Category: BIOGRAPHY

RISK OF DEMOCRACY

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Hubert Humphrey (The Conscience of the Country)

By: Arnold A. Offner

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Arnold A. Offner (Author, American historian, president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.)

Arnold Offner offers a biography of Hubert Humphrey, a former Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor, U.S. Senator, and Vice President of the United States. Offner notes Humphrey ran for President in 1960 but was defeated by John F. Kennedy.

Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978, died at age 66, V.P. 1965-1969, Senator 1971-78)

What makes this biography interesting is that few American V.P.s are remembered, let alone biographized. The V.P.s who are remembered are only those who become Presidents. Even then, most American Vice Presidents are not remembered. Three exceptions are Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

There are 16 V.P.s to become Presidents of the United States. Out of 46 Presidents, 16 V.P.s (approximately 34%) became President. Eight became President because of a President’s death in office.

  1. John Tyler-Only 1 month as V.P. when William Harrison died from an illness contracted at his inauguration.
  2. Millard Fillmore became President after the death 1.5 years into Zachary Taylor’s presidency.
  3. Andrew Johnson replaced Abraham Lincoln.
  4. Chester A. Arthur replaced James Garfield after he was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, only 6 months after serving as President.
  5. Theodore Roosevelt replaced William McKinley in his second term when he was assassinated by an anarchist.
  6. Calvin Coolidge replaced Warren Harding who died halfway through in first term.
  7. Harry S. Truman replaced Franklin Roosevelt after he had served 3 months in his 3rd term.
  8. Lyndon B. Johnson replaced John Kennedy after his assassination.

The strength of democracy is in a candidates’ skill in representing the will of his/her supporters. The weakness of democracy is in a candidates’ dependence on the wealth of special interests that contribute to their candidacy.

Humphrey’s biography is an interesting example of the strength and weakness of American Democracy. On the one hand, one person can change the course of democratic government.  On the other hand, a candidate for President cannot be elected without the support of people and businesses that contribute a lot of money.

Money comes with strings. The influence of special interests and the power of elected representatives distort objectivity.

Offner shows the choice of running mates for Vice President in an American democracy is based on two qualities. The first is how a V.P. candidate increases voter base for the prospective President. The second is the skill that a V.P. may have in rallying political support for the President’s ticket. V.P.s in their positions as possible President replacements have little visibility to the public. Vice Presidents are forgotten in public memory unless they become President. Even as Presidents, if they fail to become impactful, they are forgotten.

Offner shows Humphrey wished to be President, but he had little chance of achieving that goal for two reasons.

One, he did not come from a wealthy family and two, his political base came from his experience as a mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota and as a relatively new Senator for the State. Though Offner shows Humphrey had great political skill, his only realistic avenue to the Presidency is by being Vice President.

Offner shows Humphrey as a prime mover in civil rights.

Fight for civil rights is not shown as a singular political maneuver but a lifelong pursuit by Humphrey. Offner shows how Humphrey became a civil rights leader in his home State. After becoming Vice President, Humphrey successfully pushed for the greatest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction after the civil war.

The importance of money in American elections is made clear when Humphrey runs for President against John Kennedy. The wealth of the Kennedy family doomed Humphrey’s chances.

Humphrey is characterized as an indefatigable debater and negotiator in a Congress held hostage by a 2/3’s cloture rule that gave civil rights legislation little chance of passage because of southern opposition. With the help of Mike Mansfield, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Humphrey maneuvers the Senate to approve the Civil Rights Act of 1964 despite the 2/3s cloture rule. It prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for integration of schools and other public facilities. It also made employment discrimination illegal.  

Then Offner’s subject becomes the great escalation of American involvement in Vietnam. Offner explains Lyndon Johnson made the decision to turn America’s military role into a pro-active rather than defensive action. Johnson deployed over 23,000 soldiers to Vietnam.

American involvement in Vietnam did not begin with Johnson. America’s entry into Vietnam began soon after WWII because of America’s paranoia over Russian Communist infiltration in Asia and the 1950s growth of the Viet Minh’ guerillas. The Viet Minh were a guerrilla force led by Ho Chi Minh to contest French colonization of Vietnam. The Viet Minh were supported by both Stalin and Mao and their respective communist beliefs.

After Johnson’s American expansion into North Vietnam, Offner notes Ho Chi Minh demanded total withdrawal of America, the right of South Vietnam to vote on whether they wished to be a part of one country, and Vietnam to be left to govern their own territory.

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969, died at age 79, President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.)

These terms were unacceptable to Johnson. Retrospectively, that would have been the best, least costly, and most diplomatic action that could have been taken by America.

Offner explains President Johnson requires his Vice President, above all, to be loyal. Offner shows Humphrey was loyal, at least until 1965, when he sent a memorandum to Johnson recommending an exit strategy. Johnson ignores Humphrey’s memorandum. The rest is history. Therein lies the risk of Democracy in America.

The checks and balances of Democracy fail to protect America from the mistakes of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan because money and power influence Democratic elections, policies, and Presidents. This is the risk both Republican and Democratic Presidents have noted. (Dwight Eisenhower’s comments about the Military/Industrial Complex, and Barack Obama’s address to the Senate on campaign finance reform.)

The last chapters of Offner’s book recount the race for the Presidency after Johnson’s speech saying he will not run for another term. Humphrey chooses to run for President with Muskie as his choice for V.P. In the end, Humphrey and Muskie are defeated with the return to political office of Richard Nixon and his soon to be revealed corrupt V.P., Spiro Agnew.

