Export Crop Liberalization in Africa: A Review (Fao Agricultural Services Bulletin)

Amazon.com

Located on a narrow, mountainous finger of Italy hard by Croatia and Slovenia, the port city of Trieste is something of a backwater, little visited and seldom in the news. As Jan Morris, who first came to Trieste as the English soldier James Morris in 1945, writes, "It offers no unforgettable landmark, no universally familiar melody, no unmistakable cuisine, hardly a single native name that anyone knows."

Yet, as historian and travel writer Morris ably demonstrates in this homage to one of her favorite cities (others about which she has written are Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, and Venice), Trieste has many charms. Its history is foremost among them, thanks to the city's former role as the sole port of the otherwise landlocked Austro-Hungarian empire, which housed a small fleet there--a fleet that, from time to time, would sail off to make war against the Ottomans or the Italians. At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste had grown to international importance as an entry point into Central Europe, so much so that it was referred to as "the third entrance of the Suez Canal." Trieste briefly took center stage at the onset of the cold war, when Marshall Tito claimed it for Yugoslavia; it narrowly avoided being enveloped by the Iron Curtain. Morris tells all these stories and more, bringing the city's past to life; no one should be surprised if Trieste sees more visitors thanks to her spirited study.

Yet Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is also a work tinged with melancholy. That befits the city's faded glory, but it also has to do with the sad fact that this will be Morris's last book--or so she promises. Let's hope she changes her mind. If not, however, this serves very well as the capstone of a distinguished career. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

One hundred years ago, Trieste was the chief seaport of the entire Austro-Hungarian empire, but today many people have no idea where it is. This fascinating Italian city on the Adriatic, bordering the former Yugoslavia, has always tantalized Jan Morris with its moodiness and melancholy. She has chosen it as the subject of this, her final work, because it was the first city she knew as an adult -- initially as a young soldier at the end of World War II, and later as an elderly woman. This is not only her last book, but in many ways her most complex as well, for Trieste has come to represent her own life with all its hopes, disillusionments, loves and memories.

Jan Morris evokes Trieste's modern history -- from the long period of wealth and stability under the Habsburgs, through the ambiguities of Fas-cism and the hardships of the Cold War. She has been going to Trieste for more than half a century and has come to see herself reflected in it: not just her interests and preoccupations -- cities, empires, ships and animals -- but her intimate convictions about such matters as patriotism, sex, civility and kindness. Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is the culmination of a singular career.

Customer Reviews:

A delightful book on a little-known city.......2006-10-19

Befor this I had never read any of Jan Morris's works. I think I missed a lot because reading this one brought me enormous enjoyment. I had seen her on C-SPAN a few months ago and found her charming, even though I didn't get around to reading her till now. Her personal charm comes through in her writing. She goes about her work with large quantities of gentle wit, impressive erudition aand wisdom, taking neither herself nor her subject too seriously. I am old enough to remember the day Triest became part of Italy after the Second War ... for a while it was a toss-up as to whether it would go to Italy or to Yugoslavia. Being part of Italy is probably a good thing even though the city and its environs have great numbers of assorted Slavs, Hungarians and Germanic types, probably a wonderful mixture.
Let me start toward the end of the book, where Morris says "Here more than anywhere else I remember lost times." And what does that make us think of?? Right ... and like M Charlus declaiming and lamenting in the park she counts off people she has known in Trieste and announces each one's fate: in every case it is a rough equivalent of, "Dead and gone."
Also in these last pages Morris underscores decency and kindness as the reigning virtues in Trieste. For me that would be quite enough to recommend any city ... or country. Other features of the Triestino character: "When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically. They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean."
Like most parts of eastern and southern Europe unable to defend themselves, Trieste became became part of the Habsburg Empire, which needed a seaport. Just down the coast lies Istria which brings to mind Modern Greece's first president John Capodistria, whose surname is a hellenized version of Capo d'Istria.
The very short chapter titled "Love and Lust," suggestive in a highly civilized way and extremely cerebral (I suspect Morris gets most of her jollies above the eyebrows) seems to adhere to Jungian thought even though Freud is the psycho-anthropologist who gets mentioned here -- along with James Joyce, who lived in Trieste for some years and expressed a clear preference for certain of the city's cat-houses as against others. In a chapter called "The Nonsense of Nationality" the author shows that Trieste, containing so many ethnicities, can be taken as a case-study or laboratory to give the lie to all the insane claims of nationalism. This ethnic mix may help explain why the typical Triestino is so civlized. There is a meditative, lovingly written chapter on the histoy of the Jews in Trieste in which the author suggests during all the domination by Austrians, Nazis and Italians, the Jews have provided the spiritual and social energy to fuel the city's intellectual and artistic life through most of its history. Another section full of melancholy and tristesse treats of the ill-starred Castle of Miramar, which "stands on its promontory weeping." It was built by Maximilian and Carlotta, who lived in it before Napoleon III sent them to Mexico to oust Juarez and mess around with the Monroe Doctrine.
Interestingly planned and written, this book starts out by giving an almost negative, surely uninspiring vision of Trieste, a "nowhere" impression (as in the title) but as you keep reading you discover all the reasons why it is a place you really do want to see and know, perhaps for a few days, maybe for a lot longer. On the two-hundredth page of the book Jan Morris says, "Much of this little book, then, has been self-description." Actually, I didn't need to be told that. I sensed it shortly after starting to read. Both Jan Morris's inner life and this little book are delightful to know.

