Amazon.com
"Today [Joseph McCarthy] exists in most people's imagination almost solely as an established icon of evil," writes biographer Arthur Herman. His very name has become an epithet: McCarthyism. Yet Herman believes it's time to reexamine the legacy, and in a brave, eponymously titled biography, he argues persuasively that "McCarthy was making a good point badly." Communism represented "a massive and intractable security problem" for the United States during the 1940s and 1950s; furthermore, "Democratic administrations had been unconscionably lax in dealing with an internal Communist threat." Herman doesn't mean to excuse McCarthy's recklessness--only to offer a balanced portrait of the man and his times. Joseph McCarthy simply couldn't have been written before the late 1990s--partly because the subject still stirs fiery passions, but also because Herman makes use of archival material that only became available after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His reassessment will no doubt be met with scorn by many leftists: "McCarthy was always a more important figure to American liberals than to conservatives. The nightmarish image of his heavy, swarthy, sweaty features haunted the imaginations of thousands of anti-anti-Communists throughout the fifties and sixties." Herman usefully points out that McCarthy actually had nothing to do with many aspects of the anti-Communist activities commonly grouped together under the label of McCarthyism, including the House Un-American Activities Committee, probes into Hollywood politics, and university blacklisting. (He also humanizes his subject: Did you know McCarthy was "a minor figure in the Kennedy circle," even dating two of the Kennedy daughters and becoming godfather to Bobby and Ethel's first child?) In the end, Herman offers an outstanding, cool-headed, and much-needed reappraisal of a poorly understood man. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Was Joe McCarthy a bellicose, shameless witch-hunter who whipped up hysteria, ruined the reputation of innocents, and unleashed a destructive carnival of smears and guilt-by-association accusations? Were McCarthy and McCarthyism the worst things to happen to American politics in the postwar era?
Or was McCarthy just a well-intentioned politician who seized a legitimate issue with the fervor of a true believer?
Perhaps something in between. For the first time, here is a biography of Joe McCarthy that cuts through the clichés and misconceptions surrounding this central figure of the "red scare" of the fifties, and reexamines his life and legacy in the, light of newly declassified archival sources from the FBI, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon, and the former Soviet Union. After more than four decades, here is the untold story of America's most hated political figure, shorn of the rhetoric and stereotypes of the past.
Joseph McCarthy explains how this farm boy from Wisconsin sprang up from a newly confident postwar America, and how he embodied the hopes and anxieties of a generation caught in the toils of the Cold War. It shows how McCarthy used the explosive issue of Communist spying in the thirties and forties to challenge the Washington political establishment and catapult himself into the headlines. Above all, it gives us a picture of the red scare far different from and more accurate than the one typically portrayed in the news media and the movies.
We now know that the Communist spying McCarthy fought against was amazingly extensive -- reaching to the highest levels of the White House and the top-secret Manhattan Project. Herman has the facts to show in detail which of McCarthy's famous anti-Communist investigations were on target (such as the notorious cases of Owen Lattimore and Irving Peress, the Army's "pink dentist") and which were not (including the case that led to McCarthy's final break with Whittaker Chambers). When McCarthy accused two American employees of the United Nations of being Communists, he was widely criticized -- but he was right. When McCarthy called Owen Lattimore "Moscow's top spy," he was again assailed -- but we now know Lattimore was a witting aid to Soviet espionage networks. McCarthy often overreached himself. But McCarthy was often right.
In Joseph McCarthy, Arthur Herman reveals the human drama of a fascinating, troubled, and self-destructive man who was often more right than wrong, and yet in the end did more harm than good.
Customer Reviews:
EXCELLENT BOOK.......2007-07-04
Thoroughly researched and excellently written, this book is a great read.
It gives a distinct picture of Joe McCarthy, and also educates the reader about the events occurring.
GRADE: A++
McCarthy's cause vindicated with good scholarship.......2006-09-25
An excellent book and invaluable for understanding this pivotal cold war episode - the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
McCarthy, on the heels of the Hiss Case in late 1949, started asking, loudly and publicly, what the administration knew about Communists in the State Department and other sensitive places, and what it was doing about it. For the next four years, and particularly after gaining the chair of a Senate investigation subcommittee, McCarthy bore down on this issue, attracting millions of followers who believed in his mission, but also making enemies among the intelligentsia, among elites threatened by McCarthy's populist style, among liberals who saw Communists as ideological allies. McCarthy's own missteps, and those of aide Roy Cohn, helped bring down his career and blacken his name. But only in recent decades has newly declassified intelligence information shown he was more or less on the right track.
