Powers (History/CUNY, Staten Island), author of Secrecy and Power (1987), on one of the defining concepts of 20th-century American politics. Few things have provided as clarifying a political acid test- -as well as rallying point—in American politics as anticommunism. From President Wilson to President Reagan, politicians were defined in large part by their stance on this crucial issue, especially in the Cold War years following WW II. Powers characterizes American anticommunism as a ``complex, pluralistic movement,'' and in his overview of its history it becomes apparent that anticommunism has encompassed a broad spectrum of beliefs, from uninformed paranoia to intellectual neoconservatism. Less strong is the author's assertion that the movement's story is not one of extremism. His own pages are full of vivid examples of anticommunist heavy- handedness, starting with the 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover, who conducted a brutal, iniquitous, glory-seeking bust of communist groups in 23 states in 1920. In later years Joseph McCarthy famously imagined Reds throughout American political and cultural life, while Richard Nixon fanned paranoid anticommunist flames and rode that paranoia to power. On the responsible side? Well, there is historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who redefined anticommunism for American liberals as the struggle between free and totalitarian societies in his 1948 book The Vital Center. Powers sums up anticommunism as a positive force, citing a 1990 article from Foreign Policy: ``Anticommunism envisioned a strong and positive purpose for America, a leadership role not just in containing Soviet communism but in expanding and perfecting democratic capitalism.'' Perhaps it is a testament to his evenhandednesss, perhaps it is due to the memorable lunacy of American anticommunist rage, that this statement, made at the end of his book, retains a wistful quality. Anticommunism informed and twisted the political discourse of this country and this century, and Powers provides a knowledgeable view of the phenomenon. An illuminating book.
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1996
ISBN: 0-02-925301-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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