David Brooks reviews Ron Chernow's new Hamilton biography
Grok Headline matches for David Brooks reviews Ron Chernow's new Hamilton biography
"David Brooks"
"David Brooks"
01/07/2004 06:08 PMDavid Brooks
David Brooks
04/11/2005 03:50 AMmore» ..
have
nytimes.com/2005/04/10/opinion/10brooks.html?hp
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David Brooks explains
David Brooks explains
03/23/2005 05:13 AMtoo sleazy .. Wow
nytimes.com/2005/03/22/opinion/22brooks.html?hp
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"David Brooks explains"
"David Brooks explains"
03/23/2005 05:14 AMDavid Brooks this morning
David Brooks this morning
01/25/2004 05:43 AMall hat and no cattle
nytimes.com/2004/01/24/opinion/24BROO.html
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David Brooks column
David Brooks column
05/05/2004 04:04 AMnytimes.com/2004/05/04/opinion/04BROO.html
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"Immediately afterward David Brooks "
"Immediately afterward David Brooks "
04/16/2004 03:38 AMDavid Brooks: A Burden Too Heavy to Put
Down
David Brooks: A Burden Too Heavy to Put
Down
11/05/2003 07:30 AMNew York Times column today .. Required Reading .. tour de force ..
provides .. Burden ..
column
nytimes.com/2003/11/04/opinion/04BROO.html
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from David Brooks in today's New York
Times
from David Brooks in today's New York
Times
08/03/2004 02:57 PMnytimes.com/2004/08/03/opinion/03broo.html
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NYT - David Brooks: The Era of
Distortion - anti-Semitism and neo-con
conspiracy
NYT - David Brooks: The Era of
Distortion - anti-Semitism and neo-con
conspiracy
01/07/2004 06:58 PMunhinged from reality .. The New York Times ..
asks
nytimes.com/2004/01/06/opinion/06BROO.html
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David Brooks on Why the Godless Party
Candidate is Such a Turnoff
David Brooks on Why the Godless Party
Candidate is Such a Turnoff
06/23/2004 07:43 AMlack of faith .. God
problem
nytimes.com/2004/06/22/opinion/22BROO.html
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"David Brooks, "For Iraqis to Win, the
U.S. Must Lose," The New York Times ,
May 11, 2004 "
"David Brooks, "For Iraqis to Win, the
U.S. Must Lose," The New York Times ,
May 11, 2004 "
05/12/2004 05:27 PMDon't Cry for the Neocons - David Brooks
plays the "anti-Semitism" card. By
Mickey Kaus
Don't Cry for the Neocons - David Brooks
plays the "anti-Semitism" card. By
Mickey Kaus
01/09/2004 10:10 PM"Dukakis with a head cold" .. Mickey Kaus .. Kausfiles ..
Kaus
slate.msn.com/id/2093493
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David Brooks, minima culpa: My
well-known imagination was not able to
encompass the existence of a world
outside my office, but I am still, a
year later, deeply proud to have coined
the phrase "wall of quagmires"
David Brooks, minima culpa: My
well-known imagination was not able to
encompass the existence of a world
outside my office, but I am still, a
year later, deeply proud to have coined
the phrase "wall of quagmires"
04/17/2004 08:53 AMnytimes.com/2004/04/17/opinion/17BROO.html
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"David Brooks, minima culpa: My
well-known imagination was not able to
encompass the existence of a world
outside my office, but I am still, a
year later, deeply proud to have coined
the phrase "wall of quagmires" "
"David Brooks, minima culpa: My
well-known imagination was not able to
encompass the existence of a world
outside my office, but I am still, a
year later, deeply proud to have coined
the phrase "wall of quagmires" "
04/18/2004 08:15 PMNew Mobile Phone Forum Featuring
Discussion Forums, Brand Reviews, FAQs,
Service Providers Reviews
New Mobile Phone Forum Featuring
Discussion Forums, Brand Reviews, FAQs,
Service Providers Reviews
12/22/2004 01:50 AMMobile Phone Discussion Forum. Share your views and experience at
forums. Discuss all about Mobile phone manufacturers and service
providers. Checkout cell phone reviews, FAQs. [PRWEB Dec 20, 2004]
Biography of Che Guevara
Biography of Che Guevara
02/01/2005 09:37 PMWhile down in Chile, I read a biography of Che Guevara by
Jon Lee Anderson, the New Yorker magazine writer. I
recommend this book highly not only because it is so well-researched
and written but also because Che was so far ahead of his time, which
is possibly why he remains a hero for so many millions of people
today.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born in 1928 to a socially prominent
Argentine family. He was good-looking, averse to bathing, and
suffered badly from asthma. Anderson recounts dozens if not
hundreds of sexual liaisons in the first 200 pages. Che and his
dreams of social justice were irresistible to rich girls:
"One night, she and a friend, Blanca Mendez, the daughter of
Guatemala's director of petroleum reserves, tossed a coin to see which
of them would 'get' Ernesto." (pg 131) Sadly for the U.S., Che
was rejected by his one great love, a 15-year-old old rich Argentine
girl who might have forced him to go straight.