It is important to remember the context of the times. The Soviets had ended any illusions about democracy in Eastern Europe. China had fallen to Mao. Manhattan Project spies had given the Russians the atomic bomb and in 1949 they detonated their first. The Korean War began in 1950. Communism was seeking to establish its influence in the developing world. The Cold War was heating up, the U.S. seemed to be losing, but meanwhile the Truman administration didn't seem to want to know about potential traitors in their midst.
Some of the best chapters here focus on historical context rather than McCarthy himself. Herman recreates the Popular Front days of the 1930s, when Communists successfully infiltrated many liberal organizations or duped liberals into joining Communist front groups. In the "Who Lost China?" debate, Communist-influenced diplomats tweaked U.S. policy to finish Chaing on Mao's behalf. And Herman renders a fine consideration of McCarthy's effect on politics between then and now, including the death and rebirth of conservatism, the death of the liberal establishment with the Vietnam War, and the Popular Front's rebirth as the New Left.
History reads quite differently from the liberal conventional wisdom when the then-secret Venona Decrypts or only-recently-availaible KGB files are factored in. Virtually no one McCarthy exposed was innocent. Today's conventional wisdom mistakenly regards Communist ties then as no more than an expression of dissent, a sympathy for the underdog. The CW fails to recognize that it was a lifelong commitment - more like being in the Mafia or a religious cult - where one swore fealty to a foreign and hostile power, created discord to destabilize one's own society, and sometimes aided spies and traitors.
Herman does not spare McCarthy's faults - his drinking, his judgment-impairing mania, his too-trusting reliance upon Cohn. He shows how McCarthy destroyed himself, such as his fit of pique during the televised Army vs. McCarthy hearings, where he reneged on a deal not to expose the Communist-front involvement of one of opposition counsel Joseph Welch's aides.
Those close to him knew the youngest senator was not the best person for this job. He was too raw, too impulsive and too unschooled in Washington's ways. But the way he saw it, no one else was doing it and the job needed to be done.
McCarthy became undeservedly vilified. No one went to jail because of him. He didn't kill anyone. Unlike dissidents in Communist states, those questioned by him were protected by due process of law and had legal counsel. McCarthy was performing quintessential Congressional oversight - shining the bright light of publicity on dark spots within the administration, to influence change through the bringing of social pressure. McCarthy often held closed hearings, when the publicity of open hearings would have helped him more, to protect witnesses or those they testified about from being smeared. His questioning style was tough but typical of a courtroom. And the government really did have Communists buried in its bowels, often with access to sensitive information, with an administration too often unwilling to act.
Herman highlights some amazing ironies of McCarthyism:
--The truest single victim of "McCarthyist attacks", someone railroaded and hounded to death in sham hearings, was McCarthy himself. Liberal journalists with little regard for the truth smeared him, and frequently.
--The executive privilege so loathed by liberals when Nixon claimed it during Watergate, was pioneered by Eisenhower expressly to stonewall McCarthy. That marked the beginning of "the imperial presidency" and decline of Congessional oversight which liberals particularly often decry - sentiments with which McCarthy himself actually agreed.
--Bobby Kennedy's well-received Congressional investigations of the Mafia and labor racketeering in the late 1950s used the identical tactics he had learned working for McCarthy, and for which McCarthy was condemned.
--The Kennedys were not only McCarthy allies, but refused to go along with the rest of Congress in abjuring him. John Kennedy scheduled surgery so that he would not be present for the vote to censure McCarthy, while Bobby discreetly attended McCarthy's funeral in Wisconsin.
--The New Left, born in 1962, was explicitly an attempt to revive Communist activity in the United States, minus the Soviet ties. The biggest purveyors of the "paranoid style" in American politics, a term often tied to McCarthy, has actually been the left, with its dark vision of a world dominated by a malign U.S. government and its all-powerful corporate allies.