Travel experiences in Trieste, Italy........2005-04-12

I actually know where Trieste was before I read this book. Unfortunately I have never visited the city. I wanted to read this travel book about this famous city, but after a few chapters, I wondered where the book was going to. After the final chapter, I still do not know what the author's intentions was with this book. Perhaps I don't read too many travel books. Obviously the city means a lot to the author, but she did not express it clearly in her writing. I was scratching my head at the end, and wondering what I read.
I learned a little about the city, but not in relation to the amount of time I spent reading this short book. The city of James Joyce and Maximillian. The imperial port of the Austo-Hungarian Empire. The meeting point of Slav, German, and Latin Empires. One of the ending points of the Iron Curtain. This city breeds interest and yet the author took us on a round about journal that confuses the reader. I am sure the author's other books are good, her last one was not the greatest.

Gushing and splashing; signifying nothing.......2005-01-16

It struck me, as I read this book, that everything recounted could, with a slight and proper change of name, direction, be applied to any hell hole on earth: Swansea, Des Moines, Sudbury. The modest yet empty fireworks of the prose conveyed no feeling, evoked no atmosphere, muddled every anecdote, and left one with all the symptoms of a severe Aspertaine overdose.
is anyone really drawn into this twaddle by means of the outlandish pseudo-intimate supposed dialog? It is as revolting as the rubbish written by for so many years by so many sensitive housewives in suburban Manitoba and mailed in to be read aloud on Morningside.
Trieste, one cannot help thinking, must really be an interesting and place; lost in some eddy of time and circumstance. But it is impossible to tell for sure from this book. If I did visit I would avoid Ms Morris, should I meet her.
Could having read Evelyn Waugh's travel books just before have prejudiced me? I hope so; in fact I re-read When The Going Was Good as an antidote to this.

Trieste Is Magnificent.......2004-07-30

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. Reading books like this is what makes life worth living. Jan Morris is a wonderful prose stylist. Her every sentence is a delight. I learnt so much about Trieste, from reading this book. Before I picked up this book, I didn't know anything about Trieste at all. When it was finished, I had learnt a great deal about it... in the most delightful way.

If you want a delightful few hours, read this book. Indulge yourself in the quirky characters and the old world atmosphere Jan Morris brings so delightfully to life. Yes, Jan Morris work is elegiac, and for a Welsh nationalist and self described anarchist, she has a bit of a thing for empires. But that makes this a better, not a worse book. I very much enjoyed this book, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.

A twilight view of Trieste.......2004-07-10

Morris' perspective on Trieste is unique on several counts: a seasoned and sensitive traveler, she has a deep affection for a city that doesn't rank high on most people's lists of favorite places; she's experienced the city as both a young man and a middle-aged woman; and she's well-read about the city's history and literary associations, but she uses her learning as the backdrop for direct experience of life in Trieste, rather than as an end in itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, both as an appreciative visitor's impressions of the city and as an account of Morris' elegiac musings late in an eventful life. On the other hand, having recently read Claudio Magris' "Microcosms," I was forcibly reminded that this book is Trieste from an outsider's perspective. It's a beautiful book and well worth reading, but, for the Triestine mind in action, read Magris.

