Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
My son has signed up for Advanced Placement US Government and Politics. He has to choose from one of the following three books:
The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria
Hardball by Chris Matthews
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
Right off the bat it's got my knickers in a twist. Of the three authors I've got two "journalists" with their heads so far up the President's backside it isn't funny. The latter was suspended from Mount Holyoke College for a year for claiming to be a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne in Viet Nam when he never left the classroom in West Point.
I haven't met this teacher but already she's suspect in her choices.
Now, my wife lovingly refers to me as "The First in Line to be Hung." Should I get in line on this issue and volunteer to take the hangman's noose or keep quiet and just help him choose the lesser of the two? (And I say "two" because Hardball is definitely out!)
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Comments:
May '12
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I read "Founding Brothers" many years ago, and thought that it gave me new insights into the early years of the Republic, and a lot of the wheeling and dealing that never made it into my previous history books. I thought it was a good book; of "The Future of Freedom," , I know nothing.
Nov '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
What does he have to do, just read the book, or give a talk, or write a paper about it? If it's either the talk or the paper, I would suggest just doing it, and picking the book apart in the process. It's actually pretty easy to write take-downs of pompous books, and it'll be cathartic, too.
I also don't think you should get involved. Let him stand up for himself and fight his battles. If he does so with class and good humor, he'll make the teacher look like the big liberal bully she is.
Others might disagree, but, having raised precisely zero conservative children, I am something of an expert in the matter and obviously you should do exactly as I say.
Nov '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
p.s. also, thank heavens Tom Friedman isn't on the list.
Sep '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
It is always fun to be the power behind the throne: plant questions. That is what my father used to do. When I would tell him about whatever liberal opinion my teacher was spouting, he never lost his cool with the teacher. He would just send me in with a few questions that would leave the teacher stumped; in this way, he would demonstrate not just to me but to the entire class that the teacher had no idea what she was talking about. It was so much fun.
Jun '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Of the three, have him read Joseph Ellis. Ellis gave a sincere apology for his resume padding (unlike Pocahontas Warren). He actually likes the founders. I've read the book. It's very good.
Zakaria is at least intelligent, though misguided.
Matthews is a political blob.
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Make sure he has a cellphone with video.
May '12
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Actually, this has the makings of a great father-son project where you could help your son deconstruct the nonsense in Zakaria's and Matthew's books. Personally, I'd go after Fareed's book. I'd try to work in his other writings, particularly his Iranian regime apologist article, 'Everything You Know About Iran is Wrong' from Newsweek published just days before the Iranian protests began and were brutally put down.
Dec '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I took a "social justice" (sneer quotes are always proper form) class through a group at church and was forced to side with my opposition in a debate about the inheritance tax. It was very instructive trying to make their arguments for them and taught me all about the weaknesses in their case.
If you want your son to get the most out of the course, EJ, have him write one paper for the teacher and one for you. That way, he won't have to sacrifice his GPA, but he'll come out a heckuva lot smarter than his teacher on the subject. This was Karl Rove's technique on his national winning high school debate team. Know your enemy better than they know themselves.
Inspire him. Tell him he's going deep undercover.
Jul '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Egad with two of those, stay on top here as activists must be fought.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 4:58pmAug '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
The purpose of AP courses is to get college credit for work done in high school. Thanks to them, I was able to skip a whole year of college. (And skipping a year of college - just one - is a very good thing.) But I took biology, calculus, American history, European history, English, and German. What the heck is "US Government and Politics"? A college that would honor "achievement" in that "subject" is a college to be avoided.
Mar '12
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I'm with Adrian: do the report/paper but let loose the dogs of war, take the author to task, and I'm with Caroline keep the video cellphone handy.
Do the following:
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 12:46amFeb '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
EJ, at the risk of sounding pompous and self-righteous, my homeschooled son took an American government class this year using these two texts.
His final paper was on the Buffett Rule.
That said, here's a review from First Things in 2003 on the Zakaria book. Sounds pretty interesting.
Here's a clip of Richard Brookhiser interviewing Joseph Ellis about his book American Creation. For the record, Joseph Ellis is quoted on the net as saying that Brookhiser's bios of the founding fathers belong on the bookshelf next to Plutarch, so maybe prepare for a love-fest.
I think I would avoid the Chris Matthews. Unless you know something about his fact-checkers and editors?
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I'm curious to know what you decide, EJ. I considered posing a similar question to Ricochet friends a few weeks ago when my children had to work on a "Go Green" campaign at school. My fifth grader (already a die hard Conservative) decided on his own to paint his banner with "Recycle, but don't Go Green...it's a Socialist propaganda movement". When it irks my soul like that it's hard not to say something, though.
Aug '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I'd suggest the Zakaria book, as it seems the most flawed. Then I'd assign him a different text, perhaps De Toqueville. Then see where his mind goes.
Dec '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
EJ,
1.) No Hardball!
2.) Ellis is creative and highly intelligent. However, his ability to play fast and loose with a truth so fundamental makes you forever wary of such a man. Whether he was forgiven or not, after Elizabeth Warren's Mythic Cherokee DNA and Obama's Kenyan Conception, we are not surprised how easily Academia accepts abuse of the truth. No I don't think I'd ever trust this man to write History again.
3.) Zakaria's books are a more sophisticated argument for the Thomas L. Friedman point of view that America is dead - long live the emerging nations. Won't he and Thom be surprised when the full extent of the Marxist nightmare in China is revealed and the Chinese people finally demand Freedom! Sorry but I'm not interested in an even more sophisticated lie.
Well that sums it up. All the choices are lousy. When I face a choice like this I see it as a test. Not from Academia but from Gd.
Regards,
Jim
Dec '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I actually read "Hardball" it did not seem that bad. It came out in 1999. At that time Chris Matthews was a critic of the Clintons and I felt he was an honest broker. Fast forward to 2012 to be charitable he has evolved. For me to think about reading a Chris Matthews book now is unimaginable.
Does anyone else remember a more reasonable Chris Matthews?
Did anyone else read "Hardball"?
Does anyone have any idea why he turned loathsome?
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 8:52amMar '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I listened to Founding Brothers once on a road trip, and found it to be entertaining and informative. Of the 3 choices, I'd recommend it.
Not to quibble, but it should be "The First in Line to be Hanged". Using the other word is mere braggadocio.
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Illiniguy
Not to quibble, but it should be "The First in Line to be Hanged". Using the other word is mere braggadocio. ยท 17 minutes ago
Or as my mother always reminded me, "Objects are hung, people are hanged."
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
It's from the musical 1776.
Abigail: I never asked for more. After all, I am Mrs. John Adams and that's quite enough for one lifetime.
John Adams: Is it, Abby?
Abigail: Well, think of it, John, to be married to the man who is always the first in line to be hanged!
But that's the way my wife says it. And if you knew her you'd know that hanging is the only thing she's thinking of. Let's just say that for a girl born and bred in Michigan she sometimes has an interesting relationship with the English language.
She also calls me "The Agitator." But that makes me sound like a part in a washing machine.
And "Second in Line" has decided he wants to read the Ellis book.
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Founding Brothers is certainly worth the read. Ellis provides an entertaining narrative that only someone with a firm grasp of history could provide.