As Churchill noted in 1947, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

SURVIVAL A POSSIBILITY

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann

By: Ananyo Bhattacharya

Narrated by: Nicholas Camn

Ananyo Bhattacharya (Author, science writer based in London, PhD in biophysics from Imperial College London.)

Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath.

Another alumnus of the golden era of education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the early 20th century is John von Neumann. Ananyo Bhattacharya’s biography recounts Neumann’s giant contribution to mathematics in WWII explosives analysis, atom bomb design, computer functionality, and game theory. Von Neumann is formally educated as a chemist and mathematician.

In von Neuman’s early career, before the war and while still in school (1923), wrote a published paper titled “The Introduction of Transfinite Ordinals”.

The “…Transfinite Ordinals” paper introduces the now commonly defined understanding that an ordinal number is the set of all smaller ordinal numbers. To mathematicians, this concept simplified the concept of transfinite numbers. Von Neumann’s genius is in his uncanny ability to simplify complexity.

Austrian physicist who revolutionized quantum mechanics with his wave equation in 1926
German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics in 1925

A further example of von Neuman’s genius is in a theoretical reconciliation of Erwin Schrodinger’s and Werner Heisenberg’s differing views on quantum mechanics. Von Neuman theorized “hidden variables” could not resolve the reality of indeterminacy of quantum phenomena. (Von Neumann disagreed with Einstein who believed determinacy is only a matter of not having found “hidden variables” in quantum phenomena.)

(Von Neumann disagreed with Einstein who believed determinacy is only a matter of not having found “hidden variables” in quantum phenomena.)

John Stewart Bell backhandedly affirms von Neumann’s conclusion by finding “hidden variables” are unnecessary in proving indeterminacy of quantum phenomena making the difference between Schrodinger’s and Heisenberg’s views moot.

John Stewart Bell FRS (28 July 1928 – 1 October 1990) was a physicist from Northern Ireland and the originator of Bell’s theorem, an important theorem in quantum physics regarding hidden-variable theories. 

Bhattacharya notes von Neumann is asked to lecture at Princeton in 1929. He is appointed as a visiting professor (1930 to 1933) and marries Mariette Koevesi in 1930. The marriage ends in 1937 with one daughter who becomes an economist.

Von Neuman remarries in 1938 to Klára Dán who became a coder for Eniac during WWII.

In 1933, the same year Hitler rises to power in Germany, von Neumann became one of the first professors at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). One of his famous colleagues is Albert Einstein.

After the beginning of WWII, Bhattacharya notes von Neumann becomes a member of the “Manhattan Project” when contacted by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Because of von Neumann’s help with the British on the physics of shock waves and chemical explosives, Oppenheimer asked von Neumann to analyze the structure and altitude requirements of an atom bomb. Bhattacharya explains the atom bomb is an implosion device that is layered in different metals that have chemical reactions that emit neutrons toward the center of fissionable uranium which is meant to create an explosive chain reaction. The height of the explosion has an effect on the area of damage. Von Neumann’s experience and education are a perfect fit for that analysis. The rest is the history of war’s destruction and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Japan after WWII
Hiroshima and Nagasaski

The consequences of the zero-sum game theory of war.

After the war, von Neumann becomes a government and industry consultant. He was acquainted with Alan Turing and viewed the computer as a critical part of the world’s future. His experience with ENIAC made him understand its potential but, at the same time, its design limitations. Von Neuman simplified computer processing by creating the idea of a stored-program computer that led to a cache system of data retrieval that reduces the time it takes to get a computed answer. Von Neumann’s idea turns ENIAC into a library of information rather than a processor. Here is where patent issues are raised by two fellow developers named Eckert and Mauchly. They were working on the same design idea as von Neumann.

J. Presper Eckert and Alfred Eisenstaedt believe they were the first to originate stored-program computers.

Bhattacharya argues von Neumann deserves the credit but Eckert and Mauchly feel they were the true originators of a stored-program computer patent. Some would agree with Eckert and Mauchly. An earlier collaboration between Alan Turing and von Neumann is the basis for Bhattacharya’s belief in von Neumann’s origination.

Von Neuman is recruited in 1948 to work on military doctrine to be used in the event of a conflict between countries. A rather astounding conclusion from von Neuman’s game theory is to use the American nuclear arsenal to eliminate Russia because he felt Russia was an imminent threat to peace. He is alleged to have said “If you say why not bomb them tomorrow, I say why not today?” This became moot when von Neuman found Russia had their own nuclear weapons and would be able to retaliate.

Bhattacharya summarizes von Neumann’s game theory beliefs. Game theory applies mathematics to analyze how decisions are made by people competing to win.

In 1954, von Neumann is appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission but within a year he is diagnosed with bone cancer. One wonders if von Neumann’s exposure to radioactive fallout from the atomic tests he witnessed on the Bikini atoll.

The last chapters of Bhattacharya’s book are terrifying. Nearing death, von Neumann speculates on the valuable discovery of the structure of DNA and suggests it is the missing link for the future of cellular level replication of artificial intelligence.

Bhattacharya reveals the two-dimensional creations of computer game theorists that focus on a replicating code that simulates creation of life. This is a fear that some scientists suggest will create an alternative form of life that will compete with human existence.

