notanotherbookreview

"... the precedent set by the Founders demands that we examine history to understand the deep sources of tyranny, and to consider the proper responses to it. Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to facism, Nazism, or communism in the twentieth century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so." --Tim Snyder "Mr. Snyder is a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present." --The New York Times This little book of 126 pages succeeds in connecting our time with what went before. In short essays astute, wry and instructive, it lets you know what has happened, where we are and what one person of conscience can do. Here are snippets from Topics.  1. DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE Aticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. 2. DEFEND INSTITUTIONS Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by action on their behal...

A Thinking Woman's Icon, HANNAH ARENDT, celebrated in Ken Krimstein's witty and profound  new graphic novel. THE THREE ESCAPES OF HANNAH ARENDT : A Tyranny of Truth (Bloomsbury September) I read Hannah Arendt's book  Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, about the former vacuum cleaner salesman,  German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He  made sure the trains to the gas chambers ran on time packed with passengers. Arendt's account of his trial was a stunning inquiry into the man and the political system he served. Her coverage was controversial, because she depicted  not a monster, but a man frighteningly average.  Ahrendt was an intellectual, a brilliant philosopher, when she fled from Hitler's  terror--from Germany to Paris, from Paris to America.  Coincidentally, it was The New Yorker who asked her to report on the Eichmann Trial and it's the New Yorker cartoonist, Ken...

Separate but Equal ? Individual and Community since the Enlightenment By Richard Herr (Berkeley Public Policy Press). Richard Herr's book about Individual and Community is academic but accessible and well worth the effort. I read this because I wanted to understand why our Democracy worked in the past and whether our current turmoil seriously threatens that stability. We have "disruption" caused by our government's dismantelling of major institutions, as well as a rise of populist tribalism. It seems sudden that now a homogenous America, led by white males with wealth, are solely entitled to education, health care and national resources as part of their privilege, while  more diverse groups are suspect. Previously, diversity of individuals with all equally sharing resources, was a national ideal. , I look forward to a more inclusive future. So I checked the past. This conflict between a yearning for a homogenous nation vs. a desire for a diverse mosaic of indi...