Carol Ann Duffy, 'Deportation'
sually at this time of year, we look back on the many presidential biographies and histories that were read and reviewed in the past 12 months. Unfortunately, the past 12 months resulted in little in the way of personal reading, not necessarily because of a lack of good books or good authors, but because of a number of personal transitions, changes and other personal commitments. Only 6 books were reviewed in this community, and not all were strictly presidential biography or history. One was a very well-researched work of fiction, and the other was properly an economic text. Here's a rundown of what was read and reviewed in the past 12 months.
1. President Without a Party - The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy (reviewed here): Christopher Leahy endeavors to understand how and why the subject of his book, President John Tyler, was such a strong supporter of such a reprehensible practice as slavery, though this is not the central theme of the book. This biography is really a journey to discover who John Tyler Jr. really was. Tyler presents as a very challenging and complicated study. The persona of the first "accidental President" is full of contradictions and mysteries. John Tyler is at times principled and community-minded, at other times selfish and ego-driven. Quite often it is virtually impossible to discern his motives, though the author makes a valiant effort to do so. Raised among the slaveholding gentry in the "old south" by a father who fought in the Revolutionary War and who was once a roommate of Thomas Jefferson, the future president acquired both his father's desire to be a community leader as well as the Jeffersonian principles handed down to him. But as the author makes clear, Tyler was someone whose political beliefs rested on shifting sands. A Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democrat, Tyler first admired and later broke with Old Hickory (Andrew Jackson) before a later reconciliation with the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. He left the Democrats to join the newly formed Whig Party, only to refuse to tow the party line as dictated to him by his nemesis Henry Clay, once in the White House. Tyler would ultimately be expelled by the Whigs, but never trusted by the Democrats, giving rise to the book's title. Even in the final acts of his life, Tyler would present first as someone wanting to preserve the Union before becoming a strong supporter of the Confederacy.
Leahy does not place his subject on a pedestal nor is the book a castigation of its subject. He takes Tyler as he finds him, defending Tyler when he is being unfairly treated, and calling him out when Tyler deserves it. In this respect Leahy deserves high marks for his fair treatment of his subject. At times the author goes into an overly detailed description of some of the less exciting aspects of Tyler's life, such as his vetoes of the Whigs' bank bills. At other times, subjects which might have garnered more attention are reduced to a few paragraphs, such as the famed "Princeton" incident (when an explosion on board the ship killed Julia Gardner's father as well as two members of Tyler's cabinet, among others.) The book can be slow reading at times, but this is due to the author's fairness in presenting all of the facts about his subject in order to allow the reader to reach conclusions that are not skewed by drama produced by selectivity in presenting the facts.
2. Millard Fillmore-Biography of a President by Robert Rayback (reviewed here): This is not a new book. It was written in 1959 and remains the most scholarly consideration of the life of the 13th President. But in this the era of cancel culture, it seemed relevant to examine Fillmore's life and consider whether a New Yorker is deserving of the same treatment of historical erasure that has befallen many southernors. With the benefit of second thought, a 62 year old biography may not have been the best material on which to consider this question. The text of this work runs some 435 pages and there are portions of Fillmore's life which are given more attention than others. The author frequently speaks confidently about Fillmore's thoughts and motives, telling the reader what his subject was thinking at various points in his life. This is likely because the most oft-quoted source material for the book is the Millard Fillmore Papers, a collection maintained by the Buffalo Historical Society. This is not to disparage the author's meticulous research or his impeccable academic credentials. The problem is that this biography is heavily weighted in defense of its subject because Fillmore himself is given the last word in justifying his actions, many of them demonstrating questionable judgement. For Rayback, Fillmore's desire to keep the nation together was a core principle that justified all manner of decisions that we would question today. Fillmore was not alone as a northerner in his tolerance of "the peculiar institution" of slavery, but it is difficult to understand how Fillmore courted the votes of abolitionists while giving whole-hearted support for the Fugitive Slave Act, legislation which compelled northern law enforcement and governments to return escaped enslaved persons, or even how Fillmore could even overlook the immorality of slavery at a time when enlightened persons were coming to realize what a great wrong it was. Rayback makes no attempt to explain this, though one motive appears most likely. Fillmore was not a leader like Lincoln. He was first and foremost a politician whose studied demeanor was in reality an exercise in determining which way the political winds were blowing so that he could set his sails in the direction of political expediency.
