Governments

As a CPA and candidate for controller of Montgomery County, PA, it is refreshing to see the long-term planning, comparison, functional issue review, and the "watchdog" functions of a controller so well laid out. Montgomery County will be well served to use this planning approach.

Please tell me it's not this easy to run a city. If all the Giulianis, Rendells, and Daleys of the world would just implement this new direction for urban america, our cities would not be afflicted with the ills they currently suffer. Every big city resident should demand that local government run as recommended in this book. Students, policy professionals, elected officials, and urbanites everywhere should make this book a part of their libraries.

I am a passionate city fan and wish every mayor in the country would read this book and implement the policies the authors advocate. There are no quick fixes to the problems shared by large American cities (crime, poverty, decay). As successful cities prove over and over, local government must concentrate on the basics -- improving schools, reducing crime, lowering taxes -- to make the city a place where people want to be instead of a place people want to avoid. If Philadelphia would adopt the recommendations of this book, the city would truly be a great one.

I've read my fair share of Civil War books and this was my first Catton book. I'm ashamed to say I waited this long to read one of his works, it was fantastic. His writing style is an engaging, comforting read that was informative and well structured. This is the first in a trilogy and as the title alludes to, it lays the foundation for the ensuing war. The period covered is approximately a year before the war starts to First Bull Run, covering the political, societal and military events leading to the war.

I can't recommend this book enough.

Jim Gallen has, in an earlier review, summed up quite well the content of Catton's first volume in his centennial history of the Civil War. What I will say is that having read this book, and the two that follow, more than 30 years ago, and having read numerous works on the Civil War since then, I keep coming back to these three volumes. Why? Because more than any other writer on the Civil War (Shelby Foote included) Bruce Catton has produced a book that is almost poetic in its style. His prose makes the people who fought the war or who were otherwise affected by it come alive. From the very first pages of The Coming Fury he gives us a sense of forboding, for the tragedy, the senselessness, and the inevitibility of what lay just down the road for the celebrants at the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1860. Catton is one of the first, I think, to truely take advantage of the letters and diaries of soldiers, sailors, and civilians, and not just official unit histories and canned secondary accounts. If more recent historians have surpassed Catton in digging up details of virtually every aspect of the Civil War, none can touch him in the poetic sweep of his narrative. For anyone interested in a good introduction to our most costly war, Catton is the one to start with.

"The Coming Fury" is a powerful rendition of the sad tale of the disintegration of the Union from the political maneuvers of 1860 to the aftermath of the First Battle of Bull Run.

In this, the first of the Catton trilogy, we are show how the breakdown of the spirit of compromise, which had held together a house divided for four score and four years, contributed to the conflagration to follow.

The major theme of this book is that nothing was inevitable about the lines on which the Union would fracture. The lines of division resulted from a multitude of decisions made by the actors in this national tragedy.

For many with only a superficial knowledge, history is the story of conflict between right and wrong, heroes and villains. When I read history I enjoy books which permit us to see the stories and characters with all their triumphs and failures, virtues and faults. "The Coming Fury" ranks high on the list of such books.

The first casualty of the failure of compromise was the Great Democracy, the Democratic Party, which split into its Northern and Southern wings in 1860, making the election of Abraham Lincoln inevitable that fall.

The election of Lincoln convinced many southerners that the Union was no longer provided a suitable home for them. This book tells the story of how the breakup occurred.

We see James Buchanan, trapped by a cabinet which was as divided as the nation, presiding over the rejection of the Constitution and the dissolution of the Union which he was sworn to preserve and protect and who, incredibly, retired in the belief that he had done a good job under the circumstances.

We see Abraham Lincoln, whose eloquence and political magic are the stuff of legends, stumble his way into Civil War. We learn that the speeches along his route from Springfield to Washington contain nothing of the inspiring rhetoric which now adorns his Memorial.

We see that the South did secede in one monolithic movement. The first seven states seceded nearly in masse, while the remaining slave states waited to see whether a compromise would permit the survival of the nation.

We all know about the firing on Fort Sumter, but how many know what was really at stake? The truth is that the main issue was over the possession of forts. In fact, there were several forts which could have provided the spark which set the nation ablaze, but the honor fell to Sumter and South Carolina.