Although Che graduated from medical school he never completed a
medical internship and almost never had anything that looked like
standard employment. Until he become an official in Castro's
dictatorship of Cuba, Che lived off women with jobs: "A nurse
named Julia Mejia had arranged a house at Lake Amatitlan where Ernesto
could go and spend the weekends" (pg 138); "In March, ... Hilda paid
off part of his pension bill" (pg 139); "With some jewelry Hilda gave
him for the purpose, he paid off part of his pension bill" (pg 141);
"Ernesto now needed Hilda again for the occasional loan" and, as he
had written in his diary, to satisfy his 'urgent need for a woman who
will fuck'." (pg 166).
Che was afflicted by wanderlust from an early age though generally
his travels involved some suffering for others. From his cousin
Mario he stole three new silk shirts and sold them for travel
expenses. Che was a difficult house guest: "Staying for a night
in the barn of an Austrian family, Ernesto awoke to hear scratching...
he aimed the Smith & Wesson ... and fired a single shot. The
noises stopped, and he went back to sleep. But in the morning he
and Alberto awoke to discover that Ernesto had bagged not a puma, but
their hosts' beloved Alsatian dog, Bobby." [This was the first lethal
gunshot fired by Che Guevara.] Some of his travel diaries and
experiences show how little South America has changed: "The
bloodshed [in Colombia] was called simply 'La Violencia,' the
euphemism for what had become a national plague, and in 1952 there was
no still no end in sight" (pg 91).
Che did a bit of glider flying with his uncle and the book includes
a photo of him, the "oddball uncle", and a sailplane with a tail
number of "LV-DAY". Che appreciated fine optics: "he tried out a
new toy he had bought himself with half of his remaining funds--a 35mm
Zeiss camera" (pg 162). At his death, "several Rolex watches
[were] found in Che's possession" (pg 741). Che kept programmer
hours: "Stories abounded in Havana of foreign dignitaries who, after
being granted interviews with Che at three o'clock, showed up at his
offices at that hour of the afternoon, only to be informed by Manresa
that their appointment was for 3:00 am." (pg 446)
Africa defied Che's efforts. "Che was stunned by the number
of cases of venereal disease among the rebels... 'Almost nobody had
the least idea of what a firearm was,' Che recalled. 'They shot
themselves by playing with them, or by carelessness.' The rebels also
drank a local corn- and yucca-based brew called pombe, and
the spectacle of reeling men having fights or disobeying orders was
distressingly commonplace." (pg 642). "In a ludicrous sideshow,
the boat captain had also brought over forty new Congolese rebel
'graduates,' fresh from a training course in the Soviet Union.
LIke their Bulgarian- and Chinese-trained predecessors, they
immediately requested two weeks of vacation, while also complaining
that they had nowhere to put their luggage." (pg 666)
Richard Nixon, Vice President at the time, comes off as
perhaps the only intelligent American in the book. His own CIA
was supporting Castro because they thought that he was
anti-Communist. Nixon met with Castro, however, and reported to
Eisenhower that Castro was in fact a Communist (pg 416).
Fidel Castro earns his status as modern hero in this book. On
page 295, Castro, out in the sierra with a small army, responds to a
call for compromise with U.S. and bourgeois interests: "These are
our conditions... If they are rejected, then we will continue the
struggle on our own... To die with dignity does not require
company.". One of the first things that Castro's regime did was
introduce affirmative action to the university: "Che told the
gathered faculty and students [at University of Las Villas] that the
days when education was a privilege of the white middle class had
ended. 'The University,' he said, 'must paint itself black,
mulatto, worker, and peasant.' If it didn't, he warned, the
people would break down its doors 'and paint the University the colors
they like.'" (pg 449) Castro ended up being somewhat at odds
with Che. At the beginning of the struggle Castro doesn't care
what form of government Cuba ends up with as long as he and his
brother are in charge. After Castro has secured power he
realizes that retaining lifetime ownership of Cuba will
require Soviet support. This leads to a rift between Castro
and Che. Che wants to foment violent revolution in other Latin
American countries. The Soviets want to avoid military
confrontation with the U.S. and Castro is willing to do anything the
Soviets say as long as he can keep his job.
