INSURGENCY - A Book Review and the War In Europe That Followed
INSURGENCY: How Republicans Lost Their Party and… The war that followed in Europe
One more book in the publishing business model that is inspired by Trump’s presidency.
Fact: This book was written by the New York Times journalist Jeremy W. Peters, and released on February 8, 2022.
I was not surprised that this book was declared as the “NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE”.
What would you expect?
As I pointed out in previous blogs and other book reviews, the publishing industry business model that was created by the presidency of Donald Trump is a bonanza to the book publishing houses.
Crown and Random House publishing and its subsidiaries are still publishing “Trump Books”… Never mind that the present president is drifting daily towards greater involvement of The U.S. in the military adventure, in Eastern Europe, that has no end in sight.
This is over a 400 pages book. It is referenced with named and unnamed, reliable and unreliable sources. Based, among other - on 300 interviews as source-references. Some of the unnamed sources provided the author with “a document”.
“A document” without a title and without a named source.
In clinical science reports, a reference like that is labeled as “private communication”, not a scientific finding. But hey, politics and journalism are not medical sciences.
Again, the boundary between journalism and gossip reporting has a fine line, often plainly invisible. Mr. Peters learned this book writing genre from the prolific Washington Post famed journalist Bob Woodward.
#
The book opens with an imaginary description of an unrelated event from 2008: Air Force One broke through the dense layer of clouds over Fairbanks on its descent into Eielson Air Force Base, a sprawling, remote outpost in the most remote state in the union.
Poetic, but hardly based on factual weather conditions during that flight. Elsewhere other presidential journalists embellish their writing with sugar frosting-like descriptive details.
This book claims to be a historical review of the Republican Party. Others will evaluate it for Republican Party related historical details. It may serve as another selective source of information for future students of the American political system as it happened in the early 2000s.
But the author can’t avoid to repeatedly getting stories linked to Trump who is, for now, the retired U.S. president.
#
And the author dislikes Trump.
So his best-selling approach is to compare Trump to Hitler.
The author brings in the famed Hitler propagandist, Helene “Leni” Reifenstahl. She directed in the 1930s the Nazi propaganda films that received worldwide attention and acclaim. No other than the New York Times’ film critic Hal Ericson wrote:
"Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl prefers to concentrate on cheering crowds, precision marching, military bands, and Hitler's climactic speech, all orchestrated, choreographed and illuminated on a scale that makes Griffith and DeMille look like poverty-row directors". Better yet, she made the Time magazine front cover in 1936.
There is nothing more emotionally energizing in a journalist’s armamentarium than comparing someone to Hitler. And Jeremy W. Peters does it well. (Chapter 8 titled – “That’s Hitler!”).
#
This book has a big problem. This book is outdated.
It was released on February 8, 2022, yet 16 days later the sitting president, Joe Biden turned himself into a wartime president. - The war against Russia. It is a war between the U.S. and Russia where the battle ground is in Ukraine.
#
Trump may be involved in an insurgency. Congress is still collecting sworn testimonials. That chapter in history is still being written.
Trump is an extrovert. Trump, to his credit, proved to be a shrewd negotiator with other international leaders - friends and foes alike.
It was repeatedly said on him that is unhinged. He was allegedly called a moron.
Today we are in a different era and the U.S is led by a president who appears to have demonstrable cognitive lapses while in public.
NOTE: No foreign war started during Trump’s presidency.
Little note: This book is expensive. So I borrowed a copy from my friendly public library.