This book is one of the major sources for Ann Coulter's bestselling "Treason". Coulter's polemics rouse her base but may alienate even the undecided. Herman's evenhanded tone and treatment of the subject matter, though, do credit to his work, which lends a measure of vindication to McCarthy's short but searing political career. He continues to be vilified today, through movies such as "Good Night and Good Luck". Hollywood wants to keep history's spotlight on McCarthyism, but you get the idea that's mostly to keep us from looking where our attention belongs - on what McCarthy sought to expose.
Terrific book.......2006-03-03
Professor Herman does a great job in clarifying the real story of the so-called McCarthy era. Most books and movies rehash the same tired line: innocent Americans were persecuted by witch-hunting Congressional investigators. Herman shows that was not the case. As he points out, no one was deprived of legal counsel or of their Fifth Amendment rights. The McCarthy era was far more benign than the administrations of Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, where Americans were jailed by the thousands for speaking out against the government.
Herman makes a vital point: McCarthy was concerned only with investigating Communist subversions among government employees. He had nothing to do with the Hollywood investigations. Herman makes an even more important point, one that is the heart of his book. There was a massive infestation of Communists in the government. The Truman state department did a horrible job doing background checks on government employees. McCarthyism was not, as most historians have said, a withchunt against innocent liberals. There was a legitimate problem with Communist subversion, and McCarthy was destroyed for trying to do something about it.
Herman freely admits McCarthy made errors of judgment. He also points out McCarthy was often right. I wish more Americans would read this book. What people think they know just isn't so.
A much needed balanced account of Joe McCarthy and his "ism".......2005-10-01
"Received wisdom" places Senator Joseph R.McCarthy(1908-1957)only a few notches below the likes of Hitler and Stalin in the pantheon of great political villains of the twentieth century.The fabled "visiting Martian" might find this hard to understand.While Stalin,Hitler and co waded thru the blood of the millions of victims of their tyranny,Senator McCarthy never killed anyone,never started any wars,never even had anyone put in jail! He did once drunkenly assault columnist Drew Pearson in a tender spot though! The Martian would doubtless have his amazement compounded by the knowledge that McCarthy spent his career opposing communism,a despotic totalitarian political system,responsible for countless deaths and vicious oppression across the world,setting himself against those in his own country who sought to serve the interests of foreign communist regimes and who eagerly wished to overturn the US political system in favor of the communist one.
This biography by Arthur Herman,seeks to explain the "how and why" of Joe McCarthy,the man,his career,the political context in which he operated,and the Senator's legacy.This is a broadly sympathetic picture of the the Senator and his "crusade".The only similar pro-McCarthy biographies before Herman which I am aware of,are those by Joe's friends and colleagues-William F.Buckley and Brent Bozell(1954)and Roy Cohn(1968).Biographers who have tended to "have the floor" on McCarthy,are Richard Rovere(1959)and heavyweight writer Thomas C.Reeves(1982).The latters biography has probably been seen as the "standard" one up to now(admirers of the Reeves take on McCarthy might not be so pleased about his later demolition job biography of liberal icon Jack Kennedy!)
Herman has the advantage in having access to intelligence material de-classified in the US(especially the "Venona" documents),and the Soviet archives opened after the fall of communism.This allows a much fairer assessment of the period,and McCarthy's career,grounded in solid research.
Here we see that the so-called "Red scare" of the 40's and 50's,far from being based in unjustified hysterical paranoia,exploited by seedy political operators like McCarthy,Jenner,McCarran and co,was a response to a subversive threat which was all too real.Soviet spies and agents of influence-many directly in league with Russian intelligence, were working within the heart of the American political and cultural establishment,secretly promoting communism at home and overseas.It was indeed "a conspiracy so immense"(McCarthy's words),which had seen,for example,the widespread entry of communist agents into highly influential positions within Roosevelt's Democratic administration,often with access to classified material which they passed on to Moscow.Stalin was allowed to swallow up large chunks of "liberated" Europe,China fell to Mao and communist North Korea invaded the capitalist South-all this seemingly with US acquiescence.Those,such a Whittaker Chambers(a former communist agent),who had warned the authorities what was happening in their midst,were largely ignored or ridiculed by a complacent administration and a "liberal"leaning press.It was only when the revelations surfaced about Alger Hiss,that a reluctant establishment was forced to at least look seriously at the issue.However it was generally the "outsiders"-poiitical mavericks like Richard Nixon and J.Parnell Thomas of The Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC) and Senators like McCarthy and William E.Jenner-who forced the issue to the forefront of politics.Many of the political and media elite found men like McCarthy "vulgar"-rowdy and unsympathetic.Unlike(say)the Soviet agent from Harvard,Alger Hiss,who they initially championed,farm boy Joe McCarthy was not "one of them".