American military adventures abroad and foreigners' response to
them have changed little. "In 1951, both [Fidel Castro] and his
brother Raul (echoing Ernesto Guevara's own stance in distant
Argentina) had vocally opposed the Prio government's intention of
sending Cuban troops to find in the 'American war' in Korea." In
the summer of 1956 Che picks up his infant daughter and says "My dear
little daughter, my little Mao, you don't know what a difficult world
you're going to have to live in. When you grow up this whole
continent, and maybe the whole world, will be fighting against the
great enemy, Yankee imperialism. You too will have to
fight. I may not be here anymore, but the struggle will inflame
the continent." (pg 202)
When Che left Cuba for Africa he left behind a "Message to the
Tricontinental" that demonstrates his faith in any kind of violence
against the U.S., an anticipation of Osama bin-Laden:
In it he appealed to revolutionaries everywhere to create "two,
three, many Vietnams" as part of an international war against
imperialism. Che ... demanded a "long and cruel" global
confrontation to bring about the "destruction" of imperialism in order
to bring about a "Socialist revolution" as the new world order."
And in a litany of the qualities that would be required for this
battle, he cited: "Hatred as an element of the struggle; a relentless
hatred of the enemy, impelling us above and beyond the natural
limitations that man is heir to... a people without hatred cannot
vanquish a brutal enemy."
It would be a "total war," to be carried out against the
Yankees first in their imperial outposts and eventually in their own
territory. The war had to be waged in "his home," his "centers
of entertainment"; he should be made to feel like a "cornered beast,"
until his "moral fiber begins to decline," ... He urged men everywhere
to take up their brothers' just causes, as part of a global war
against the U.S.
"Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism, and a battle
hymn for the peoples' unity against the great enemy of mankind: the
United States of America. Wherever death may surprise us, let it
be welcome, provided that this, our battle car, may have reached some
receptive ears and another hand may be extended to wield our weapon
and other men may be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the
staccato singing of the machine guns." (pg 719)
The "fight first, decide on what to do once power has been
attained" strategy had worked well in Cuba and Fidel Castro's
continued ownership of that country is testament to Che's
success. But it didn't work in Bolivia where Che spent his last
couple of years trying to convince bewildered peasants to take up arms
against the U.S. Che was taken prison by the Bolivian army in
October 1967 and the U.S. government tried to drag him back to
Panama for interrogation. But the Bolivians were angry
and President Barrientos ordered Guevara executed in the
field where he was being held.
Reading this book in Chile inspired some reflection.
No Latin American country has rejected Che Guevara's philosophy
more definitively than Chile. While their neighbors put energy
into bemoaning and trying to escape American commercial domination,
the Chileans quietly go to university, accept American investments,
build farms, mines, and factories, and load goods onto ships for
export. Chile, along with Costa Rica, probably best represents
the opposite of Castro's Cuba. Have any of our readers been to
both Chile and Cuba? How do they compare? The Chileans are
certainly richer but I wonder if the Cubans are happier (their music
is certainly happier).
Another reflection that occurred to me is how much less
hope there is in today's world. Quite a few Latin Americans in
the 1950s felt that if they could only overthrow their governments
they would enter some sort of paradise of freedom and
prosperity. Women would yield their bodies if a man only hinted
at dreams of a brave new world with a different government.
It seems as though these hopes have been dashed by the failure of the
Soviet Union and the Starbuckification of China. Now it seems
that there is only one form of government from which to choose.
It will be more or less corrupt. It will be more or less
efficient. It will be more or less tolerant of opposition.
But basically the path to prosperity involves investment and hard
boring work rather than a moment of glorious political
change. How depressing is that?
RIP Hamilton Naki
RIP Hamilton Naki
06/22/2005 02:58 AM
RIP Hamilton Naki, the black surgeon
working unrecognised behind the scenes at Christiaan Barnard's
pioneering South African heart transplant.
