Must-Read Summer Books Contents Summer 2012 from Tolstoy to Growing up in India, to Cicero and the CBC: Must-Read Summer Books 3
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VOL 6, ISSUE 2 SUMMER 2012 From Tolstoy to growing up in India, to Cicero and the CBC: Must-read Summer Books Contents _ Summer 2012 From Tolstoy to growing up in India, to Cicero and the CBC: Must-read summer books 3. CBC Insider tells all in new books ummer is upon us and that means many Canadians will be taking a well-deserved Canadians, and an expensive anachronism in S The CBC is a cultural touchstone to a few break and cracking open a book. Thus, C2C Journal offers up a summertime treat for a multichannel universe to many others. Bob Tarantino reviews a new book by former CBC our readers: our first issue completely devoted to book reviews.The Tower of Babble: Just in time for the ongoing debate about the future of our public (read: state) insider Richard Stursberg, who recounts his Sins, Secrets, and Successes Inside the CBC time at the helm of the institution during one broadcaster given recent federal budget cuts, Bob Tarantino reviews 6.of itsHow most the tumultuous American periods. Military went Crown corporation. by former CBC insider Richard Stursburg. Hired to run CBC’s English Services division, Stursburg describes his travails in reforming the off course Political scientist Barry Cooper reviews a new book on American military might by Has American society allowed political and MSNBCWhen commentator it comes to leadingRachel Maddow.ideas, ancient Has the insights US military that can behemoth be applied lost in its modern way? Cooper times. military chiefs to wage war without much restraint? Barry Cooper of the University tackles that query and applies Maddow’sHow to insights Win an to Election: Canada’s An national Ancient defence Guide fordiscussion. Modern of Calgary tackles a new book by Rachel Politicians John Von Heyking finds some in Maddow on American military might, with illustrates how electoral advice can be timeless. some useful insights for Canada’s own . Quintus Marcus Cicero offers some campaigning advice, and Von Heyking 10.national Befriending defence debate. Those No Decent Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Person Would Talk To RelationshipElections are important, but personalities and friendship matter in politics. Grant Morgan tackles this timeless subject in his review of . Rather than present the picture perfect image of the two conservative When Marco Cicero, the famous Roman orator, leaders in alliance, author Richard Aldous challenges the romanticized image, drawing ran for consul, his brother Quintus offered relationshipupon historical between evidence the that newcomer their friendship to Canada was and not the always new culturerosy. covered in Unworthy him some practical campaigning advice. Prof. John Von Heyking, a political scientist at the Creature:Relationships A Punjabi are Daughter’s also the subject Memoir of onour Honour, final two Shame book andreviews. Love The first is about the insights.University of Lethbridge, reviews this ancient by Aruna Papp with Roman guide for some modern political Barbara Kay and reviewed by Mark Milke. Papp describes her journey from the throes 13. The Partnership that Helped to of traditional Indian society to modern Canadian society. Rather than present Western Win the Cold War society and “bigotry” as an obstacle to her integration, she spells out that family and old Incidentsways are oftenin the theLife barriers, of Markus not Paul the, a tolerant novel about West. a young Micmac youth who dies aboard a Established narratives romanticized the Last, relations between indigenous populations and the rest of Canada is the subject of relationship between US President Ronald also portrays how misunderstandings between the two communities make a crisis worse. Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret ship in northern New Brunswick. While ostensibly a murder mystery “whodunit” the book Thatcher. Evidence points to how their relationship was actually strained. Grant www.c2cjournal.ca. Have a happy summer and enjoy C2C Journal’s book reviews and check out our website Morgan reviews an account of the great power Joseph Quesnel friendship in a new book by Richard Aldous. all summer long for other essays, columns and book reviews, at 16. How Western culture rescues women C2C editorial board member is editor of C2C’s summer books issue consciousness when she undertook a study Aruna Papp burst into Canada’s national C2C Journal’s editorial board: killings in Canada. Now, Papp, along with about the cultural factors behind honours Patrick Callaghan, Adam Daifallah, Sylvia LeRoy, Al MacDermid, Heather Devlin released a new book recounting her personal MacDermid, Mark Milke, Andrea Mrozek, Joseph Quesnel, and Chris Schafer. journeysome help to fromCanada, journalist which is Barbara reviewed Kay, by has Canadian Journal of Ideas Inc. Website: www.c2cjournal.ca C2C’s own Mark Milke. The short summary? Canadian society isn’t the problem, but Email: [email protected] emancipation. instead cultural beliefs often prevent female 19. Canadian