David McCullough brings history to life
There are people of each generation who stand out amongst their peers and who will be remembered long after they are gone.
One such man of this generation is David McCullough and he will be remembered because he has helped to treat America's amnesia and remind us of what has come before us and from whence we came. As a historian, he has dug deep and revealed to us the very compelling nature of our stories. He's reminded us that history is not a stale academic study, but a vibrant pursuit that sets the foundation for our character.
He's also a genuinely charming and fascinating person. Earlier this year, David McCullough was on a lecture tour and came through my neck of the woods, launching the World View Lecture Series at East Lansing, Michigan's Wharton Center. He spoke to a packed audience in the same great hall that stages such performances as Lion King and Phantom of the Opera. On a Saturday afternoon before that lecture, we spoke by phone for nearly an hour. He's a passionate and intelligent man and I'm pleased to be able to share that conversation with you in a Book Help Web exclusive interview.
And if you haven't already, treat yourself to one of his books--for they are just that, a treat. Let his passion for history start a flame in you as well.
Watch this space soon for an additional article on his lecture as well as future reviews of his Pulitzer Prize-winning works.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Ken Jennings & Brainiac
Last month, I thoroughly enjoyed Ken Jennings' Brainiac. I saw him only a few times when he was making his winning Jeopardy! streak as I don't have a television, but I definitely remembered the sensation he made.
What I loved about the book was his wry sense of humor. I found myself frequently laughing aloud and forcing those around me to listen to me read passages. So it was with great delight that I was able to interview him for Book Help Web shortly after reading the book. He showed the same delightful humor in his interview as he did in his book.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:
On another note, Ken Jennings' wife, Mindy, (who took the photo you see on the interview) gave birth to their second child this week, a gorgeous baby girl named Caitlin Elizabeth whom you can see on Ken Jennings' blog. What did he read while waiting in the hospital? A book you've seen featured here: Brian Wilson's biography, Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin.
Last month, I thoroughly enjoyed Ken Jennings' Brainiac. I saw him only a few times when he was making his winning Jeopardy! streak as I don't have a television, but I definitely remembered the sensation he made.
What I loved about the book was his wry sense of humor. I found myself frequently laughing aloud and forcing those around me to listen to me read passages. So it was with great delight that I was able to interview him for Book Help Web shortly after reading the book. He showed the same delightful humor in his interview as he did in his book.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:
Book Help Web: I described your book as one that is annoying to anyone who happens to be near the reader. This is because it simply begs to have portions read aloud and because I was constantly bursting into laughter at your delightful, wry humor. Did you consciously choose a humorous tone for this book or is it something that happened naturally?
Ken Jennings: This was my thought process: it's going to be an uphill battle anyway, convincing America that a book about trivia culture is going to be interesting or accessible. If unsuspecting readers are going to pay $24.95 for a nerdy topic like that, the least I can do to show my gratitude is throw them some jokes.
On another note, Ken Jennings' wife, Mindy, (who took the photo you see on the interview) gave birth to their second child this week, a gorgeous baby girl named Caitlin Elizabeth whom you can see on Ken Jennings' blog. What did he read while waiting in the hospital? A book you've seen featured here: Brian Wilson's biography, Catch a Wave by Peter Ames Carlin.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Nicholas Sparks and Dear John
Nicholas Sparks' latest book was released last week and immediately debuted as #1 on The New York Times' and The Book Standard's bestseller list.
It's certainly a book that deserves such sales. It's a sweet and moving book that has an underlying optimism. It's filled with characters who, although flawed, are committed to doing the right thing. Dear John was the first time I had read Nicholas Sparks and I was immediately captivated. Here's what I wrote in my review:
Incidentally, #5 on the NYT Bestseller list was David Baldacci's The Collectors, a book the author talked about here.
Nicholas Sparks' latest book was released last week and immediately debuted as #1 on The New York Times' and The Book Standard's bestseller list.
It's certainly a book that deserves such sales. It's a sweet and moving book that has an underlying optimism. It's filled with characters who, although flawed, are committed to doing the right thing. Dear John was the first time I had read Nicholas Sparks and I was immediately captivated. Here's what I wrote in my review:
There are some books that draw their magic solely from the alchemy of words. The author takes those everyday metals of the English language, melts them together, and then subjects them to a purifying fire.