A listener who understands life comes from the evolution of DNA over centuries and has resulted in the strengths and weaknesses of who we are today, thinks machine coding that does the same may create a competitor to life as we know it. This is the essence of the concern some scientists have about the growth of artificial intelligence.

Bhattacharya biography of John von Neumann being “The Man from the Future” rings loud and clear. It reminds one of Oppenheimer’s quotes from the Bhagavad Ghita after the first test of the atom bomb–“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

A GOOD LIFE

Audio-book Review
           By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A Life of My Own

By: Claire Tomalin

  Narrated by: Penelope Wilton

Claire Tomalin (British author and journalist.)

“A Life of My Own” introduces Claire Tomalin to those who do not know her. Born in London, and educated in English grammar schools, Tomalin graduates from the University of Cambridge to become a writer.

Tomalin meets and marries a fellow Cambridge student named Nicholas Tomalin who becomes a successful journalist. He is killed on assignment while reporting on the Arab Israeli war.

As a listener/reader one appreciates Tomlin’s writing. As a respected biographer, Tomalin illustrates the importance of honesty in writing about one’s life story.

Tomalin writes with candor and detail that make one believe what she writes. Tomalin has written several biographies of famous people like Mary Wollstonecraft, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austin, and Samuel Pepys. References she makes to her research for earlier biographies assures listeners of her diligence in revealing her own life. How well we know ourselves is always a question, but the facts Tomalin reveals suggest she, like Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”, is a woman of substance.

As with all who have lived a long life, Tomalin experiences good and bad fortune.

She is raised by a father and mother who love her but divorce. As a child growing up, Tomalin mostly lives with her mother who cares for her. However, as a single mother, the two undoubtedly struggle to make a living. Her father remains a part of Claire Tomalin’s life but seems only later to provide some level of trust and security in their relationship.

There seems a great deal of love but a sense of frailty and insecurity in Claire Tomlin’s life with her mother. Her mother is a musician and unpublished composer who works at odd jobs to support their life together. Most divorced wives recognize how difficult it is to lose one/half (usually more) of a family’s income when divorced.

Claire Tomalin’s life enters a new phase when she marries Nicholas Tomalin. Because of Nicholas’s job, he is away from home on assignments. Claire pursues her own career. They separate. They come back together. Nicholas is tragically killed while on a 1973 news assignment to report on the Arab Israeli war.

At some point in Claire Tomalin’s marriage, the man she married becomes physically abusive. Tomalin explains her husband is a bon vivant who attracts other women’s attention.

Claire Tomalin is left with five children, three daughters and two sons. She publishes her first book in 1974 (“The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft). She becomes the literary editor for the “New Statesman” and “The Sunday Times”. Her mother dies. Her father dies. One of her sons is born prematurely and requires special aid. A daughter commits suicide. She manages through it all and marries the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn in 1993.

She continues to write into her late 80s. Along the way, she meets some of the greatest writers and authors of modern times. As with anyone who lives into their 90s, it seems Claire Tomlin has had an eventful and good life, but it required grit and determination. Something one cannot help but admire is that Tomalin is a woman of substance.

BEING BRILLIANT

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A personal History of Our Times

By: Howard Zinn

Narrated by: David Strathairn

Howard Zinn (1922-2010, died at age 87, Author, Historian, Pacifist.)

Howard Zinn’s personal biography suggests being brilliant does not mean being good. Zinn is a controversial historian who grew up during the depression. He became a famous anti-war activist during Vietnam and wrote a controversial book about American history.

Zinn characterizes his family as poor with a father and mother who were factory workers with little formal education. He tells of his early life and how it influenced his political and social beliefs. He joins the Army Air Force during WWII and becomes a bombardier. That experience reifies Zinn’s early anti-war beliefs that become a consuming passion during Vietnam.

In some ways, Zinn’s enlistment in the Air Force seems a contradiction but the fascist nature of Nazi Germany, subsequent realization of the holocaust, and his Jewish heritage undoubtedly influence his decision to join the military.

Zinn’s role in bombing civilians creates an ambivalence about WWII; particularly when the atom bomb is dropped on Japan.

“You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” is a codification of Zinn’s ambivalence. Zinn suggests there is no “Good War” (as WWII is sometimes characterized) because bombing of civilians, even in a war against fascism, is a step too far.

One wonders what Zinn would write about the Russia-Ukrainian war?

Howard Zinn’s fundamental objection to WWII is American bombing of innocent citizens of Germany and Japan. Now, it is the indiscriminate bombing of innocent citizens by Russia in Ukraine.

America did not militarily enter WWII when Poland was invaded. Similarly. America has not militarily entered the Russia-Ukraine war. However, in both circumstances America financially invested in a western alliance against war. Eventually that financial investment turned into American military participation. One wonders how Zinn would view America’s financial investment in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Is our investment a prelude to military intervention?

Returning to the biography, the nuclear attack on Japan is considered barbaric and unjustified by Zinn.

Some, like President Truman reason the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings avoided loss of thousands of Americans and Japanese that would have been killed in an invasion of Japan.

A question is whether those thousands are different than the thousands killed immediately and later from radioactive fallout? To some Americans, the answer is yes because none of the added deaths would have been American. Presumably, Zinn would say using an atomic bomb is a step too far.

Zinn survives WWII and uses the GI Bill to get a college education. He becomes a professor at Spelman College, a Black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia.

Roslyn Zinn (1922-2008, Artist, Activist, Social Worker, Teacher)

Howard Zinn and his wife live in a low-income, largely Black neighborhood.

