Posted on 11/10/2004 8:37:08 AM PST by HockeyPop
HEADLINE: CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; How Books Have Shaped U.S. Policy
BYLINE: By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
BODY: President Bush has never been known as a bookworm. An instinctive politician who goes with his gut, he has usually left the heavy reading in the family to his wife, Laura, a former librarian. He is "often uncurious and as a result ill informed," his former speechwriter, David Frum, wrote in a memoir this year, adding that "conspicuous intelligence seemed actively unwelcome in the Bush White House."
It is curious then that books by historians, philosophers and policy analysts have played a significant role in shaping and promulgating the administration's thinking about foreign policy, America 's place in the world and the war against Iraq .
Michael Harrington's book "The Other America" is widely credited with helping catalyze the Kennedy-Johnson war on poverty in the 1960's and the creation of Great Society programs. George Gilder's book "Wealth and Poverty" was publicly endorsed by President Ronald Reagan, who embraced its message of tax cuts. George H. W. Bush's comparison of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland was informed by his reading of Martin Gilbert's book "The Second World War." And Robert D. Kaplan's book "Balkan Ghosts," which emphasized the ancient hatreds of the region, is said to have contributed to the initial reservations of President Bill Clinton about becoming more boldly involved there.
In this White House, no single book is pivotal, but an array of writings -- many by neoconservative authors closely affiliated with administration officials or their intellectual mentors -- have provided a fertile philosophical matrix for policy decisions as various as the doctrine of pre-emption and civilian oversight of military affairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at uky.edu ...
Funny, this is a slam, pure and simple against Bush regarding the books he reads.
Ever notice the NYTimes NEVER reports the books Hitler read? Hitler WAS a bookworm, and had thousands of them, including "The Secret Doctrine". Wonder why that is...
I believe Mr. Bush read and endorsed Bernard Goldberg's 'BIAS.' He also reads the Bible from what I hear. Seems like a pretty good "fertile philosophical matrix for policy decisions" to me...
"How Books have shaped U.S. policy...."
Why do these fools ignore the Bible as a source document for our Constitution and Foreign Policy...
Didn't these fools ever hear of Manifest Destiny?
All Western literature, whether intentionally or not, is commentary on the Bible or on Plato.
No one can consider themselves truly literate unless they know their Bible well.
That's the 'up-yours' photo I had in mind! You gotta' know the press frothed over that one but middle-America loved it!
I tell ya, between the Bible-is-the-only-book-I-need crowd and the Chomsky-Moore-are-the-only-books-I-need mob, you just wanna pack up and head for the hills!
Couldn't have said it better myself!
Bibliopath ping
Thanks for the ping. :-)
Woohoo! You gotta love it. I just finished "How to Talk to a Liberal," and it solidified my conviction that when I grow up, I want to be Ann Coulter.
LOL! Talk about your narrow world view. It seems to me that some people on here never read economics, philosophy or history and never even think that maybe they should.
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