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Books for Summer Reading COMPILED BY ROGER SODER ET’S try a little free association. “Endless of allies, gave his eloquence and life to the ends of democ- summer.” racy through the means of nonviolence. If you responded with “global warm- The next author, Richard Slotkin, gives testimony to King’s ing,” then you seem to be on the same famous declaration that bombs dropped overseas “also ex- wavelength as some of this year’s con- plode at home” in Lost Battalions: The Great War and the tributors to Roger Soder’s always-inter- Crisis of American Nationality (Owl, 2006). Like Branch, esting collection of reading recommen- Slotkin shows that force and violence can never build de- dations. Although all of their suggested mocracy but that the crucibles of war can intensify social books qualify as “good reads,” some of them explore rather change. This book, coming after Slotkin’s own trilogy on vio- Lgrim topics. lence in America (Regeneration Through Violence, The Fatal If you responded with “travel,” “beach,” “hammock,” Environment, and Gunfighter Nation), recounts the stories or “cottage,” then you will find any number of intriguing of two battalions of volunteers for Army service in the Great titles to enhance your pursuit of R & R. And if you responded with “surfing” (as in waves, not the Web), then you are probably of an age to particularly enjoy a work of humor that kept one contributor (of a simi- lar age) incapacitated by laughter. kkk My recommendations for summer 2007 are works of nonfiction that are available in paperback. I suggest two large volumes of 20th-century American history by two es- teemed authors. The first author is Taylor Branch, whose tril- ogy America in the King Years is completed by At Canaan’s Edge, 1965-68 (Simon & Schuster, 2007). Branch has said that Martin Luther King, Jr., will be remembered for gener- ations as the most influential public figure in America dur- ing three Presidential Administrations from 1955 to 1968. In this volume is ample proof that nonviolent civil diso- bedience, led by King and his associates, dramatically trans- formed American democracy by winning the right to vote for African American citizens. The franchise had been de- nied to them in the Constitution, then affirmed after the Civil War, but held in abeyance by Jim Crow laws. In the King years, it was dramatically won. Branch recounts each step toward that hard-earned prize, traversing rivers of facts af- ter beginning with a statement about the importance of vot- ing: “Nonviolence is an orphan among democratic ideas . the most basic element of free government — the vote — has no other meaning. the whole architecture of rep- resentative government springs from the handiwork of non- violence.” This book shows how one man, alongside a host JUNE 2007 787 War, both from New York, both made up of hyphenated how the bomb moves from the Trinity Test Site to the skies Americans, and both hopeful that their valor in battle would of Hiroshima on August 6. Quite a journey, both for those lead to greater acceptance in the nation under whose flag originally involved and for readers who will be engaged they fought and sacrificed. The African American soldiers by a narrative that is often fiction-like in both tone and struc- of the 369th and the “Jews, Wops, Dutch and Irish cops” of ture. the 77th were as motivated by their dreams of assimila- Adam Hochschild has written several excellent books: The Unquiet Ghost and King Leopold’s Ghost are especial- ly notable. Bury the Chains is in many respects his best thus A reader’s perseverance is rewarded by far. In the late 1700s a small group of men make the de- valuable insights into the era when cision to fight to end slavery in Great Britain. (The recent Americans’ progressive ideas of social movie Amazing Grace has made this story more widely known.) Within five years, and as a result of their efforts, sever- change clashed with their ambitions to al hundred thousand Britons are boycotting slave-grown empire. This is a very timely book of sugar and wearing antislavery badges. Their crusade begins object lessons for any educator who small, takes several decades, but is ultimately successful and is an important precursor to the Civil War and to the end teaches about democracy and war. of slavery in the United States. Indeed, Britain entertains an alignment with the South during the war, but with Lin- tion as by their desires for glory and their beliefs in prom- coln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and Great ises of a world made safe for democracy. Slotkin tells their Britain’s earlier commitment to end slavery, any British al- stories in great detail, supported by extensive research, in liance with the South becomes an impossibility. Hoch- academic prose that is often as thick as the mud in which schild