The Zinn’s become political activists for equal rights. In the 50s and early 60s, the Zinn’s become acquainted with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and civil rights activism in the South.

Later, Zinn tells the story of his life as a professor at Boston University. He becomes a tenured professor, having written some novels and a controversial academic book about American history.

In his life at the University, Zinn continues political activism against the war in Vietnam. This is in the 70s. Nixon is bombing North Vietnam and Cambodia in an effort to get Ho Chi Minh to the table for a negotiated peace. Daniel Ellsberg becomes one of Zinn’s acquaintances. Zinn also becomes friends with Reverend Daniel Berrigan and his brother who become jailed activists because of the Vietnam war.

Daniel Ellsberg (analyst who became famous for Pentagon Papers disclosure about American government lies about Vietnam. Shown here at age 91.)

Daniel Joseph Berrigan SJ (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) on the left–an American Jesuit priest, opposed the Vietnam war, (1923-1979 his brother Phillip equally opposed the war.)

A theme of Zinn’s anti-war story is reflected in his experience at Boston University in conflicts with the President of the University. Zinn’s reputation with students is characterized as a highly popular. That popularity and his political activity put him in direct conflict with the President of the University.

John Silber is the seventh President of Boston University. He is from Texas but earned a PhD in philosophy from Yale University. Though Zinn does not mention this, Boston University is having financial problems at the time of Silber’s hiring. Zinn’s story is that Silber is overpaid for his work and disliked by several professors and their staffs.

Zinn characterizes Silber as a misogynist who denies tenure to women professors. A female professor takes Silber to court over denial of tenure. She wins her case, and the Judge requires Silber to give her tenure. The judge fines the University and orders a $200,000 settlement for Silber’s unfair treatment. (Despite Zinn’s proof of Silber’s misogyny, a brief review of Silber’s Boston University’ history suggests the faculty and financial picture of the school substantially improved under Silber’s management.)

The fundamental point made by Zinn is that history is filled with brilliant political, military, and academic leaders but they, like all of us, are flawed human beings.

Misogyny, inequality, and war are unforgivable human tragedies to Zinn and most rational human beings. It seems the smart ones are the greatest perpetrators of these tragedies.

Brilliance takes many forms. No leader of any country is dim witted. Each has their own kind of brilliance, or they would not be leaders.

EDUCATION AND FREEDOM

Audio-book Review
           By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Journey to the Edge of Reason (The Life of Kurt Gödel)

By: Stephen Budiansky

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Stephen Budiansky (American writer, historian, and biographer with B.S. in chemistry and S.M. in applied mathematics, Yale and Harvard.)

Stephen Budiansky offers a biography of one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. His name was Kurt Gödel.

Kurt Gödel (Logician, mathematician, philosopher 1906-1978.)

It is the biographic details and good writing that make “Journey to the Edge of Reason” interesting. Budiansky sets a table for what becomes Gödel’s life.

Budiansky explains the history of Austria before WWI and WWII. Gödel’s family lives an upper-middleclass life when their son Kurt is born. That lifestyle is interrupted by WWI and destroyed by WWII. In the mid-19th century, the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly Vienna, is a center for education and culture in Europe. Unlike much of the continent, equality of opportunity, regardless of religion and ethnicity, were available in the Austro-Hungarian’ capitol of Vienna. For a short time, Vienna became a magnate for Jewish immigrants seeking education and opportunity.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary 1848-1916)

When the heir to Franz Joseph’s throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated, religious and ethnic difference becomes increasingly disparate and nationalistic. After WWI, it becomes impossible for the empire to stay together, but Vienna remains a cultural and educational center for Europe. It is in this environment that Gödel is born and formally educated.

The culture changed with the death of Emperor Francis Joseph I in 1916. The change began with Austria’s defeat by the German state of Prussia in 1866. Francis Joseph’s leadership required accommodation to hold the empire together, but seeds of discontent and discrimination were sown. The empire’s population is constituted by Austrians, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, and others, with different religious affiliations.

Gödel is an excellent student who attends studies among many who were increasingly discriminated against, particularly Jews. Though not Jewish, Gödel is not infected by growing anti-Jewish sentiment of the times. Budiansky reminds listeners that Hitler grows up in this Austrian Viennese environment.

WWII arrives and the Gödel family falls on hard times. Before the second world war, in 1931, Kurt Gödel develops the “incompleteness theorem” of mathematics. He is only 25. He is soon recognized by leading mathematicians for this foundational theory.

Kurt Gödel developed two theorems of mathematical logic that limit the provability of mathematics. One plus one makes two, but Gödel’s fundamental theories claim its truth is mathematically unprovable. To one steeped in mathematics that may make sense. To this reviewer, it does not.

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)
Oskar Morgenstern (1902-1977, Austrian School of Economics at Yale.)

Budiansky explains how Gödel eventually escapes Vienna at the beginning of WWII. He arrives at Princeton in 1940. Gödel becomes close friends with Einstein and Oskar Morgenstern. Budiansky notes how instrumental other geniuses, like John von-Neumann, were in advancing Gödel’s career.

John von Neumann (1903-1957, Hungarian American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath with an eidetic memory.)

A striking fact in Budiansky’s biography of Gödel is how many geniuses came to America from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Without its education system, the Viennese equal opportunity, and the attraction of western freedom, the advance of science and its role in the world would be diminished.