Average customer rating:

TRIESTE AND THE MEANING OF NOWHERE
Jan Morris
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere
Jan Morris
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSWJJS

Average customer rating:

TRIESTE AND THE MEANING OF NOWHERE.
Jan: Morris
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W35FVY

Average customer rating:

Very helpful!!

One of the five most influential books I have read.

The Best Roadmap I Have Seen

Trust ME -- Read this Book!

TRUST Building has never been so clear!

Building Trust: How to Get It! How to Keep It!
Hyler Bracey
Manufacturer: HB Artworks, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Ethics | Reference | Business & Investing | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace: Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization

The Courage to Trust: A Guide to Building Deep and Lasting Relationships

The Trusted Leader

Broken Promises, Mended Hearts : Maintaining Trust in Love Relationships

Trust in the Balance: Building Successful Organizations on Results, Integrity, and Concern (Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)

ASIN: 0972521704

Customer Reviews:

Very helpful!!.......2007-09-11

This book is very clear and helpful. I recommend it to anyone wanting to build trust.

One of the five most influential books I have read........2007-04-15

Few books have affected me as much as Hyler Bracey's book on trust. I thought I trusted, but Hyler helped me to see that I need to take my trust in relationships to the next level. The timeless principles and practical suggestions in the book helped me to do it; God bless him for it. As a management coach, this is required reading for my clients. If you want to help others, help yourself first by reading this book.

The Best Roadmap I Have Seen.......2003-06-17

Trust is a precious commodity. Like reputation, it is easily broken and never well mended. This book is is the best roadmap I have seen on how to create, enhance and, should it become necessary, regain trust. It is short, lively and spiced with stories from Hyler Bracey's colorful past. My personal favorite is the one about his employees giving him the nickname "Highly Abrasive". I can report that I have actually incorporated some of the strategies into my repertoire with positive results. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve the quality of his or her relationships.

Trust ME -- Read this Book!.......2003-02-25

That's what's written on the back cover of this book with a list of prestigious business people recommending it. I had just finished reading, and appreciating, Dr. Bracey's other management book, and found this one even better. Perhaps it is because trust is such a predominant issue in our lives today. While the book provides a program with specific steps for building and keeping trust in business, sidebar stories help show these steps can also be used in our personal lives. The book is a quick read, and you will certainly feel a lot smarter when you have finished it. Dr. Bracey ought to send copies of this book to the clergy, politicians and chairmen of some of the corporations that are in crisis today as a result of misusing trust!

TRUST Building has never been so clear!.......2003-02-03

TRUST building has never been made so clear. This book just doesn't talk the talk it walks the walk. Several books identify trust issues but never help you resolve trust issues, this book makes it crystal clear. It is very easy to read and understand what you need to build trust and keep it in your life in all aspects from personal to business. The stories that are told put the final touch on the process by giving real life examples of ways that the formula is used. If anyone wants to learn the best ways to build and keep trust, this is the bible on trust. The only way to sum it up is everyone MUST! read this book. If everyone practiced these principles the world would be a better place to live. I can only imagine what that would be like. Hyler is truely the TRUST EXPERT!!

Book Description

Capitalizing on the extensive experience of the author in estimating shadow prices, Shadow Prices for Project Appraisal forges a bridge between theory and practice, explaining what shadow (or accounting) prices are, how they are used, and how they can be estimated.

Starting from the basic principles of applied welfare economics, Elio Londero's book provides a step by step derivation of those formulas more frequently utilized in estimating shadow prices. The preparation and use of input-output techniques are examined in detail, and different estimation approaches and updating procedures are presented. Finally, a detailed case study of shadow prices for Colombia illustrates their practical application.

This book will be essential reading for students and teachers interested in cost-benefit analysis, and in shadow prices as a specialized field of applied welfare economics. In addition, the book will be an invaluable source for applied economists and practitioners interested in calculating shadow prices.

Amazon.com

World Policy Journal editor James Chace has produced a balanced, intricate portrait of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, one of the chief architects of America's foreign policy in the mid-20th century. Starting with Acheson's childhood as a preacher's son in Connecticut, Chace traces his subject's rise through Yale and Harvard Law School (where he shared a house with several classmates, including a pre-Broadway Cole Porter), a two-year stint as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's law clerk, and key roles in the Departments of Treasury and State under FDR.

