Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse (2020)   By Timothy Carney

Conservative author Carney (commentary writer for the Washington Examiner) has researched community stability to understand why certain demographics voted for a candidate whose message was "the American dream is dead".  He asserts that the American dream is not wealth but social capital: that is, those institutions of civil society, that connect us, eg, the kids' soccer team, the book club, the local church.  Carney notes that Trump led in rural areas and sectors where people were civically disengaged" - unemployed, divorced, poor, or unchurched.  He tapped into their frustration.  Thus, Trump's support came not only from areas where factories were closing, but where churches were closing.  Carney asserts that place determines more about how a person votes than how well individuals are faring.   Differences between places are not only wealth and education but of health, hope and opportunity.

Carney harks back to the US in the mid-1950s - a time of greater equality, good jobs for all (white and blue collar alike), 90% of adults married by age 30, most attending church, many opportunities to participate in community (bowling league, labor unions, local athletic club).   By the late 1950s, however, Europe is back on its feet (after the war) and producing its own steel (and other manufactured products) to compete with the US and bring prices down and inventory up.  Yet Pittsburgh, for example, adapted both to foreign competition and environmental regulations and regrew a strong economy thought jobs in finance, health sector and retail.  It is not the manufacturing failure Trump liked to tout, but a white collar success.  So where do Trump's claims come from?

Carney believes that symptoms of poor well-being include

1) A retreat from marriage.  The well-off and well educated and those with the most stable jobs (even factory jobs if pay is decent) tend to produce more marriageable men.  Asserting that community/social capital sustains marriage, Carney says "the erosion of community is what killed the norm of marriage in the working class" (p 86).

2) Social disintegration.  When a factory closes (e.g., Youngstown Sheet and Tube in 1977) it's not just the thousands of jobs - but also the grocery store, gas station, restaurants and barber shops that lose their business.  Many Trumpers wanted to bring back the past (e.g., Little League, parades, shuttered churches) - while those with strong communities, like wealthy Chevy Chase MD and religious Oostburg MI, still have those entities.

3) Society's collapse is largely about church, America's preeminent institution.  Traditionally, churches have provided great benefits to members in caring for others (helping to provide food, serve as a community center, etc) but that government overreach has made church irrelevant and people attend less because govt provides for these needs.  Not only those who were helped - but also those who served - attend less as they feel they are no longer needed. 

Carney also feels that the "gig economy" (Uber drivers, grocery delivery persons, etc) adds to loss of community as there is no common workplace and we thus feel isolated.  "When you strengthen the vertical bonds between the state and the individual, you tend to weaken the horizontal bonds between individuals", he states.

In chapter 10 "The Alienated" Carney asserts "the story of how we got Trump is the story of collapse of community, which is also the story behind our opioid plague, labor force dropouts, retreat from marriage and our growing inequality."  Why do vets like Trump?  They are lonely and missing the camaraderie of active duty; Trump rallies seemed to agree with them that the American dream is dead.  There is a human need to belong.  Take away church or clubs or college - and Trump fills the void.  In Trump country - even if expressions of religiosity are high - churches are empty.

As to "elites" - the liberal elites practice what we [conservatives] preach.  They value work as a good in itself, they have fewer sex partners, they get married, they have kids, they get involved in their kids' lives.  But they lack the courage to preach what they practice.  They are selfish.  They want to keep the secrets of the good life (go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, get involved in your kids' lives) to themselves, per Carney.  

But it is the secularization of America, Carney feels, that is most responsible for the rise of Trump.

* * * * *

While I can appreciate, as Carney asserts, that there are areas of economic and social collapse where people felt left out and that they had a sympathizer in Trump, I believe this is just part of the picture - especially with regard to the role of church.  I have never felt that the local church is there to provide economic relief.  True - my church has chipped in to fill someone's oil tank (and not necessarily for a church member),  the ladies of the church have brought a month's worth of suppers to hundreds of families whose mom is recovering from surgery or just gave birth, church networking has led to many job opportunities.  A friend's church (in the inner-city) provides a free food pantry and laundry facilities for those in need - still church is about worship and fellowship rather than providing food and financial recovery, and I do not feel that govt programs like SNAP or HUD have usurped my church's role.

