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Playing the Shadow Game
By Greg Waldmann – Feb 2010 | One Comment
Playing the Shadow Game

Since the days of T.E. Lawrence, reporters have been providing the West with carefully-wrought (or overwrought) tales of the Middle East. A new book comments on the excesses–and maybe commits a few too.

Coming Out of the Room
By Tom Cardamone – Feb 2010 | No Comment
Coming Out of the Room

Stuart Weisberg’s biography of Barney Frank may be scattered and incomplete, but it’s got one huge saving grace: Frank’s own witticisms on nearly every page.

Yikes!
By Greg Waldmann – Dec 2009 | One Comment
Yikes!

Unlike most prior White House wonks, Matt Latimer aw-shucks his way through history and into deep, deep trouble; Greg Waldmann reviews Speech Less

The Empire Strikes Back?
By Greg Waldmann – May 2009 | No Comment
The Empire Strikes Back?

Edward Lucas, in The New Cold War, puts a modern face on the hoary geopolitical struggle between the Russian bear and the American eagle. Greg Waldmann sorts the players and evaluates the stakes.

EMK
By Thomas J. Daly – Apr 2009 | No Comment
EMK

For half a century, Senator Ted Kennedy has been carving out a legacy in Congress. The legacy and the man come into focus in Thomas J. Daly’s review of Last Lion.

President Pepys
By Steve Donoghue – Mar 2009 | No Comment
President Pepys

Ronald Reagan was the only modern U.S. President to keep a daily journal. Steve Donoghue plumbs The Unabridged Reagan Diaries in search of the diarist’s soul.

Free with Subscription! Order Now!
By Greg Waldmann – Feb 2009 | No Comment
Free with Subscription! Order Now!

Evan Thomas, under the aegis of Newsweek, with substantial researcher assistance, after the editing of … well, “A Long Time Coming”, the first post-election account of President Obama’s campaign, got written somehow. Greg Waldmann goes into it with high hopes – and then conducts the autopsy.

The Education of Barack Obama
By Greg Waldmann – Oct 2008 | One Comment
The Education of Barack Obama

A mere month remains until the most fiercely fought and most historically pivotal American presidential election of the last half-century. In July, Greg Waldmann served up an in-depth look at Republican John McCain. Here, just in time for the election, he does likewise for Democrat Barack Obama.

The End of the End of the End of the End of History
By Greg Waldmann – Aug 2008 | No Comment
The End of the End of the End of the End of History

In his latest book (a slim one this time), Robert Kagan again probes the socio-political state of the West. History is back, he tells us—about a week after he told us it was gone. Greg Waldmann helps us to to keep track of the epochs without a scorecard in his review of The Return of History and the End of Dreams.

The Truth and John McCain
By Greg Waldmann – Jul 2008 | One Comment
The Truth and John McCain

In covering John McCain’s life and accomplishments, the American press has been, how shall we put it? less than tenacious. There are real stories they’ve yet to explore, or so argues Greg Waldmann in his first piece as Open Letters‘ Politics Editor.

Nunc Dimittis
By Steve Donoghue – Jun 2008 | No Comment
Nunc Dimittis

Ted Sorensen was the most loyal of JFK’s retainers and the last to finally spill the beans about the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Steve Donoghue walks us through the worthy—if somewhat hedging—memoir of an eloquent and haunted man.

What Went Wrong?
By Greg Waldmann – Apr 2008 | No Comment
What Went Wrong?

Many readers forgave Michael Scheuer the angry bloody-mindedness of Imperial Hubris because of the merciless critiques of the Bush administration, but Greg Waldmann reports that in Marching Toward Hell, illogical anger is about all Scheuer has left

Irreverence by Half-Measure
By Greg Waldmann – Mar 2008 | No Comment
Irreverence by Half-Measure

He makes tools; he uses fire; he caucuses with interest groups: this is Dana Milbank’s Homo Politicus. Greg Waldmann assesses Milbank’s field notes, wishing the taxonomist had been more exacting.

Not Quite Détente
By Greg Waldmann – Feb 2008 | No Comment
Not Quite Détente

Books lamenting our fractured political system are as commonplace these days as polling and pundits, but, as Greg Waldmann discovers, the historical rigor of Ronald Brownstein’s The Second Civil War helps elevate it above its pandering peers.

The Right Man for the Job
By Greg Waldmann – Dec 2007 | No Comment
The Right Man for the Job

Does Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason really tell us anything we didn’t already know about our dying national dialogue? Greg Waldmann’s answer is yes.

Costly Friendships
By Greg Waldmann – Nov 2007 | No Comment
Costly Friendships

Aside from the stammering anger they’ve stirred up, have John W. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt added anything substantial to the Middle East debate? Plenty, Greg Waldmann writes, but not for the reasons they wanted.Aside from the stammering anger they’ve stirred up, have John W. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt added anything substantial to the Middle East debate? Plenty, Greg Waldmann writes, but not for the reasons they wanted.