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Dr. Herbert L. Calhoun
2423 Nottingham Drive
Falls Church, Va. 22043 SHARE
I have 27 fans: Become a Fan. You'll get emails whenever I post articles on OpEd News
Retired Foreign Service Officer and past Manager of Political and Military Affairs at the US Department of State. For a brief time an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Denver and the University of Washington at Seattle. A graduate of the National War College and a Phd from the University of Southern California.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, June 20, 2011 Welcome to Kingdom Palin, the land of no accountability
A Book review of Geoffrey Dunn's book "The Lies of Sarah Palin." This excellent book takes the reader back to Alaska where those who elected her give an after-the-fact assessment of her. It is not a pretty picture. The author's narrative has a logic to it that reveals not just the facts, but also some of the reasons why Ms. Palin is the way she is.An excellent (5 star) read.
SHARE Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Book Review of "The Arc of Justice" by Kevin Boyle
This is a review of Kevin Boyle's brilliant book about justice in 1925 Detroit called "The Arc of Justice"
[Calhoun concludes with his opinion, "racial justice in America still boils down to little more than how to respond to the primal forces that lie in ... the still very much twisted racial American society, a society that is completely responsible for the "black man's existential dilemma."]
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 13, 2014 Thomas Piketty's "Capitalism"; a review
A review of Thomas Piketty's book "Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century with comments and a critique by the reviewer.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 5, 2015 What One Black Woman Saw on the Way to the Obama Revolution
This is a book review of MSNBC Correspondent, Joy-Ann Reid's book "Fracture: Barack Obama, the clintons, and the Racial Divide." Ms. Ann-Reid has penned a gem of a book here about what she saw on the way to the "Obama Revolution." And what she saw as MSNBC Correspondent, was more than a mouthful.
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, May 23, 2008 Did Slavery Ever Really End in the U.S.?
An essay on the meaning and long-term effects of slavery on U.S. society and humanity. This essay makes the clam that the psychological structure of slavery as well as its sensibilities remain very much intact because they were never completely dismantled.
SHARE Sunday, April 26, 2015 Adding Geopolitical Context back into American History
A Book Review: Of Russell Shorto's book, "The island at the center of the World: The Epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America"
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 21, 2012 "The House I live in:" America's Slow Motion Social Holocaust
A review of Eugene Jarecki's Documentary Movie "The House I live in," about the consequences of the drug war and the way it has been prosecuted, with a few commentaries from the reviewer.
(6 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 18, 2012 The Art of Politics "Tea Party" Style (a review of the book "Mad as Hell")
A review of the book "Mad as Hell" about how the "Tea Party" has organized for action. The reviewer uses the review to provide commentary that compares the Occupy Wall Street Movement with the Tea Party movement. Showing why one is effective and the other is not.
SHARE Wednesday, February 19, 2014 Ed Snowden, the NSA and the American Fear Mime
A Review of the book "The Ed Snowden Files," with the reviewer's commentaries about the meaning of the U.S. national security establishment.
(48 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 20, 2015 A Book of Answers about American pre-history
This book, entitled 1491, is one of a trilogy of books penned by Charles Mann. The books bracket 1492, the fateful year of "discovery." This book tells the story of what happened that year, the year before the European invasion. It is a revealing historical research travelogue -- overlain with, and guided by, a forensic-like Anthropological search for the truth about what actually happened.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 12, 2008 A Re-Review of W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folks
These essays, actually sketches and ruminations of DuBois', remain an enduring backdrop for the picture in which race in America is framed. At the end of each decade, they seem to continue emitting new pregnant meanings. It is worthwhile to review the book as well as those meanings.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Meaning of Barack Obama to America's Race Problem
An essay on the meaning of Obama's election on America's race problem with a warning that it means trouble for Obama as well as for the country if rising expectations are not met and exceeded.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 12, 2014 A book that tells us How and Why the Holocaust happened
A review and analysis of Dan McMillan's book "How Could It Happen." The reviewer offers as part of the summary of the review, an alternative explanation, that includes the reviewer's own combination of variables that predict to modern genocide.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 27, 2015 Three Critical Inflection Points of American Racial History
An Essay on three inflection points in America's racial history, that had they been treated differently morally, America would be a very different country today, one with the problemjs of race being solved by strong brave leadership leading to a nation with a strong moral compass, reinforcing our commitments to our national ideals, and would have proven it thoruh sustained and committed moral actions.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 21, 2013 The Southern Cultural meme has finally metastasized and spread into America's vital organs
A review of the book " Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics, and culture," by Peter Applebome, with the reviewer's commentaries interspersed. It is offered in part as an explanation for Mr. Obama's utter impotence as a President.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 7, 2015 The Leaders of the American Revolution: Heroes or Villains?