In blaming the elites for keeping the secret to success (go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, get involved in your kids' lives) to themselves - these are not "secrets" but long held principles.

Finally, most of my Trump-supporting friends DO attend church, they live in thriving communities, they are lovely people who say Trump's anti-abortion stance is the appeal, and that it outweighs the words and behavior I find so antithetical to Jesus' call on our lives.  Scripture advises us to reach out to the foreigner, to those in prisons, to the widow and orphan; to forgive, to avoid adultery, to reject lying, to honor one another...

January 9 2021

The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America (2020) 

by Tom Zoellner

As a journalist and consummate traveller who has criss-crossed America dozens of times, Zoellner has seen changes in the national landscape - which he chronicles in this book, which is part memoir, part travelogue, and part journal in a work reminiscent of Steinbeck's Travels With Charley.

Zoellner feels Americans move less today than any time within the last 50 years; we are  more settled - or perhaps more set in our ways?  He says there are "winner cities" (e.g., Portland, Austin, DC, San Francisco) and cities that have faded as manufacturing has moved to Asia and as farming has become more corporate (e.g., Cairo, IL and Gloversville, NY).

In the chapter "The National Road", Zoellner describes the first interstate highway; commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1806, it ran from Cumberland MD to Vandalia IL and is now lined with Dollar Stores and Walmarts (following its predecessor Woolworth's).  He includes some interesting retail history in this chapter.

"Hoop of the World" derives from Black Elk's description of the world, along with Zoellner's attempts to climb the highest peak in every state, and some of the adventures and people he met.

"Late City Final" recalls Zoellner's first news job in a small town paper, and he laments the demise of newspapers "whose disappearance came in tandem with the unprecedented spread of lies in high places" (p 123) amid the rise of the internet.

Other chapters highlight more changes across America.  While only a select offering of the current state of our country, The National Road is a fascinating read.

January 7, 2021

The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs (2020)

By Robert Mrazek

Florence Ebersol is the daughter of a successful ex-pat American farmer and his Philippine wife; age 7 Florence is sent to Manila to a church-run boarding school, where she is an outstanding student who goes on to work for the US servicemen's club and marries an American seaman, Lt "Bing" Smith.  But Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and America, along with the Philippines, is drawn into the second world war.  Only 6 months after their wedding, Bing is killed while rescuing another sailor.  Florence determines to aid the war effort and is hired to work in military intelligence.  When the Japanese take over Manila and Florence's boss Carl Engelhardt is captured, Florence finds work with the Japanese agency controlling oil supplies and transport.  But while conscientiously doing her job by day, Florence conceives a way to steal and sell oil shipments using the funds to aid POWS who, for the most part, receive no or little food from their Japanese captors.  Following the Bataan death march and fall of Corregidor, conditions worsen and Florence is arrested.  She never confesses her role and survives the torture, weight loss, and horror of the Japanese occupation.  For American POWs, the conditions worsen and few survive.  Gen Douglas MacArthur has promised "I shall return" from Australia to his beloved Philippine islands, but his return with a conquering US army will take years and his victory will follow unimaginable destruction but the Japanese.

The author, a former NY congressman, also tells the parallel stories of Carl Engelhardt (with access to his diary entries) and Japanese businessman Ozawa, Florence's boss at the oil depot.

Florence is an inspiration.  She died at age 101 in Ithaca, NY - where few neighbors ever knew of her important role in saving lives during WW2.

Christmas 2020

The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross (2020)

By John Meacham 

Christmas would lose its meaning if Jesus had not died on the cross, and risen three days later.  

