Review: The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

The Divider

It has become fashionable to criticize Trump and get away with it. Most of the book covers about Trump (and Putin and Xi / China) have a blazing red or blood red cover. This one, for a change, has a more classy white with a sliver of black. This book is hefty, and will take a good amount of time for one to cover, because it is so detailed as to literally have statements in double-quotes on almost every page.

When Trump won in 2016, I was quite happy and still sort of support him because he was an outsider in the sense of being a non-politician. Politicians have milked the system for too long for their own benefits, and hence an outsider, an entrepreneur at that, was a good thing. Of course Trump has an abrasive personality and he did not tone it down when he became the most powerful man on earth. I first saw Trump in the Apprentice show back in 2000s. I loved his style and his signature line “you are fired”. I remember reading in New Yorker in 2015 how paid actors were asked to appear at a Trump rally and the author was sort of happy that they (or whoever) had exposed it. Am sure New Yorker was stunned at the election results.

The book covers the entire period of Trump in White House and does manage to show that there was lot of infighting and chaos behind the scenes. To top it, Trump’s habit of tweeting to the world and then his team getting to know of his decision did not help one bit. But he surely did take lot of strong decisions and rankled up the leftist ecosystem who had led the country astray with their stupid policies. The most powerful nation cannot stop illegal immigrants from crossing over the border? Trump promised the wall, but of course could not complete it because of obvious lack of support in the House.

However, the focus of this book and its authors (they wrote for NYT itself should be a clear indicator) is to show that Trump and his White House never did even one thing correctly. No wonder I don’t take these kinds of books too seriously lest they cloud my thinking. Obama and his administration lied about how Osama bin Laden was killed and then even supplanted their fake theory in Zero Dark Thirty. Whereas Trump got Baghdadi and Soleimani killed, yet never got any credit in NYT or WaPo. Am not getting into the merits or demerits of killing Soleimani, but just bringing forth the point that when you read only NYT and WaPo, you will never read one thing positive about Trump or Republicans. That Trump ordered the pull out from Afghanistan did not merit praise, that he did not start any new military operations anywhere did not merit praise, that he cornered China did not merit praise, that he did as best as could to combat Covid pandemic and the economic fallout did not merit praise.

So with that in mind, you should definitely read this book for understanding how Trump operated and his antics upset many leaders like Merkel and Trudeau.

Review: The Pullman Porter by Vanita Oelschlager

The Pullman Porter

The Pullman Porter, written by Vanita Oelschlager, would be published by Vanita Books in May, 2014.

History in itself is so vast and full of variety that it never fails to amaze you with how small and inconsequential events and unimportant personalities end up creating something with overreaching consequences. American history is no less interesting with many a books already having been written about it. I have recently bought A History of the American People by Paul Johnson but haven’t started it yet owing to its size and the unhindered dedication it requires in terms of reading effort – both due to the 1000+ pages and Paul Johnson’s gift as an acclaimed writer. Though large, voluminous books always attract me, of late the ones which delve in enough detail for one to start with a topic have interested me as well. On twitter, History In An Hour tweets about its recent books and other blog posts which give you a fair overview of history in, well actually under, an hour. Its founder Rupert Colley is a former librarian and is currently penning historical fiction.

The role which trains have played in getting countries connected is a story told often and especially the American one. Various documentaries and shows on Discovery Channel have covered in vivid detail how testing were the conditions in which the railroads were setup in America. But I didn’t know until I read this book was how porters have played an important role in the building and development of the American-African middle class. Vanita’s book is primarily aimed at children, but can nonetheless make for an interesting read for adults as well with the colorful graphics and pensive underpinnings.

A New York Times blog about the same makes for a good read.

 
Arlo Guthrie – City of New Orleans (recommended by Vanita)

Many interesting historical snippets caught my attention in the book: Malcolm X, whose movie I believe is highly underrated on IMDB, was a descendant of a Pullman Porter and that E.D. Nixon was himself a Pullman Porter! At the same time the book is also a reflection of the inhumanly existence American-Africans and how the Civil Rights Movement was a step in the right direction of reclaiming their lost dignity.

An interesting and a short pictorial book to educate your children about the Pullman Porters and the redeeming of just rights.

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