But it was Harry Truman who, upon being reelected in 1948, rewarded Acheson with the offer of secretary of state, a position he took with some initial reluctance, protesting that he was not adequate to the requirements of the job at such a critical juncture in history. He proved himself wrong with his decisive role in the shaping of the Truman Doctrine and the NATO alliance, averting war with the Soviet bloc on the European front. But, as Chace shows, Acheson's efforts were not as effective in China and Korea. And there were domestic problems as well; Acheson and his department were a particular target of the anticommunist witch-hunt even before Sen. Joseph McCarthy got in on the act. Chace's richly detailed narrative is particularly effective in placing Acheson's marginal role in the Alger Hiss affair in its proper context while highlighting Acheson's personal integrity in the matter.

After 1953, Acheson remained an outspoken commentator on America's foreign policy, frequently criticizing Eisenhower's reliance on nuclear weaponry, and serving in an advisory capacity to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the latter of whom took Acheson's advice to get out of Vietnam to heart. Acheson even had occasion to advise Richard Nixon, who had accused the secretary in 1952 of heading a "Cowardly College of Communist Containment," although he broke with Nixon after the president ordered the bombing of Cambodia. Chace's account of Acheson's life and career is as lively as it is intelligent, a well-crafted story that provides the reader with much insight into the unintended origins of the cold war. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

Acheson is the first complete biography of the most important and controversial secretary of state of the twentieth century. More than any other of the renowned "Wise Men" who together proposed our vision of the world in the aftermath of World War II, Dean Acheson was the quintessential man of action.

Drawing on Acheson family diaries and letters as well as recent revelations from Russian and Chinese archives, historian James Chace traces Acheson's remarkable life, from his days as a schoolboy at Groton and his carefree life at Yale to his work for President Franklin Roosevelt on international financial policy and his unique partnership with President Truman.

Acheson was a housemate of Cole Porter's at Harvard Law School, a protégé of Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter's, a friend of poet Archibald MacLeish's, a key adviser to General George Marshall, and a confidant of Winston Churchill's. Serving as Truman's secretary of state from 1949 to 1953, he was indeed "present at the creation," as he entitled his memoirs. More than any other of Truman's powerful and glamorous advisers, Acheson conceived the shape of the postwar world and mastered the policies that ensured its birth and endurance. He was the driving force behind the Truman Doctrine to contain the Soviet Union's expansionist ambitions; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the shattered economies of Europe; and NATO, the military alliance that would bind Western Europe and the United States and keep the Soviet Union firmly behind the Iron Curtain until it collapsed.

Chace corrects many misconceptions about Acheson's role in the Cold War. Acheson was not one of the original Cold Warriors. In 1945, willing to acknowledge Soviet concerns about its security, Acheson worked closely with Secretary of War Henry Stimson on a plan to share America's scientific information about atomic energy with Moscow in order to avert an arms race. It was only when Moscow made threatening demands on Turkey for bases in the Dardanelles that Acheson hardened his views toward the Soviet Union. Acheson's initial approach toward Communist China was similarly nonideological. He had little sympathy for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists on Taiwan and, until the outbreak of the Korean War, held out hope that the United States would soon recognize Mao Zedong's regime as the legitimate government of China. Acheson's early pragmatism toward Moscow and Beijing, and his refusal to denounce Alger Hiss, a State Department colleague accused of being a Communist, earned him the enmity of the McCarthyites, who accused Acheson of having "lost" China and of sabotaging General Douglas MacArthur in Korea.

Later, Acheson encouraged President Kennedy to stand firm against the Soviets in the Berlin Wall and Cuban missile crises. He headed a group of elder statesmen who advised President Johnson on the Vietnam War. When Acheson turned against the war, Johnson realized that domestic support for his policy had crumbled.

Acheson is a masterful biography of a great statesman whose policies won the Cold War. It is also an important and dramatic work of history chronicling the momentous decisions, events, and fascinating personalities of the most critical decades of the American Century.

Customer Reviews:

Much better than what is already out there.......2002-08-28

James Chace does a great job in listing all kinds of facts and anecdotes about Dean Acheson and his contributions to American Cold War policy. (I think that his book is the only true comprehensive biography on Mr. Acheson out there, too.)

