A Mobile Bay Times survey:
'Most interesting' political reads
(Part 1 of 3)
As the summer reading season nears its August zenith, the Mobile Bay Times turned to its erudite friends and correspondents for their recommendations on the "political book" that they had found "most interesting" in their reading history.
MBT sought not to hem in its respondents, allowing them to select a work of fiction or non-fiction, autobiography, biography, essays, just whatever first came to mind upon considering the question.
"My choice would be T. Harry Williams' "Huey Long." This monumental biography was published in 1969, I believe, and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- and possibly the Bancroft Prize as well, as I recall.
As a runner-up I would say "Southern Politics," by V.O. Key Jr., published around 1950.
Of course, the masterpiece of history was Machiavelli's "The Prince," but you probably wouldn't want that in the running."
-- Ray Jenkins,
retired newspaperman
"All The King's Men. Robert Penn Warren."
-- Bob Israel,
physician
"Biography of John Adams by David McCullough by far and away. A history of our country, an insight into Adams' day and an appreciation of what a fortunate chain of events have led to us to be able to call ourselves Americans. Somewhat intentionally, McCullough also shows the differences between Jefferson and Adams, their lives and their backgrounds. And, the good news it that it reads like a novel because it was one incredible story, even if true."
-- Michael Chambers,
attorney
"It would be difficult to pick the top five of just William F. Buckley's books. But I guess if I had to pick one it would be The Shadows of Power by James Perloff. It is also difficult to leave out many of the great biographies such as Walter Lippmann and the Twentieth Century by Ronald Steel and The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo.
-- Rusty Glover,
state senator
"Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven (2000)
By: Yohuru Williams (Fairfield University)
Description:
The popular media have portrayed the Black Panthers mainly for the rhetoric of violence some members employed and for the associations between the Panthers and a black militancy drawing on racial hostility to whites in general.
Overlooked have been the efforts that branches of the organization undertook for practical economic and social progress within African-American neighborhoods, frequently in alliance with whites. Yohuru Williams' study of black politics in New Haven culminating in the arrival of the Panthers argues that the increasing militancy in the black community there was motivated not by abstractions of black cultural integrity but by the continuing frustrations the leadership suffered in its dealings with the city's white liberal establishment.
Black Politics/White Power is an important contribution to a discovery of the complexities of racial politics during the angry late 1960's and early 1970's seventies.
Table of Contents:
Preface: War Without Bloodshed?
1. Introduction: When the Colored began Moving In, we Knew our Neighborhood was in Trouble.
2. The Babylon of Black Togetherness.
3. In 1962 Richard C. Lee was the Civil Rights Leader in New Haven.
4. A New Day in Babylon.
5. There is a Riot Going on.
6. Enter the Black Panthers.
7. Servants of the People.
8. No Haven.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
Index.
About the Author:
Yohuru Williams is Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of Black Studies at Fairfield University. He is the author of A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present: Documents and Essays (2002). He also served as an advisor on the popular civil rights reader Putting the Movement Back into Teaching Civil Rights. He has two forthcoming books from Duke University Press on the Black Panther Party, co-edited with Jama Lazerow of Wheelock College, and is finishing a single-authored book entitled Six Degrees of Segregation: Lynching, Capital Punishment and Jim Crow Justice 1865-1930.
-- Shawn Bivens,
educator
"The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam."
-- Skip Brutkiewicz,
attorney
"Atlas of Warfare.
Describes the rise and fall of every known empire, starting with the Abyssinian. It does not include the Ibo. The Ibo were possibly the first civilization to build cities.
Below is an excerpt from google:
The mystery of the Ibo origin coupled with their methods of expansion make it difficult to define the actual boundaries of the Ibo's. It is believed that the Ibo originated in an area about 100 miles north of their current location at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers. They share linguistic ties with their neighbors the Bini, Igala, Yoruba, and Idoma, with the split between them probably occurring between five and six thousand years ago. The first Ibo in the region may have moved onto the Awka-Orlu plateau between four and five thousand years ago, before the emergence of sedentary agricultural practices. As this early group expanded, so too did the Ibo kingdom.
Next would be The Road to Serfdom. (by F.A. Hayek).
-- Les Barnett,
businessman, GOP official
"The Looming Tower." By Lawrence Wright.
-- Dr. Harry Coker,
retired dentist
"Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor."
-- Elizabeth S. Sanders,
Downtown Mobile Alliance
"Brunelleschi's Dome." It's on my daughter's summer reading as an in-coming IB student at Murphy. Apparently every parent reads it, too, because some one has to figure it out.
Been working on "The Alexandria Quartet" and got through one book before the library's bounty hunters came for me."
-- Henry Brewster,
attorney
"I recently read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” for the first time. I personally think it is one of the most simplistic yet profound books ever approaching the subject of socialism."
-- Jenny Lee,
The Call News
"Without a doubt, the most interesting and fascinating political book I ever read was "Kennedy and Nixon" by Christopher J. Matthews.
Regardless of one's political leanings or what one may think of John F. Kennedy or Richard M. Nixon, the relationship between these two giants of American history is incredibly complex and far deeper than many realize. They were elected to Congress at the same time and even were on a committee together. In fact, they became fairly good friends. Clearly that friendship soured, culminating of course in the 1960 Presidential Election when Kennedy narrowly (and some would argue, dubiously) defeated Nixon. It is fairly well-known that Nixon had a quasi-obsession with JFK and the entire Kennedy family, and this obsession and its related paranoia would continue to play a role in his actions long after JFK and RFK were assassinated. This is a great (and fairly quick) read that I would highly recommend."
-- Bragg Van Antwerp,
investment banker
"It's a tie for me -- 1776 by David McCullough and The Innocent Man by John Grisham, which presents a pretty strong argument against the death penalty through the telling of a true story."
-- Eddie Menton,
former city editor
"Bill Gertz: "Treachery: How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies"
Mark Steyn: "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It"
Whittaker Chambers: "Witness"
-- Brett S. Dungan,
Master Marine, Inc.