Gödel’s life story revolves around math and its provability limits. Gödel’s life waivers between paranoia and accommodation with periods of terror and intermittent tranquility. Gödel’s paranoia is relieved at times and Budiansky notes his friends recognized his genius while noting his episodic behavioral abnormality.

A listener begins to believe Gödel’s personal life becomes defined by a consciousness of unprovable actions and intentions of others, exacerbated by events over which he has little control.

A surprising sidelight to Budiansky’s biography is Gödel’s odd marriage to what Budiansky characterizes as an uneducated Austrian woman named Adele.

Budiansky explains Adele saves Gödel’s life by bringing him back to reality when he nearly starves himself to death with a paranoid belief that someone is trying to poison him.

Gödel takes daily walks with Einstein. Their walks are legendary according to Budiansky.  They were frequently seen together at Princeton. Einstein recognizes Gödel’s paranoia for what it is but acknowledges the brilliance of his understanding of mathematics, its logistic continuity, and its limitation.

There often seems a fine line between genius and normality. One is reminded of the unheralded Paul Dirac who is compared by some to Einstein but, because of his isolationist behavior, is largely unknown to the general public.

As a non-mathematician one may not understand the importance of Gödel’s theory, but Budiansky does a great service to the public by writing Gödel’s biography.

THOREAU

Audio-book Review
           By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Now Comes Good Sailing (Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau)

By: Andrew Blauner

Narrated by: William Hope, Barbara Barnes, Kaliswa Brewster, Kate Harper, Peter Marinker, Ako Mitchell

Andrew Blauner (Founder of Blauner Books Literary Agency, Editor of anthologies.)

Blauner’s compilation of essays about Thoreau’s life and philosophy is broken into five sections.

  1. Excursions Near and Far.
  2. Deliberate Living.
  3. Direction of His Dreams.
  4. Practicalities.
  5. At Walden.

David Henry Thoreau (1817-1862, Writer, environmentalist, ecologist, philosopher.)

An apocryphal saying by Thoreau on his death bed is “Now Comes Good Sailing”.

The first section is ironically titled “Near and Far”.

Thoreau lives a narrow parochial life which explains “Near”, but his writing reflects a wide philosophical understanding of nature. Of course, Thoreau’s most famous book is “Walden”.

“Walden” is a short book about Thoreau’s two-year experience in his self-built house beside a Massachusetts’s pond.

Thoreau’s observations about nature’s fragility, beauty, and rebirth resonate with many who fear global warming and environmental destruction.

The essayists in the first section of the book lauds Thoreau’s view of solitude and peace that come from communing with nature, away from the hustle of everyday life. One living in this time is discomfited in some ways by these essays of Thoreau’s sabbatical because most who wish to live a life of solitude and peace have bills to pay and children to raise. Thoreau’s answer is “simplify your life”.

A few Americans seem to have interpreted “simplify” to mean one should become a vagrant, live in a tent, and ask charity from others who work for a living. That is not the story of these essays.

Thoreau works as a surveyor, builds his own house, and chooses self-sufficiency as a goal for living within one’s means. He did not look for hand-outs as a way of simplifying his life. He chose to live a simple life, not a life dependent on other’s charity.

When young there is little understanding of who we are or what we can do. As we age, Thoreau argues for understanding yourself and living deliberately with choices based on one’s self-understanding.

Deliberate living is living within one’s means and capabilities. Alan Lightman, a physicist, and writer, recognizes his life is slower now than when he was young. He chooses to live deliberately based on what his life has become, not on what life was when he was young. He obviously misses that fast pace but deliberation, careful consideration of life as it is now, compels deliberative recalibration.

Jennifer Boylan (Author, transgender activist, professor at Barnard College.)

Jennifer Boylan’s essay about Thoreau reveals how much better life is when you are who you are rather than what others think you should be. Boylan chooses to live a deliberative life.

“Directions of His Dreams” is a personal speculation by essayists of Thoreau’s feelings about love and life. James Marcus suggests Thoreau is in love with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s wife. He bases that speculation on scant evidence in Thoreau’s written correspondence. Whether Thoreau is gay, bi, or hetero seems superfluous whether in dreams or reality. Marcus’s speculation seems more titillation than revelation.

“As for Clothing” Amor Towles and Adam Gopnik note Thoreau finds comfort and utility as a measure of value for what one wears.

The point is that clothes made for a King that are only worn once have little comfort and no value. In contrast, Thoreau would suggest clothes that keep one warm when it is cold, comfortable from long wearing, and useful for work have great value.

Geoff Wisner (Author, editor of Thoreau’s Animals.)

Geoff Wisner suggests Thoreau’s measure of “what is worth doing” is based on answering the question of “Is It Worth the While”.

The last section of the essays reflects on independence and political risks Thoreau chooses in his short 44 years of life. Thoreau actively supports abolition by physically participating in the underground railroad with help for escaping slaves. Thoreau wrote about and actively participated in civil disobedience. He went to jail for non-payment of taxes (eventually paid by Emerson) because he disagreed with government policy.

Thoreau aides one of the participants in the abolitionist uprising by John Brown in the 1859 Harper’s Ferry raid. (Brown was hung for his action.)

There are reasons to admire Thoreau in these essays whether one has read “Walden” or not. Equally, there are reasons to question interpretation of Thoreau’s thoughts by 21st century essayists.

ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

Audio-book Review
           By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Karl Marx (Philosophy and Revolution)

By Shlomo Avineri

           Narrated by: Roger Clark

Shlomo Avineri (Author, Professor of political science at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.)

Is economic evolution about mind or matter?

Shlomo Avineri offers a more studied view of one of the three most influential economist in history, Karl Marx. Marx’s influence extends to philosophy, history, sociology, and politics.  

Avieneri illustrates how categorization of Marx as an influential economist minimizes his historical significance. Marx is born in Trier, Germany.

His father, Hirschel HaLevi (aka Heinrich Marx), is a practicing lawyer, the son of Marx HaLevi Mordechai and Eva Lwow.

In Trier, after Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo, Germany returns to a highly discriminatory Prussian attitude toward Judaism. Karl Marx’s father, and eventually his mother, are compelled to convert to a Christian religion to advance Marx’s father’s career as a lawyer. Karl Marx’s grandfather is the rabbi of Trier who passes on that title to Karl Marx’s brother.

Avineri gives this brief family history to explain Marx’s Jewish heritage. It offers some insight to why Marx outwardly discounts his religious heritage while putting him on an intellectual journey toward political and economic reform.

Marx’s father might be considered a classical liberal because he promoted constitutional reform of the Prussian government’s denial of equal rights. Avineri implies the experience of his father leads Karl to pursue the study of history and philosophy because of discriminatory treatment of his family. The act of discrimination naturally makes one class conscious. Karl Marx’s political and economic ideas grow from that familial background.

Avineri suggests Hermann Hesse and Hegel are significant influences in Karl Marx’s life. Hesse is a contemporary of Marx. Hesse is influenced by Rousseau who believed in natural equality. Hesse’s literature addresses the inequality of workers and the capitalist class. He sensed the growing political danger of that inequality and, in writing about it, became an influence on Karl Marx’s view of capitalism.

Hermann Hesse 1877-1962
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770-1831

Avineri’s explanation of Hegel’s influence on Karl Marx is a little more complicated. Fundamentally Hegel believes social development is an evolution of one’s mind to recognize that all humans are created equal. In contrast Marx believes social development is an evolutionary process of society’s actions in regard to material things. Marx believes the haves of the society recognize the inequity of the have-nots and will evolve to establish common good in the distribution of material things. Both Hegel and Marx agree that there is a dialectic process, but Hegel thinks it is a state of mind that changes while Marx suggests it’s a state of equal distribution of concrete goods.

It is impossible to deny Marx’s notes about inequality. One can argue that this was truer in Marx’s lifetime than it is today. The advent of social security and national health care, and welfare programs have reduced human inequality.  However, human inequality remains a serious social problem in every society and all government systems of the present day.

Whether Marx or Hegel’s evolutionary dialectic is true remains unknown. Neither capitalism, socialism, or communism have evolved to solve the problem of inequality, whether it is the dialectic of mind or matter.

Avineri’s biography of Marx is better than the previous biography reviewed in this blog. He offers a more intimate understanding of Karl Marx’s life and how he came to believe what he believed. The answer to the question of whether economic evolution is one of mind or matter is, of course—both. Human brains must evolve, and matter must be equally available.

A DIARIST

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Club (Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age)

By: Leo Damrosch

Narrated by Simon Vance

Leo Damrosch (American author and professor of Literature at Harvard)

“The Club” is more of a biography of James Boswell than “…the Friends Who Shaped an Age”. 

James Boswell (1740-1795, died at 54, Lawyer, diarist, biographer.).

Though many pages reflect on Samuel Johnson (best known for the “Dictionary of The English Language”), the primary source of information on Johnson, as well as “…the Friends…”, appears to come from Boswell’s diary and notes. 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, died at age 75, Author, poet, playwright, moralist, editor, and lexicographer.)

An irony of Damrosch’s story is that Boswell neither has the intellectual depth nor historical significance of Johnson or many of the “…Friends who shaped an Age”.  What Leo Damrosch explains is Boswell is a great mime for the opinions and voices of Johnson and Friends.  Damrosch suggests Boswell is the first biographer to capture natural dialog with detailed features of friends and acquaintances. 

In some ways, Boswell is like a court jester, eliciting laughter and opinion in a court of higher-ranking superiors.

Damrosch is not denigrating Boswell’s contribution to historical information but shows Boswell as a bon vivant, rather than an intellectual.  “The Club” is an association of writers, artists, and thinkers formed in a London tavern in the 1760s. Damrosch notes that the club is formed by Joshua Reynolds, a noted portrait artist.  In addition to Reynolds, the original members are Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, John Hawkins, Topham Beauclerk, Anthony Chamier, Bennet Langton, and Christopher Nugent.  To become a member of the club, one is elected by existing members.

Sir Joshua Reynold’s Club

Boswell, Edward Gibbon, and Adam Smith become members in the 1770s.  From an American perspective, the names of Reynolds, Johnson, Burke, Gibbon, and Smith are the best known.  Many will recognize Reynolds for portrait paintings of famous people of that time.  Reynold’s portraits are in galleries today.  Damrosch notes the portraits represent the best of what a person looks like with creative enhancements of the subject’s best features.  Burke is famous for vilification of the French Revolution and his conservative views of government.  Gibbon is famous for his “…History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, and Johnson for his dictionary.

Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792, died age 68, Portrait Artist.)
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, died at age 75, Author, poet, playwright, moralist, editor, and lexicographer.)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797, Irish statesman)
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794, died age 56, Author.).
Adam Smith (1723-1790, died age 67, Economist, Author.)

