J Ross

As good as they get

Reviewed: 12-22-22

I am strongly recommending Rhodes to my friends. His his review of recent history, through which he served as an innermost advisor to Obama, and then of the Trump years is arrestingly smart, revealing, and personal. It’s theme is autocracy versus democracy and the increasing spread of the former. “After the Fall”is a short course on the most important politics and international relations of the last 20 years.
It is beautifully written by an Obama speechwriter. Unsurprisingly, Rhodes himself is the perfect reader.

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Wow!

Reviewed: 07-31-22

This is a mind-expanding treasure, elegantly written by a man with great explanatory skill, wry humor, and, yes, wisdom. The author reads with verve and clarity in a very appealing voice. Emphatically recommended. I am giving this audible book to friends and anticipating their delight. This is an experience which has been worth waiting for in a long life.

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Required reading.

Reviewed: 08-16-20

You should read this book. No matter who you are, or what your passions and prejudices, your learning and beliefs, your joys and hurts, you should read this book.

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A great work

Reviewed: 01-09-20

Top of the line. A brilliant exposition written with a creative mastery of language and argument that is wonderful. Read with verve and authority. The scope of this work goes beyond climate change, being an insightful commentary on the human condition. So impressive.

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Disappointed. Jewels of oratory set in cardboard prose.

Reviewed: 07-12-19

I am being more generous in the summary rating of this book than I actually feel. I have been reading Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson, which is an impossible standard by which to judge Blight’s work. Despite the enormous scope of Caro’s LBJ project, the reader always wants more. Boy, does Blight’s reader want less! At some points in the process of plodding through this text about a great American, rising out of slavery, one feels just simply bored. Douglass’ writing and speeches, quoted extensively, are the best part of the book—by far. Not surprising given that the biography is that of an orator, whose fame rests on his stirring condemnation of slavery, and his vivid perceptions of American morality. Even the dire straights of the slave’s early life are recounted in a rather dusty plodding way. And then as the years creep on, Douglass’ private life, recounted in stifling detail, actually becomes an impediment to appreciation of his genius, certainly to this reader as it seems to have been to Douglass. Less of that would have been very much more, especially given the effete, stilted language that Blight employs to document full pockets of small change of Douglass’ life. The greatness of the oratory, the incisiveness of the searing moral judgements, are here to experience, but the overall experience is something of a trudge, as of course was Douglass’ life.

Douglas was a great mind, who was able to express that greatness and inspire his times; he should be better known, and this biography has succeeded for me in that purpose.

The Audible reader, Mr. Onayemi, unfortunately draws attention to what I perceive as flaws in Blight’s book by stylistically inflating the minor irritations of the quotidian grains of Douglass’ life with an always slightly breathless portentousness. This sometimes becomes cloying. I had to force myself through this book, and I would not have managed without being ‘plugged-in’ on long drives.

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5 people found this helpful