Missed Opportunities.......2001-11-10

The seventy-five years spanned by Dean Acheson's life saw the radical shift of America's role in the world from one of a significant, but none the less marginal power, to becoming that world's chief law enforcement officer, judge and--in several instances up to the present day--executioner. Chace's contention is that, to a large extent, Acheson was responsible for the shift.
Overstated in the title, the text indicates someone rather different from an earth mover and shaker. Acheson was, in fact, a frequently puzzled, often wrong, usually pragmatic, but sufficiently arrogant Secretary of State to push through policies with a self assurance that indeed profoundly affected the place America would play for over a half-century to come. But it is the personal relationship between two disparate individuals, President Truman and his Secretary of State, that especially intrigues Chace and that will leave the reader wondering as well.
Definitely a member of the East Coast elite--a graduate of Groton and Yale, then on to Harvard Law School--Acheson's life and background were a sharp contrast to that of the Missouri haberdasher. The contrast between Acheson and Truman is very simply illustrated by noting their similar reaction to General MacArthur's farewell speech before Congress, but expressed rather differently. Acheson called it "bathetic," Truman referred to it as "b-------t."
So how could these two have worked so closely together, and so effectively in pushing radical and rather unpopular foreign programs through a fractious and often openly hostile Congress? At least part of the answer was that Truman had a "buck stops here attitude," one which allowed Acheson to advance programs he knew would be fully supported by the President.
Chace's work touches upon events of Acheson's life that, while not new, do put a different emphasis upon what were once accepted as historic givens. For example, MacArthur is most usually remembered as the headstrong field commander who did as he pleased. That was perhaps true near the end of the Korean debacle but, as Chace correctly points out, the bosses back home, including Acheson, Marshall and Truman were cheering him on while Mac was succeeding, became ambiguous in their instructions when he began to fail, and then threw all the burden of blame on his shoulders when it seemed the Americans and their allies were about to be driven into the sea.
Not only did Acheson's concern for Europe and fear of Communism lead him into disastrous policies elsewhere, but it made him as well as many others in Truman's and later administrations, to overestimate Soviet military power and its threat to Western Europe and underestimate the extent and quality of the Soviet scientific community.
Unfortunately, the author presents the entire "Acheson era" as though it occurred in a domestic political and social vacuum. As examples of this narrow view, there is little mention of how the agonizing shift from a wartime to a peacetime economy, the incipient civil rights movement and the flips and flops in the business cycle began to focus public attention inwards. More importantly, there is no indication of the impact of the new medium-TV-and how it began to influence what was once the very private prerogative of the diplomats. The "open covenants, openly arrived at" dreamed of by the mystical Wilson were already showing signs of becoming a reality when Truman became the first President to appear on the screen in America's living room, and yet Chace shows little indication of recognizing that change.
The one map in the volume was hardly worth including, but the notes and bibliography are thorough, and the photos have a remarkable value of their own. The depicted people in power illustrates how remarkably different they were from their counterparts fifty years afterwards. White, Anglo Saxon men dominate the photos. A concession is made to Frankfurter, none to women except for Acheson's wife and mother, both of whom are definitely and exclusively pictured in those roles.
All in all, these photos speak well of the remarkable change that has come to Washington in two scant generations. The outspokenly liberal Truman didn't even leaven his cabinet with a Ma Perkins, while the unabashedly conservative Bush of the current administration has surrounded himself with Latinos, Blacks and women. Anyone viewing the current cabinet must indeed wonder what Acheson would have thought of it.
In looking back at his long career as a public servant and as an advisor to presidents, it would be nice to be able to rewrite history and to give him the position of Under Secretary for Middle Eastern affairs. Nowhere was he more right in his assessment, nowhere more astute in proffered solutions to what now seems to be an insoluble situation.
In short, Chace's biography is a description of a person who had risen to a position beyond him. Perhaps it was a position beyond anyone, but Acheson was someone who could have provided valuable service to this nation and to the beleaguered nations of the Middle East by his far-seeing view of what America's policies in that part of the world would mean for the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Unfortunately, back when he did have the opportunity to prevent the formation of repressive regimes in that part of the world, he was far too much concerned with having anti-Soviet dictators in charge of Middle East nations then in seriously considering the plight of their subjects.
As it is, his legacy is a dubious one. Troops scattered across the globe, a strange indifference to internal happenings in Africa, an inability to comprehend the rage in the world against the U.S. and a sudden casting adrift of America's purposes as a result of the demise of the Soviet Union; all these can be attributed in large part to Acheson's policies as Secretary of State under Truman.