Although the issue of Fort Sumter revolved around the possession of real estate, the implications were much greater. Several of the Border states swung toward the Confederacy after the attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. It can be said that Lincoln's first crucial decision, that being to reinforce Fort Sumter, lead to the secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, with Maryland and Missouri being held in only by military force. It was Lincoln's political decisions which almost transformed the Confederacy from a rump nation with virtually no chance of survival into state with an excellent prospects.

I was interested in the treatment of General Winfield Scott. I had always thought of him as an old soldier who occupied his chair until he was pushed aside for younger men. In fact, Scott played a major role in the preservation of the country during the period of transition as well as in the formulation of the battle plan which eventually restored its unity.

After the succession of the states, the focus shifts to the preparations for war, both in the north and the south. In the north, the challenge was to organize the forces with which to subjugate the rebellious states. In the south, the simultaneous establishment of both government and army was a truly incredible accomplishment.

With the early preparations completed, the First Battle of Bull Run tested the expectations of all contestants. The battle proved the ineptness of both sides. Bull Run dispelled many notions. Both sides now realized that they were in for a long and hard struggle. Both now realized that the lack of compromise, which had rendered asunder the Democracy in 1860, had rendered any chance of a political resolution null and void. Bull Run had set the stage for the long and bitter struggle which Catton would report in his subsequent two books.

This is a outstanding introduction to our great national tragedy.

Gordon Craig's history of the Prussian officer corps and its relationship with the state it served is a true classic of military history. The primary focus of the book is on the civil-military relations of the Prussian state beginning with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and tracings its evolution and influence to the Second World War when Hitler and the Nazis crushed the political influence of the officer corps. In addition, the book also addresses a number other issues in exquisite detail, including the formation of the German General Staff, the strategy developed before the First and Second World Wars, and the social conflict of the unified German states.

Craig's conclusions on the Prussian officer corps, their reforms and their performance are rather "standard" as far as historical interpretations go - but that is due in no small part to the fact that the author in many ways set the standard. The most salient theme of the book is that for all the German military got right in planning, strategy and innovation, it was never able to effectively solve the civil-military relationship issue, and it was that failure that led to the disasters of the First and Second World Wars.

In Craig's opinion, the opportunity for success was formulated but squandered early in 19th century. After the devastating defeat at Jena in 1807 at the hands of Napoleon, the once vaunted Prussian military had to assess how and why the disaster had occurred. The solution presented by the great military reformer Scharnhorst was the institutionalization of military genius in a centralized, elite general staff and the accountability of the armed services to the German people through an oath of allegiance to a republican constitution, rather than personal fealty to the monarch. The former was adopted and proved a stunning success, especially in the wars against the Danes, Austrians and French in 1866-1872. However, the conservative officer corps' unwillingness to embrace the more liberal reform set forth by Scharnhorst kept the military at odds with the nation it served and ultimately led to the military's political dominance in World War I and political subjugation in World War II.

If you have a keen interest in civil-military relations, German history, or the development of the General Staff system this book is simply indispensable.

This excellent volume was one of my textbooks in college, and I completely underestimated its importance for years. Being deeply involved and interested in Napoleonic military history and the campaigns of the Grande Armee, I have again started to use this book as there is now a 'revisionist' (read 'excuse')school of Prussian history beginning to emerge, revolving around the disastrous, for the Prussians, Jena campaign of 1806. For this period, and indeed for the periods up to the end of World War II, this book is invaluable.

The author uses myriad German source material for his references, and the story he tells is accurate, lively, and riveting. He knows his material, and his subject, and is unflinching in calling a spade a spade when necessary. While I am only interested in those portions relating to the Napoleonic period and its immediate aftermath, students of the Prussian/German Army will find this book invaluable.

Craig's bona fides are impeccable and he writes with authority, verve, and accuracy. His analysis of the Prussian Army's beginnings in the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War set the definition and trends for what the Prussian Army would become, something apart from the people of Prussia and an army supported by a dynastic state. His demonstration of the effectiveness of the instrument under the Great Frederick, and of his policies, and those of his successors after the Seven Years' War, tell the tale of why is became nothing more than a 'parade ground facade', made up of half-foreign mercenary strength, which were two of the many reasons for its defeat and destruction by Napoleon and the Grande Armee in 1806.

