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Abebooks: The Avid Reader: Political Books, from Churchill to Palin
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September 2008
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THIS MONTH
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Politics… an ever present fact of life, or should that be
strife? Politics is also an ever present fact of publishing and has
been for centuries. Barely a month passes without the release of
another "hard-hitting" book from an insider or a new memoir from a
leader who has stepped away from the limelight. Sadly, the vast
majority of political books are duller than ditchwater so the
mission of this Avid Reader is to prove political books can be
interesting and we're taking a political world tour to prove the
point.
As with all things political, a healthy dose of Father Time can
help decide the true worth of a political book. Some politicians
and their writings fade away, while others - such as Ghandi, JFK,
Churchill, Mandela and Disraeli - continue to shape today's
political landscape.
The American presidential election has already been heavily shaped
by literature - Sarah by Kaylene Johnson came from nowhere
just like Sarah Palin herself, Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope energized his initial
campaign through a high profile book tour and John McCain's Faith of My Fathers revealed how he became a
national hero in the Vietnam War to a new generation of voters -
but we're going to delve deeper into the past and go further afield
than the States. |
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Win a signed copy of Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book |
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BOOKS IN REVIEW
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A selection of recommended reads from world politics
Complete fiction, imprisonment and freedom, acts of bravery and
drinking a lot of beer very fast - just some of the topics covered
in this selection of political books. |
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Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
by Anonymous
Never mind the truth behind today's American presidential
candidates, let's start with fiction. Primary Colors: A Novel of
Politics was released in 1996 by 'Anonymous,' later revealed to be
a journalist called Joe Klein. Although it is fiction, it is based
on Bill Clinton's 1992 bid to become president. It's a gripping
read as a young black aide to the candidate Jack Stanton rides the
rollercoaster of politics. If you were gripped by the West Wing on
the box then you'll love this book - media scandals, a flawed
candidate from a small southern state, skeletons in the closet and
push-pull relationships in the heat of political battle. Never has
political fiction been so accurate.
Find:
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Long Walk to Freedom
by Nelson Mandela
One of the dominant political books from the mid-1990s, Long Walk
to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's autobiography. Let's not forget
Mandela spent 27 years in prison yet still managed to shape a new
version of South Africa after winning the struggle against
apartheid. The book details a monumental shift in African politics
as well as the early influences of his life and fight against
apartheid with the African National Congress. Copies signed by
Mandela himself are exceptionally collectible and worth a small
fortune - if you have one, treasure it.
Find:
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Profiles in Courage
by John F Kennedy
Barack Obama wasn't the first American politician to use a book to
further his political career. Back in 1956, John F Kennedy
published Profiles in Courage, a book that detailed acts of bravery
by eight US senators. Kennedy is supposed to have written the book
while recovering from back surgery but there is an on-going debate
about whether it was ghost-written. Either way, Profiles in Courage
gave JFK a nationwide media profile and won a Pulitzer Prize in
1957. Here was a handsome young hero from World War II identifying
himself with yet more courage and integrity - by 1960, JFK was in
the White House and the rest is history.
Find:
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The Hawke Memoirs
by Bob Hawke
Can you imagine Barack Obama as America's beer drinking champion?
Probably not. (Did you see him at the bowling alley?) Bob Hawke was
Australia's prime minister from 1983 until 1991 and it could be
argued his political career was built upon claiming the world
record time for drinking a yard of ale while a student at Oxford
University. A yard of ale contains 1.7 litres - Hawke downed it in
11 seconds and this odd fact, as he admits in his memoir, endeared
him to beer-loving Australians. Hawke's tenure saw massive economic
and social change in Australia and it is said Tony Blair was
influenced by his policies. Take a trip Down Under for politics
Aussie-style.
