Prequel

 

Prequel, An American Fight Against Fascism, is Rachel Maddow’s latest book. She does not mention anything about the current political divisiveness that we are witnessing. She does mention the former president. However, she puts forward that this divisiveness is not new in the US, and then she proceeds to give evidence of when the democracy has been threatened before by those who believe in fascism. Most likely, it’s an aspect of American history that you’ve not heard before. Just as has been the case during the course of our country, especially since the beginning of WWI and then increasing significantly before, during, and after WWII, fascist forces have been active influencers, often behind the scenes. Those forces are present again today and are a serious threat to the continuation of American’s fragile democracy.

 

So much of this information was familiar to me, in part as the result of being a student of American history, and as the result of a book I reviewed in August 2023, Mother, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal. That fictional novel revolved around some of the same characters that Maddow’s nonfiction book identified as being the enemies of as well as the heroes who were responsible for saving the democracy during WWII and the post war era.

 

I must emphasize the importance of these themes. If you read this material, you’ll learn important details about America’s contemporary political troubles. Maddow’s book gets my strongest recommendation.

Blowout

This is a remarkable nonfiction work about the energy industry. The subtitle is "Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth." The subtitle just about catches the essence of this book, and you'll learn about all the players since the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania and John Rockefeller's consolidation of the industry. Treated with huge benefits from the government since the beginning, it's simply hard to grasp that the US continues to provide the industry which is more profitable than any in history, with gigantic subsidies and minimal regulations
. This book took me a while to get through, but Ms. Maddow is a great story teller, and it is more than worth the effort to learn details about how we've gotten where we are today.

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

Before you right wingers start giving me a hard time about reading this book, keep in mind that this stealth commie has read Paul Wolfowitz and Newt Gingrich. And by the way, this book just debuted at the top of the NY Times Bestseller List, in the first week after it was released, so I am not the only one reading it. Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is a fascinating study of the relative disenfranchisement of most American citizens from what the military is doing. The people who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts represent only 1% of the American population, and most of us do not even know someone who has done so, and it is more unlikely that we know someone who was injured there. First, there was the professionalization of the army with the abolition of the draft by Nixon, followed by the imperialization of the presidency which began under Reagan and continued since then, the privatization of many military functions which really took off under Clinton, and the President’s growing ability to pursue war without the approval of Congress. Our war machine has grown to unprecedented levels, and our defense budget now equals what the rest of the world is spending on defense. Maddow explores the ramifications of these changes throughout our society. I found it to be a compelling read, and anyone who is interested in the workings of our government and the erosion of the balance of power among the branches of government as envisioned by our founding fathers, ought to find this book and Maddow’s take on the issues to be intriguing. Drift gets my highest recommendation. An Amazon reviewer wrote, “Regardless of whether or not you like Rachel Maddow or agree with her politics, and I'm not generally much of a fan, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It should be required reading for anyone who cares about the U.S., our heritage, military policy, and future. You don't have to agree with her but you should at least consider what she has to say on the topic.”