http://www.frumforum.com/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics Building a conservatism that can win again Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:50:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.frumforum.com/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/comment-page-1#comment-198181 scrowe Tue, 23 Nov 2010 06:07:06 +0000 #comment-198181 A fair review of an interesting book -- and absolutely right about the paranoid strain on the left in the 1960's. I like David's use of substantive quotation in his reviews -- it gives the reader more of a chance to judge for him- or herself than many reviews do. I wonder if David has read David Bromwich's "Politics by Other Means" -- I picked it up recently (it's about 20 years old) on the strength of some of Bromwich's recent essays in NYRB and the London Review of Books -- trenchant criticism of current administration that is uncomfortably acute, without making the least concession to the current idiocy on the right that David Frum has been on top of in some of his recent writing. A fair review of an interesting book — and absolutely right about the paranoid strain on the left in the 1960’s. I like David’s use of substantive quotation in his reviews — it gives the reader more of a chance to judge for him- or herself than many reviews do. I wonder if David has read David Bromwich’s “Politics by Other Means” — I picked it up recently (it’s about 20 years old) on the strength of some of Bromwich’s recent essays in NYRB and the London Review of Books — trenchant criticism of current administration that is uncomfortably acute, without making the least concession to the current idiocy on the right that David Frum has been on top of in some of his recent writing.

]]> http://www.frumforum.com/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/comment-page-1#comment-55863 ottovbvs Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:25:04 +0000 #comment-55863 David, I'm really pleased you reviewed these novels, two of which (the Stoic is very tedious) are in my opinion the best that have ever been written about business in America. Dreiser's style is a little bit ornamental but once you catch the meter they are enthralling stories about the country in the age of the Robber Barons. I first read them when I was about 16 and have re-read them many times since. Dreiser is very out of fashion but he wrote some exceptionally powerful books. Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, which are not really overtly about business but share some similar themes to his so called Trilogy of Desire, are also exellent. There is a wonderful cast of characters in both The Financier and The Titan apart from Cowperwood and his mistresses who are myriad, very different and very sexy. Many of them are modelled on actual people, as indeed is Cowperwood who is based on the Chicago street railway tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes. But who can forget the corrupt Illinois Judge Nahum Dickinsheets, or Hosmer Hand, who Cowperwood cuckolds, and Norman Schryhart and Merrill Prince (modelled on Marshall Field) who are Cowperwood's deadly enemies in Chicago. Great books. David, I’m really pleased you reviewed these novels, two of which (the Stoic is very tedious) are in my opinion the best that have ever been written about business in America. Dreiser’s style is a little bit ornamental but once you catch the meter they are enthralling stories about the country in the age of the Robber Barons. I first read them when I was about 16 and have re-read them many times since. Dreiser is very out of fashion but he wrote some exceptionally powerful books. Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, which are not really overtly about business but share some similar themes to his so called Trilogy of Desire, are also exellent. There is a wonderful cast of characters in both The Financier and The Titan apart from Cowperwood and his mistresses who are myriad, very different and very sexy. Many of them are modelled on actual people, as indeed is Cowperwood who is based on the Chicago street railway tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes. But who can forget the corrupt Illinois Judge Nahum Dickinsheets, or Hosmer Hand, who Cowperwood cuckolds, and Norman Schryhart and Merrill Prince (modelled on Marshall Field) who are Cowperwood’s deadly enemies in Chicago. Great books.

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