Nicholas Sparks in Dear John proves himself to be one such alchemist. The language would appear to be commonplace. The story, told in a heart-breaking first-person narrative isn't decorative or embellished with Baroque turns of phrase. It's the story of a soldier who has fought for and found honor and glory in the battlefield of the heart.
John Tyree begins the book by telling us that he ended the relationship he had with Savannah, a woman he clearly and passionately loves. He questions us on what love is and tells us that once Savannah would have said that it was living happily together fulfilling those simple dreams of home and family. John, though, discovers that sometimes love can call for greater sacrifices. Read more....
Incidentally, #5 on the NYT Bestseller list was David Baldacci's The Collectors, a book the author talked about here.
Intellectual Devotional: Day 3
Here's another entry from The Intellectual Devotional by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim (content provided by FSB Associates):
Here's another entry from The Intellectual Devotional by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim (content provided by FSB Associates):
Visual Arts
Wednesday, Day 3
Lascaux Cave Paintings
The cave paintings at Lascaux are among the earliest known works of art. They were discovered in 1940 near the village of Montignac in central France when four boys stumbled into a cave. Inside they found a series of rooms with nearly 1,500 paintings of animals that were between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.
There are several theories regarding the function of the paintings. A natural feature of the cave may have suggested the shape of an animal to a prehistoric observer who then added highlights to relay his vision to others. Since many of the paintings are located in inaccessible parts of the cave, they may have been used for magical practices. Possibly, prehistoric people believed that the act of drawing animals, especially with a high degree of accuracy, would bring the beasts under their control or increase their numbers in times of scarcity.
The animals are outlined or portrayed in silhouette. They are often shown in what is called twisted perspective, that is, with their heads in profile but their horns facing front. Many of the images include dots, linear patterns, and other designs that may carry symbolic meaning.
The most magnificent chamber of the cave, known as the Great Hall of the Bulls, contains a painted narrative. From left to right, the pictures depict the chase and capture of a bison herd.
As soon as the paintings had been examined and identified as Paleolithic, the caves were opened to the public in 1948. By 1955, however, it became increasingly evident that exposure to as many as 1,200 visitors per day was taking its toll on the works inside. Although protective measures were taken, the site closed in 1963. In order to satisfy public demand, a life-sized replica of the cave was completed in 1983, only 200 meters from the original.
Additional Facts
1. The cave painters were conscious of visual perspective; they painted figures high on the wall, styled so that they would not appear distorted to the viewer below.
2. The only human figure depicted in the cave appears in the Shaft of the Dead Man. The fact that it is drawn more crudely than the animals suggest that they did not think it was endowed with magical properties.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Intellectual Devotional
It's been a crazy couple of weeks over here, resulting in very few book blog entries.
That said, the good folks over at FSB Associates have recently shared a new book: The Intellectual Devotional. I've been taking the one page a day approach that it recommends, so my review is a little slow in coming. But I figured in the meantime I'd share with you the excerpts (or at least the Monday and Tuesday entries. I'll save the others for later in the week) that they so kindly provided:
Daily Devotionals have long been a favored tool of those looking for a regular dose of spiritual growth. Bedside volumes, read upon waking in the morning or before retiring at night, Devotionals consist of 365 exercises in learning and reflection. One easily digestible entry is tackled each day.
The Intellectual Devotional is a secular compendium in the same tradition. It is one year's worth of daily readings that will refresh your spirit, stimulate your mind, and help complete your education. Each entry is drawn from a different field of knowledge: History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy, and Religion. Read one passage a day and you will explore each subject once a week.
These readings offer the kind of regular exercise the brain requires to stay fresh, especially as we age. They represent an escape from the day-to-day grind into the rarefied realm of human wisdom. And, they will open new horizons of intellectual discovery.
A brief summary of the journey ahead . . .
Monday -- History
A survey of people and events that shaped the development of Western civilization.
