The Soul of America
by Jon Meacham
Published by Random House 2018
Pages 275 (with 87 pages of footnotes) Total pages 402
Price $30

Jon Meacham’s monumental book “The Soul of America” is about America’s growth historically and the struggles of its presidents. It is a scholar’s dream book. Every scholar who loves history would love to write as well as Jon Meacham. He writes  with eloquence, warmth, and charm. He is also meticulous in creating footnotes to support his beliefs and shows both sides of the issues.

Meacham explores with clarity and dignity critical issues in America. Reading this book gives us a sense of balance in the chaos of our times. It shows the struggles of America in becoming a nation and our survival. The key theme in Meacham’s book is the importance of balance and how different presidents balanced a crisis during their administrations.

Democracy is not perfect, but it is the best kind of government we have. We seem to take giant steps forward and two steps backward with inconsistent philosophy. He states “The Reconstruction era featured several instances of progress in the passage of the constitutional amendments concerning equality in President Grant’s (1870-1871) stand against the Ku Klux Klan, only to give way to Jim Crow laws later which involved  nearly 100 years of legalized segregation.” Meacham records our strengths and weaknesses with dignity, compassion, and an honest evaluation of  our inconsistencies. He reveals we have high ideals, but do not always follow them in practice.

Meacham relates, “In just the past century during World War I and after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, a new Ku Klux Klan emerged in America in part because of the movie, ‘The Birth of a Nation’ which took advantage of American anxiety to target blacks, immigrants, Roman Catholics and Jews.” Meacham states, “The fear that the ‘huddled masses’ of Emma Lazarus’s poem ‘The New Colossus’ would destroy the America that whites had come to know, helped lead to the founding of the twentieth century Klan.” Fear and anxiety causes prejudices to grow as the anxiety mounts in every age.

Meacham states, “The essential question for voters then is discerning the nature of the man or woman who will be standing alone as what Kennedy described as ‘the vital center of action.’ Meacham expanded and said, “For the Greeks knew character was destiny.”

Discussed in the book are America’s great leaders, their characters and decisions, including: Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson , Senator Margaret Chase Smith, Richard Nixon, George Bush I and II, and John F. Kennedy, to name only a few.

Patriotism  was discussed and the danger of zealot patriotism, as exploited by Eugene McCarthy was brought out.  Many writers and film actors were blacklisted during McCarthy’s period serving in Congress. Also targeted were such great film classics as “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Thin Man” because they were written by Dashiell Hammett, who supported left wing causes.

Meacham relates that Eugene McCarthy was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow in his famous “See it Now” T.V. program. After listening to McCarthy, Murrow concluded that, “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember accusation is not proof and that conviction depends on evidence and due process of the law.” Murrow, as a journalist, was trying to encourage the public to be open minded and look for facts rather than just opinions.

Meacham mentioned at the end of his book, ”Lincoln gave us an image of our better angels. He was a president who understood people and their imperfections. When it came to making decisions he was willing to take the responsibility and made those decisions no matter how difficult they were.”

Meacham states, ”For all our darker impulses, for all our shortcomings and for all the dreams denied and deferred, the experiment of America, begun so long ago, carried out so imperfectly, is worth the fight.”

This book makes you proud to be an American. Angels are perfect in heaven. An American citizen on earth is not perfect, but is part of a great melting pot society who cherishes freedom, and is united in a democracy that has lasted over 300 years.

***
Let Me Finish
by Chris Christie
Published by Hachette Books 2019
Price$28

This brand-new book is a memoir. Many chapters are written out of anger and frustration at the outcome of the Presidential campaign of  2016. The author worked extremely hard to help achieve the success of his candidate, Donald Trump, including running the transition team for him after he won. However, when it came to appointments in the Trump administration, he got phased out.

Throughout the book Christie, former Republican Governor of New Jersey, shows remarkable insight, laced with ferocious anger and wit in his opinions. Christie’s wit carries him through a very dark period in his life and helps the reader to absorb his anger. His book teaches in a democracy we should listen to all sides of the issues.

Christie was one of the first supporters of Trump after he dropped out of running for president himself. He gave Trump his experience as Governor of New Jersey, as well as Attorney General of the state. Trump needed Christie’s political experience during his campaign to get into the White House.

