by Richard Subber | Jun 18, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Politics, Revolutionary War
the so-called “Founding Fathers” feared chaos
Book review:
The American Revolution: A History
by Gordon S. Wood, New York: A Modern Library Chronicles Book/The Modern Library, c2002 repr. 2003
190 pages
American Revolution is well worth a read, especially if you think the average bear knows less than you know about the Revolutionary period.
For example, Wood suggests that the strong federal Constitution adopted in 1788 was a direct consequence of the “factious and tyrannical” majorities of voters who, in the 1780s, filled their bumbling, politicized state legislatures with ambitious local spokesmen for special interests. The framers of the Constitution saw a chaos of “elective despotism,” with “a spirit of locality” destroying “the aggregate interests of the community.”
That problem hasn’t been solved yet.
I’m going to keep reading more of Gordon Wood’s books, and I guess I’m going to get used to telling myself to keep reading each of them every time I get to a place that makes me think I want to stop.
For me, I think it’s mostly an issue of Wood’s style and not his acumen, knowledge, or scholarship. He slips occasionally into what I guess I’ll call his casual mode, using somewhat colloquial language, simplified (I resist saying simplistic) characterizations, and dismissive descriptions. Maybe I need to suspect that Wood’s editor needs a couple wake-up calls.
It’s such a relief to get past those clunky segments. For example, in discussing the religious and cultural milieu of the post-war period, Wood refers repeatedly to the “common people” with no clear definition of the folks he’s discussing.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 16, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
work that hoe…
Gardens galore
What’s not a garden?
What doesn’t want to grow?
What do we have
that will not be cultivated?
What part of me
does not strive
to be a seed?
What part of you
would not thrive
in the damp of desire?
What time will you not give
to pluck a weed, and then another?
What earth does not long at night
for the gentle push of the hoe?
What greater joy
than stroking the first green shoot,
and cuddling the first bloom?
What would you say to the child
who wants to be a gardener?
March 28, 2026
Inspired by “In Time” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, March 28, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Loneliness beyond understanding…
by Herman Melville
–
Empyrean: new poems with 57 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jun 14, 2026 | My poetry, Other, Poetry, Reflections
Loneliness, en passant…
Shivering
I take a stand in the cold tonight,
this frigid porch is bare,
in deadened, yellowed light,
a chitter of rustic sound is near…
I guess that loneliness could find a home here.
I guess I might feel warmer in the dark.
February 1, 2018
It was only a few moments, a mere chance to feel lonely,
I let it pass…
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 11, 2026 | Book reviews, Books
…achingly real characters, such love…
”And here I have lamely related to you
the uneventful chronicle
of two foolish children in a flat
who most unwisely sacrificed
for each other
the greatest treasures of their house.”
from “The Gift of the Magi” in The Four Million
by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910)
Published April 1906
If you’re an O. Henry fan, you know the whole story of Della and Jim, the two foolish children who sold a beloved gold pocket watch and an entrancing fall of brown hair to buy innocently painful Christmas gifts for each other…even if you’re not an O. Henry fan, I’ll bet you know the story.
“The Gift of the Magi” is a signature O. Henry piece, with achingly real characters slip-sliding through lives shackled by just a touch too much hardship and garlanded with magnificently understated and oh-so-richly-expressed love, such love as never recedes or withers…
Mr. and Mrs. James Dillingham Young unselfconsciously give a master class in young love. The reader wants to be one of them despite their shabby flat and the narrow strictures of a tiny income and the endless prospect of a lesser cut of chops frying in the pan on the back of the tiny stove. The single-minded devotion—their profound and profligate endearment—of Jim and Della illuminates the power of O. Henry’s prose, and the delicacy of his imagination.
William Sydney Porter (1862-1910) used his pen name, O. Henry, for his published work. “The Gift of the Magi” was part of The Four Million, his second short story collection, when it appeared in 1906. He wrote more than 300 short stories.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Movie review: Same Time, Next Year
all-American adultery, oh yeah…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 9, 2026 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
heartbeats on display
allegro
The boy was bouncing,
hopping, jumping,
he was on the move,
kids make their world a motion,
an energy,
a swirl,
they test their arms,
and legs,
and fingers,
and their voices,
and their faces,
and ways to look around
and through their spaces,
and sounds that are new words
in their worlds,
they do not share
their racing thoughts,
but they put their heartbeats on display,
their disporting has no end.
Do you remember that part of you
is a child?
Will you let that part of you
bounce with joy?
Your inner child wants to jump,
now.
March 28, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Reader (Der Vorleser)
Not just a rehash of WWII…
by Bernhard Schlink
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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