Friedman. ” In  the age of accelerations, if a society doesn’t build floors under people, many will reach for a wall-no matter how self-defeating that would be.”

Much of this work deals with the impact of climate change as Friedman documents the globe’s movement out of the Holocene period of a more perfect  natural equilibrium into the present where the climate is on the edge of changing life as we have known it to exist on the planet. Friedman writes, ” I have said it before and I will keep saying it as long as I  have the breath: We are the first generation  for whom “later”  will be the time when all of Mother Nature’s buffers, spare tires, tricks of the trade, and tools for adapting and bouncing back will be exhausted or breached. If we don’t act quickly to mitigate these trends we will be the first generation of  humans for whom later will be too late.”

Just like his books  The World is Flat, The  Lexus And  The Olive Tree,  Hot Flat and Crowded and That Used To Be Us ( written with Michael Mandelbaum) Friedman’s work is readable, understandable and written for the layman even though the subject matter can become highly technical. That is very much his literary genius. He educates.  Search gordonsgoodreads for overviews of all of Friedman’s titles.

In today’s climate both political and technical,  Thank You For Being Late could not be more timely. Become  informed, painlessly!