3. The Devil May Dance by Jake Tapper (reviewed here): CNN anchor Jake Tapper follows up his 2018 novel The Hellfire Club (reviewed here in this community) with his latest work The Devil May Dance, the second mystery in the Charlie and Margaret Marder series. Congressman Charlie Marder and his brilliant wife Margaret are back. Eight years have passed since we last visited them. The former academic and WW2 veteran is now a four-term House member with a growing family and a growing problem. The pressures of the job are taking their toll on him and his drinking is getting out of control. He's had to compromise his principles in order to win re-election as a Republican in a liberal New York district. There's a new President in the White House (he liked the old one better) and Charlie is not a big fan of the Kennedys. Charlie's problems get worse when his father, venerable Washington DC lawyer and political fixer Winston Marder, is arrested for racketeering. Hoping to help his father out of his predicament, Charlie reluctantly takes an assignment that he is pressured into by the hardball playing Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy. With Margaret in tow, Charlie agrees to go to Hollywood to serve as a consultant on the film The Manchurian Candidate. There the Marders come into close personal conduct with some of the most famous entertainers and other tinsel town personalities of the time, including Frank Sinatra and the famed "Rat Pack", John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, L. Ron Hubbard of the Church of Scientology and directors John Frankenheimer and Alfred Hitchcock. They also encounter several of the famed mobsters of the day including Sam Giancana.
Tapper repeats a demonstration of his literary prowess as he writes another page turner and keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Tapper is so convincing in his ability to make fiction seem like fact, that it is only in the sources and acknowledgements section that the author lets the readers know what portions of the story are rooted in fact and what parts are the product of a brilliant imagination. I was fooled on at least one major element of the story. The dial is set just right in this book in the mixture of history with mystery. The subject matter of this book will appeal to so many interests: history, politics, pop culture, cinematography, and mystery to name a few. The writing is superb and makes it such an enjoyable read.
4. A Return to Normalcy?: The 2020 Election that (Almost) Broke America (reviewed here) is a compilation of essays performing a post mortem of 2020 United States Presidential Election as well as many of the other elections that followed in its wake, including those in the US Senate and House, Gubernatorial contests and even some of those in state houses. It is written by political scientists and journalists and it is both a technical analysis of the voting results that is heavily reliant on exit polling data, as well as editorial commentary on the results of the election. This book is not an anecdotal account of the election timeline, and does not contain any insider accounts of the candidates' doings, and readers hoping to find this should look elsewhere. As the title suggests, the book is objective in its statistical recounting, but not necessarily in its analysis. The analysis and opinions pull towards the Democratic poll, with one essay pitting the two sides as "good versus evil." (One can guess in which roles the article's author casts the two political parties.) While there is plenty of blame to apportion, the loss of objectivity is unhelpful in a time of intense political polarization, when the nation is in need of healing and unity. In an election where over 74 million people voted for the losing side, it is too superficial or short-sighted to simply write those voters off as evil or wrong-headed, without making an honest effort to understand the issues that drove them in that direction. This book can make for very dry reading and is not a good selection for anyone looking for post-election story telling. It is however a good sourcebook for those interested in statistical analysis with a view for crystal ball gazing into what might happen in future elections to come.
5. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (reviewed here): Bob Woodward, who will forever be remembered as one of two Washington Post reports to break the Watergate scandal, and Robert Costa, also a Washington Post reporter, have written their chronicle of the last days of the Trump Presidency, the 2020 US Presidential Election and the first months of the Biden Presidency simply entitled Peril. Starting with Joe Biden's decision to enter the race for the 2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination, the book explores Biden's consideration of his decision, the factors which led the former Vice-President to ultimately enter the race, how his campaign themes and strategies came about, and how Biden remained firm in his course even after early defeats in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. The book also follows President Donald Trump along a parallel path, starting with the early controversies of his Presidency (especially his response to the "Unite the Right" rally), continuing to the Covid-19 pandemic and how the unexpected development upended the President's plans to seek re-election on the strength of a healthy economy. The book follows both men as each are forced to campaign in the new pandemic paradigm, one from his home, the other at "super-spreader events", and how each addressed the controversial results that followed from this past election's unprecedented large numbers of mail-in voting and the Trump campaign's accusation of massive voter fraud.
