Challenges to the U.S. (Paul Craig Roberts' Last NewsMax Column?)

NewsMax.com ^ | December 29, 2006 | Paul Craig Roberts

[AnAmericanMother]

The original hardcover and the various editions of trade paperback have had different covers (I went and looked).

Do please FReepmail me the book list. I always have time for historical reading! My undergraduate degree was in history, and I try to keep up.

[freedomdefender]

4. Twice in the last year, he has gone six weeks without writing a column. On other occasions, he has put out four columns in a week. This past week, he's already written four columns for Antiwar.com. When he puts out a lot of columns in a week, he sounds the most unhinged. 5. He never makes public appearances anymore.

You sure do follow him closely! Are you fixated on him? Obsession?

[nopardons]

I have a first edition ( hard cover ) of the Weir book and looked at it, as I described it.

The book by Williamson, that I have and described, is a trade paperback.

I love history; just not all of it. This is just one of the eras/subjects that I'm crazy about, so I've read lots of books about it, both fiction and nonfiction.

[KevinDavis]

What the heck was he talking about?????

[Toddsterpatriot]

I have no idea, but I think Our man in washington may have a point in post #43.

[AnAmericanMother]

You sure picked a period that doesn't have much hard documentation! Not much in the way of history or correspondence has survived from that

(That's part of the reason for all the debate over the Wars of the Roses and Richard III.)

Here's the cover I remember, library edition in the local Cobb County library:

[RichInOC]

When the Clinton administration allowed the media concentration in the 1990s, the independence of the American media was destroyed.

Why, yes. As we all know, the media's deathly afraid of running afoul of the government. Particularly this current administration. They wouldn't dare say or print anything to get on Dubya's bad side. No, really. Stop laughing. It's true.

[Our man in washington]

4. Twice in the last year, he has gone six weeks without writing a column. On other occasions, he has put out four columns in a week. This past week, he's already written four columns for Antiwar.com. When he puts out a lot of columns in a week, he sounds the most unhinged. 5. He never makes public appearances anymore.

You sure do follow him closely! Are you fixated on him? Obsession?

Not really. I used to really like his columns. I still read them regularly, for the same reason one can't help but look at a train wreck. Anyway, I just got curious and did some quick research. Believe me, it doesn't take long to figure out what I figured out. Just go to Antiwar.com and check the date of his columns.

Also, I was interested in whether you could tell someone's mental state from the Internet. My best friend in high school became schizophrenic and started posting similar stuff all over the Internet. I noticed that Roberts was showing a similar pattern.

[nopardons]

Other eras that fascinate me have even less documentation. Nonetheless, I have been able to find some few bits and pieces , kernels of facts, if you will, about them. LOL

That's funny ( and I mean in the LOL sense )....that's the same cover as the Audrey Williamson book and NOTHING at all like the one on my Weir book. *shrugs*

OTOH, there is a cornucopia of hard documentation on my most favorite era/s, Victoria/Edwardian England and to a somewhat lesser degree, America during that time span.

[denydenydeny]

There was no debate in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, and none today in the United States.

PCR's indistinguishable from Dick Durbin now.

[AnAmericanMother]

I don't know who is on the Committee That Does Book Covers, but they sure are a strange bunch.

They change the covers (I guess in the hope that some inattentive purchaser will assume it's a new book and buy another copy!) but the thing that annoys me is when the cover has nothing to do with the contents! The Penguin paperback series is the worst offender in this respect - they pick a pretty picture from more or less the same time period (plus or minus fifty years!) and slap it on there.

If you like American history in the 19th century, have you read Bruce Catton's Civil War series? He was a Yankee (from Wisconsin IIRC) but he sure could write - and he was fair.

[nopardons]

Unfortunately, I'm one of those poor souls who sometimes falls for the NEW cover and then have to return the book, because I have it already. I have so many books, that if I haven't read the book in a while, I will forget the title and rebuy. :-(

Yes, Penguin is pretty bad, when it comes to "book art"! But they do carry many a good title; so all isn't lost. The old saw" never judge a book by its cover", says it all and not in the way it was meant to!

Excuse me while I don my kevlar suit......there, that's better. I find the Civil War worse than boring; but thanks anyway, for the suggestion. The part of American history, of that era, that interests me, is the theatre, books/authors, socialites/Robber Barrons, immigration, and people's lives.

[AnAmericanMother]

Then you might like "The Life of Johnny Reb" which is a description of the daily life of the Confederate soldier, taken from letters, journals, etc. There's a corresponding volume, "The Life of Billy Yank". Bell Wiley wrote the first, I think the second one too.

(I wrote my thesis on the American Civil War, so naturally I think it's pretty interesting, or I would have written about something else.)

[nopardons]

Oh dear..........sorry to say, "THE LIFE OF JOHNNY REB" was not to my liking and I only read it because my daughter was forced to read it in the 7th or 8th grade ( she didn't like it either ) and I ALWAYS read the books assigned to her, so that we could talk about them.

But thanks for the suggestions; I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, to each his own (as the lady said when she kissed the cow.)

There are periods of history I don't care for . . . treating the 60s as "history" bothers me of course! < g >

[nopardons]

Oh yes, each to her/his own; that's what makes life interesting and helps to sell more books.

Some wars are more interesting than others to read about and everyone has their own reason for choosing which ones to delve into or not; same with historical periods.

Like it or not, every era is eventually "history"; as today will be, decades hence.

[Our man in washington]

So after Roberts puts out five columns in one week, he's gone ten days without writing anything.

In and of itself, that doesn't prove anything, but his manic work followed by long periods of apparent withdrawal is consistent with the behavior of a mentally ill person.

It's sad.