6. War and the American Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger

war
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This is one of those books where you can almost tell that the author punched it out to take advantage the sujet de jour.

Except for the chapter on the electoral college and its history and the paragraphs describing how crazy Ahscroft is, it is not a particularly informative book.

Ashcroft's particular branch of Christianity frowns upon public dancing, which makes Footloose a political criticism well ahead of its time.

5. Modern Iran by Nikki Keddie

This is a history of modern Iran written by a Marxist historian. In the book she argues that the revolution was largely the result of a class struggle between the ruling elites on the one hand and an alliance of the clergy, the merchant class and the urban and rural poor on the other hand.

I believe that her arguments have some merit, however, as with many other Marxist historians she gets trapped by the rigidness of the Marxist historiography and fails to see that there were other causes of the revolution beyond the class struggle that she articulates.

A Debate Worth Having

Liberals of varying colors spend a lot of their time deriding Bush's foreign policy and mis-adventures in the Middle East. But what if, in four years time, we have an independent and democratic Palestinian state in stable co-existence wit Israel, a fledgling democracy in Iraq, an independent Lebanon, and no nuclear weapons in Iran. What will we say about Bush then?

The reason I bring this up is that this scenario was a virtual impossibility a few months ago but is now a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome.

We will certainly be able to roundly criticize Bush's domestic policies. But it will be difficult to describe him as an ass.