Contrary to what Damrosch notes, it does not appear David Garrick, a famous Shakespearean actor and producer, was in that club but had his own tavern club called the Garrick Club.  Garrick had been a pupil of Samuel Johnson.  Damrosch may have identified Garrick as a member of “The Club” because of his association with Johnson.

David Garrick (1717-1779, died age 62, English actor, playwright, theater manager, and producer.)

Boswell is characterized by Damrosch as an excellent conversationalist because of an ability to listen and ask questions that have interest for those whom he questions.  However, at times, Damrosch notes Johnson becomes irritated with Boswell’s questions because of their vacuous value.  The example given is Boswell’s question to Johnson about why Apples are round while Pears grow with narrow shoulders and wide hips.

Boswell’s question to Johnson-why are Apples round while Pears grow with narrow shoulders and wide hips?

Damrosch shows Boswell comes from a wealthy, aristocratic family.  He is the eldest son, in line to receive the wealth of his family when his father dies.  Boswell moves to London to become an attorney but fails to learn his profession well enough to be financially or reputationally successful.  He meets Johnson whom he admires, and through association, Boswell manages to meet the movers and shakers of his day.  Boswell becomes a diarist that records his life and the lives of people he meets.  His writing makes him famous, largely because of his association with Samuel Johnson and his remarkable ability to reproduce the natural conversation of “…Friends Who Shaped an Age”.

Boswell, from Damrosch’s description, is a hedonist.  He lives for pleasure from conversation with luminaries, drinking to excess, and dalliance with women of the street and lovers whom he seduces. 

Boswell is characterized as a pursuer of women who have an interest in sexual encounters for pay or pleasure.  Boswell’s lifestyle leads to periodic treatment for crabs and other sexually transmitted diseases. 

Damrosch notes that Boswell marries but continues his profligate behavior.  Boswell professes love and remorse to his wife, who knows of his dalliances.  She bares his behavior and accepts his remorse. His wife dies of consumption with seeming disregard by Boswell’s self-absorption. 

Margaret Boswell (1738-1789. died at age 51.)

Boswell inherits his father’s wealth but squanders it and fails as a barrister.  Nearing the end of his life, he produces the best biography of Samuel Johnson ever written.  It becomes a best seller in his time and is still read by some today. Damrosch notes Boswell’s contribution to biography is in making his subjects human by including detailed descriptions of their appearance, and emotive qualities.

More detailed information about the lives of Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, and Adam Smith would have made “The Club” more interesting to this reviewer but any who have listened to other narratives by Simon Vance will be pleased by Damrosch’s story.  At the least, a struggling writer may be encouraged to keep a diary of life’s events to become a better author.

FREEDOM’S HERO

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Gorbachev (His Life and Times)

By: William Taubman

Narrated by Henry Strozier

William Taubman (Author, Political Science professor at Amherst College, received 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography of Krushchev.)

The length of William Taubman’s audiobook requires a Gorbachev II review.  The first review addresses Gorbachev’s personal life.  The second reflects on Gorbachev’s political life.  Gorbachev’s life is suffused with great accomplishment and tragic failure. 

Georgy Malenkov replaces Joseph Stalin after his death in 1953.  Malenkov is believed to be a reformist who plans to reduce military spending and Stalinist suppression.

However, within weeks, Malenkov is pushed aside by Nikita Khrushchev who takes supreme power within two years of Stalin’s death.  Surprisingly, Khrushchev becomes something of a reformist himself.

Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971, First Secy. of the Communist Party 1953-1964)

 

Stalin’s autocratic, paranoid leadership is semi-privately exposed by Khrushchev in a speech to the Central Committee of the Communist Party.  Khruschev’s vilification of Stalinist suppression, imprisonment, and murder eventually become known to the world.

The overriding concern of Russian leaders is to maintain suzerainty over Baltic nations and satellite territories in the face of ethnic and economic diversity.  Taubman notes older Russian leaders tend toward autocratic dictate to maintain political control.  The younger and more politically astute lean toward confederation of adjacent soviet republics and East Berlin with the U.S.S.R. as an umbrella organization.  Gorbachev is in the “politically astute” group.

Mikhail Gorbachev rises to chairman of the Communist Party and eventual President of the U.S.S.R., with the expressed intent of democratizing the Baltics, Russia, and East Berlin into a democratic socialist block.  However, ethnic, and cultural differences, accompanied by general economic failure, defeat Gorbachev’s unionist objective.

There is no question of Gorbachev’s success in democratizing U.S.S.R.’ citizens. 

However, in that democratization, the drive for independence becomes paramount to the satellite countries.  German reunification, and the breakaway of Baltic nations from the U.S.S.R. is inevitable.  Freedom, based on ethnic and cultural identity, surmount all efforts by Gorbachev to reinstate U.S.S.R. suzerainty.  Only by force could the U.S.S.R. prevail over state and territorial independence.  Taubman notes force is not within Gorbachev’s nature as a leader.

Once socialist democracy is dangled before the electorate, the die is cast.  Gorbachev’s governance could not provide enough economic stability to justify confederation.  That is his tragic failure.