Tuesday -- Literature
A look at great writers and a synopsis of their most important works -- poems and novels that continue to inspire readers today.
Wednesday -- Visual Arts
An introduction to the artists and artistic movements that yielded the world's most influential paintings, sculptures, and works of architecture.
Thursday -- Science
From the origin of black holes to a description of how batteries work, the wonders of science are simplified and revealed.
Friday -- Music
What inspired our greatest composers, how to read a sheet of notes, and why Mozart is so revered -- a comprehensive review of our musical heritage.
Saturday -- Philosophy
From ancient Greece to the twentieth century, the efforts of mankind's greatest thinkers to explain the meaning of life and the universe.
Sunday -- Religion
An overview of the world's major religions and their beliefs.
We hope your progress through this collection of knowledge inspires your curiosity and opens new areas of exploration in your life.
--David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim
Monday, Day 1
The Alphabet
In circa 2000 BC, the Egyptian pharaohs realized they had a problem. With each military victory over their neighbors, they captured and enslaved more prisoners of war. But the Egyptians could not pass down written orders to these slaves as they could not read hieroglyphics.
Early writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, were extremely cumbersome and difficult to learn. These systems had thousands of characters, with each symbol representing an idea or word. Memorizing them could take years. Only a handful of Egyptians could actually read and write their complicated script.
Linguists believe that almost all modern alphabets are derived from the simplified version of hieroglyphics devised by the Egyptians four thousand years ago to communicate with their slaves. The development of an alphabet, the writing system used throughout the Western world, changed the way the ancients communicated.
In the simplified version, each character represented only a sound. This innovation cut back the number of characters from a few thousand to a few dozen, making it far easier to learn and use the characters. The complicated hieroglyphic language was eventually forgotten, and scholars were not able to translate the characters until the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799.
The alphabet was extremely successful. When the Egyptian slaves eventually migrated back to their home countries, they took the writing system with them. The alphabet spread across the Near East, becoming the foundation for many writing systems in the area, including Hebrew and Arabic. The Phoenicians, an ancient civilization of seaborne traders, spread the alphabet to the tribes they encountered along the Mediterranean coast. The Greek and Roman alphabets, in turn, were based on the ancient Phoenician script. Today most Western languages, including English, use the Roman alphabet.
Additional Facts
1. Several letters in modern-day English are direct descendents of ancient Egyptian characters. For instance, the letter B derives from the Egyptian character for the word house.
2. The most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words in current usage, among the most of any language.
Literature
Tuesday, Day 2
Ulysses
James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is widely regarded as the greatest novel written in English in the twentieth century. It retells Homer's Odyssey in the context of a single day -- June 16, 1904 -- in Dublin, Ireland, recasting Homer's great hero Odysseus in the unlikely guise of Leopold Bloom, an aging, cuckolded ad salesman who spends the day running errands and making various business appointments before he returns home at long last.
Though Bloom seems unassuming and ordinary, he emerges as a heroic figure, displaying compassion, forgiveness, and generosity toward virtually everyone in the odd cast of characters he meets. In his mundane and often unnoticed deeds, he practices an everyday heroism that is perhaps the only heroism possible in the modern world. And despite the fact that he always feels like an outsider -- he is a Jew in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland -- Bloom remains optimistic and dismisses his insecurities.
Ulysses is celebrated for its incredibly rich portraits of characters, its mind-boggling array of allusions to other literary and cultural works, and its many innovations with language. Throughout the course of the novel, Joyce flirts with literary genres and forms ranging from drama to advertising copy to Old English. The novel is perhaps most famous for its extensive use of stream-of-consciousness narrative -- Joyce's attempt to render the inner thoughts of his characters exactly as they occur, with no effort to impose order or organization. This technique became a hallmark of modernist literature and influenced countless other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, who also experimented with it in their works.
Not surprisingly, Ulysses poses a difficult journey for the reader, especially its famous last chapter, which recounts the thoughts of Bloom's wife, Molly. Molly's reverie goes on for more than 24,000 words yet is divided into only eight mammoth sentences. Despite the challenge it poses, the chapter shows Joyce at his most lyrical, especially in the final lines, which reaffirm Molly's love for her husband despite her infidelity:
and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
Additional Fact
1. Ulysses was banned for obscenity in the United States for nearly twelve years because of its (mostly indirect) sexual imagery.