Here Alan Taylor, an award-winning American historian, in this book, "The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832," gives a fully contextualized, nuanced treatment of the state of mind of our founding fathers on the troubling issue of slavery. Arguably, it confirms what University of Hustoon Historian, Gerald Horne has said about the American patriots, and about the American Revolution itself.
SHARE Friday, March 20, 2015 Who discovered America (for Europe and the Catholic Church)?
A Review of Kristin Downey's book "Isabella," a biography of Spain's greatest Queen. The book Gives another view of the discovery of the Americas, one that offsets, Carlos Fuentes' book"The Buried Mirror." Together they give a more complete picture of the meaning of the doiscovery of the Americas.
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 3, 2014 The further Criminalization of the Black Community on Mr. Obama's Watch
An essay triggered by an interview by Mr. Eric Holder, by Douglas A. Blackman's, on PBS; and by his book called "Slavery by other means; by Matt Taibi's book "Divide," and by Michelle Anderson's book, called "The New Jim Crow," all dealing with the continuation of the criminalization of America's black and brown communities on Mr. Obama's watch.
SHARE Thursday, April 2, 2015 Kabuki Democracy (High or low Theater?)
A review of Eric Alterman's book "Kabuki Democracy: The system vs Barack Obama," with commentary by the author. The book gets very near the crux of the matter of how both the mechanics and the structural constraints that control our political system actually work.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 4, 2021 America's Come to Jesus Moment?
A Review of Mary Trump's book: "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and finding a way to heal." Included are a few of the reviewer's comments.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 13, 2015 1776, a Year of Illusions, or of Diabolical plans?
This is a book review of Novelist, Thomas Fleming's book "1776 the Year of Illusions," with comments by the rviewer towards the end. Fleming's concludes that the cause of the revolution was based on an illusion, one that left him as well as the reader unsatisfied
SHARE Sunday, April 7, 2013 Book Review of the book: "Sugar in the Blood"
This a review of Andrea Stuart's book "Sugar in the Blood." It is a dramatic reassessment of the impact that sugar had on slavery and the initial experiments in slavery that began in Barbados had on the world of race. It is carefully researched and will certainly be a finalist in the 2013 book of the year awards.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 29, 2015 What a Black son must know to survive Violence in America
This is a review of the award-winning book, "Between the World and me," by Te-Nehisi Coates, with the author's interpretation interspersed into the review.
SHARE Thursday, May 15, 2014 A Tale of Two New York Cities
A Review of Matt Taibi's Book "The Divide," with a contextualizing summary by the reviewer.
SHARE Monday, June 1, 2015 More ideologically based rightwing faux research?
This is a review of Thomas Sowell's book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals," with the reviewers suggestions of better alternative sources for understanding the sources of black underclass behavior and with a few personal comments about Mr. Sowell's style of non-academic research added.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 21, 2016 The Meaning of the Misdeeds of Allen Welsh Dulles
This book, "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government," by David Talbot, is the biography of the CIA as told through a half century of misdeeds orchestrated by one man: Allen Welsh Dulles. It is a true story as well as a truly scary story, one that should make all freedom and democracy-loving people shake in their boots.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 29, 2021 The Data Mining Game
A review of Shoshana Zuboff's book: Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight For A Human Future At The Frontier of Power.
