WASHINGTON -- It is vacation time, and this summer millions of
Americans are going to take a break from their daily toil. Many
will seek out a quiet spot to relax with family members. They will
head to the beach or to a campsite, and some will defy gas prices
and head for the open road. The summer vacation is a perfect time
to read a book, possibly two books. There are all kinds of books
available, personal improvement books, how-to books, bad books,
very bad books. For some reason the books I have been reading this
summer have mostly been history books. It is an election year and
possibly the approach of a historic decision explains my absorption
with history. Then again it might just be that the most interesting
books available this summer are books about the past.
At the top of my summer reading list is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, by
the Princeton historian Sean Wilentz. There was a day when leading
academic historians wrote about large issues: wars, the rise of
great leaders, the fall of failed leaders and failed movements.
Today most historians write about little and obscure things,
homosexuality among 18th-century merchant mariners, gun ownership
in early America. Possibly scholarly work is being done on the
condition of barnyard animals in the Old Northwest. Wilentz writes
about the dramatic things that have affected the life of the
nation. That is why he is one of the few remaining scholars of
national stature.
In his last book, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to
Lincoln, Wilentz chronicled the political evolution that led
to the Civil War. In his present book he chronicles the rise of
modern American conservatism, the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and
how both influenced recent history. In so doing he makes the case
that Ronald Reagan stands with the Roosevelts as a 20th-century
president who left a lasting mark. He gives Reagan full credit for
the good he did, though Wilentz make it clear that he does not
share Reagan's politics and never has. If memory serves, Wilentz
was a key figure in defending our recent Boy President during
impeachment. Be that as it may, Wilentz's objective treatment of
the last three and a half decades of our history should renew our
faith in a fine historian's intellectual discipline and fairness.
The Age of Reagan is informative not only about the Reagan
Administration but also about the presidencies of Gerald Ford and
his successors. This book covers a lot of ground.
Next on my summer list is a very peculiar history book,
The Pact, by Steven M. Gillon. I say it is
peculiar because despite errors of fact it is an informative
history. As I coyly suggested
earlier in the month, everything Gillon says about me in his book
is wrong. For instance, I -- one of Bill Clinton's most exuberant
critics -- did not as Gillon claims go to Georgetown with Clinton.
But the book is not about me. It is about the intriguing
relationship between Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and
Clinton. The portrait Gillon paints of Gingrich is particularly
vivid and to my mind accurate. What he and the President were up to
in their meetings -- some of which were secret -- was the
transformation of American politics and most significantly Social
Security. Their failure was a failure in character -- both men's
character.
Two more books that make my list are Martin Gilbert's
Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong
Friendship and Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self. Gilbert
is the author of the definitive eight-volume biography of
Churchill, as well as many other superb works of history. In this
book he demonstrates how the great British leader at the beginning
of his long life developed an admiration for the Jews that lasted
through many trials, crowned, of course, by his support for a
Jewish state. As often with Churchill, his heart deeply engaged but
it was ruled by his intellect. He believed the ancient Jews were
responsible for the ethical foundations of Western morality. As
Churchill conceived it, the Jews "grasped and proclaimed an idea of
which all the genius of Greece and all the power of Rome were
incapable."
Turning to Claire Tomalin's biography of Pepys, let me say that
I would never have picked it up if Don Graham, the bookish chairman
of the Washington Post had not sent it to me. Don has high
regard for the book and now I do too. Pepys is perhaps the greatest
diarist in the English language and he wrote his diary entries in
the middle of 17th-century London when great events were taking
place that in time would shape the founding of our own country.
Pepys gives us a feel for his time from a powerful office in
government and a crow's nest over emerging British society. Tomalin
is a superb biographer and Pepys is an enthralling subject, part
bureaucrat, part Puritan, part rogue.
Maybe this book can be your how-to book for summer reading,
namely, how to serve in a high government position in Washington,
D.C. in the early 21st century. Some things never change.
topics:
Bill Clinton, Books, Conservatism, Oil
