For many years, I have off ered end-ofyear, holiday-season commentary on books that I fi nd interesting or important or which have found their way on to my reading list for whatever reason.
As is the case most years, there are some major books focusing on politics and public aff airs, historical or contemporary. The one that has received the most attention this year is “The Bully Pulpit,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which focuses on Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the “golden age” of journalism.
TR undoubtedly ranks as one of our more colorful presidents and his recognition that the oft ce provides a “bully pulpit” to rally public support has set a pattern for many of his successors, and some lessons that might apply today. He was also a pioneer in press relations and was closely tied to the investigative journalists ofthat day - the “muckrakers” as he dubbed them.
For political junkies, the book that has received the most attention recently is “Double Down” by Mark Heilemann and Jon Halperin, a chronicle of the 2012 presidential campaign and follow-up to “Game Change,” their inside account of the 2008 campaign. This time the authors recount how Romney “doubled down on the orthodoxies of the right” and Obama again relied on the “coalition of the ascendant” - minorities, millennial generation, and collegeeducated women. Although widely heralded, with500 “deep background” interviews, I would favor less dependence on gossip from anonymous sources.
On the subject of presidents, we just experienced the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, which brought forth lots of new Kennedyrelated books. Among the most interesting is ‘Dallas 1963,’ by Bill Minutaglio and Steven Davis, which documents a sad chapter in the history of a great city, a period dominated by rightwing political extremism.
Politics in recent times has been in the shadow of the financial crisis and in “After the Music Stopped” economist Alan Blinder explains in clear terms how the meltdown happened, the response, and the work ahead.
One more political volume to mention is Peter Baker’s “Days of Fire,” in which the former New York Times White House correspondent examines the major characters, crises, and controversies of the Bush-Cheney administration.
Other books on a variety of topics that have attracted my attention include “American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell,” by Deborah Solomon; “Old Man River,” the Mississippi in American history by Paul Schneider;
and Siva Vaihyanathan’s “Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution.”
On the fiction side, two masterful storytellers areat it again. John Grisham returns to legal fi ction and the scene of “A Time to Kill” in “Sycamore Row.” And Martin Cruz Smith brings Arkady Renko into the new Russia, investigating the murder of “Tatiana,” a crusading reporter. Another fiction choice is “The Sounds of Things Falling,” a translation of Colombian Juan Gabriel Vasquez’s riveting story in the violent days of the drug trade.
Arkansas author Bill Harrison, who wrote a number of novels, short stories, and screenplays, died in October and a large number of his friends turned out for a recent gathering in Fayetteville to celebrate his life - and it caused me to seek out his “Texas Heat and Other Stories,” a collection published a few years ago.
For biography, Robert Hilburn provides a serious, warts-and-all treatment of the unlikely but legendary career of Arkansas native Johnny Cash. Arkansas musicand musicians, including Cash, are the topics of the new “Encyclopedia of Arkansas Music,” edited by Ali Welky and Mike Keckhaver. Published by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a comprehensive and entertaining source of information on all aspects of Arkansas music.
Anyone interested in baseball or area history will enjoy J.B. Hogan’s “Angels in the Ozarks,” which tells the story of minor league professional baseball in Fayetteville and the Arkansas State/Arkansas-Missouri League, 1934-1940.
And I have to give a plug to “Voices of the Razorbacks,” a history of the distinctive role of Arkansas sports broadcasting by yours truly and Stanley Sharp and published by the Butler Center.
Happy holidays and happy reading.
HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 12/29/2013