Fingering the Culprits.......2001-07-23

Coming to terms with the United States' numerous mistakes in the twentieth century is a herculean task, but ACHESON : THE SECRETARY OF STATE WHO CREATED THE AMERICAN WORLD is a start. As a reader who is mostly interested in Asian affairs, but started my college education studying European affairs, this book is enlightening. Not only is there a deficit in the information-gathering department, but also the policy-making department as well. This biography reveals most of the strains in American foreign policy from a personal angle.

Americans of an older generation instinctively understand European thinking and politics better than Asian, or any other continent's, policies, even if most American policy is idealistically shaped with European realism as a foil. This biography maps just how that pattern of thinking worked, and the consequences in Korea and Vietnam.

This book also reveals some of the tensions in American foreign policy, between domestic party lineages and philosophical differences (like "doves and hawks"), that are being played out again in debates over China and Theater Missile Defense.

The portrait of this man is fascinating, and, as were many of the men and women of that century, he was intelligent, principled, and ambitious. That so many brilliant people could not have done better is the real story, and, fortunately, one to which this book may contribute.

A Pragmatist in an Intensely-Ideological World.......2000-12-17

Dean Acheson, who served as Harry Truman's Secretary of State from 1949 until 1953, was in that office during a series of momentous events. This was the period when the People's Republic of China emerged victorious from the Chinese civil war, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was organized, the Korean War started, and the superpowers' nuclear arms race commenced in earnest. It is no wonder, therefore, that Acheson entitled his State Department memoir Present at the Creation and that his biographer James Chace, who teaches at Bard College, paraphrased that title for the sub-title to this book. Acheson was a great Secretary of State, and, although I believe that this biography is longer on description than insight, it is a very good narrative of one of the exceptional public careers of the 20th century.

At the risk of stereotyping, Acheson was Eastern establishment to his viscera. The son of the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, young Dean went to Groton School (where Franklin Roosevelt also received his secondary education), Yale College, and Harvard Law School. After clerking for Justice Louis Brandeis and making the acquaintance of the Supreme Court's other Olympian figure, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Acheson practiced law at a prestigious firm in Washington, D.C. Acheson was a good enough lawyer to have been offered a federal appellate-court judgeship in the mid-1930s, and he was under consideration for appointment as Solicitor General when President Roosevelt died in 1945. But it is, of course, as a long-time State Department official that Acheson is best known.

Acheson intellectual eminence is obvious, but Chace makes clear that, as Secretary of State, Acheson was an implementer, not an innovator. Acheson believed strongly that foreign policy was made in the White House, and, according to Chace, Acheson brought a "relentlessly pragmatic approach" to serving the will first of Franklin Roosevelt and then of Harry Truman. But some Acheson-era policies clearly were rooted in his attitudes. In the 1930s, Acheson supported an "interventionist foreign policy," and, in 1939, two years before the United States entered World War II, Acheson favored a "military and naval buildup" as part of what he called a "realistic American policy." These were to be recurrent themes during Acheson's State Department years. I was surprised, therefore, by how little thought was given to the post-war world until virtually the end of World War II. Chace entitles one of his chapters about the early Cold War "No Grand Strategy," but that phrase could have been applied to the entire era. Part of the problem, as Chace makes clear, was the sheer technical difficulty of some of the issues. For instance, in discussing what we now know was the beginning of the nuclear arms race, Chace writes that "Acheson was well aware of his own limitations in understanding the scientific aspects of atomic energy." Chace repeats an often-told, but splendid, anecdote about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the principal organizer of the Manhattan project which designed and built the first atomic bomb, trying to explain to Acheson and another high government official some arcane point in nuclear physics and then stating is exasperation: "It's hopeless! I really think you two believe neutrons and electrons are little men." It is understandable that even the well-educated Acheson struggled with cutting-edge scientific concepts. What is more difficult to comprehend is why Acheson was not better prepared for the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist forces in China in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War the next year. Chace explains that "myriad problems [faced] the new secretary

This book constitutes very solid biographical writing, but it has surprisingly little personal color. Although Acheson was famous (or infamous) for having one of the sharpest tongues in Washington, D.C., it is only rarely on display. But, when Chace shows this side of Acheson, it is wonderful. For instance, in a latter to Harry Truman, Acheson referred to the Bay of Pigs disaster as "this asinine Cuban adventure." In an interview several years after President Kennedy was assassinated, Acheson told an interviewer that Kennedy "did not seem to me to be in any sense a great man." .... And, while serving as one of Lyndon Johnson's "Wise Men," Acheson instructed Johnson's national security adviser on one occasion to tell the President to "take Vietnam and stick it up his a--." Chace's approach to his subject tends to be too reverential. There is plenty about Acheson to admire, but this book's readers would have benefitted from a more thorough exposition of his human, fallible side.

