Book Reviews: News man Tom Brokaw urges people to make a difference
Published:Sunday | November 6, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Title: The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America
Publishers: Random House
Author: Tom Brokaw
AP:
Just in time for the 2012 general election, Tom Brokaw has written a book that begins with the sentence: "What happened to the America I thought I knew?" It's easy to imagine Republicans and Democrats flipping through it for ideas on how to avoid another debt-ceiling debate, improve educational opportunities for all, or pursue green-energy initiatives.
But Brokaw didn't write the book for the politicians he spent decades covering at NBC News. He seems to have written it mostly for his grandchildren, inspired by a reporting assignment in 2009 when he travelled across the United States on Highway 50 to show viewers the changing American character.
Each chapter of The Time of Our Lives begins with a box divided into two sections, FACT and QUESTION. Some sample facts:
Independent voters make up about 30 per cent of the American electorate.
In 1999, 1.2 per cent of home loans were in foreclosure.
Daily newspapers penetrate less than 33 per cent of the population 18 to 34 years of age.
The corresponding questions frame the stories to come: When was the last time you voted a straight party line? Could you be just as happy in a smaller home? Are you more or less inclined to believe what you read on the Internet than what you pick up from elsewhere?
All those facts and questions make for an occasionally wonky book, but Brokaw's journalism background is evident. He's quick to focus on individual stories and characters to make his points. In the chapter about national service, we meet Corey Briest, a National Guardsman from Yankton, South Dakota, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Baghdad and was able to return home and lead a new life only after his friends and neighbours banded together to offer financial and moral support. You'll want to thank the next man or woman in uniform you see after reading it.
Brokaw sprinkles in quite a few personal stories as well, writing about his early years as a reporter in Los Angeles and buying his first house for US$42,500 in the San Fernando Valley. We meet his parents, their parents and the same on his wife Meredith's side of the family. All the biographical details serve a large purpose: to inspire today's generation to make a difference and actively work to solve problems in the US.
And while he still works plenty for NBC News, Brokaw seems to enjoy speaking his mind in print. Decades behind the anchor desk and he never really had a 'Walter Cronkite moment' when he told the millions watching at home what he really thought about Iran-Contra, Monica Lewinsky or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Time of Our Lives affords Brokaw ample opportunity to share his views on topics ranging from elder care to the Chinese economy. It's a valuable contribution to the national discourse and may just inspire some readers to go out and make a difference.
Picking up the pieces from the Soviet collapse
Title: 8 Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse
Publishers: Crown
Author: Lawrence Scott Sheets
The Soviet Union didn't just collapse - it shattered into many, many pieces. And suddenly, those pieces - political, economic, even religious - were up for grabs.
Lawrence Scott Sheets' 8 Pieces of Empire is a vivid, largely anecdotal account of the chaos and confusion that has followed in the two decades since the fall of the massive communist entity that once obsessed America. It leaves the reader hungry for more.
As a correspondent for Reuters and NPR, Sheets had access to a range of people and places, but he often found himself tagged a "war correspondent".
This often meant covering conflicts that didn't necessarily get the attention they deserved in the West - Azerbaijan versus Armenia, Azerbaijan versus itself, and more. Sheets gives them generous space, and often in unusual ways. In one case, he describes how some carpets managed to save a group of people fleeing a conflict zone.
The strength of the book lies in its descriptions of individuals, whether bureaucrats ("I cannot answer that question") or the young woman who was too Chechen for the Russians and too Russian for the Chechens and who ultimately vanished at a time when kidnappings were rife.
There are far too many moments of absurdity. Some are funny. Some are not.
A decision to go to war made by naked, drunken men in a bathhouse during a birthday party? Tragic, indeed. (After reading the book, one cannot help but wonder how different the Soviet Union could have been if people didn't drink so much, but maybe that's venturing into chicken-and-egg territory.)
Unfortunately, some of the most interesting parts of Sheets' book also are some of its slimmest sections. The changing role of the Russian Orthodox Church and the rising strength of Islam deserved more space.
But the author himself notes that in many ways what was once the Soviet Union is not finished falling apart. Separatist movements abound, and more wars, even if small, seem almost certain. There will likely be plenty more pieces to write about in the future.