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 Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. 2. DEFEND INSTITUTIONS Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by action on their beha...

                                                                  IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE won the Noble Prize for Sinclair Lewis in 1930s for his postwar dystopia, where the fascist threat isn't external but home-grown.   The book is free at libraries or guttenberg.com.  Local bookstores probably have on "classics" shelves.  Amazon may be cheap and convenient, though never free. (Below is adapted from Wikipedia): Plot : In It Can't Happen Here   by American author Sinclair Lewis  an American politician, Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, quickly rises to power to become the country's first outright dictator.  Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, early on sees Windrip's fascist  policies for what they are and becomes his most ardent critic.  Se...

What did the Founders intend for a future United States? While no historian, I began reading biographies in lock-down for insight into our fractious nation. It's oddly comforting to learn of similar divisions in colonial times--a political split between the east and north (which wanted a strong Fed) and the south and west(which wanted power invested primarily in the States). During the Continental Congress, some representatives were more interested in keeping their British trading partner than war. After winning independence, there were rebellions against government authority. The Whiskey rebellion (against a tax) had to be quelled in-person by Washington and Hamilton with troops. I wondered if the optimism and unity of post WW2  America, when I grew up, was a historic aberration--result of a boom economy built on war production. Perhaps factional discord is the norm? Is our time more dire--can the center hold against the assaults on democratic ideals?  Can anything solid...

How 3 wealthy American patriots financed a 16 million dollar loan for the War of 1812 , initiating investment banking. Then came a whistleblower... "Parish, Girard and Astor jointly pledged to take more than ten million, but not at the 6% Gallatin (U.S. Treasury) had offered. Rather, they agreed to pay in 88.00 a share and in return to receive an annuity that would yield them 13 years of annual payments that would eventually total the full one hundred dollars per share. The pledged amounts were more than the trio's current combined private fortunes, a considerable risk. Nonetheless, they put up 10 million dollars' worth of the certificates apiece, and resold the rest. The big purchasers were insurers in Philadelphia, and banks and brokers in new York, and merchants in Baltimore, who all resold the certificates in smaller batches to hundreds, perhaps thousands of individuals. A list of the occupations of some of the individuals to whom Girard's bank sold the b...