Books We Read: Takeover, by Charlie Savage

Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of Democracy
by Charlie Savage
©2007 Little, Brown

Charlie Savage is, to my mind, a consummate reporter. When he wrote this book, he was with the Boston Globe, and now he hangs his hat at the New York Times. He does not, to my knowledge, spend a lot of time on the various cable talk fests like so many other reporters who aren’t fit to carry his pencil case. He simply…reports.

Grant Recipients Rockin the Commons

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Three of our recipients are busily adding entries, kicking butt, and, no doubt, gnashing their teeth while they learn the system. Excellent. The other four are preparing to jump in; expect lots of new entries by new contributors over the next few days and weeks.

Maybe this is a bit juvenile, but I know I was secretly thrilled at the first entry I had posted. Why not do a little justified backslapping?

Veteran readers, if you’ve ever had an itch to become a History Commons contributor, now’s a great time to do it. There are seven new contributors all learning the ropes together, and hopefully helping one another in the process. You can be part of this “next wave” of Commons contributors, taking the site into the new millennium. Join this band of information activists today.

Books for 2009

Here’s some of the books I’m reading, and will post about, in the early weeks of 1999:

U.S. Vs. Them by J. Peter Scoblic (already being processed and included, largely in the US International Relations project);

Angler by Barton Gellman (another Cheney bio, probably will add to the two Iraq projects, the 9/11 project, the Propaganda project, and the International Relations project);

Torture Team by Phillipe Sands (mostly info for the Prisoner Abuse and Civil Liberties projects).

One of these days, I’d like to work on John Dean’s Watergate biography, Blind Ambition, but updating and extending the Watergate project isn’t one of my main priorities right now.

What are you reading this year?

The Collapse of Fortress Bush

The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority in American Government, by Alasdair Roberts. 2008 New York University Press

I’m not starting this new category with a sensationalistic, partisan book — there are plenty of those out there, and I like some of them 🙂 This book has obviously been given a dramatic title by its publisher to try to take advantage of the wave of books criticizing the Bush administration. Likewise, the cover photo — a stern Bush laying down the law from a podium while enormous engines of war loom over him — adds to the sense that this is another scathing indictment of all things Bush.