Dean for America: Biography
Dean for America: Biography
12/27/2003 06:39 AMformer Governor of Vermont .. MISERABLE FAILURE .. optimistic ..
biography ..
optimist
deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=about_biography
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Biography of Jimmy Carter
Biography of Jimmy Carter
12/06/2003 05:06 AMthe 39th President of the United States .. Offizielle Biografie des
Weien Haus .. Biography of Jimmy Carter .. ¬Š…Š ©§ª .. Miserable
failure .. James C. Carter .. White House .. biography ..
before
whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jc39.html
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Biography of Ronald Reagan
Biography of Ronald Reagan
06/06/2004 12:04 AM"His home state is too liberal for mainstream voters, and his age will
present troubles down the line" .. people too lazy or cynical to pay
attention to the lyrics .. "defeated communism" .. 3. Ronald Reagan ..
optimism .. The
whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html
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London: The (Magnificent) Biography
London: The (Magnificent) Biography
04/22/2004 09:05 AMI've just finished Peter Ackroyd's magnificent
London: The
Biography, an 800-page history of London spanning 2,000 years of
history. I read it mostly on the tube, in London, while travelling to
one place or another, on airplanes, while flying into or out of the
city. The book is a triumph in that it manages to convey the
unknowable vastness of London's environs and dwellers and history
without ever having the hubris to imply that is has captured it or
contained it.
The prose is glorious and even drunken in places: clearly this is a
labour of love, years-long opus penned by someone who loves and is
intimate with London -- even if the city is, as he says, so large that
no person could hope to walk its every street in a lifetime. I can't
remember the last time I smiled so much while reading a book, nor when
I made so many notes of things to look up and do later.
The thing I liked best about Ackroyd's vision is the idea of
continuity, which speaks directly to an idea I've been having
lately: that books are a practice, not a product. Here's what I mean:
the Bible was a book even before it was bound between covers; the fact
that it was scroll-shaped didn't make it any less bookish. By the same
token, one of my novels, represented as a text-file, is also a book --
even if it doesn't look anything like a bound volume -- even if it
doesn't look like anything, period. A scroll, a bound volume,
a CD of audio, a text-file: they're all "books" even if they're all
different.
What a book is, is a collection of literary, manufacturing,
commercial, and technological practices. And what all these different
kinds of books have in common with one another is that their practices
are continuous with one another. A Torah in scroll is related
to a bound edition because the latter couldn't exist without the
former: the latter rises up from the former, perhaps inevitably. The
"book" is the continuous practice of writing, reading, marketing,
distributing and publishing that dates back thousands of years.
We're continuous, too. The "me" who wrote my most recent novel --
which I'm very happy with, indeed! -- is not the "me" who wrote the
one before that. The new one is informed with the lessons from the
last one, and the intervening living. The me who wrote the last book
could not have written the next one -- but the me I became
could. And those two mes are continuous with one another: one gave
rise to the next.
London is continuous. It's not a place -- its borders have shifted and
shifted again over thousands of years. It's not a race of people --
its inhabitants have changed in individual identity and culture so
many times that the culture and ethnicity of London 2004 is nearly
completely different from London 0000. It's not a collection of
architecture, or a map of roads, or a political system, for all of
these have changed and changed and changed. London isn't even its
name: London's had many names over the years.
London is a practice: London is what Londoners are doing
right now, which is informed by, midwifed by, descended from what
Londoners were doing yesterday. London is what Londoners do.
I'd suspected this, and Ackroyd nailed it up and down for me. He shows
how the currents of London are fraught with eddies, whirlpools of
continuity, so the 1960s movement to wipe London clean of its
Victorian fooforaw and build modern high-rises echoes the 1860s
destruction of 14 churches under the Union of Benefices Act, which, in
turn, echoes the 1760s demolition of the gates to the city walls
because they "obstructed the free current of air."
I've been buttonholing Londoners all month with intelligences gleaned
from Ackroyd's book -- a triumph nearly on the scale of Trafalgar
Square or the discovery of the physics of the arch or the rebuilding
after the Fire. I'll be chewing it over for years.
Peter's Hill and Upper Thames Street were laid out in the twelfth
century. Other street-surfaces and frontages have a similar history,
with property divisions remaining intact for many hundreds of years.
Even the devastation of the Great Fire could not erase the ancient
lanes and boundaries. In a similar pattern of continuity those streets
which were newly laid out after the Fire showed tenacity of purpose.
Ironmonger Lane, for instance, ahs had the same width for almost 355
years. That width was and is 14 feet, originally sufficient to allow
two carts to pass each other without hindrance or blockage. It is
another aspect of this continuous London history that its structure
can accommodate itself to quite different modes of transport.