Historian Meacham initially presented these reflections on Jesus's last words at Trinity Church, Wall Street, where he was a vestryman.  He thinks of the gospels not as biographies, but apologetic arguments ("These are written that you may believe...and that believing you may have life in his name.")  What is important is that the writers felt their audience believe Jesus said these words.  In reflecting on Jesus's words, and scripture in general, Meacham adds the caveat that he believes that "literalism is for the weak; fundamentalism is for the insecure.  Both are sins agains God," implying that we are in exclusive possession of truth about things beyond time and space, putting ourselves in the place of God (p 69-70).

The cross is a reminder that self-giving love - not hate, grace - not rage, mercy - not vengeance - are at the heart of the Christian story.  That is at least one answer to Pilate's question.  "What is truth?"

1. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." This word is found only in Luke, who wrote for Gentiles.  Luke is possibly seeking to make Jesus more accessible to those who may have felt complicit in his death (eg. Romans, Temple establishment).

2. "Today you will be with me in Paradise."  His mercy is available to all.

3. "Woman, behold thy son! Behold your mother!" A reminder to do good to God's other children (Matt 25)

4. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Shows Jesus's humanity - also God's victory over death.  

5. "I thirst." Jesus is seen here as the Passover lamb (hyssop was used to sprinkle toe blood not eh doorposts).

6. "It is finished" [tetelestai = accomplished, completed].  Meacham points out that Jesus has completed his work but, for the believer, doing God's work continues until the new Jerusalem of Revelation comes down to heave to earth.

7. "Father, into thy hands, I commend my Spirit." Jesus surrendered to pain and mortality.  We are asked to surrender to Jesus - to find the means of grace.

The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right (2018)

By Max Boot 

Conservative columnist and military historian Boot immigrated to the US from the USSR when he was only six.  He writes of how he came to love his adopted country, a nation that was anti-communism, supported human rights and seemed optimistic and inclusive.  Writing for his school paper, and later the Daily California at Berkeley, Boot used every opportunity to hone his writer's chops and political experience through interviews, opinion pieces, and even work on political campaigns.  But the moderate Republican party of Reagan and GHW Bush, which he came to identify with, eventually became too centrist and a far right movement, first as a "Tea Party" in the Obama years, eventually made way for Trumpism.  Conservatives liked that Trump would push through a tax cut to benefit them, but Boot was stupefied by evangelical support for some one of Trump's character and politics.  Boot weighs the cost of capitulation by the Republican party:

1. Racism - White anxiety about the reality that whites will become a minority in American drove Republicans to vote for a candidate who emphasized reestablishing the status hierarchies of the past.

2. Nativism - Trump rejects immigrants who don't look like him, driving fear of "the other".

3. Collusion - Republicans have been willing to follow Trump wherever he leads, including defending him against charges of colluding with Russia.

4. Rule of law - Trump fires those who put loyalty to country above loyalty to him (e.g., James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Andrew McCabe).  He demonized the FBI for doing its job.  Republicans endorsed this behavior.

5. Fake news - Trump makes stuff up, and his toadies fall in line.  He says something one minute ("I fired Jim Comey over Russia"), then denies it the next. The free press is "the enemy of the people" (Feb 2017) - almost a direct quote of both Hitler and Stalin.

6. Ethics - Corruption far exceeds Teapot Dome, Credit Mobilier, or Watergate.  Many cabinet secretaries were ousted for travel or other expense abuse.  Many aides (Manafort, Cohen, Flynn, Stone) convicted of crime and imprisoned. Nepotism-Kushners. Trump's tax returns were never exposed - why? Emoluments galore (suggest China was bribing Trump, among other things).  Sexual allegations, bribes, misogyny, bullying, name calling...

7. Fiscal irresponsibility - cut taxes in times of prosperity

8. End of Pax Americana - e.g., imposed tariffs and other trade barriers on allies.

While there were precursors (Goldwater-extremist, racist; Phyllis Schafly-against ERA), none were as ignorant or crude.  Boot warns that Trump won't be the last, and another right wing extremist could be even worse if he lacks Trump's ignorance and lack of discipline.