The idea of a reign of terror by "redhunters" is seen to be a misleading exaggeration-in fact it was often more "respectable" and acceptable in many circles to be opposed to the likes of McCarthy than be for him-there was massive hostility in much of the press,and among the political and legal elite(though Joe did,of course have his cheerleaders too-notably in the Hearst papers and among veterans groups).The CBS TV network could still run a breathtakingly unbalanced attack on McCarthy by Ed Murrow on "See it now"(mythologized by Hollywood at the moment in "Goodnight and good luck"),at the height of "McCarthyism"(this term itself-significantly-was coined by McCarthy's target,the academic Owen Lattimore-a State Department advisor on China,who did much to promote the cause of the murderous maniac Mao and his communists in the United States)
Herman does not shrink from identifying McCarthy's faults and failings-he was a heavy drinker(it killed him),had a volatile temper,often didn't do adequate research,exaggerated,lied(which politician has not?),was a publicity hound who loved to be in the headlines,and was prone to serious errors of judgement(the biggest being over his blind faith in the Chief Counsel to his Senate Committee,Roy M.Cohn-this directly led to his downfall).But we are given a portrait here far removed from the one dimensional ogre of legend-McCarthy was basically kindly,he didn't tend to hold grudges(Drew Pearson excepted!),even when it came to his biggest political enemies like Secretary of State Dean Acheson(meeting Acheson in an elevator,McCarthy shot out his hand saying "Hi Dean!"-Acheson,coldly furious,stiffly ignored Joe,a reaction which left the Senator genuinely puzzled).His methods could be clumsy and his manner harsh(though no more than other government investigators in other areas),yet he was often right about his targets.In this context,Herman looks carefully at some of McCarthy's best known "victims" like George C. Marshall(so insouciant in allowing pro-communist advisors to guide him into effectively handing millions of Chinese to Mao),Owen Lattimore,Irving Peress and Annie Lee Moss.Even the notorious 1954 Army case(known as the "Army-McCarthy hearings")-which would destroy him politically and eventually personally-shows McCarthy was quite justified in launching his probe into Army "leaks",and came to grief thanks to his unreliable subordinates(especially Roy Cohn),his unfortunate television image and style(in contrast to his slippery unctious adversary,Army counsel Joseph Welch)and because he had taken on the massed ranks of a jittery political establishment(Democrat and Republican-including President Eisenhower),which finally decided to unite against him.
McCarthy's last years were a miserable record of political oblivion,heroic boozing(he became a hopeless alcoholic)and poor health.Ignored by the press(which was especially hard to take)and fair weather friends-only a few stuck by him such as Bill Jenner,Roy Cohn and notably Bobby Kennedy(who briefly worked for Joe and liked him)-McCarthy died of liver disease,still in his 40's.Yet when he passed away,even his inveterate enemy and victim Drew Pearson expressed genuine regret.
McCarthy-"Misunderstood" Senator.......2005-09-12
I have never read a biography of Joe McCarthy. Most of what I have always heard about him and his career has been quite negative (i.e. the blacklists, "commie" trials etc.) To be sure, Joseph McCarthy could not have been the only man involved in the blacklisting and destruction of so many reputations of politicians, artists, scientists etc. We would be giving McCarthy the man way too much credit (and from the book, it is clear that he was not all that capable.)
However, the book never looks at anything in McCarthy's career (beyond his work in the commitees investigating alleged members of the communist party or communist sympathizers.) As a man who was a senator (and supposedly working on behalf of his contituents in Wisconsin) one would think that there would be more. Mr. Herman does not discuss this. I would have liked to know what Joe McCarthy did, as a seator, for the people in the state of Wisconsin!!