Link"Rotten Reagan Biography"
"Rotten Reagan Biography"
06/08/2004 05:51 AMHamilton revels in Open win
Hamilton revels in Open win
07/19/2004 03:01 AMTodd Hamilton is overjoyed by his shock victory at the Open.
sucking up to alexander hamilton
sucking up to alexander hamilton
07/30/2004 03:52 PMa gun dueling bastard son of a scotch sales man: the Tupac of founding
fathers
Hamilton grabs shock win
Hamilton grabs shock win
07/18/2004 03:25 PMLittle-known American Todd Hamilton beats Ernie Els in a play-off to
clinch the Open title at Royal Troon.
Cycling: Hamilton suspended
Cycling: Hamilton suspended
09/22/2004 04:18 PMOlympic time trial champion Tyler Hamilton is suspended after failing
a doping test.
Biography: Ian Watmore, the UK head of
e-Government
Biography: Ian Watmore, the UK head of
e-Government
05/26/2004 03:03 AMPublicTechnology.net May 26 2004 6:13AM GMT
Biography of President George W. Bush
Biography of President George W. Bush
12/03/2003 04:04 AMGeorge W. Bush - Nov. 27, 2003 in Baghdad .. A miserable failure ..
official bio .. True Yalies .. simple man .. biografia .. New Haven ..
Dubya .. eight .. worse .. Bush .. 43 ..
a
whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
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The Great Apes: A Mini-Biography
The Great Apes: A Mini-Biography
03/27/2005 10:07 AMGiven the current debates of Biblical proportions (yes, you can groan
now) and the discoveries over recent times, I thought I would expand a
little on a recent diary entry and give you a biography on the Great
Apes and the evolution of humanity, as it is currently known.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
10/28/2003 11:09 PMStanley Milgram's shocking new biography
Stanley Milgram's shocking new biography
06/14/2004 11:40 AMThe Man Who Shocked The World is a new biography about
Stanley Milgram, the provocative social psychologist whose
mind-blowing experiments three decades ago are still highly relevant
in today's world of Abu Ghraib and Friendster. From the Milgram Web
site, hosted by the book's author, Dr. Thomas Blass:
"Controversy
surrounded Stanley Milgram for much of his professional life as a
result of a series of experiments on obedience to authority which he
conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly,
that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were
willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to
a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority
commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do
anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a
good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was
revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the
experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping
one for most participants.
Milgram's career also produced many other creative, though less
controversial, experiments; such as, the small-world method (the
source of 'Six Degrees of Separation'), the lost-letter technique, and
an experiment testing the effects of televised antisocial behavior
which, though conducted 30 years ago, remains unique to the present
day."
Link
Hamilton Will Keep Cycling Gold Medal
(AP)
Hamilton Will Keep Cycling Gold Medal
(AP)
09/23/2004 12:52 PM
AP - Tyler Hamilton will keep his Olympic cycling gold medal because a
backup drug test was inconclusive, the International Olympic Committee
said Thursday.
Hamilton, Burr Kin to Re-Enact Duel (AP)
Hamilton, Burr Kin to Re-Enact Duel (AP)
07/11/2004 11:37 AM
AP - The bitter grudge between their ancestors has long faded, but
descendants of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are squaring off
again Sunday with pistols in hand.
Open Golf: Hamilton leads
Open Golf: Hamilton leads
07/17/2004 02:51 PM
American Todd Hamilton surges into a one-shot lead over Ernie Els with
one round left in the 133rd Open Championship at Royal Troon.
"The Hamilton Case" by Michelle de
Kretser
"The Hamilton Case" by Michelle de
Kretser
09/02/2004 10:09 AM
The self-appointed Sherlock Holmes of Ceylon solves a murder -- but
only then does this tragic, elegiac and elegant novel begin to
investigate the real crimes of history.
Golf: Hamilton jumps up rankings
Golf: Hamilton jumps up rankings
07/19/2004 11:34 AM
Todd Hamilton moves to 15th in the US Ryder Cup points list after
winning the Open.
John von Neumann: Genius of Man and
Machine - a Biography
John von Neumann: Genius of Man and
Machine - a Biography
12/29/2003 06:06 AM
Happy Birthday, John Von Neumann .. von ..
10rit.edu/~drk4633/vonNeumann
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BIOS biography enters final chapter
BIOS biography enters final chapter
12/30/2003 01:37 PM
ZDNet Dec 30 2003 12:22PM ET
Grok Description matches for David Brooks reviews Ron Chernow's new Hamilton biography
GrokA matches for David Brooks reviews Ron Chernow's new Hamilton biography
David Brooks reviews Ron Chernow's new Hamilton biography
