Mark Aarons

This review is tentative, as is my decision on whether or not to finish reading the book. Let me explain.

The book is divided into three parts: 1) The Age of Bigotry, roughly through 1947; 2) The Age of Greed, roughly 1948 to 1973; and 3) The Age of Stupidity, roughly 1974-1993, when the book was written. The first two, as described by other reviewers, is "blow-away" material.

The final part, which I am reading now, covers recent history. As Barbara Tuchman explains in her brilliant introduction to Practicing History, writing about recent history is difficult. This part of the book graphically illustrates those difficulties since at the time of the writing, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were very much active in current events. Reagan was felled by dementia. The coverage of Carter and Bush I seem to be colored by the writers' political views. The effort to rehabilitate Carter's failed presidency and to demonize Bush I (who I happen not to have liked) are too obvious.

Another difficulty I have with the book is that it overemphasizes the importance of the secret activities of the CIA and British equivalents and underemphasizes the importance of other events. The book notes the decline, in most of the 1980's and 1990's of oil prices but gives none of the credit to Reagan's policies in its efforts to demonize Reagan as a puppet of the oil companies.

History is often often a mixed bag and the book fails to understand that. I am a few hours away from deciding whether to finish it or put it down.

Edited: I put the book down. The first two of the three sections were great. The third was rubbish. There was reference to "long gas lines" in 1977 when of course that did not happen until April 1979 in California, May 1979 elsewhere. Such factual errors shake confidence in the accusations based upon them. And holding out Jimmy Carter as a friend of the Jews and Israel was a bit much. The author needed to do some fact checking… (mais)