Find:
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Recommended Political Biographies |
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Churchill: A Biography
by Roy Jenkins
Winston Churchill is famed as Britain's bulldog spirit prime
minister during World War II but he was also an army officer, war
correspondent, artist and Nobel-Prize winning writer. He fought in
India, the Sudan and South Africa where he became a British hero
for escaping from a Boer prison camp and journeying 300 miles to
freedom. Roy Jenkins - a key parliamentarian in the 1960s and
1970s, and Britain's only president of the European Commission -
understands Churchill's political impact more than any other
biographer. |
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Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi
by Katherine Frank
Indira Gandhi was elected as India's prime minister from 1966 to
1977 and again from 1980 until being assassinated in 1984. India's
only female prime minister and the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru,
India's first leader after independence, Gandhi had huge influence
during the 1970s before becoming embroiled in separatist politics
that led to her death. She was killed by two Sikh bodyguards while
walking through gardens to be interviewed by the actor Peter
Ustinov, who was filming a TV documentary. From Julius Caesar to
Lincoln, JFK and Benazir Bhutto, murdered politicians abound
… it's not a profession for the faint-hearted. |
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Tom Driberg
by Francis Wheen
Political biographies don't have to be about prime ministers and
presidents to be readable. Tom Driberg was an outrageously gay
Labour politician in Britain from the 1940s until the 1970s famed
for his sexuality as much as his politics. In his own
autobiography, Ruling Passions, Driberg admitted to having a
compulsive desire for casual sexual encounters. Winston Churchill
once said of him: "Tom Driberg is the sort of person who gives
sodomy a bad name." Bizarrely, Driberg was expelled from the
Communist Party after being suspected of spying for the British
secret service but he was later also accused of spying for the
KGB. |
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Public Servant, Secret Agent: The Elusive Life and
Violent Death of Airey Neave
by Paul Routledge
March 30, 1979 was a sad day in British politics - the Irish
National Liberation Army murdered Airey Neave in a car bomb attack
inside the House of Commons parking lot and concluded one of the
most remarkable political stories of the 20th century. During World
War II, Neave escaped from Colditz and became an intelligence agent
eventually serving at the Nuremberg Trials. He was also Margaret
Thatcher's campaign manager when she became the first female leader
of the Conservative Party. Conspiracy theories abound about his
death - some blame the British secret service. |
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Find large print books |
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Shelf Talk: Take A Spin Around Political Books
by Richard Davies - PR Manager; Resident Brit.
Politicians who lack of a love for books and writing depress me.
You'd think since politicians make their living by the careful
choice and use of very particular words that more of them would
relish books and literature. All too often we see a super dull
memoir published as a politician's last hurrah before they embark
on a financially rewarding lecture tour.
Earlier this year, I saw Gordon Brown, prime minister of the UK,
speaking about his love of books at the London Book Fair. It was
probably one of his easiest public engagements this year - clearly,
he draws pleasure (cue a mention of loving Harry Potter to secure
the popular vote) but also political inspiration (cue a mention of
loving Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth for the eco vote) from
his reading. Actually, he was totally genuine about his adoration
of books and he impressed everyone in the room.
Barack Obama is also bookish but what interests me most about him
is how he used a book as a way of building support for his
presidential bid. He reads, he writes and he appeared at bookstores
to rally the faithful before formally announcing his intention to
stand as a Democratic contender. Prices for signed first editions
of his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, are now off the scale.
His second book, The Audacity of Hope, was clearly designed to
move forward his reputation as a political mover and shaker - look
at the title.
Some of you will remember a gentleman called John F Kennedy. His
1956 book Profiles in Courage was a clever way of pushing
his credentials as one of the bright young things in American
politics. He had spent six years in Congress and only been a
senator for three years when the book was published. However, his
war-time experiences (his torpedo boat was sunk by the Japanese and
he swam to an island while carrying a wounded man) had been widely
publicized in magazines and on radio, so he already had a
reputation for bravery. The book enhanced Kennedy's reputation for
being a gutsy politician and gave him a nationwide profile. I
learnt all of this by a reading a book called The Kennedy Men: 1901-1963 by Laurence
Leamer. It's the best political book I've ever read. It put the
whole ambitious Kennedy family into perspective and spills the
beans on JKF's serial womanizing, links to organized crime and his
chronic back problem that made his life a misery.
Let me give you some advice. There are probably around 15 books
about Barack Obama that have been published in the last three
months - give them all a wide berth. When reading about
politicians, you need to let the dust settle and see how their
reputation stands the test of time. Come back to Barack Obama in 15
years time and then we might have some interesting reading
material.