This probably is as close as we will come to a definitive biography of Acheson. If one also considers Acheson's State Department memoir, which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1969, there may not be much more to say. Nevertheless, I believe that some questions remain. Most prominently, how do we reconcile Acheson the international Cold Warrior with Acheson the bitter opponent of Senator Joseph McCarthy? Can we separate the obvious threat to American national-security interests in the late 1940s and early 1950s from the clearly-exaggerated perception that there was an equally serious internal security threat to the United States? In particular, I wish that Chace had considered the possibility that Acheson was Dr. Frankenstein to McCarthy's monster.... But the men may have had more in common than either would have been willing to admit. In the final analysis, however, this biography should be taken on its own terms, and, my criticisms notwithstanding, it is very good.

Excellent Biography.......2000-11-25

I found the biography rewarding primarily for the examination of the character of Acheson. Although the book was well-written, my greatest pleasure came from reading the details behind such a powerful and successful man, and I felt I shared many of the qualities of what was once greatness.

ACHESON THE SECRETARY OF STATE WHO CREATED THE AMERICAN WORLD

Average customer rating:

ACHESON THE SECRETARY OF STATE WHO CREATED THE AMERICAN WORLD

Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HFDPF0

Average customer rating:

Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World
James Chace
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC0ZGA

Average customer rating:

Acheson The Secretary of State Who Created the American World
James Chace
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W79NZO

Average customer rating:

[Three-and-a-half stars out of Four] Chomsky's best...Bravo for the Prof., for standing up for Robert Faurisson...

Not very illuminating

Don't be mislead by Olier Kamm (the reviewer)

A Great Bio of the World's Greatest Living Intellectual

Too brief to cover the kind of life Chomsky has had

Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent
Robert F. Barsky
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Philosophers | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Social Scientists & Psychologists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Logic & Language | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky (Cambridge Companions)

Chomsky Reader

Deterring Democracy

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

Imperial Ambitions : Conversations on the Post-9/11 World [American Empire Project] (American Empire Project)

ASIN: 0262522551

Book Description

This biography describes the intellectual and political environments that helped shape Noam Chomsky, a pivotal figure in contemporary linguistics, politics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy. In describing these formative individuals and milieus, the book also presents an engaging political history of the last several decades, including such events as the Spanish Civil War, the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the march on the Pentagon. The book highlights Chomsky's views on the uses and misuses of the university as an institution, his assessment of useful political engagement, and his doubts about postmodernism. Because Chomsky is given ample space to articulate his views on many of the major issues relating to his work, both linguistic and political, this book can also be seen as the autobiography that Chomsky says he will never write.

Barsky's account reveals the remarkable consistency in Chomsky's interests and principles over the course of his life. The book contains well-placed excerpts from Chomsky's published writings and unpublished correspondence, including the author's own long correspondence with Chomsky.

* Not for sale in Canada

Customer Reviews:

[Three-and-a-half stars out of Four] Chomsky's best...Bravo for the Prof., for standing up for Robert Faurisson..........2006-10-17

Obviously anybody with a triple-didget I.Q.
can see by even a casual read that Chomsky
is a complicated man. Thus many of his books
are at least somewhat complicated reads. I
highly recommend this as a potential 'Best
of...' book for Anti-Statist fans who also
like other controversial jewish authors books
like Murray N. Rothbard (my favorite of the
genre!), Art Koestler (The Thirteenth Tribe),
et, al. Also check out Art R. Butz 'Hoax of
the Twentieth Century', and Walt Sanning's
Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry...