It's been a crazy couple of weeks over here, resulting in very few book blog entries.
That said, the good folks over at FSB Associates have recently shared a new book: The Intellectual Devotional. I've been taking the one page a day approach that it recommends, so my review is a little slow in coming. But I figured in the meantime I'd share with you the excerpts (or at least the Monday and Tuesday entries. I'll save the others for later in the week) that they so kindly provided:
The Intellectual Devotional
Week 1
By David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim
Week 1
By David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim
Daily Devotionals have long been a favored tool of those looking for a regular dose of spiritual growth. Bedside volumes, read upon waking in the morning or before retiring at night, Devotionals consist of 365 exercises in learning and reflection. One easily digestible entry is tackled each day.
The Intellectual Devotional is a secular compendium in the same tradition. It is one year's worth of daily readings that will refresh your spirit, stimulate your mind, and help complete your education. Each entry is drawn from a different field of knowledge: History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy, and Religion. Read one passage a day and you will explore each subject once a week.
These readings offer the kind of regular exercise the brain requires to stay fresh, especially as we age. They represent an escape from the day-to-day grind into the rarefied realm of human wisdom. And, they will open new horizons of intellectual discovery.
A brief summary of the journey ahead . . .
Monday -- History
A survey of people and events that shaped the development of Western civilization.
Tuesday -- Literature
A look at great writers and a synopsis of their most important works -- poems and novels that continue to inspire readers today.
Wednesday -- Visual Arts
An introduction to the artists and artistic movements that yielded the world's most influential paintings, sculptures, and works of architecture.
Thursday -- Science
From the origin of black holes to a description of how batteries work, the wonders of science are simplified and revealed.
Friday -- Music
What inspired our greatest composers, how to read a sheet of notes, and why Mozart is so revered -- a comprehensive review of our musical heritage.
Saturday -- Philosophy
From ancient Greece to the twentieth century, the efforts of mankind's greatest thinkers to explain the meaning of life and the universe.
Sunday -- Religion
An overview of the world's major religions and their beliefs.
We hope your progress through this collection of knowledge inspires your curiosity and opens new areas of exploration in your life.
--David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim
Week 1
HistoryMonday, Day 1
The Alphabet
In circa 2000 BC, the Egyptian pharaohs realized they had a problem. With each military victory over their neighbors, they captured and enslaved more prisoners of war. But the Egyptians could not pass down written orders to these slaves as they could not read hieroglyphics.
Early writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, were extremely cumbersome and difficult to learn. These systems had thousands of characters, with each symbol representing an idea or word. Memorizing them could take years. Only a handful of Egyptians could actually read and write their complicated script.
Linguists believe that almost all modern alphabets are derived from the simplified version of hieroglyphics devised by the Egyptians four thousand years ago to communicate with their slaves. The development of an alphabet, the writing system used throughout the Western world, changed the way the ancients communicated.
In the simplified version, each character represented only a sound. This innovation cut back the number of characters from a few thousand to a few dozen, making it far easier to learn and use the characters. The complicated hieroglyphic language was eventually forgotten, and scholars were not able to translate the characters until the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799.
The alphabet was extremely successful. When the Egyptian slaves eventually migrated back to their home countries, they took the writing system with them. The alphabet spread across the Near East, becoming the foundation for many writing systems in the area, including Hebrew and Arabic. The Phoenicians, an ancient civilization of seaborne traders, spread the alphabet to the tribes they encountered along the Mediterranean coast. The Greek and Roman alphabets, in turn, were based on the ancient Phoenician script. Today most Western languages, including English, use the Roman alphabet.
Additional Facts
1. Several letters in modern-day English are direct descendents of ancient Egyptian characters. For instance, the letter B derives from the Egyptian character for the word house.