In my opinion, Mr. Herman's book is a defense of Joe McCarthy, period. He does not write as an impartial observer, using the many primary and secondary sources as a historian should. There were many times in the course of the book where Mr. Herman seems to rant and interject his own subjective views about McCarthy or his era (i.e. page 90), rather than letting the evidence and his sources speak for themselves. In this way, the writing was disappointing.
Did I learn about Joe McCarthy and his era? Absolutely. However, Mr. Herman seems more desperate about getting his own conservative agenda across than writing a true and balanced history of that time.
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- Trials and Tribulations In Early Twentieth Century B.C.
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Crazy Man's Creek
Jack Boudreau
Manufacturer: Caitlin Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0920576710 |
Book Description
In Crazy Man's Creek, author Jack Boudreau tells of the characters who have "caught the fever" in the rugged McGregor Mountain Range east of Prince George. Long recognized as some of the toughest bush in British Columbia, it was home to many who chose to lose themselves.
Once there, life included confrontations with grizzly bears and raids by wolves. But if men were to snap, it was the long cold winters and the deafening silence that did them in.
Customer Reviews:
Trials and Tribulations In Early Twentieth Century B.C........2000-05-12
Jack Boudreau grew up in the central BC lumber town of Penny, which is located along the Canadian National Railway line that runs through the Fraser valley in central B.C. He was regaled as a youth with stories of the guides, trappers, settlers, prospectors and others who tried to make this inhospitable wilderness their home during the beginning of the twentieth century. He decided that these stories were too valuable to let disappear with the passing of the original taletellers and began to record their stories. After several decades of collecting data from/about these individuals, Jack has done an excellent job of consolidating the best of their stories in this pleasurably readable collection. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in outdoor adventures. The wondrous thing is that the stories are true and these robust individuals actually went through trials that the contemporary reader might find incredible.
I may be a biased reviewer in that, J. Boudreau is my mother's brother and I also grew up listening to a few of the tales depicted in this book. I can guarantee that once you pick it up, you won't want to put it down until it's finished. In my case, I read it several times. This book is worth every penny and will bring you much pleasure.
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Showdown at Crazy Man Creek (Linford Western Library (Large Print))
Elliot Long
Manufacturer: Ulverscroft Large Print
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ASIN: 0708978797 |
Amazon.com
George Wallace is the most important failed American presidential candidate of the 20th century. He rose to national prominence during the first of his four official terms as governor of Alabama (there was also the term served by his first wife, Lurleen, when state law prohibited him from a third consecutive run at the office) by fulfilling a promise made to a group of state senators: "I'm going to make race the basis of politics in this state, and I'm going to make it the basis of politics in this country." His commitment to the racial segregation he believed the people of Alabama wanted, when taken to the national level, led to the articulation of a conservative working-class voter demographic that was eventually harnessed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 elections and without which the candidacies of Ross Perot and Patrick Buchanan would seem much less plausible.
Marshall Frady's Wallace is more than a political biography; it is a portrait in words. It crackles with the liveliness of Wallace on the Alabama campaign trail, capturing the feel of an era in which Southern politicians could still publicly refer to black Americans with a certain word without the slightest trace of self-consciousness. There are some remarkable passages within, including a conversation in which Governor Wallace tries to put Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on the spot as to the potential deployment of federal troops to enforce the integration of the University of Alabama. Readers will also learn that, for all his racial demagoguery--of which he would repent late in life--Wallace was in many ways a rather liberal statesman, launching massive social programs, and in every way a canny politician despite appearances. --Ron Hogan
Customer Reviews:
Frady is an excellent writer.......2004-10-24
Has some wonderful passages, especially on Wallace's youth. Love him or hate him or neither, he had a remarkable life and was truly "a character." Frady's prose is superb!
"unbelievably likeable".......1999-11-07
Even if you don't agree with the political message or the idiological slant of this character, you will be extremely glad that you read this character depiction. This takes you through each rise and fall along with his influence on many well-known Alabama political figures.
INTERESTING.......1999-10-09
Frady definately has the usual liberal anti-Wallace attitude, but he has a lively writing style and, at times, does give credit to some Wallace's populist accomplishments.