An enlightening story - tracing Boot's own immigrant history, education and career - and the rise of the far right.

December 4 2020

 The Razor's Edge (1943)

By W Somerset Maugham

This complex novel is set in the years following World War 1.  The author makes himself the narrator as well as a character in the story, which opens in Chicago, where he is visiting his good friend the prominent decorator Elliott Templeton, along with Elliott's socialite sister Louisa Bradley and her pretty daughter Isabel.  The late Mr Bradley had been a US ambassador and the family is very at home in the European capitols, where much of the story takes place.  The story centers around Larry Darrell, Isabel's childhood friend and now her fiancé, but their relationship faces difficulties as Larry has changed following his experience as a pilot in the war.  While attractive and pleasant he has no apparent ambition except to "loaf" - as he puts it, content to live off a small inheritance, read, and travel.  When Isabel can't persuade him to get a job - an offer has been made by Isabel and Larry's friend Gray Maturin's father - Isabel finally gives up on Larry and accepts Gray's offer of marriage. They are destined to stay in touch, however, as the Maturin's firm goes bankrupt in the Great Depression and Isabel, Gray and their daughters go to live in Elliott's Paris apartment.  Larry goes in and out of their lives, working in a coal mine, then on a farm, a monastery in Germany, an ashram in India, but often in Paris in between trips.  Larry seems at peace - though his friends can't understand his constant moves and searching.  He tries to help a couple of women associated with the author (Sophie and Suzanna) though more for humanitarian reasons than romantic notions.

Despite Larry's aimlessness, it's obvious Isabel still wants him (reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara's lust for Ashley Wilkes).  Perhaps others vets felt as Larry did, but lacked the independent means to pursue their restless feelings and instead were obligated to set goals, make a living, support themselves and possibly a family, and find hope again.  

The story offers a few surprising turns but all of the players remain true to character throughout, and in the end - as the authors suggests - each of them got what they wanted.

November 25 2020

Quentin and Flora: A Roosevelt and a Vanderbilt in Love During the Great War (2014)

By Chip Bishop

A young couple whose families are among the most famous and influential in the US (or the world) fall in love just as the US gets dragged into the great War.  Quentin takes leave from  his studies at Harvard to train as a pilot.  He writes copious letters to his beloved Flora "Foufie", daughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and it is these letters that form the basis of Bishop's account.

While Flora's family isn't thrilled with a prospective match with a Roosevelt, she finally breaks the news, even as Quentin is away in Europe.  The Roosevelts, on the other hand, adore Flora, and often host her in their home, including her as a part of their family.  They try to arrange for Flora to join Quentin in France, but the US government has just made a rule barring American women from joining a husband or fiancé abroad, if they also have a brother in the service so, although the war ended before "Sonny" Whitney completed his basic training, Flora never got to see Quentin again.

While we learn about Flora's and Quentin's growing up years, the story mostly concerns the couple's engagement and the move towards its inevitable conclusion, through different assignments in France (where Question is one of the very few Americans who is fluent in French), more training, billeting with French families, and to the tragic day in July 1918 when Quentin's plane is shot down, bringing such sorrow to the group gathered at Sagamore Hill.

The author adds an aftermath, in which Flora retreats to Sagamore Hill,then to the Maine coast, with the grieving Roosevelts.  She later puts her typing skills to work, doing some projects for Teddy, then working briefly for the government.  Sh marries a friend of Quentin's but the marriage is short-lived.  She met businessman/artist McCulloch "Cully" Miller, with whom she had a long and happy marriage and raised their 4 children, also succeeding her mother as directory of the Whitney Museum, a post to which her daughter Flora Miller Biddle would later succeed.

The French people erected a special memorial to the son of the beloved American's president, near where he was shot down in Chamery.  37 years later, his remains were moved to the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, where he was interred next to his brother Ted, who died shortly after leading the highly successful American landing at Utah Beach.