Zucked by Roger McNamee

ZUCKED by Roger McNamee is subtitled “Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe” and is certainly a timely text. McNamee was an early investor and consultant to Facebook and although he has not been very involved with the company in the last decade, he is not shy about calling its actions “an unmitigated disaster.” He offers background on the early days of the company and eventually devotes an entire chapter to “Cambridge Analytica Changes Everything.”  McNamee writes about Facebook’s original mission: “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” He notes that there were “negative side effects on far too many users,” particularly the easy manipulation of massive automation and artificial intelligence, “leaving citizens ever less capable of thinking for themselves, knowing who to trust, or acting in their own interest.” McNamee labels Facebook a “threat to democracy” and outlines both direct and indirect effects on the four pillars of democracy (free and fair elections, active citizenship, equal rights for all, and rule of law). He continues with comments about Facebook’s threat to the powerless, to privacy, and to innovation, arguing that it (and other tech companies like Google) have not done enough to protect us and our children.  Unfortunately, McNamee “see[s] no easy solution to the problems posed.” ZUCKED is a thought-provoking tirade which will hopefully prompt more discussion and coverage like the recent Wall Street Journal article “Why Facebook Still Seems to Spy on You” by Katherine Bindley.  Those interested in more info will also want to watch the PBS Frontline documentary on Facebook which originally aired last November; here are links for part 1 and part 2.

To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas

I read several memoir type books lately and the best of the group is TO OBAMA by Jeanne Marie Laskas, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has written seven books including Concussion and Hidden America.  In TO OBAMA, Laskas shares the story of how President Obama read ten letters per day, an attempt to stay connected with average citizens he served.  

In describing this book, the publisher (Random House) points out that Obama was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. Roughly ten thousand letters a day arrived at the White House filled with emotion and “love, joy, anger, and hope,” as Laskas’ subtitle says.  The letters are a wonderful, historical insight into the country as citizens looked for jobs and tried to recover from the Great Recession, or attempted to get health insurance with the Affordable Care Act, or simply wanted to praise a student’s good grades or ask for homework help.  You, too, can see samples of the letters and hear a few being read in this recent article which appeared in The Guardian. I was amazed and happy to learn that a DAILY word cloud was created based on the letters’ content and then shared with White House policy makers, reminding them of the issues and ideas most on the minds of constituents.  It is truly refreshing to think about how all of the professional and volunteer readers cared and followed up on correspondence – in our school library we have exhibited the letter our students received from President Obama. This is an inspirational book reminding us of the power of servant leadership, compassion and empathy.

America, Politics, and the Younger Generation ...

Today is the thirty year anniversary of the local school shooting at Hubbard Woods School. Had he survived, Nick Corwin would have been old enough to have a family and to perhaps even bring his children to play soccer in the local league. Instead, other children are playing at the park which bears his name and honors his memory.

In trying to process the horrific news about Santa Fe High School and the latest school shooting, pause to reflect on the student who when asked whether she felt like a shooting couldn’t happen at her school, replied, “It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always felt it would eventually happen here too.” How many students share those sentiments and fears?

Referring to that student comment on Friday’s PBS NewsHour Judy Woodruff said, “I was profoundly saddened” and encouraged viewers “to ask if we have crossed a line and whether we owe our younger generation something better.” Several new books which deal with politics and American values echo that question.  

The first I will mention is TAILSPIN by award winning journalist Steven Brill. In a companion Time Magazine article Brill writes, “Yet key measures of the nation’s public engagement, satisfaction and confidence – voter turnout, knowledge of public-policy issues, faith that the next generation will fare better than the current one, and respect for basic institutions, especially the government – are far below what they were 50 years ago, and in many cases have reached near historic lows.”   In his book, Brill describes how key American values such as meritocracy and innovation have led to an isolated elite, reinforcing privileges for corporations and businesses with little or no accountability for government officials. He opines that the protected few do not need government for much whereas the unprotected need it to provide good public schools, health care, a competitive playing field for small businesses, adequate infrastructure and much more. TAILSPIN is a comprehensive and fascinating read, referring to numerous sources such as Putnam’s Bowling Alone and the realization that “something important happened to social bonds and civic engagement in America over the last third of the twentieth century.” Roughly a fourth of the lengthy book contains footnotes and sources; TAILSPIN received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly and is being published by Knopf on May 29th.

THE SOUL OF AMERICA by Pulitzer-prize winner Jon Meacham is subtitled “The Battle for Our Better Angels” and was published by Random House earlier this month. Here, Meacham reflects on what Americans have loved in common down the centuries: “a love of fair play, of generosity of spirit, of reaping the rewards of hard work, and of faith in the future.” Even though he says, “too often, people see their own opportunity as dependent on domination over others,” he is optimistic enough to describe many instances of leadership and citizen activism such that “the soul of the country manifests itself in an inclination to open our arms rather than to clench our fists; to look out rather than to turn inward; to accept rather than to reject; to hope rather than to fear.”

Meacham also provides extensive notes and a lengthy bibliography and employs a historical lens to illustrate that "history's stories of presidential leadership in hours of fear are as often disappointing as they are heroic." While his work may be a bit verbose for our high school students, THE SOUL OF AMERICA did receive a starred review from Booklist. 


STANDOFF by Bill Schneider again looks at American political history from the 1960s to the present day. As a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and a former CNN senior political analyst, Schneider draws on his expertise to examine past presidential elections and how they led to Trump’s “social populism (anti-immigrant), economic populism (anti-free trade), and isolationism (“America First”).”  In the initial chapter, “Old America Versus New America,” he recaps national and state election results and sets the stage for “the new normal in the United States: gridlock and dysfunctional government.”

A key theme in the book is the role of polling the public and how a passionate, intense minority cancels a majority on issues like gun control, immigration, small government and international interests. Schneider further points out that “without a crisis or war [war on poverty, war on drugs, etc.] to rally public opinion, the system doesn’t work at all,” thereby supporting his subtitle, “How America became Ungovernable.”  Granted, there is a bias, but I found STANDOFF to be very readable due to features like captions (e.g., Coalitions and Movements; Interests and Values) for short sub-sections which were then followed by examples and, where applicable, statistics.  The supporting endnotes comprise roughly a tenth of this thought-provoking book which was published May 15 by Simon & Schuster.