The coverage of the Prussian reformers is also excellent, and dispels many myths, some of which unforunately are resurfacing under the guise of 'recent scholarship.' The War of Liberation from Napoleon was in actuality a war of liberating whatever German territory Prussia could grab in the chaos of the aftermath of French hegemony in western Germany (they took the Rhineland, most of Westphalia, and about half of Saxony, keeping the Saxon king, Napoleon's ally, as a prisoner of war). Additionally, force had to be used in Prussia to get the manpower required to fight the Grande Armee. The end of the tale is also excellently told-that of how the reformers, so necessary to Prussian resurgence, were treated and eventually disposed of politically, the Prussian monarchy almost completely retrenching to pre-1806 'values.'

All in all this is an excellent volume for students and historians of the period or of the Prussian/German army in particular. It is highly recommended.

Gordon Craig is the doyen of America's historians of Germany. Now retired from academic life, he is highly respected at home and in Germany, and is sought after for sound and temperate reviews and commentary in the media. No other survey has superceded The Politics of the Prussian Army, although it is now over 40 years old. (However, Gerhard Ritter's important, multi-volume "Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk" covers a lot of the same ground, with a more conservative viewpoint. There's an English translation) There are two basic reasons for this, I think. One is of course the book's very high quality. Craig became throughly familiar with all the most important source material available, and his fundamental conclusions are unquestioned: that the army was the keystone and guardian of the Prussian monarchy and its conservative social order, and always at work to hinder the progress of democracy and the achievement of popular over monarchical sovereignty. The authoritarian (N. B.: as distinct from totalitarian!) sympathies and traditions of the Prussian officer corps survived after the end of the Prussian monarchy in 1918 and carried on in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and then in the Wehrmacht. Eventually the officer corps sold its soul to the "Austrian corporal" (Hindenburg's disdainful reference), Hitler, believing they could control him for their own ends, and that he was in any case the best available political option. But Hitler was nobody's fool, and his ultimate aim always remained to undermine the social authority and prestige of the regular army and in its place install himself, his party, and an absolutely fanaticized and obedient military force (the Waffen-SS). A sense of duty not to Hitler but to the German people and their civilization flamed up and extinguished in the assasination attempt of Oct 1944, led by Wehrmacht officers of the old Prussian nobility. Recent research (in English, cf. for example Omer Bartov) has tended to see more ideological sympathy for Nazism in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht more than Craig does here, though his focus is less on ideology than on the army's involvement in political machinations at the highest level. German historians and journalists are debating this issue at the moment, as new publications argue that the Wehrmacht committed war crimes on a greater scale, esp. on the Eastern front, than previously admitted, and that it fought unrestrained by professional ethos or conscience. A second reason for the book's longevity is that most of the Prussian military archive was destroyed in a 1945 bombing raid, which makes significant new discoveries impossible for the period before World War II. One has to rely on published sources, and as I noted, Craig read the most important of them. New histories of the Prussian army would be new interpretations of the same sources. One could, for example, to take a more sympathetic view of the army's 19th-century ideology and ethos - that it was defensive - in view of Prussia's vulnerable geographical position, the hostility of its neighbors, and the rise of the socialist movement. But in the early 20th century Germany was far and away the dominant power in Europe, and the question arises of what "went wrong" and led to Germany's (in my view) unprovoked attack and reckless strategy in World War I. Note: Despite the title, the book is really a history of the army after 1806, with an introductory chapter on the period before.

McDonald is not only a great scholar, he is a storyteller without peer. He presents the Jeffersonian presidency in an objective and even-handed manner, highlighting both the successes and the tragic shortcomings of the Jefferson administration. Despite Jefferson's reputation today as a civil libertarian and a champion of liberty, McDonald shows how his heavy-handed tactics and his disregard for the Constitution led to disaster both at home and abroad. Despite ushering in the Republican Revolution of 1800, by 1808 Jefferson had lost control of the party he helped create and found himself at the mercy of John Randolph and his ilk in the House. McDonald never attacks Jefferson, however; he simply tells the rather sad story of a man consistently unable to meet the challenges with which he was faced. Another masterpiece from America's foremost historian.