SHARE Thursday, February 14, 2008 A Review of Shelby Steele's: A Bound Man
The final version of a review of Shelby Steele's book: A Bound Man, which is about Senator Barack Obama's chances for wining his quest for the presidency of the U.S.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, May 23, 2011 Will Barack Obama Lose the 2012 Election?
Commentary on President Obama's non-strategy for retaining strong black support in the run up to the 2012 presidential election cycle, with suggestions as to how Republicans might be able to exploit this weakness.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 3, 2014 It's the Whole Barrel, not just a few Apples
An Essay/Review of Thomas Frank's book"The Wrecking Crew, that tells how our nation is being systematically dismantled by the Privatizers and what this might mean for the future of the country. It is beautifully and trenchantly written and so full of truth that it will make the hair stand on your neck.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 12, 2021 Cruising the Trumpian Solar System
A summary Essay review of "What were we Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era, by Carlos Lozada
SHARE Sunday, October 19, 2014 Honor Crimes and Religion: Slavery by another name
This is an Essay/Review of Norma Khouri's book" Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan. The reviewer sets forth a plan that may have some value for those engaged in the fight to rid the world of "so-called" honor killings.
SHARE Monday, May 25, 2015 "A Road to Character:" the perfect Coda to a long Journey
This is a book review, of David Brooks' book "The Road to Character," with comments by the reviewer. The book is a sophisticated tutorial on the elements of morality needed to build strong characters.
SHARE Tuesday, May 25, 2021 Geniuses in the rye
A book review of the book: "Journey to the edge of reason: The Life of Kurt Godel, by Stephen Burdiansky
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 1, 2012 Mr. Obama's Return to the era of Jim Crow
A review of Frederick Harris' book"The Price of the Ticket," with the reviewer's commentaries mixed in.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 1, 2011 America can run from its racist past but it can't hide
A review of Daniel Rasmussen's book: American Uprising with commentaries. The book is about the political uprising among New Orlean slaves in 1811.Rasmussen recreates the explosive three days hour-by-hour in same vein as was done in "Killer Angels." It is a tour de force.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 2, 2015 America: How to Create an Empire by fiat
This is a review of the book, "The Course of Empire," by Bernard DeVoto. It is a novel about the struggles for empire during 17th and 18th century North America. It focuses on the 284 "missing years" between "first landing" in 1492, and the American revolution in 1776, a period that, except for the French-Indian War, and the revolution itself, gets scant attention in American History books.
SHARE Wednesday, August 20, 2014 Amazon.com: Cancun handbook: Books
"Waiting for the Barbarians," by Lewis Lapham, is a book of scatological profundities about contemporary circumstances in post-modern America. They are told eloquently and exquisitely.
SHARE Wednesday, April 20, 2016 The ABCs of Freudian Psychology
Freud coined the term "psychoanalysis," with the modest hope of turning "neurotic misery" into "normal unhappiness," by posing uncomfortable questions that pressured his patients.
SHARE Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Welcome to the Darwinian Jungle
A summary review of Daniel C Dennett's book: "From Bacteria and Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds."
SHARE Thursday, October 29, 2015 Was OJ's Acquittal the Answer to the Rodney King beating?
This is a book review of Mike Gilbert's book "Confessions: How I helped OJ Get Away with Murder. It is a confession by OJ's agent and confidant, that perhaps reveals more about OJ than was intended. Gilbert got OJ to confess that he had done it, but OJ hid behind the lame excuse that Nicole had come to the door with a knife ...
SHARE Wednesday, September 3, 2014 Obama versus Disraeli, a comparison
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(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 16, 2015 A Crime greater than having to live five years in a Nazi Concentration Camp
This is a book review of Eric Lichtblau's book "The Nazis Next Door. It is a very short review because, as the reviewer notes in his commentary, some sins are even greater than those committed by the Nazis.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 17, 2020 Mary L. Trump: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World Most Dangerous Man
A review of Mary L Trump's book: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World's Most Dangerous Man.
It is a family member's psychoanalysis of her uncle at a distance based on what she remembers about family interactions.
She pulls no punches but is not a favorite of her uncle.