Book Description
For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men.
He's afraid to get hurt again.
Maybe he doesn't want to ruin the friendship.
Maybe he's intimidated by me.
He just got out of a relationship.
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that -- despite good intentions -- you're wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages.
The truth may be He's just not that into you.
Unfortunately, guys are too terrified to ever directly tell a woman "You're not the one." But their actions absolutely show how they feel.
HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU -- based on a popular episode of Sex and the City -- educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship.
Reexamining familiar scenarios and classic mind-sets that keep us in unsatisfying relationships, Behrendt and Tuccillo's wise and wry understanding of the sexes spares women hours of waiting by the phone, obsessing over the details with sympathetic girlfriends, and hoping his mixed messages really mean "I'm in love with you and want to be with you."
HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman's night table. It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you. And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is.
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He's Just Not That Into You is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman's night table. It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you. And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is.
Customer Reviews:
wow.......2007-10-11
This book really makes you think about what you've done in relationships. I saw myself in many of the stories! It is just SO true. I'm on my second read to get it set in! I recommend this to anyone just out of a relationship or having doubts about anything.
I should have written this book!.......2007-10-07
Many years ago the term was "GU (geographically undesireable)". I always said that if you lived 500 miles away and a man was into you, he'd make the trip and if you lived next door and he wasn't into you, it'd be too far to go. I never bought or read this book as I thought the male author was just pompous and sarcastic about women. But, read it in a waiting room and got to laugh out loud and enjoyed the style and bluntness of the responses (even if the letters were made up). I have always wondered why women can be intelligent, attractive, interesting and interested but, when a man walks into her life (or into the room or into view of her), she becomes willing to settle for whatever crumbs he throws her way. Even in a work environment, women support men over women! Wake up ladies, they don't give up their friends or lives for us. Why do we feel we must? (No, not ALL of us, but damn near all!).
Ladies, heed Greg & Liz's advice!.......2007-09-29
This audio book is pure genious! It's straight-shooting, blunt, and full of "tough love" which hopefully will knock some sense into those of us who hang on to guys way too long hoping things will "get better". It's an easy listen, because you know it speaks to you. You will truly feel that Greg & Liz are your caring friends or siblings when you listen to their advice. I only wish Greg's live comedy show incorporated some of the material in the book, rather than the endless vulgarity he seems to think is necessary to be funny in a live performance. Stick to writing books, Greg! That's where your true talent is...
Ouch! But True!.......2007-09-19
What I like most about this book is that it doesn't allow any wiggle room for excuses. (My excuses *love* wiggle room.) The truth isn't always fuzzy but it certainly sets me free.
It's freeing for me to know that I'm strong enough to deal with the truth. Because life goes on - fabulously well - whether or not he calls. I think this book makes women stronger. No more skirting the issues. Walk tall. Besides we look a lot more attractive that way!
Marginal, obvious advice for women in denial........2007-09-08
It's hard to believe there is a market for this book. I considered it so bad I wasn't even going to drag it over the public library and donate it. I was ready to pitch this book into the garbage after only half an hour of reading, but I struggled on over several weeks, reading little bits at a time thinking perhaps I just wasn't appreciating the book's attempts at New York humor.
The marginal advice filling it still doesn't seem worth the effort of carrying the book two blocks to the library. Its success must be a symptom of how confusing the role of the modern, liberated feminist in America has become? I suppose the book is based on the folklore that "love blinds." How else could perfectly sensible women be so confused as to not see the obvious? This is a book for women who are blind, in denial, desperate, confused, dumb, from Venus, totally inexperienced, spending too much time in psychoanalysis, spending too much time rationalizing everything some guy they think they want to marry says or does to the point of reaching a hopeful conclusion when all the facts say the opposite.
Save your money. The "Dear Abby, Annie, Beth, etc." columns in most newspapers provide much better advice than this lightweight tome that was probably only quickly written to separate a lot of very confused and naive women from their hard-earned money. Don't over-analyze men. Like politicians don't pay any attention to what they say unless it happens to match how they act. Men are pretty uncomplicated as a group. Women who spend hours dissecting them over lunch with their girlfriends can't even be certain the people providing them support don't have a different agenda as far as their success in love is concerned. If you want to know more about men, talk to your mother and lots and lots of men friends who aren't just interested in getting into your panties and then with their curiosity satisfied, are ready to move on to the next challenge. Male co-workers or acquaintances are much better sources of advice than this book.