Due to his primary authorship of the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson is widely viewed as a strong civil libertarian. The words of the Declaration and the American constitution speak so strongly about the limitations that government has when dealing with the citizens that they are just as valid over 200 years after they were written. He was also the primary individual around which the fledgling Republican party coalesced. In fact, McDonald commonly refers to the party as the Jeffersonian Republicans.
Less well known is the manner whereby the Jefferson administration callously ignored those rights so clearly stated in those magnificent documents. People were arrested for their political persuasion and he attempted to have Federal judges removed simply because he was unhappy with their Federalist philosophy. This really was a sad time in history, as it was the first case where a president openly interpreted the law as it suited him. In my opinion, the clear statement of these actions of Jefferson while president is what makes this book. Since the Louisiana Purchase was the greatest event in the United States between independence and the war between the states, it tends to overshadow many of the other things that Jefferson did during his presidency.
Jefferson's wholesale destruction of the American military left the country defenseless when it was being drawn into the wars between Napoleonic France and Great Britain. The consequences of these errors were monumental to the new country and his diplomatic mistakes contributed to a senseless conflict between the United States and Great Britain that served no useful purpose and could easily have destroyed the United States. Once again, McDonald is right on the mark in explaining what Jefferson did.
Thomas Jefferson is often held up to mythic proportions as a champion of liberty and as an early statesman. In this volume, he is described as he truly was, a man who professed liberty for all, but practiced it only when it suited him. This is a superb account of what he did while president.

Forrest McDonald has produced a succinct, penetrating and fascinating history of Thomas Jefferson's Administration.

This book is part of the Univ. of Kansas' history of the presidency series and the second effort from McDonald (he wrote a wonderful history of Washington's Administration). This book is about the policies, international relations, politics and style of America's third chief executive. Running at less than 200 pages, McDonald manages to be both thorough and interesting in his telling of this period.

Jefferson and his Administration produced wonderful contradictions. His party espoused a "Republican" philosophy that basically wanted to liberate Americans from Hamilton's financial system and Adam's heavy handedness as witnessed by the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Jefferson's early term saw him implement much of his program. As McDonald points out, few if any other Presidents have had their way so successfully with Congress. Jefferson also added greatly to the US through the Louisianna Purchase, despite his concerns with the Constitutionality of the aquisition.

Jefferson and his Administration reached rough shoals in foreign affairs. Blinded by anti-British sentiment, the Administration prooved less than adroit at negotiating the position between Napolean and England. America was buffetted by this struggle and it reverberated back on our domestic situation. Suddenly, Jefferson's first term accomplishments became liabilities and were revealed as short sighted. The scheduled reduction of America's debt through the slashing of the Navy budget left us without the ability to challenge foreign powers. The abolition of Hamilton's system of internal revenues that left us entirely dependent upon tarriffs and thereby upon the grace of the British (who had the ability to determine how much trade our country could enjoy)for government revenue.

In the most surprising irony, Jefferson -- who had decried Adams and his anti-liberal legislation (Alien and Sedition Acts) would go much farther than Adams in restricting liberties and in executive arrogance through his Embargo Acts and various executive orders designed to limit trade with the European powers.

This is a fascinating story well told. Besides the policies, McDonald gives insight as to how Jefferson governed, his relations with Congress and the Judiciary as well as the toll of the office on the man himself. A good book.

I think this is a great book and I recommend it to anyone interested in integral politics. Below is a copy of an email I sent to Mark Satin.

"I have just read your book Radical Middle and I am most impressed--CUDOS. I have been checking out the material on your website for four months now--great job. I ordered two more copies of your book to loan friends. I will soon be ordering your newsletter. I read Ken Wilber's work and I have read Spiral Dynamics and a lot of other integral oriented folks. I consider your work to be very integral.

I have one disagreement and that is with your view on proportional representation (PR). I agree that PR with too many positions in a district can lead to too many parties and that can lead to chaos. If you had a 5 member PR/STV (choice voting) dist. with a d'Hont allocation formula you would have true 2 party districts and eliminate gerrymandering. Third parties would be unlikely get positions if they have to have 14% or more of the electorate to get a position. I think a study of Ireland, Malta, and Austrailia where such systems are used would be of value here. Thank you."

Endorsements on a book or on a book's website usually don't mean much. But I've never seen a book with the range of endorsements this one has. There are people from the left, from the right, and from the "radical middle" itself. There are unabashed visionaries and pragmatic grassroots activists.

From the left: "More fresh, interesting, and challenging ideas per page than any book I have read in years" -- Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. "A stirring, thoughtful, and deeply felt manifesto for a fresh approach to public policy and public dialogue" -- Walter Truett Anderson, author, All Connected Now. "If there were a Nobel Prize for thinking outside the box, Mark Satin would be so honored" -- Amitai Etzioni, founder, Communitarian Network.