However, Christie was not appreciated after Trump got into the White House, and was dropped from an advisory role, as well as ignored for an appointment in Trump’s government.

The way Christie was phased out was cruel, crude, and by a third party, Steve Bannon, not directly by Trump. Instead of being a part of consideration for a high quality job in the administration, Christie was fired by an underling. Christie relates that Steve Bannon asked him to come into his office one day and said, “Close the door. Your fired…The kid’s been taking an ax to your head with the boss ever since I got here.”  Bannon’s reference to ‘The Kid’ is to Jared Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump, who is the son of the real estate magnate Charles Kushner, a man whom Christie sent to jail for tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions.

Revenge was the bitter message Bannon implied crudely to Christie in the first chapter. Christie deals with the shock like a bull in a china shop; hence the emergence of this book. This book returns the Sunday punch which the Trump administration gave to Christie by knocking him out of the Trump administration in Washington D.C. It shreds Trump’s advisors and reveals the chaos and inexperience of the Trump entourage.

However, this book actually has more to offer than anger and frustration. Christie discusses his childhood, family, and his love of being a trial lawyer. He discusses cases he had as Attorney General in New Jersey, as well as his tough responsibilities as Governor. These chapters are poignant parts of the book, showing that he is a capable leader.

In fact this book is important because it shows Christie as a human being, not just a political candidate in the Republican party. He has faced many setbacks in his life which he overcame. He struggled financially to go to college and came back to his family  to help when his mother got breast cancer. When he got married to Mary Pat Foster, they moved into an apartment that did not have a stove. They cooked meals on a two burner hot plate. He was able to get jobs at different law firms and rose to be a sharp and highly respected member of the American Trial Lawyer’s Association. He became the Attorney General of the state of New Jersey and represented the U.S. government, prosecuting people who were responsible for tax evasion and other illegal actions. As governor he got federal funds for New Jersey after a catastrophic storm that wiped out many parts of the state. He is a fighter for what he believes in.

Concerning the George Washington Bridge scandal, Christie states on page 167, “On Monday Sept. 9, the two of the three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were shifted.The bridge wasn’t shut down as some reports had it.  No lanes were closed. Two lanes were redirected from local traffic to interstate traffic. There had been no advance notice of the lane realignment. No one at the Port Authority in New York or in New Jersey, a bistate organization who runs the bridge, had alerted the officials or the public.The Port Authority’s executive director, Patrick Foye, appointed by Andrew Cuomo, put out a statement apologizing for the hasty and ill informed decision to do a traffic study. These are the facts.” Christie continues, “THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET MURKY. Some people began suggesting the traffic jam might have been punishment for the Mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing my reelection. I didn’t know anything about this, and didn’t order it or encourage it. It was not an idea of mine or one I would ever approve.”

Regardless of the scandal Christie defeated Barbara Buono 60 to 38 percent in his re-election for Governor of New Jersey. It was a remarkable feat, because Christie is a Republican in a Democratic state.

Every time he had a setback or loss, he fought back harder with the idea that the disappointment was fortunate because it opened up another door for him to explore.

In conclusion, I couldn’t help think that Christie’s rejection from Trump was a blessing in disguise. Trump is neither Republican nor Democrat. Trump is Trumpian and those involved in his administration are tarnished if they speak against him, or if they stay with him and remain silent.

However, Christie, no longer part of the Trump bandwagon, is free to say exactly what he thinks in our free society. That is what America is all about. We live in a democracy.  Christie’s ideas are worth reading. Don’t blow the book off as a sour grapes effort of a rejected man and skip it.

I am a liberal Democrat, but saw in Christie’s  book a capable leader, a Republican governor willing to work with Democrats, not a saint, but a valuable and responsible member of our society. We  need more people who dare to question authority and stand alone for what they believe in. That is democracy in America.

— Pat Davidson Reef is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She received her Masters Degree at the University of Southern Maine.She taught English and Art History at Catherine McAuley High for many years.She now teaches at the University of Southern Maine in Portland in the  Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Classic Films. She recently wrote a children’s book,”Dahlov Ipcar Artist, and is now writing another children’s book “Bernard Langlais Revisited.”