The book next looks at one of the most unusual and fascinating transition periods in presidential history: the Trump campaign's unsuccessful and sometimes farcical attempts to challenge the election results through litigation, Biden's attempt at a presidential transition without his predecessor's admission of defeat, ultimately leading up to the January 6th Capitol Riots and each candidate's role leading up to them and in their aftermath.
The last portion of the book deals with the first months of the Biden Presidency and takes the reader behind the scenes of the major events, including the Biden stimulus package and its rocky road through Congress, Biden's testy dealings with Vladimir Putin, and his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, looking at both justifications for the decision as well as its consequences. The authors also look at the maneuverings of the Republican Party and of Donald Trump in preparation for the 2022 mid-term elections and for a potential bid for a second term as President for Donald Trump. The book is fascinating for its portrayal of many of the supporting characters, many of whom were no doubt sources for the detailed conversations that the authors attest to be "deep background" (sourced by those present when these conversations took place.) The trials and tribulations of many in the Trump and Biden orbit are explored, generally in a sympathetic manner. After all, these are complex issues on which principled people can disagree. There are generally no easy answers to what these people must confront.
6. The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Stephanie Kelton (reviewed here): The new year and the new administration has brought with it an era of unprecedented big-spending when multi-trillion-dollar bills are proposed and the nation tries to spend its way out of its problems. Does this sound like madness to you? Professor Stephanie Kelton doesn't think so. She previously served as the Chief Economist for the US Senate Budget Committee and has served as an advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. She is also one of the leading proponents of MMT (modern monetary theory), described as a heterodox (antonym for orthodox) macroeconomic theory that views currency created by a sovereign federal government as a public monopoly. In her 2020 bestseller The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy, Professor Kelton espouses a number of theories that run against the grain of popular economic theory.
Foremost among these is the notion that deficits don't matter, because any government that has the power to create its own currency will never run out of money. Professor Kelton is critical of popular thinking among both government leaders and mainstream economists that a government budget is like a household budget and that excessive spending and borrowing will lead to bankruptcy. The flaw in this thinking, according to Kelton and other MMT economists, is that, unlike households, private businesses or even state governments, a federal government in control of the creation of its currency can never run out of money. On the contrary, it is the creator of money, and can always create more with a simple entry on the keyboard of a computer that keeps an electronic ledger with the Federal Reserve. Also contrary to popular thinking, Kelton and other MMT economists believe that it isn't deficits that are harmful to the economy, it is balanced or surplus budgets because these take money out of the private sector, limiting opportunity for economic growth. Government deficits inject that money into the economy, increasing the money supply and along with it, the opportunity for use of that money to stimulate and grow the economy.
In much of the book, the author takes her conclusions as self-evident or logical, without making a convincing argument or without demonstrating the clarity that she seems to see in them. Many economists from more orthodox schools of thought fault her logic as well as her analysis of inflation. It is difficult to understand how the level of deficit spending proposed by the author would not lead to inflation, as has occurred in other nations where mass injection of currency has led to its devaluation. The author also spends little time addressing the relationship between debt and deficits, and their proportion to a nation's gross domestic product (GDP), something very concerning as government spending continues to increase. The Congressional Budget Office that Professor Kelton once worked with continues to warn against the dangers of high deficits, especially as the federal debt of the United States now exceeds 100% of GDP.
In spite of this, MMT is gaining in popularity and has been used as an argument in favor of recent mass increases in government spending by governments in their attempt to speed up recovery from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising political stars such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others in the progressive movement have thrown their support behind this way of economic thinking, and it may be that in the not too distant future, MMT will transition from its theoretical realm on the chalkboard into actual government budgets, and people will learn first hand whether it will prove to be an economic savior or the accelerant of the economic downfall of those nations that espouse it.
That was what we read and reviewed in 2021. Hopefully 2022 will offer more good old fashioned history and more time to enjoy and consume the new literary works that will be served up in the coming 12 months.