Writing political books is difficult these days. Events move so swiftly your work can seem irrelevant before it even gets to the copy-editing phase. [Aren't you writing a political book?-ed. No, it's a memoir with political overtones. Get that straight. You're the editor -- or one of them!] But the new work by Nancy Soderberg — The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse American Might — might take the cake for “dead on arrival.” Talk about the ghost of Jacques Derrida… this book seems almost an unconscious effort to drive people away from the Democratic Party.
Bret Stephens has a deconstuction in the WSJ (alas behind the usual firewall). Jonah Goldberg has an excerpt from the review here.
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4 Comments
1. jedrury:Soderberg’s book will find its way to the remainder shelves by May after this review. She tried to get a little press with Jon Stewart and it all turns terribly south on her. Someone like Holbrooke or Tony Judt will give it some much needed oxygen in the New York Review Books one
of these weeks.
The liberals’ ability to put books in the public’s face is remarkable especially at airports. Someday, take a gander at the books for sale in airports both here and in Europe. One would think that the only current affairs authors are Bubba, Fat Mike and now the presumptive Democratic nominee in 2008, the Hill.
Mar 22, 2005 - 12:51 pm 2. Jack Tanner:I saw her recently and when asked why the Dems lost the 2004 Presidential campaign and have been generally trending away from the Dems she said it was all because of the Federal Gov’t disinformation campaign.
Mar 23, 2005 - 11:08 am 3. Peg C.:Roger, I found the article accessible on opinionjournal.com under Leisure and Arts (no forcefield)
link
I hope this link still works.
Mar 23, 2005 - 11:13 am 4. JB:“I saw her recently and when asked why the Dems lost the 2004 Presidential campaign and have been generally trending away from the Dems she said it was all because of the Federal Gov’t disinformation campaign.”
Ah, the new old liberal elite meme: the public wasn’t properly “informed”. Neal Gabler was flogging it on Fox this weekend. Barf.
The guardians of “truth” are aghast.
Mar 23, 2005 - 4:27 pm