shows how one of the first efforts by a small group these men fought. A reader’s perseverance is rewarded, how- of committed individuals to free slaves leads to a ban on ever, by valuable insights into the era when Americans’ pro- slavery altogether. gressive ideas of social change clashed with their ambitions Three other (non-Peace Prize) books created interesting to empire. This is a very timely book of object lessons for dialogue in our book club. Founding Brothers: The Revo- any educator who teaches about democracy and war. Those lutionary Generation, by Joseph Ellis (Vintage Books, 2000), lessons periodically need relearning and urgently need to describes six “events” occurring during the very early days be taught now. Taken together, these two books will re- of the United States. Each event brings together the founders ward the summer reader with many thoughtful hours. — of our country (individuals who are often in conflict with Henry St. Maurice, professor of education, University of one another) and illustrates how messy American political Wisconsin, Stevens Point. life really has been since its inception. The book is remark- kkk ably readable (won a Pulitzer) and wonderful fodder for In 1995 Dayton, Ohio, served as the home for negotia- group discussion. tors and political leaders seeking to find resolution for civ- Raymond Chandler is the master of the crime novel. il strife in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The result was the Dayton The Big Sleep (Vintage, 1966) is one of his best Philip Mar- Peace Accords, and, as a consequence of the accords, Day- lowe novels. Chandler’s style is sophisticated and leaves ton became known internationally as the “city of peace.” lots of room for the reader to roam, unlike current crime The city now celebrates this designation through the annual thrillers that leave nothing unimagined. The Big Sleep finds Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The two winning nonfiction Marlowe involved with everything from kidnapping to por- texts for 2006 were Stephen Walker’s Shockwave: Count- nography. Chandler’s writing is very literary and highly met- down to Hiroshima (HarperCollins, 2005) and Adam Hoch- aphorical. The book is worth the personal reading commit- schild’s Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight ment but is not, it turns out, one that lends itself easily to to Free an Empire’s Slaves (Houghton Mifflin, 2005). extended discussion by a group. Shockwave is an extraordinary book. Based on docu- Kiran Desai recently won the Man Booker Prize for The ment reviews and personal interviews with both Americans Inheritance of Loss (Grove Press, 2006), which is beauti- and Japanese, Walker has created a narrative that is com- fully written but very grim and nihilistic. Set in the Hima- pelling and absorbing. He starts by describing two Japan- layas amidst social and political conflict, Desai’s book de- ese lovers in Shukkeien Gardens (Hiroshima) on 5 August scribes the lives of several different characters who are strug- 1945 (the day before the bomb is dropped). He then re- gling to survive and make sense out of life. They barely ac- turns to mid-July 1945 (three weeks earlier) and describes complish the former and fail to achieve the latter. Our group 788 PHI DELTA KAPPAN found this a difficult book to discuss, primarily because we the 20th century. Mabel Dodge Luhan was born and raised could not seem to identify with the lives of Desai’s charac- in affluence and apparent emotional neglect in Buffalo, New ters. This is not a book that will be appreciated in small bits York. As an adult, she sought fulfillment by associating her- (a chapter or two at a time); the narrative requires time to self with the creative artists, writers, and thinkers of those ponder, reflect, and digest. — Thomas J. Lasley II, dean, times. She seemed to barrel through life acquiring and dis- School of Education and Allied Professions, University of carding acquaintances (friends, lovers, husbands), accoutre- Dayton. Book Club members: Jake Dorn, Bob Curry, Ted ments, art, and artists, while creating “salons” for them in Kissell, Frank Williams, Bill Bretz, Steve Sidlo, and Mark Europe, New York City, and finally Taos, New Mexico. It was Harman. in Taos that she seemed to find her greatest personal and kkk “professional” success. In the salon that she and Tony Lu- In Five Quarters of the Orange (HarperCollins, 2001), han built, she brought together D. H. Lawrence, Georgia Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, weaves the textures and O’Keefe, Ansel Adams, and so many others; that legacy con- aromas of the food and wine of the Loire region into a tinues in the blending of culture and cultures that lives on haunting tale of mothers and their children during the dark in Taos today.

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