2. The most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words in current usage, among the most of any language.
Literature
Tuesday, Day 2
Ulysses
James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is widely regarded as the greatest novel written in English in the twentieth century. It retells Homer's Odyssey in the context of a single day -- June 16, 1904 -- in Dublin, Ireland, recasting Homer's great hero Odysseus in the unlikely guise of Leopold Bloom, an aging, cuckolded ad salesman who spends the day running errands and making various business appointments before he returns home at long last.
Though Bloom seems unassuming and ordinary, he emerges as a heroic figure, displaying compassion, forgiveness, and generosity toward virtually everyone in the odd cast of characters he meets. In his mundane and often unnoticed deeds, he practices an everyday heroism that is perhaps the only heroism possible in the modern world. And despite the fact that he always feels like an outsider -- he is a Jew in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland -- Bloom remains optimistic and dismisses his insecurities.
Ulysses is celebrated for its incredibly rich portraits of characters, its mind-boggling array of allusions to other literary and cultural works, and its many innovations with language. Throughout the course of the novel, Joyce flirts with literary genres and forms ranging from drama to advertising copy to Old English. The novel is perhaps most famous for its extensive use of stream-of-consciousness narrative -- Joyce's attempt to render the inner thoughts of his characters exactly as they occur, with no effort to impose order or organization. This technique became a hallmark of modernist literature and influenced countless other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, who also experimented with it in their works.
Not surprisingly, Ulysses poses a difficult journey for the reader, especially its famous last chapter, which recounts the thoughts of Bloom's wife, Molly. Molly's reverie goes on for more than 24,000 words yet is divided into only eight mammoth sentences. Despite the challenge it poses, the chapter shows Joyce at his most lyrical, especially in the final lines, which reaffirm Molly's love for her husband despite her infidelity:
and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
Additional Fact
1. Ulysses was banned for obscenity in the United States for nearly twelve years because of its (mostly indirect) sexual imagery.
Monday, November 06, 2006
George R.R. Martin and The Ice Dragon
While fans of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series await A Dance With Dragons, they can content themselves with a children's book set in the same world. This very short book is based on a novella written several years ago that George R. R. Martin (whom I interviewed earlier this year) has updated and recast to be appropriate for a young audience.
The Ice Dragon is still a melancholy tale, but it is also one that contains a great deal of beauty and symbolism:
While fans of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series await A Dance With Dragons, they can content themselves with a children's book set in the same world. This very short book is based on a novella written several years ago that George R. R. Martin (whom I interviewed earlier this year) has updated and recast to be appropriate for a young audience.
The Ice Dragon is still a melancholy tale, but it is also one that contains a great deal of beauty and symbolism:
As a chapter book, it is shorter and a quicker read than a Lemony Snicket book, but longer than Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Treehouse books. My son was instantly engrossed in it, though once he put it down, he was slow to return to it. I can't say that I was particularly moved one way or another by the story. I appreciated its style and some of the ideas expressed, but it wasn't one that I found nearly as compelling as the adult novels. However, I am not the book's audience.
The story is beautifully illustrated with pencil drawings by Yvonne Gilbert. The pictures manage to capture the somber tone and help to further bring Adara and her family to life.
Given the plethora of dragons present in the novel, this is a story that takes place either many years before the Song of Ice and Fire series or long after where the story currently is. It's not something that matters much as it isn't a story of kings or great battles. It is the story of a small girl and of a family that is determined to live on the land to which it belongs. Read more.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Sharyn McCrumb & The Songcatcher
I've adored everything I've ever read by Sharyn McCrumb, which is admittedly only a small amount when compared to all the works she's created.
My first encounter with her was when I read two of her satire novels: Bimbos of the Death Sun and Zombies of the Gene Pool. To this day, the memory of the first book makes me laugh out loud while the second one fills me with a certain wistful melancholy.
I then read a book of hers with a hilariously memorable title: If I'd Killed Him When I'd Met Him, I'd Be Out of Jail By Now. It was a book that convinced me of McCrumb's ability to write about serious, heavy topics with a light, entertaining touch.
In a recent review posted at Book Help Web, Cyndi Allison talks about how McCrumb has a lyrical touch in the admittedly more prosaically titled novel, The Songcatcher:
I've adored everything I've ever read by Sharyn McCrumb, which is admittedly only a small amount when compared to all the works she's created.