This volume really wasn't worth this much time to review, but since so many readers seemed to think it contains "Insights from Heaven" I think they've got their directions confused. At best the information provided is so obvious that a child should be able to recognize it. Much of the more complicated advice is bull, or seems like it might have come from a laughing, horned and hoofed creature residing in a place far away from Heaven and hotter than the planet Venus.
Book Description
Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, Lauren Manning-a wife, the mother of a ten-month-old son, and a senior vice president and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald-came to work, as always, at One World Trade Center. As she stepped into the lobby, a fireball exploded from the elevator shaft, and in that split second her life was changed forever.
Lauren was burned over 82.5 percent of her body. As he watched his wife lie in a drug-induced coma in the ICU of the Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Greg Manning began writing a daily journal. In the form of e-mails to family, friends, and colleagues, he recorded Lauren’s harrowing struggle-and his own tormented efforts to make sense of an act that defies all understanding. This book is that e-mail diary: detailed, intimate, inspiring messages that end, always, as if a prayer for a happy outcome:
LOVE, GREG & LAUREN
We share this story day by astonishing day. Greg writes of the intricate surgeries, the painful therapies, and the constant risk of infection Lauren endured. Through his eyes we come to know the doctors, nurses, aides, and therapists who cared for her around the clock with untiring devotion and sensitivity. We also come to know the families with whom he shared wrenching hospital vigils for their own loved ones who were waging a battle that some would not win.
It was, most of all, Greg’s belief that Lauren would win her brave fight for life that kept him writing. Through his eyes we see what she could not-their toddler’s first steps, the video of his first birthday party, the compassionate messages of hope from around the world. And we are there as Lauren gradually emerges into awareness, signaling first with her eyes, then with smiles, her understanding of the words Greg speaks to her, the poems he recites, the songs he plays.
Most miraculously, we are there when Lauren walks out of the Burn Center.
The world knows all too well both the nightmare and the heroism that have marked this terrible time in history. But no account of September 11 matches the astonishing personal story Greg Manning records in these spontaneous and heartfelt pages. It is a story that invites us to share, e-mail after e-mail, the perilous course of a mortally wounded woman who by sheer will and courage emerges from near death because she is determined to live for her husband and her son. And it is equally the story of a man who, as he stays by her side through these long weeks and months, discovers anew the depth of his love and admiration for the woman who becomes his hero.
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Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, Lauren Manning-a wife, the mother of a ten-month-old son, and a senior vice president and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald-came to work, as always, at One World Trade Center. As she stepped into the lobby, a fireball exploded from the elevator shaft, and in that split second her life was changed forever. Lauren was burned over 82.5 percent of her body. As he watched his wife lie in a drug-induced coma in the ICU of the Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Greg Manning began writing a daily journal. In the form of e-mails to family, friends, and colleagues, he recorded Lauren's harrowing struggle-and his own tormented efforts to make sense of an act that defies all understanding. This book is that e-mail diary: detailed, intimate, inspiring messages that end, always, as if a prayer for a happy outcome: LOVE, GREG
Customer Reviews:
Awesome Read!.......2005-08-17
This book is a truly inspirational read. I haven't quite finished yet, but with every page comes more heart. I, like most others that have or will read this book, feel such an emotional draw to both Greg and Lauren, and my heart breaks over everything they went through. Reading this book not only instills a new found hope, but also a new understanding of what exactly it was like to have been in the shoes of people who were through so much and lost so much that terrible day 9/11/2001.
On a side note, the link that Greg mentions in one of his emails (politicsandprotest.com)is unfortunately no longer a valid link. FYI it will take you to a Penthouse site. Oops, I guess that's what happens after time. :(
Not as good as expected.......2005-05-28
I had really high hopes for this book and was really looking forward to reading it. I'm glad that I paid a dollar for it used because my money would have been wasted at much more than that.