Gorbachev’s immense success is liberating millions of former U.S.S.R. citizens.  With liberation, former citizens of the U.S.S.R. return to govern as citizens of their own countries.  This at a time of Reagan’s conservative government in the United States, and European distrust of U.S.S.R. militarization.  Taubman shows Gorbachev becomes an international hero based on his personality and persuasive power.  He is greeted as the great liberator of the twentieth century even though his primary objective is to retain those countries seeking freedom within the U.S.S.R.

Gorbachev raised the bar for nuclear disarmament by cultivating American and European participation in the reduction of nuclear weapons. 

Taubman explains Gorbachev is a tragic hero because momentum-of-change is halted by a cult of personality, compounded by economic insecurity.  Gorbachev is replaced by acting President, Alexander Rutskoy, after the 1993 constitutional crises. Rutskoy is replaced by a second acting President, Viktor Chernomyrdin. Boris Yeltsin succeeds Chernomyrdin as President in an overlapping term.

The Russian economy falters in its transition from communism to democratic socialism.  Russian history of “rule-of-one” reasserts itself with the rise of an incompetent President (Boris Yeltsin) and an autocratic but effective leader, Vladimir Putin.  However, Putin’s autocratic effectiveness is in question with the invasion of Ukraine.

Taubman suggests and infers Gorbachev’s success, and world history in general, are two steps forward with one step backward. Based on historical precedent of “one-man-rule” (dating back to czarist Russia) Taubman’s inference seems spot-on. 

Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007, President of Russia 1990-1999.)
Vladmir Putin (Becomes President of Russia after Yeltsin with possible lifetime tenure.

Gorbachev flipped a switch that released the power of democracy but failed to provide adequate economic infrastructure to assure U.S.S.R. survival.  Taubman optimistically infers economic infrastructure of eastern bloc countries will improve overtime, even with autocratic leadership by people like Vladimir Putin. 

The growth of democracy has always been messy, but it moves forward in the face of temporary setbacks.  Spheres of influence will always be in play.   It seems a matter of time for another Gorbachev to make two more steps forward with a repeat of the next leader’s “one-step-backward”.  It appears in 2022, Putin makes that “one-step-backward” with the invasion of Ukraine. Taubman reminds readers of America’s trial in the civil war. Slavery is abolished but institutional racism remains a work in progress. The risk is that the world destroys itself before freedom and economic security become real for all.

GORBACHEV I

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Gorbachev (His Life and Times)

By: William Taubman

Narrated by Henry Strozier

William Taubman (Author, Political Science professor at Amherst College, received 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography of Krushchev.)

Having reviewed the first two books of the planned Stalin trilogy by Stephen Kotkin, it seems wise to review William Taubman’s “Gorbachev”.  Kotkin’s analysis suggests Stalin was a pragmatic autocrat who systematically eliminated potential adversaries who might challenge his leadership.  In contrast, Taubman’s Gorbachev is characterized as a democratic rather than autocratic leader.  This is not to say Gorbachev is less strong willed than an autocrat, but Taubman suggests he chooses to listen to both equals and subordinates before deciding and acting.  Kotkin shows Stalin keeps his own counsel before deciding and acts as his paranoid behavior demands.  Gorbachev is a politician, not a dictator.

Mikhail Gorbachev (Pres. of the Soviet Union 1990-1991, General Secy. of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985l-1991.)

Through force of intellect, ambition, and persuasion Gorbachev tries and fails to reify Leninist socialism.  Gorbachev’s ambition is to turn an increasingly dysfunctional Russian autocracy to democratic socialism.  Democratic socialism would theoretically provide Russian citizens a voice in control of their fate. 

Taubman notes Gorbachev is a student of Lenin’s writing. Gorbachev argues for change in Russia to what Lenin called democratic socialism. Gorbachev’s belief is that the 1917 revolution is more than a rebellion against monarchy

Gorbachev is not alone in believing Stalin abandoned Leninist idealism by instituting a government of the one in control of the many.  Many historians note Lenin did not want Stalin to succeed him as the leader of the revolution.

Kotkin suggests Lenin views Stalin as a soldier who enforces discipline but fails to understand the importance of creating a platform for power to the people.

The sad consequence of Stalinist history is that it reinforces kleptocracy, “a society or system ruled by people who use their power to steal their country’s resources”. 

Taubman shows Gorbachev understood Stalinism from personal life experience.  Taubman explains how Gorbachev comes from humble surroundings in a farming village in Russia.  Gorbachev sees firsthand how the idea of collective farming decreases, rather than increases productivity.  The bureaucratization of collective farming has the same impact in communist Russia as it did in communist China.  Leaders in charge of collective farms distort production quotas to make themselves look good to superiors.  The result is either lower productivity, or worse, the famines of 1920s and 30s in Russia and the 1950s in China.  (This is not to say famines do not occur in democracies, but the cause of famine is not bureaucratic lying but nature, or something beyond human control.)

Gorbachev loved his father and adored his grandfather.  Both parents were great influences on Gorbachev’s belief in hard work and education.  Gorbachev’s mother is the disciplinarian in the family.  She rules the young Gorbachev with a belt until he is old enough to say, “no more”.  “Tough love” from Gorbachev’s mother, in Taubman’s telling, instills respect for women.  Taubman suggests Gorbachev’s choice of a wife is based on belief in equal partnership to help him achieve life’s evolving goals. 

Taubman suggests Raisa, Gorbachev’s wife, is an equal partner in his decisions in life and in governing the Soviet Union.

A reader/listener is only halfway through the book at this point.  The last half of this 32-hour narration deals with Gorbachev’s failure as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union.