World builders
Don't judge Philip Terzian's "Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower and the American Century" (Encounter Books) by its cover — or by the fact that just 127 pages, including bibliography and index, separate its front and back covers.
There's a lot to ponder in this accessible, thoughtful book, which the Trib phoned Terzian — literary editor of The Weekly Standard and a political and cultural journalist for nearly four decades — to discuss. Following are excerpts.
On his inspiration:
One of my main motives was ... arguing with the conventional wisdom, both about American power and about these two individuals, who are both very well known, but I think are somewhat imperfectly understood. ... Eisenhower was a professional soldier and Roosevelt was a sort of East Coast aristocrat politician, and personally they couldn't be more dissimilar, but because they independently came to kind of the same conclusions about their country and what their aspirations were for their country ... they complemented one another in that sense. And I don't want to use the word "bipartisan," but there was a sense of common purpose in American foreign policy ... and people forget that Eisenhower and Roosevelt may have disagreed about deficit spending and things like that, but on these fundamentals, they were basically in strong agreement.
On the book's brevity:
Quite frankly ... a lot of books like this are just too long. ... I always give as an example Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, which is now, I think, on its fourth volume and he's not even president yet. I've always said I'm willing to read a book about Lyndon Johnson, but not, you know, five, six, seven of them. So I just think it's self-defeating, and in this case, I had thought enough about what I wanted to say that I was able to put it in as succinct a form as I could.
On the book's relevance to today:
I think one of the pertinent arguments (is that) the Obama administration ... seems very much less inclined to exercise American power in the way that Roosevelt and Eisenhower did. I think they have very conflicted feelings about the role of the United States in the world. ... So the fundamental issue with which those two dealt is very much alive today ... and it's particularly acute right now because unquestionably we have a new administration in Washington which is moving American foreign policy in a decisively different direction. ... I tried to avoid contemporary events and issues as much as possible. ... It's been kind of a happy coincidence that people have picked up on the fact that the argument I'm making really does have a kind of contemporary application, which I think reinforces the notion I've always had, that in order to understand the world ... today, it's helpful to know what it was like in the past as well, because there are lessons you can learn that we have to relearn and relearn.
"Architects of Power" on FDR:
"Roosevelt was, above all, an inspired pragmatist: he saw that principle coincided with power, and he was capable of expressing the aspirations of the American Century in idealistic terms. ... Roosevelt may have disapproved of the idea of empire, but he also knew that the abdication of the British, French, and Dutch empires at the end of World War II would leave a vacuum to be filled by a bureaucratic empire, sewn together by treaties administered from Washington."
"Architects of Power" on Ike:
"Eisenhower not only preferred to bargain from strength, he sought an overwhelming advantage ... which is why this scourge of the military-industrial complex expanded the size of the armed forces, commissioned new generations of weaponry in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, tested atomic weapons, threatened the recalcitrant North Koreans with tactical nuclear bombs, and commissioned a secretary of state who practiced "brinkmanship" with a nuclear-armed Soviet Union."
Betsy Ross and the Making of America
by Marla R. Miller (Henry Holt and Co.)
The truth about Betsy Ross may not be stranger than what many historians consider the fiction — her legendary creation of the first U.S. flag — but it's more surprising, and indicative of life in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia. Author Marla R. Miller, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst associate history professor, fleshes out the true story of America's best-known seamstress: Ross had uncles involved in Stamp Act protests, left her Quaker church to marry her first husband, lost both him and her second husband as Revolutionary War casualties and, after marrying her third husband in 1783, told her children and grandchildren tales of Revolutionary times that "planted the seeds of her own mythology." Miller provides insight into early American women and their work, not just Betsy Ross.
James Madison Rules America: The Constitutional Origins of Congressional Partisanship
by William F. Connelly Jr. (Rowman & Littlefield)
Those who cry that today's "broken" Congress requires "reform" just don't get it, according to author William F. Connelly Jr., a Washington and Lee University politics professor. In "James Madison Rules America," he argues that congressional partisanship, polarization and "permanent campaigns" are inevitable, and that the necessity of each party deciding whether to side in Congress with the government or its opposition is an example of how Madison's Constitution affects politicians' behavior. Drawing on pluralism, party government, the Federalists, the Anti-Federalists, Alexis de Tocqueville and Woodrow Wilson, he acknowledges congressional imperfections, yet makes a strong case for skepticism toward calls for change from those who, in his estimation, fail to understand the true significance and wisdom of Madison, the Constitution and political practice.
The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists
by Aaron Klein with Brenda J. Elliott (WND Books)
This book is pitched by a publicist as explaining "why Glenn Beck isn't crazy." It's written by the Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com (Klein), with an investigative journalist and historian who, the publisher says, "endured the scorn of media colleagues for dogged blogging during the 2008 presidential election about ... Obama's clique of cronies" (Elliott). Its reception likely will depend on readers' predisposition toward its thesis. Boasting almost 900 footnotes resulting from two years of research, the book aims to shed exhaustive — and new — light on such topics as the president's college years and how he and key figures in his White House are linked to Bill Ayers, other Weathermen, Islam, black liberation theology, ACORN and the socialist New Party.
Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations: A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnibus
edited by Roger Kimball and Linda Bridges (Encounter Books)
Due out July 20, "Athwart History" collects writings from the nearly 60-year career of William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review and seminal figure in the conservative movement. Its editors are well-equipped for the task: Bridges, hired for National Review in 1969, was Buckley's literary assistant for the last five years of his life, and Kimball, New Criterion co-editor and publisher and Encounter Books publisher, is an art critic for National Review. In contrast to other, unquestionably valuable works about Buckley, this volume provides a "one-stop" opportunity for direct acquaintance — or reacquaintance — with Buckley the writer. Aimed at a mass audience yet far from "dumbed down," serious yet witty, and tackling topics ranging from geopolitics to popular culture, Buckley's writings — principled, informative, thought-provoking, influential, entertaining — are worth revisiting.
Summer fun can obscure the Fourth of July's true significance — not just Independence Day's pivotal role in American history but the near-miraculous combination of events, personalities and political and governmental acumen that produced the Declaration of Independence 234 years ago next Sunday.
To gain insights beyond the usual retelling of the Independence Day story, look to these titles — selected especially for A Page of Books readers by manager Karen Rossi and her staff at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Downtown & Business branch — that focus on our nation's Founding and the men and women without whom the United States never would have existed.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin & Selections From His Other Writings
by Benjamin Franklin (Modern Library, 2001)
Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776
by William Hogeland (Simon & Schuster, 2010)
Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America
by Jack Rakove (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation
by Ray Raphael (New Press, 2009)
To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders
by Bernard Bailyn (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003)
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
by Cokie Roberts (William Morrow, 2004)
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
by Carol Berkin (Knopf, 2005)
George Mason, Forgotten Founder
by Jeff Broadwater (University of North Carolina Press, 2006)
George Mason of Virginia
by Henri Florette (Crowell-Collier Press, 1971)
A Page of Books, written and compiled by Alan Wallace, appears on the last Sunday of each month.
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