Let me start by saying that I admire Lauren. She had the courage and will to survive a situation that myself and most others would not have. That being said, the way this story was told was just not interesting enough to take up an entire book. I found the first half of the book to be very tedious reading; I really had to force myself to keep going. I think that was because the first half was mostly about what was going on in Greg's life. Since Lauren was in a coma, there wasn't much for him to say about her so his emails are filled with extremely long detailed narratives on his son, his band, the Yankees and his feelings on 9/11. I suppose this kind of information might be interesting to friends and family, but I found it mostly boring to hear about the kind of food served at his child's birthday party and to hear in detail about each person he talked to every single day.
The second half of the book was better as Lauren woke up and the emails focus much more on her and her recovery. Since this was what I wanted and was expecting from this book, I found this part to be a much more enjoyable read.
As other reviewers have noted, the Mannings live a much more wealthy lifestyle than most Americans. I don't have a problem with this, but I just couldn't relate to them or their lives very well. I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if the Mannings were more like the rest of us. The only real struggle in the book was Lauren's physical recovery; the Mannings didn't have trouble paying the bills, had nannies to take care of their child, and Greg was able to take several months off work with no difficulty at all. To me, these everyday struggles would have made this story far more interesting. It also would have been interesting to hear from Lauren and Lauren's family more; all we ever heard was Greg's point of view on everything.
I would recommend this book only to the Manning's friends and family, to people who lost loved ones on 9/11, and those looking for information on the recovery process of burn survivors. For everyone else, you may or may not find this book interesting enough to finish. If you feel you want to go ahead and read it, consider picking it up at the library or buying it used.
Dear Alex.......2005-04-18
There is a review on this book that you can read by a reviewer named Alex that I think all would find very informative. He is clearly a lot smarter, and by all means a lot deeper, than the writer of this book, and he is not afraid to tell you that. His superior intellect has come to the brilliant conclusion that a wealthy, and therefore soulless, burn victim is much less sympathetic than a poor, prolietariet one. He was also upset that Mr. Manning, with all of his money, could not buy himself better opinions on life, love and 9/11 other than the "banal" ones he professed in this book.
Apparently, Mr. Manning has not bought membership to the same blog site that feeds Alex his easy-bake revolutionary ideas like a sludgepump day in and day out. All Greg Manning has to go on in order to formulate his opinions and perspective on the 9/11 attacks is the FIRSTHAND, LIFE-SHATTERING VICTIMIZATION OF HIS FAMILY BY THE WORST ATTACK IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He's earned the right to his outlook on these events more than Alex ever will. Alex sounds like somebody who never experienced getting the #@&*-end-of-the-stick in life, and if he did, he's emerged from it in a cynical, twisted state. You can not like the book, without calling a burn victim's husband stupid. Stupid.
Greg Manning seems like a decent man who has demonstrated through his actions and words the true love he has for his brave wife. This is a fantastic, heartwarming book about an inspirational fight for survival that will make its readers cry in both sadness and joy. Those who have had loved ones in critical care will relate and sympathize for these people, irregardless of their economic success.
amazing story of inner strength and the true meaning of love.......2004-11-14
wow! he loved his wife dearly and the vows/meaning of marriage too often put aside were adhered to without question and without regret.. but, more gripping was her strength, her perseverance and her will to overcome almost certain death .. couldn't put it down, she "chose" to live for her son rather than give in to the peace of death .. her husband was a liferaft, but, she was the true hero ... actually, read this about 2 years ago and thought i'd put in a review at this time .. a bit sad and depressing but a very worthwhile read that will stay with you for a long while and make you appreciate what you have
Something rubbed me the wrong way..........2004-05-12
...about this book. While I cannot begin to imagine the horrors Lauren has experienced and I wish her and her family the best,I was left a little cold by the contents of some of Greg's missives. There are frequent references throughout the book to Lauren's beauty, and the reader is left with the feeling that it's Greg who is more dissappointed with Lauren's swollen face and missing hair than she is. Also -- Greg spent quite a few nights playing bass with his band at local bars while his wife lay in her hospital bed. Who was home with baby Tyler each and every night? Lauren's parents, who receive little in the book in the way of thanks. They're the true heroes of this story.
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