My first encounter with her was when I read two of her satire novels: Bimbos of the Death Sun and Zombies of the Gene Pool. To this day, the memory of the first book makes me laugh out loud while the second one fills me with a certain wistful melancholy.
I then read a book of hers with a hilariously memorable title: If I'd Killed Him When I'd Met Him, I'd Be Out of Jail By Now. It was a book that convinced me of McCrumb's ability to write about serious, heavy topics with a light, entertaining touch.
In a recent review posted at Book Help Web, Cyndi Allison talks about how McCrumb has a lyrical touch in the admittedly more prosaically titled novel, The Songcatcher:
In terms of the writing, the feel is simply lyrical. I could sink right into this book like a well-worn couch on the porch. I would be soaking up the story, and then...BAM. Suddenly, I was in another time and place. That would catch me off guard. Then I would drift into the new story. Just as things would get interesting...BAM. I jump from Boston where Malcolm has settled in as a gentleman lawyer to the mountains of North Carolina where he started his second family to Lark stranded in a downed plane in the mountains. All of the story lines were fascinating, but the book has that constant feel of not quite catching a buzz. Just when you get comfortable, the cops bang on the door — figuratively and literally.
To complicate all these jumps in time and place, the characters pass on the family names. Now, that is common in the mountains. In a book, it gets pretty confusing. Which Malcolm am I reading about this time? Which John is this? Even the girls hand down names, which is not as common. Malcolm fell in love with Elizabeth who died, so Malcolm married Rachel — the older and not-so-fun sister. They named a daughter Elizabeth. Both Elizabeth's died young, so I didn't have to keep up with them much anyway. But, that's one of the problems with the book. I need a chart to keep up with the names, and then the chart isn't much help when the names are the same.
In some ways, this book is a masterpiece. The author does tell wonderful stories with a ring of truth. I can catch most of the links and the way history does repeat as well as the family themes and names. My brothers are both named after family members, and three of my four maternal aunts are married to Bobs. Even when names don't come into play, I can see both physical and personality traits that crop up time and time again. I know where I got my big feet, and I know that I'm prone to be cranky if I don't get enough sleep.
On the other hand, a novel containing too many plot lines and too many identical names can be so confusing that the story gets lost just like the lost song central to the book. While some books sink in and stay with me, I'm not so sure about this one. I think I'll retain an echo of the story, but in a day or two, I'm pretty sure the details will all run together and be lost. Read more.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
David Baldacci & The Collectors
In our final author feature for the month of October, Book Help Web had a delightful interview with the charming and intelligent David Baldacci. He shared delightful insights into his research for The Collectors, including such tidbits as:
In our final author feature for the month of October, Book Help Web had a delightful interview with the charming and intelligent David Baldacci. He shared delightful insights into his research for The Collectors, including such tidbits as:
He's a fascinating personality who is committed to such causes as literacy, cystic fibrosis, cancer research, and multiple sclerosis. In the interview, he talks about why literacy is so important to him as an issue--for reasons that are far more altruistic than a desire to sell more books:
I read a lot, talked to lots of people and with that knowledge I put myself in the role of a con and came up with some of my own scams. It was great fun figuring ways to score big at the expense of others, which probably doesn't say much about my underlying character, but there you are. The key with the con characters, particularly Annabelle, is to humanize them. You show their fears, frailties and you make the motivation for the scam one which many law-abiding types could understand. I made Annabelle a real person who happens to be a criminal. Yet she doesn't physically hurt anyone and her targets are not sympathetic ones.
Illiteracy is the greatest challenge we face as a nation. Democracies are totally dependent on a literate, well-informed electorate. Our three greatest rights as Americans are grounded in words: freedom of speech, freedom of press, exercise of religious freedom. Take away one and we're no longer a democracy; take away two and we're clearly a dictatorship. An illiterate, uninformed population is a population that is easily manipulated. History has shown us hundreds of examples of what happens to such a people. And all of them are bad.Tune in during November for interviews with Ken Jennings and David McCullough.