From the right: "Worthwhile effort to bypass all the ideological shouting and come up with consensus public policy solutions that most Americans can support" -- John McClaughry, former Senior Policy Advisor, Reagan White House. "No longer intent on destroying capitalism, [Satin] has learned to use his mind and wits to re-invent capitalism" -- Graham Molitor, former chief lobbyist, General Mills, Inc. "A voice that's as clear as a summer's day, a mind that's extraordinarily well-informed, and a quality of judgment that is nothing short of wise" -- James Ogilvy, co-founder, Global Business Network.

From the radical center: "This book is notable for its breadth, its fair-mindedness, and its emphasis on useful next steps" -- James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic. "A provocative contribution toward a radical middle; as a charter member of that movement, I welcome it" -- Charles Peters, founding editor, Washington Monthly. "An antidote to the Al Frankens and Ann Coulters who dominate contemporary political discourse" -- Ted Halstead, co-author, The Radical Center.

From real visionaries: "An utterly pragmatic, yet innovative and idealistic, agenda for positive social change" -- Paul Ray, co-author, The Cultural Creatives. "Mark Satin is usually insightful and important" -- Kevin Kelly, co-founder, Wired Magazine. "In an era of polarized politics, where politicians of every stripe drift further from the needs of real people, this book offers hope" -- Richard Florida, author, The Rise of the Creative Class.

From real political activists: "Provides a roadmap for political transformation" -- John Marks, President, Search for Common Ground. "Gives us a map for how we might travel from the world of old-fashioned gridlock to the world of fresh thinking and new possibility" -- Chris Gates, President, National Civic League. "Satin is relentless in his willingness to shake the status quo in search of what works" -- Sam Daley-Harris, President, Microcredit Summit Campaign.

I am both smarter and kinder for having read it. This book is written by an intense, strong willed, hard at work, very smart person with a sense of humor (irony, humbleness) and a good heart.

Most important, he communicates with small words and clarity the process that he uses to get to his proposals. He teaches his hard-won skills of compassionate yet sharp analysis without ever saying so. As a reader, I can't help but pick up a little of his skill and am doubly grateful for his work product- i.e. the specific proposals on political and social issues which I often but not always agree with- and for his honest teaching of how to seek truth in the political and social realms. Together, these qualities make the book so valuable.

What a conversation piece!!! Politicians beware!!!! Everything you say will come back to haunt you!!! Great book for all of us who enjoy watching our politicians eat crow!!

what a collection by a true master of the pen...Shakespeare? Dickens? Frost? Morons!

The best, funniest and most enjoyable way to remember all about Clinton! His greatest speeches, his greatest mistakes, his greatest virtues, his greatest flaws! This is a very original quote book, visually attractive, easy to read, and compilated with very intelligent and creative sense of humor. You'll enjoy it from beginning to end'and back!!!

Yalof has done a tremendous job on a very important subject, the process by which presidents select their Supreme Court nominees. He identifies the most widely used presidential approaches to the selection process, as well as isolating ten factors that have changed the modern day selection process.

Yalof then applies these broad factors to each of the nominations made to the Supreme Court since the Truman Administration. Of particular interest is his coverage of the Reagan nominees, especially Judge Bork.

Yalof's book would be a great one for an introductory class about the Supreme Court. Using tons of primary source material, it is a fascinating look into how and why presidents choose the Supreme Court nominees they do.

This fascinating and well-written piece will soon grace the desk of journalists and decisionmakers everywhere, as new spots inevitably open up on the nation's highest bench. Yalof's first work is a triumph of scholarship, storytelling, and insight.

I reviewed Yalof's Pursuit of Justices for the New York Law Journal (December 10, 1999). He describes how nominees for the Supreme Court were chosen during the Truman through Reagan presidencies. His subject is novel, painstakingly examined and offered in a sustained, highly readable prose. His book deserves shelf space in libraries public and private. Its harvest of facts catches and holds one's attention, and is so full that no review can do its details justice. Of the seven presidencies, those covering Nixon and Reagan should be read first for sheer enjoyment at the sight of a driven nomination process in high gear. The seventh chapter, an exposition of the forms and problems in nominee selection, is in itself a handbook that should be kept in the right hand drawer of a President's desk, its copies to be distributed among those humble Machiavellians who even now are laying long-term plans for their nominations. If you want to keep awake at night, read Yalof's description of how Nixon toyed with the idea of "sticking it" to the Democrats by nominating Senator Robert Byrd who had obtained his law degree while in the Senate and had never practiced law, and if that doesn't do it, try Nixon's consideration of vice president Spiro Agnew for appointment to the court.