mystery novel Media Inquiries provides truth about Aboriginal life Joseph Quesnel Novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote that the truth can Email: [email protected] © Copyright 2012. Canadian Journal of Ideas Inc. All Rights Reserved. For permis- be found in fiction. This is evident in Incidents sion to reproduce an article, please contact the editors. The views expressed in C2C in the Life of Markus Paul, a novel by David do not necessarily reflect those of C2C, the editors, or the advisory board members. Adams Richards. While ostensibly a murder mystery involving a New Brunswick First Editor of this issue: Joseph Quesnel easyNations answers. reserve, Joseph Incidents Quesnel uncovers reviews truth this about human nature and our preference for Associate Editor: Kathleen Welsch misunderstandings. novel and finds it also lays bare Native-settler 2 Volume 6, Issue 2 CBC Insider tells all in new book The Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC constitutes a time when the barbarians had stormed theengages gates the and eyes stood and earsatop of the CBC parapets, viewers andberating listeners the Richard Stursberg Reviewed by Bob Tarantino Douglas & McIntyre, 341 pages, $20.65 cowed inhabitants of Fortress CBC. Online invocations n public appearances promoting his book The of Stursberg’s name still seem inevitably accompanied Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside by hisses and jeers from those who rue his legacy. the CBC But the man was and remains a CBC enthusiast and Toronto Life an ardent fan of those who work there, describing , Richard Stursberg describes with a sly programmers” in the country. The acrimony he a publication which strives to serve as both social “some of the most gifted, dedicated, and imaginative sort of relish a recent article in magazine, prompts and describes in the book is ultimately the mirror and instruction manual for members of “the To those whose viewing habits or cultural worldview narcissism of small differences. Constituency” (Stursberg’s arch term for the “serious people” who are the CBC’s core audience). The article, about Kirstine Stewart, Stursberg’s successor do not depend on the CBC, the hue and cry can seem IStewartas executive is an improvementvice-president on of Stursberg, the CBC in in the charge same somewhat overwrought, if not peculiar. For Stursberg, of English-language services, peevishly notes that the CBC “was woven through [his] life and memory like an invisible thread, connecting the tissue of [his] whosense could that Khrushchev compare this was rather an improvement genial man, on even Stalin. in family with the broader character of the country”.The The line inevitably garners a laugh from the audience: TowerFor those of Babble with a less elemental relationship with the CBC, the passions, even obsessions, recounted in jest, to one of history’s true monsters? can seem more than a little bizarre. But regardless of one’s ability to personally relate to ConstituencySuch is the has fate a catechism,of those whoand wouldthose whoquestion sing orthodoxy when it comes to running the CBC. The the saga of the CBC, Stursberg does an admirable job of telling an engrossing tale of “the sheer weirdness of from a different hymn book, as it were, are frowned working at the CBC.” upon. Within the world of CBC true believers, Richard Recruited to the CBC in 2004, near the tail-end Stursberg’sVolume 6, Issue tenure 2 as the man in charge of what of a thirty year decline in audience share and public 3 funding, the problems confronting Stursberg were his stories with a remarkable lack of bitterness and enormous. More than twenty years of successive duringeven a jauntyhis tenure gleam ratings in his climbed.eye: he’s The happy light to comicname cuts —particularly the Chretien/Martin cuts of the touchhis more he prominentbrings to whatcritics isand essentially flaunt the an fact absurd that mid-1990s, which removed 25% of the government’s contribution — had left the CBC as the “worst-financed public broadcaster in the industrialized world.” situation is the brio which carries the book. Among Rather than begging for more funds, Stursberg sought the more brilliant moments of absurdity: an ex- to make more money. He elected to try and solve the chairman of the board advocating that CBC cameras CBC’s problems in an amazingly ambitious program ignore major sports leagues in favour of games that movingof confrontation: on to secure he various would sportssettle simmeringproperties suchlabour as “really occupy citizens —like children’s soccer”. issues (which prompted a notorious lock-out) before According to Stursberg, a number of interweaving factors caused the lowest ratings in the CBC’s curling, hockey, and the Olympics (he was unsuccessful corporatehistory: the governance fiscal vise model, which including seemed a “legendaryconstantly on two out of three); then completely reform the way to tighten and an almostinability comically to meet dysfunctional the most in which the CBC sought to entertain its TV audiences; Thoseand end elements with a provideflourish theby management,” were at the trying to “fix” the news output.