A Good American Family by Davd Maraniss

In the last few weeks we have heard a good deal about The Statue of Liberty from sources like NPR, The Nation, Fox News, or The Los Angeles Times, for example. Her image also graces the cover of a recent book, A GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY by David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize Winner. In his newest non-fiction work, Maraniss tells his own father’s story from the 1950s and the Red Scare.  In 1952, Elliott Maraniss, a WWII veteran, was named an active member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. When testifying, he invoked the Fifth Amendment, but still lost his newspaper job and spent several years looking for meaningful employment. The author says, “I emerged with a clearer appreciation of the imperfections of the American story -- and with a better understanding of my father, our family, and its secrets.” This is a fascinating look at a tumultuous time in American politics and media --- the HUAC was chaired by a member of the Ku Klux Klan who cited testimony from Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson. Also mentioned are names like Louella Parsons, Arthur Miller and George W. Crockett, Jr., the African American civil liberties lawyer.  This text contains notes, an index, maps, and several black and white photos.  A GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY received starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. It is a timely work -- reflecting articles in today’s New York Times about targeting journalists who investigate the White House and about immigrants coming to the United States where that famous statue still provides inspiration. 

New YA titles and Diversity

Like many school librarians, we have been working to increase the diversity of titles in our collection.  Here are two young adult novels which seem written with that goal in mind, but which, sadly, failed to live up to their initial promise. 

MEET ME IN OUTER SPACE by Melinda Grace starts out as a particularly strong example of an #OwnVoices type of book. The main character is Edie Kits, a college student with an auditory processing issue who encounters a less than helpful French professor as she struggles to qualify for time abroad in pursuit of her fashion-related degree. 

Initially, Melinda Grace does build empathy for Edie and her situation, as in this conversation between Edie and her roommate, Serena: “I shouldn’t have had to do extra just to get what I needed to learn, but I did and I wasn’t about to complain. Complaining wasn’t action. I recited the words I’d heard my whole life. ‘Fair doesn’t mean equal.  It doesn’t mean everyone should be treated the same, because what is fair to you isn’t fair to me.  Fair is getting what I need, and if that means I have to show up ten minutes early to class, then that’s what I am going to do.’ ‘I guess I never thought of it that way,’ Serena said, her forehead scrunching. ‘Well, right. You’ve never had to.’”

Instead of continuing to portray Edie as a strong self-advocate, she is somehow morphed into an immature girl who refuses to honestly talk about feelings because she is overly (and unrealistically) concerned about starting a relationship before traveling abroad for an extended period.  Of course, her crush is on her French Teaching Assistant and his actions (generally ignoring her attempts at keeping the relationship on a more platonic level) further reinforce the lack of control Edie has over her situation.  Overall, MEET ME IN OUTER SPACE begins with a unique premise, but the potential is not fully realized. 

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE by Susan Kaplan Carlton takes place primarily in Atlanta in 1958 and offers an opportunity to explore what it might have been like to move there from the North while a teenager and after the unexpected death of one’s father.  Further complicating the efforts at adapting to a new Southern culture and the strong set of regional traditions is the fact that the main character, Ruth, has few traits in common with her new classmates. Or, as she muses to herself: “I’m a Yankee, a brunette, an Adlai Stevenson Democrat, an aspiring journalist, and Jewish.”

Ruth has to learn to say ma’am when addressing her elders as well as hide her religion, and begin to understand that in the neighborhood of true is what Southerners say “when something’s close enough.” Rather self-centered and superficial, Ruth develops a crush on a boy (Davis Jefferson), deals with some mean girls and struggles with her mother’s push for activism. It seems to take roughly half the book to set up this scenario at which point many students will have lost interest or still strain to appreciate the historical period. It is important to recognize that IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE was inspired by the 1958 bombing of an Atlanta synagogue and if that was an earlier and bigger part of the book, it could spark some important discussions, especially in light of the attacks on synagogues and other places of worship in recent news events.  

History in perspective ...

Here are thoughts on some recent non-fiction books dealing with historical topics:

IF YOU ASK ME by Eleanor Roosevelt contains her “essential advice” on ten issues that reverberate today, including women, race, politics, religion and health.  Based on her advice column which appeared in Ladies Home Journal, this will be a fun – and eye opening – book for students to consult.  Each answer is followed by the date it appeared in brackets, like this: “Do you really think all men are created equal? Yes, but they do not always have an equal opportunity for development, either before or after birth. [November 1943]” IF YOU ASK ME has a short introduction written by one of Roosevelt’s granddaughters, several pages of notes, a bibliography, and suggested additional reading, plus a series of photographs on the end papers.   

Readers, especially students, will be surprised by the relevance to today of many of the comments that “ahead-of-her-time” Eleanor Roosevelt made decades ago. 

HEIRS OF THE FOUNDERS by H. W. Brands is subtitled “The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants” and focuses on a period of history about which I particularly enjoy reading.  These three men were indeed political titans and skilled orators. Brands does an excellent job of relating key events in their lives, including multiple failed attempts to achieve the Presidency. The debate over nationalism versus states’ rights, plus regional differences (East vs. West and North vs. South) of this era (roughly 1810 to 1850, from the war of 1812 to the Missouri Compromise) are highlighted as well.   

A best-selling author, Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin; two of his books, The First American (about Benjamin Franklin) and Traitor to His Class (about FDR), were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Teachers and students of American history will find HEIRS OF THE FOUNDERS to be very readable – almost like a novel. It contains pictures of the three men at various ages and of their homes and offers extensive notes and a comprehensive index.  HEIRS OF THE FOUNDERS received a starred review from Library Journal.   

 

IMPEACHMENT: AN AMERICAN HISTORY is the combined work of four authors: Jeffrey A. Engel (who writes about the Constitution and discusses Donald Trump in an Introduction and Conclusion); Jon Meacham (on Andrew Johnson); Timothy Naftali (on Richard Nixon); and Peter Baker (on Bill Clinton).  Clearly, these writers are knowledgeable scholars and have created a powerful text, filled with relevant quotes like this one from Gerald Ford (1970): “What is an impeachable offense? An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” They contrast the circumstances and motivations of the three times when impeachment has been used, arguing that there were strong political motivations in the cases of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, but more bipartisan support for the clearer case of “high crimes and misdemeanors” involving Richard Nixon’s actions. IMPEACHMENT: AN AMERICAN HISTORY received a starred review from Kirkus ("impeccably researched and well-presented").

On a related note, see also Meacham’s recent reflection in The New York Times on George H. W. Bush.