SHARE Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The Wages of the American Character
This is a book review by the award-winning author, Chris Hedges, called "Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt" In it, the author makes a case for why the current conditions within America, inexorably will soon lead to the next American Revolution. The reviewer, challenges the author's premise giving reasons having to do with the American Character, as to why there may never be another revolution in America.
SHARE Tuesday, July 20, 2021 The White Elephant Hunt Continues?
Review of Mark Solm's book "The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness," with background commentary by the reviewer.
SHARE Thursday, September 24, 2015 One Drop -- A Story of one Family Journey through its American Racial History
This is a review of Bliss Broyard's book "One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life -- A Story of Race and Family Secrets."
As the subtitle suggests, the bulk of the book, and its most interesting parts, deal with the author's certifiably brilliant father, Anatole, a college poetry Professor, New York Times Critic, and a black man who spent the bulk of his life "passing for white."
SHARE Tuesday, June 24, 2014 Meritocracy or Racistocracy?
A review of Christopher Hayes' book: Twilight of the Elites: American after Meritocracy, with further insights and commentary by the reviewer.
SHARE Wednesday, March 2, 2016 Birth Certificate or DNA, that is the Question?
This a review of Joel Gilbert's DVD entitled: Dreams of my "real" father: A Story of Reds and Deception. Spoiler Alert: Most of this DVD is a recycled absurdity, harking back to a bygone era: about how the Communist, Barack Obama, wormed his way into the presidency.
SHARE Saturday, March 12, 2016 "War Capitalism" and the rise of the Empire of Cotton
This book is not an alternative history of capitalism. According to Sven Becket, the author, it is capitalism's only authentic history. A history that the author argues has never been fully (or honestly) told. He thus sets about the task of correcting the myth that capitalism was the sole handiwork of a group of "self-made inventors and entrepreneurs," one that functioned best when governments got out of the way,
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 15, 2014 Did the Founding fathers fail their own litmus test for freedom?
This is a review of Jack Rakove's Pulitzer-winning Book, "Revolutionaries," with commentaries of the reviewer about the meaning of the freedom the Founding fathers actually fought for.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, January 10, 2014 When Tribalism Trumps Democracy
A review of Max Blumenthal's book: Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, with some of the reviewer's comments.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 19, 2020 Targeted, by Brittany Kaiser A Book Review
A review of Brittany Kaiser's book "Targeted."
It takes the reader through the hidden halls of data-mining as Ms Kaiser experienced it the hard way by Cambridge Analytica's CEO Alexander Nix.
It is an "object lesson" in high-class griffery.
SHARE Thursday, September 17, 2020 Disloyal ... (with prejudice)
A review of Michael Cohen's book: Disloyal
It tracks Cohen's step-by-step descent into his boss's depravity. How his family warned him, how in the end, he took them down with him.
It is an object lesson in what can happen in a soulless society, led by a cruel and soulless autocrat.
SHARE Tuesday, September 6, 2011 The Racial Ways of Barack Obama
A review of the Book: "The Persistence of the Color Line, by Randall Kennedy. A chapter-by chapter summary of the book is given followed by a brief analysis. The upshot is that Barack Obama is constantly using the race card against blacks.
SHARE Tuesday, September 29, 2015 Libertarian revolution or Counter-Revolution, that is thew question?
This is a review of Charles Murray's book, "By the People." Murray makes his case for why America needs a non-violent Libertarian Revolution. The reviwer believes that such a revolution has already occurred, and that Murray is crying foul only because he does not like the results?
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 27, 2012 A Little question of Corruption . . .
A review of the book "The Mendacity of Hope," by Roger D. Hodge, with some reviewer comments included.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 26, 2010 Comparing Obama to Disraeli
A review of Andre Maurois' book "Disraeli" using it as a basis for comparing Benjamin Disraeli and Barack Obama
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, January 22, 2010 Changing the Name and the purpose of the King Holiday
This opinion piece offers a proposal for changing both the name and the purpose of Dr. King's Holiday to impute new meaning into it, rather than having it remain as a door mat for racists to pat themselves on the back for.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 17, 2008 Flip-flopping on Obama
Commentary on Obama's move to the Center and his trashing of black people (Black men in particular) in doing so.