Bunker Hill: A Siege, A City, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick is the perfect book to top off the nation’s 250th birthday year. Having spent most of my life in Massachusetts, having driven or walked through most of the places that Philbrick recreates, I didn’t think I’d have much to learn about the nation’s early …
Category: Politics
Ballot Question 3: moving from partisan to all-party primaries in MA
A basic premise of our democratic form of government is that people choose their leaders, one person exercising one vote. (This, despite legislative redistricting, where leaders try to choose their voters.) In Massachusetts, we don’t get to choose among all candidates for statewide office, whatever their parties. The parties act as gatekeepers. Even with thousands …
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Anna Rosenberg: giving credit where credit is overdue
The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America by Christopher C. Gorham is extraordinary not because of the clarity of his writing or the obviously deep and meticulously footnoted research but simply because of the significance and impact of a woman unfairly forgotten today. Anna Rosenberg was …
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Barney Frank: his final last word
The late Barney Frank’s book, The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy, to be published September 15 by Yale University Press, is a valedictory the former Massachusetts Fourth District Congressman wrote during the last year of his life. In a sweeping broadside peppered with astute observations, he describes …
A penetrating personal account of the brutalities of 20th century Chinese communism
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang is a family history and autobiography of three generations of a Chinese family, spanning most of the 20th century in China. Published in 1991, the 650-page tome hadn’t come to my attention until recently. I delved in and found it fascinating. Released just after the collapse …
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Snarky versus Markey
Bay State Democrats have arranged themselves in a circular firing squad, leaving voters to choose between a senator who is old (80) but effective, or a congressman who is younger (47)– and gratuitously snide. Monday night's televised debate between incumbent Senator Ed Markey and 6th District Congressman Seth Moulton was a contentious, unpleasant exchange that …
From “David Who?” to a Solet Choice for Middlesex District Attorney
More than six months ago, I wrote about a highly qualified but largely unknown candidate who had given up a secure career to undertake what looked like a quixotic campaign. David Solet had spent 24 years as a prosecutor, most recently as chief of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Cold Case Homicide Unit. He had been …
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Graham Platner: the last straw
About a month ago I wrote a blog asserting that, unless some new major scandal erupted causing Graham Platner to leave the race, Maine voters would be faced in November with two bad US Senate choices—but for different reasons. Monday’s apparently credible rape allegation has proven the tipping point for his top Democratic supporters, who …
Iran: a tale of arrogance, self-delusion and unforced blunders
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson is a spellbinding journalistic revelation of the innermost thinking and maneuvering of key players in Iran and the United States leading up to the 1979 American Embassy seizure of hostages that would change the course of world events. …
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July 4, 2026: toward a more perfect nation
Four hundred thousand people attended the July Fourth Bicentennial Boston Pops Esplanade Concert in 1976. I was one of them. It was a gorgeous summer night, a peaceful crowd enjoying the music and spirit of post-Watergate comity. A shared sense of patriotism and pride. Fifty years later it’s hard to replicate that sense of optimism. …
