by Richard Subber | Feb 26, 2026 | Democracy, Human Nature, Other, Power and inequality, Tidbits
tyranny, face up to it
The wisdom of James Madison:
“If men were angels,
no government would be necessary….
Is there no virtue among us?—
If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.
No theoretical checks—
no form of government, can render us secure.”
James Madison was a potent voice in the political wrangling and public debate that preceded the ratification of the U. S. Constitution in June 1788.
He was an articulate supporter of the Constitution and a leader among the Federalists who favored creation of a national government with a broad range of federal powers that constrained the powers of the states.
Madison shared the fear of his educated elite contemporaries that the “tyranny of the majority” was a notably possible flaw in a system of government based on elected representatives of the people.
If Madison were alive today he might say something like:
“Forsooth, we never imagined it might turn out this bad. We must rally the true friends of the Republic.”
Source:
To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders
Bernard Bailyn, New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., c2003, repr. 2004, 34.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Tales from Shakespeare
summaries by Charles and Mary Lamb…
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many waters: more poems with 53 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 | Dec 21, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Politics, Power and inequality
“nationalism” is an obstacle
Book review:
This America: The Case for the Nation
by Jill Lepore
New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 2019
150 pages
The United States has been a recognizable entity barely—barely—long enough to be a nation.
Today we barely acknowledge our American Indian heritages, which could be part of our nationhood if we thought about it once or twice.
Jill Lepore offers what she is so good at offering: a sensible and informed discussion of what “nation” means, and why “nationalism” is an obstacle to the good life, and why “liberalism” should be what we like to talk about.
Read This America to get her details. Read it and talk about it.
Of course, her book is a political discourse, but it is not rabidly partisan. It’s something to think about.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Old Friends (book review)
Tracy Kidder tells truth about old age…
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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 | Nov 23, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, Human Nature, Politics, Power and inequality
Talk to someone “on the other side”…
Book review:
Uncivil Agreement:
How Politics Became Our Identity
by Lilliana Mason
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2018
183 pages
Mason offers penetrating analysis of the partisanship that is driving America deeper into political chaos. The evidence of her sincere, fact-based examination is that she conspicuously does not offer a “how to fix it” conclusion.
This is academic prose—not easy and not entertaining. It is, rather, abundant data, knowledgeably organized and carefully illuminated. Our national sociopolitical chaos is deeply rooted in human nature and it’s frightening when exposed to conscious consideration.
Uncivil Agreement tells the despairing story: too much of our political wrangling and competition has little if anything to do with “issues” and “policies” and laws. Too much of our partisan political motivation is essentially human emotions—fear, anger, and antipathy to people who are outside one’s own group.
National political figures like Trump and Sanders and others are—deliberately or inadvertently—stoking angers and fears instead of inviting citizens to vote responsibly for candidates and policies that will benefit them and also benefit the citizens of our country. Too much explosive partisanship is group-oriented (“my group” vs. “other groups”) and reinforced by social interactions and overlapping group identities that not only exclude but also demonize the “other” groups. It’s not simply racial prejudice, but that’s a big part of it.
Mason provides essential understanding of what’s going on in the fearful tumult of American politics. If you read only the final chapter (“Can We Fix It?”), you will learn much of value.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Literary Life: A Second Memoir…book review
Larry McMurtry’s love affair with books
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 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 | Jul 17, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Language, Politics, Power and inequality, Reflections
“…to make lies sound truthful…”
Book review:
What Orwell Didn’t Know:
Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics
Andras Szanto, ed.
New York: Public Affairs, 2007.
236 pages.
This collection by Andras Szanto was published before the Obama presidency and what followed.
Essays by Martin Kaplan, Victor Navasky, and Geoffrey Cowan, in particular, illuminate these insightful, topical revelations about media failure to communicate truths.
George Orwell’s well-known essay, “Politics and the English Language,” is still useful and challenging, almost 75 years after he wrote it.
An excerpt from What Orwell Didn’t Know:
“…the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language…Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind…”
It is a terrifying reality that this statement sounds like it was written yesterday.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Bartender’s Tale
Ivan Doig’s story, I mostly loved it…
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 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 24, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Politics, Power and inequality
Drucker thought he had time to think about it…
Book review:
Concept of the Corporation
by Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005)
Educator, business guru
New York: The John Day Company, 1946
1972 edition with new Preface and new Epilogue by author
It’s almost eerie to read insightful critiques of big business written 80 and 55 years ago. Drucker’s commentary is artful, candid, deeply informed, and instructive—but far less so now than it was in the past.
Serious rumination about the role of the corporation is less in vogue now than it was two generations ago, much to our detriment.
Drucker was too early to feel the ill wind that blows when the corporation imposes its awesome power on its employees and society as a whole.
Concept of the Corporation is an historical gem, but it doesn’t touch the hot nerves that drive the destructive role that big business has created for itself.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
1491 by Charles Mann (book review)
…lost American legacies
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 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 | May 10, 2025 | American history, Book reviews, Books, Democracy, History, Joys of reading, Politics, Power and inequality
seemingly unavoidable…
Book review:
The Demon of Unrest
by Erik Larson (b1954)
New York: Crown Publishing Group, div. of Penguin Random House, 2024
565 pages
You’ll recognize the casually engaging prose and the dedicated storytelling style of Erik Larson. It’s a pleasure to read everything he writes.
Larson digs deep to explore the nature of the “demon of unrest” that made trouble for decades and wouldn’t stop provoking the evil sentiments and the violent politics that preceded the historic outbreak of the American Civil War in the Charleston harbor in April 1861.
The Demon of Unrest names and spotlights all the characters who played mostly behind-the-scenes roles as Lincoln and Davis and Beauregard and Scott and Seward and Ruffin and their well-known colleagues blustered and schemed and waited and welcomed and feared the seemingly unavoidable war to end slavery.
No matter how much you know, you’ll learn something more about the assault on Ft. Sumter by reading this book.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2025 All rights reserved.
–
As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 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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