Tell us about your favorite political book and your
contribution could be featured on AbeBooks (don't forget to tell us
your name and where you are from). |
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The Kennedy Men |
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Just released books |
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ON THE SITE
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Creative juices
 The booze, the
drugs, the writing. Some of literature's greatest writers have had
a soft spot for the drink or the drugs, or both. From Lewis Carroll
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Hunter S Thompson and Charles
Bukowski, the list of authors under the influence goes on and on.
Uncork our feature on how the creative juices flow in the literary
world.
Read about influenced authors
Man Booker Prize Shortlist
 Each
year the Man Booker Prize provokes debate and interest in the
latest crop of novels from the Commonwealth nations. This year's
shortlist sees The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga as the bookie's
early favorite but five other books are in with a shout, including
the much-reviewed The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. Discover
who could win on October 14.
See the Booker shortlist |
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Bestsellers in August
- Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom
- The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
- Night
Elie Wiesel
- Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
- One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
See the whole list
Most Expensive Books Sold in August
- L'Abou Naddara, Journal Arabe Illustre (1878-1884)
James Sanua -
$13,000
- Biblia Latina Cum Postillis Nicolai De Lyra et
Additionibus Pauli Burgensis
Anton Koberger -
$8,500
- Men Without Women
Ernest Hemingway -
$8,000
- Physiologie du Gout
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin -
$7,021
- The Philosophical Transactions and Collections to
the End of the Year 1700 (-1744)
Edited by John Lowthorp et al -
$6,500
See the whole list |
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Oprah's book club pick. |
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INTERACT WITH ABEBOOKS
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Win a signed copy of People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book is one of the
most talked about books of the year and we've got a signed copy to
give away. Based around the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest
surviving Jewish illuminated texts, this novel should appeal to all
true bibliophiles.
Click here to enter |
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Avid Reader Book Club
The AbeBooks' Avid Reader Book Club is reading Things Fall
Apart by Chinua Achebe this month. Heralded as an iconic work
of African literature, this 50-year-old novel follows an Ibo
community in Nigeria and one man's struggle to accept British
colonial rule. Is this book the greatest novel to emerge from
Africa?
Join our book club to find out |
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Notes from Avid Readers
Last month we looked into the murky world of notorious characters
who provide a grim fascination for readers around the globe. We
requested suggestions for more notorious reading and you came up
with excellent recommendations. Thanks, as always.
"For a book on the borderline of notorious, take a look at Obsession by Tom Gurr and HH Cox. It is a
fact-based account, cast as a fictional novel, of a 1954 murder
that shocked the world. Two New Zealand schoolgirls involved in an
apparent homosexual relationship, murder the mother that threatens
their happiness. This case was the basis for Peter Jackson's film,
Heavenly Creatures. What really qualifies this for 'notorious' is
that one of the girls changed her name and we now know her as Anne Perry, the historical murder mystery author."
- Tim from Sykesville, Maryland (By the way, Tim's a bookseller
with AbeBooks and has first edition of Obsession for sale - ED)
"A great read about a notorious character is The Professor and the Madman by Simon
Winchester. One would never think that a book about the writing of
the Oxford Dictionary could possibly be exciting, but this one is
hard to put down, once started. I was pained when it ended - I
wanted more."
- Brian from Cape Elizabeth, Maine
"How about The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson?
This is the story of the 1893 Expo in Chicago and the parallel
story of Herman Mudgett, possibly America's first serial killer,
who was responsible for the disappearance of many young women
during the course of the fair."
- Ann from Sacramento, California
"What about In Cold Blood by Truman Capote?"
- Margo from the UK
"I think the justification for reading books about people like
Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin (as opposed to individual killers) is
that the more informed people are, the less likely they are to help
tyrants obtain power, e.g. by voting for them. I therefore think
everyone should read at least one book about Hitler; my choice is
Hitler - A Study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock.
As he points out, the majority of Germans didn't vote for Hitler,
but 13 million did. And as Santayana said, 'Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it'"
- Carolyn from Lewes, Sussex, in the UK
"Zebra by Clark Howard is the most
terrifying chilling book of true crime I have ever read! And very
difficult to come by. I will bet even AbeBooks does not have
it"
- Maureen from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (We have it -
ED)
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