Constitutional Revolution: A Review of The Second Founding by Eric Foner

The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As the United States is once again engaged in a struggle for race-consciousness and democratic renewal, historians have turned their gaze to the little known and little understood period of Reconstruction. The period from 1865-1877, roughly, birthed three new amendments to the Constitution, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. In this new work by the leading historian on Reconstruction, Mr. Foner examines the history behind the creation, ratification, and legal legacy of the Reconstruction amendments and makes the argument that their intent was far more expansive than anyone, particularly the justices, past and present, of the Supreme Court, have ever dared to believe.

The end of the Civil War raised a series of questions regarding the relationship between the federal government and the states, between the government and its citizens, and between white and black citizens themselves. The 13th amendment officially ended slavery in America, but Mr. Foner notes that section 2 of the amendment, which gives Congress the power to enforce the the amendment through legislation, fundamentally altered the previous federal system the country operated under. Mr. Foner notes that the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment has had long reaching consequences for Americans' civil rights, but notes how the authors of the amendment thought the Privileges and Immunities clause could be more far-reaching. And Mr. Foner notes how the 15th amendment protection of African-American mens' right to vote could have been much stronger had the politics of the time been much different. Through all of this, Mr. Foner notes the multifaceted debates that surrounded all of these amendments and how, like the story of Reconstruction as a whole, the Supreme Court's retreat from fully implementing these amendments, even working to outright nullify them at times, still lingers over the country today, like a malevolent shadow.

While this book is a relatively short read at approximately 170+ narrative pages, this is by no means an easy read. Like a good historian, Mr. Foner gets into the weeds of congressional debate, lawmaking, and jurisprudence. This makes for an incredibly complicated reading experience, especially as there are no subtitles in the chapters to help orientate the different subjects Mr. Foner covers. That, more than anything, would've been extremely helpful in following along with his arguments.

Still, this is an incredibly important work of political and legal history coming at just the right time to help us better understand the true history of such a maligned historical period as Reconstruction and how, in the country's ongoing quest to overcome our shared legacy of slavery, racism, and inequality, a better understanding of the past can help us better our circumstances in the present. While the complicated debates described in this book can be daunting, this is a work of history that should be read by all historians, legal scholars, judges, politicians, and lovers of American history.

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Crossing Borders for the American Dream: A Review of The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For many years now, people have been crossing the U.S.’s southern border, legally or illegally, in search of the American Dream. What is not always mentioned in that tale is how often the children of those who cross the border are left behind for long stretches of time. What does that do to relationships between parents and their children? And what happens when they are reunited? This memoir answers those questions as Ms. Grande chronicles her own life of poverty, abandonment, and abuse from her childhood in Mexico to her graduation from college in California.

The book starts with Ms. Grande’s mother leaving their home in Iguala, Mexico, to join her husband in the United States, “El Otro Lado.” Ms. Grande and her siblings, Mago and Carlos, live a life of poverty with their grandparents and the short spurts when their mother comes back to take care of them. When their long absent father returns and gives them a chance to go to the U.S. with them, they soon find themselves in “El Otro Lado” and given opportunities they never could’ve had in Mexico. However, they soon learn that the father they dreamed of having is nothing like the father they actually have to live with.

This was a very difficult for me to rate because it is so damn depressing. Never before has a book made me want to cry with every chapter. The circumstances that Ms. Grande and her siblings find themselves in just wrenches at your heart and there are very few moments where the mood lightens until the very end. And yet, Ms. Grande’s style is compelling. Her use of rhetorical questions throughout puts you in the mind of a child dealing with abandonment and abuse throughout her young life. It makes the ending of the book very well earned.

This is not a book to lull you to sleep. Indeed, you will want to keep some Kleenex handy for those awful tear-jerking moments, of which there are a lot. This is a book for fans of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis and other memoirs of poverty.

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Turning Point: A Review of All the Shah's Men

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup & the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When it comes to understanding the modern Middle East and why it is the way it is, there are a number of dates and events that are key to it, such as the end of World War I and the Sykes-Picot agreement, the beginning of the U.S.-Saudi relationship during World War II, and the creation of modern Israel as a Jewish state. In this wonderful book of history, Mr. Kinzer makes an excellent case for why we should consider the 1953 coup that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran.

Despite this book's short length, it is full of so much information. First, it is an incredibly fascinating look at the history of Iran up to the mid-twentieth century, including both the religious and political spheres. There was so much information about Zoroastrianism, Islam, British imperialism, democracy and fundamentalism that I would love to pick up a more comprehensive book on Iran's history in the future. It seems genuinely fascinating. This book is also a great spy thriller. The very first chapter starts with the U.S.'s first attempt to overthrow Mossadegh in August of 1953 and quickly reveals the ins and outs of the coup. Though you know the terrible consequences Mossadegh's downfall will lead to, you can't help but turn the page to learn how everything comes together for the coup plotters.

While I give this book five stars, it is not a perfect book. The upside of starting the book with the first failed coup attempt is that it whets your appetite for the story, but it has a significant downside of making the end of the book feel rather rushed. There are 12 chapters, plus a preface and an epilogue, and after that first chapter you get 9 chapters of backstory afterwards. Thus, once the second and successful coup attempt happens in chapter 11, it all felt so quick that I had trouble figuring out what exactly was going on. I suppose that's how it felt to everyone involved too, but it does give the reader a sense of whiplash at how quickly everything ends.

Overall, for anyone who is interested in learning more about the modern Middle East, especially now that tensions between Iran and the U.S. are elevated once again, this book is a must read. Along with Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present, Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, and Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, this is a must read book.

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Senseless Violence: A Review of Frankenstein in Baghdad

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The War in Iraq was devastating to the people of that country, but there have been few books written about the war from their perspective, and even fewer of those books have been fictional. This book greatly rectifies that by riffing on one of the greatest books in the Western canon and using it as a vehicle to meditate on the senseless violence of the civil war that gripped the country in the mid-2000s.

The book starts not long after the the invasion of Iraq, around 2005 or so, and Baghdad is just beginning to sink into the sectarian violence that will grip it for several years. In the midst of this, an eccentric homeless man collects the body parts of different bombing victims and puts them together. Suddenly, the body comes to life, goes on a killing spree, and becomes the obsession of a local reporter, the general of a rogue Iraqi division, and the residents of the local district the monster inhabits.

If this all sounds exciting, just know, going into this book, it is not a super exciting book. While there are moments of high drama, this is not exactly some kind of horror-suspense novel. Rather, as I said above, this book is more of a meditation on the senseless violence that the invasion unleashed. The monster itself is more of a metaphor, though he does have a great chapter that he narrates in the middle of the book.

Honestly, it was not the book I was expecting when I picked it up, but that does not mean that it is a bad book. Indeed, this is a book that I am going to have to revisit in the near future as my stuttered reading of it probably did not lend itself to the best reading experience. All I can say is that, after reading this book, I am still fascinated by its premise and I feel like I have to read it again in the near future.

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