Burton was out there. Great book though despite the author being overly enamoured with the subject. Good info and California politics.

This is probably the best political biography I have ever read. Phil Burton was a fascinating man, and Jacobs does a terrific job of profiling him. Whether the reader is liberal or conservative, he will enjoy this book.

The best background piece on California politics. Similarly, a fantastic insight into a legislative master whose personal vices cut short a meteoric rise to power and influence.

I am surprised and pleased with this book, covers all the current technologies in use and in development for RBB, in a technical way and also in a commercial and marketing way, that combination result in a very complete and good book, I strongly recommend it

This book is very clearly written and a very good reference for anyone in the broadband arena.

The author does a great job of condensing everything to do with broadband while staying on track and not straying from the subject.

Great book.

I have to thank my friend Paul at Cisco who gave this book to me as a token of our friendship. I enjoy the book's content and author's style of presentation very much. To investors interested in the high tech industry, this book offers a comprehensive view on the latest technology and development which will have profound impact on the outcome of voice, data and vedio delivery infrastructure and market in the future.

Socialist correspondent Felix Morrow writes a powerful account of the revolutionary uprising of Spain's workers and farmers in the 1930's and the heroic battles they waged to defend the rights and organisations won through struggle.

The counter revolution began in Spanish Morocco under the command of fascist General Franco, aided and abetted by Hitler and Mussolini while the liberal democracies from the United Sates to Britain and France, sitting under the shade of "neutrality" looked the other way secretly hoping for the Generals success.

For revolutionary fighters who thought the Soviet Union's bumbling help to the Spanish toilers was due to a series of bad misjudgements came to the realisation they were in fact coming up against counter revolutionary Stalinism.

Despite the impediments posed by social democracy and Stalinism, the Spanish workers had an ability to learn the lessons of previous events at great speed and combined with their almost unlimited capacity for struggle, were able to overcome what stood in their path.

However, they were let down not by the usual suspects but by the organisation that seemed to be the most free of the Stalinist and social democratic straightjacket - the POUM.

Morrow takes the reader through the earth shattering events that unfolded in Spain at the time and takes up central challengers facing that countries working people in the battle for state power.

Morrow's book concludes with a chapter entitled "Two Roads," to revolution or to counterrevolution, to workers power or to Franco. It was not only the abstract need for socialism, that Morrow explains the Spanish revolution could have won only by going to workers power. The disastrous policies of the Stalinists, the social democrats, and the anarchist labor bureaucrats subordinated the struggle to the dictates of big business in Spain and imperialism abroad, the same forces that welcomed Franco.
Morrow is very good at explaining how this policy prevented the workers, peasants, and oppressed peoples in Spain from solving the many national and democratic tasks, supposedly solved in the US in 1776 and in France in 1789: land to the tiller, freedom from feudal rights and powers of nobility and church, national independence for the colonies in Africa, linguistic freedom and national rights up to self-determination for Catalonia and the Basque Country, to name a few. Fighting for these things was the natural reaction of popular masses in Spain as soon as Franco tried to overturn the republic. Sadly, Morrow shows how the Republican government lost because it turned its back not only on these rights, not only on socialism, but even the basic democratic right of workers and peasants to organize political parties, unions, workers councils, to publish and speak freely.
Morrow is not all depression and criticism. He saw with his own eyes the natural response of the working peoples in Spain to fight beyond the limitations of class collaboration. He saw how that power nearly defeated Franco and how it could have defeated Franco especially if the Republic had joined with the struggle of the colonial masses and oppressed nationalities to gain freedom Read Morrow and learn how the coming struggles will be victories and not defeats.

Morrow was a great editor, a great journalist, a man who captured the spirit and realities of the Spanish civil war, not as an uncritical supporter of the Republicans, but as a revolutionary critique familiar with the lessons Leon Trotsky tried to give about the Russian Revolution, familiar with the betrayal of the class collaborationist leaders of the Communist and Socialist parties in Spain.
In this book we see in the flesh what we may here about in other writer's analysis of this civil war. I was always struck by how he shows the imporance of the struggle for land and support to the small farmers, not by analysis but by describing the debates he heard on this subject between Spanish peasants and Franco's troops.
The rise of Le Pen and France and the attempts of the same social democrats and stalinists to get workers in that country to subordinate the struggle to supporting Chirac is an errie echo of the same policies that Morrow shows led to the defeat in Spain.