Not very illuminating.......2005-07-30

This biography doesn't have much to offer for those who are more or less familiar with Chomsky's work. On a side note, there isn't much to say about Chomsky's life beyond his work, which is obviously all-consuming. As such, the biographer is reduced to an amateurish overview of Chomsky's career and influences which are all together pretty dry and unsatisfying. It's much better to get an understanding of Chomsky's work from his own words, I highly recommend "Understanding Power, and "Language and Politics," for instance. Perhaps the only thing that kept me reading is the author's overview of Chomsky's political development as an activist and scholar. There are some excellent selections going into the various political literatures that helped shape Chomsky's ideology as a young person. Unfortunately, the biographer takes it upon himself to subjectively defend Chomsky in some of his more controversial endeavors. I'm referring now to the Robert Faurrison affair. The author should have simply let Chomsky's defense of the matter speak for itself but instead he chooses to attack an author who was critical of Chomsky by explaining an encounter he had in which he heard the author speak give a lecture on the topic in which he didn't seem to have a handling of the material which the biographer decides is proof that he didn't actually read his book. This is a task for another text and shouldn't have been included. An average read on the whole, though it may be useful as an overview for those who are new to Chomsky.

Don't be mislead by Olier Kamm (the reviewer).......2003-08-30

...

As for this biography, I suggest taking a copy out of a library and check it out before purchasing. It does cover some ground, and is an enjoyable read, if you're a fan.

A Great Bio of the World's Greatest Living Intellectual.......2002-07-28

For those who only know Chomsky for his revolutionary work in the field of linguistics and are not aware that he is also an untiring critic of media propaganda and government malfeasance this book is for you. In this enlightening biography of one of America's leading dissidents, Barsky beautifully illustrates Chomsky's dedication in his tireless fight against the forces of injustice and hate--at great personal risk to both his career and life. The ideal that Chomsky follows is not new, however, but based in the long tradition of social activism that finds its birth in the philosophy of Socrates, put to use by countless individuals from Thoreau, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, through their adherence to the fundamental idea of intellectual independence and a healthy skepticism of the dictates of power and authority.
In a society so full of apologists for militarism, who substitute mindless justification for military operations in place of a critical, reasoned view of world events, Chomsky stands out for his courageous opposition to totalitarianism, wherever it is found. Apparently, this hiding place is alittle to close for some. Regardless of his critics, Chomsky is destined to go down in history as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century--an exemplary example of what an intellectual should be.

Too brief to cover the kind of life Chomsky has had.......1998-02-10

Barsky's achievement is respectable for at least one reason: he got some personal information out of Chomsky. I've been reading Chomsky for a while now and have always been impressed by his guarding of his personal life. David Barsamian, who has interviewed him probably more than anyone has - for sure more than anyone I know has - comes close once in a while. Usually it touches on how he feels about something; never anything to do with the stuff to keep biographers buzzing. As for the rest of Barsky's book I have to say that I was hardly moved by it. I appreciated the organization, and Barsky's quite obvious understanding of the issues that have arisen during Chomsky's "Life of Dissent". But I must refer to my disappointment at the immediate realization that this could hardly reflect the kind of life Chomsky has had. Hence, a 200 plus page book is not a biography. Maybe Barsky promised it was not a biography; I can't remember. To me, however, it doesn't matter. I'm always looking for good stuff by and about Chomsky. Sometimes I find really stimulating material; sometimes I find variations of views that I've seen already; sometimes I find worthless psychobabble. Barsky's book provided some new material (the strain the Faurisson affair on Chomsky was coming close to revelatory, as biographies do) but mostly it covered as much as it could about 40 plus years of intense public activity in the US (of all places) and public scrutiny in the same amount of space allotted for a court judge's decision on where domestic pets can and cannot defecate, and why. Barsky's book is excellent commentary on some significant events in Chomsky's life - in precis form - but comes up short of adequately depicting a life of dissent, especially Noam Chomsky's.

Book Description

An exciting memoir describing the coming of age of a teenager and her friends in the fifties in the streets of Manhattan. There is also rich historical background here the reader will not find elsewhere.

Book Description

Biography of Fred Weisgal, son of a noted cantor, roots in the shtetles of Eastern Europe, came to Baltimore, Maryland when three years old. He went on to become a pioneer in civil rights and civil liberties litigation, loved by many for his ribald humor, musical extravaganzas, and jazz piano playing. Immigrating with his family to Israel in 1969, there following 18 controversy-filled years before he returned to Baltimore in 1987. He died in 1991, leaving a widow and five children.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books