Faysal or Politics

Faysal: Saudi Arabia's King for All Seasons

Author: Joseph A Kechichian

In Faysal, Joseph Kechichian offers the first biography of the ruler in decades, and the first to employ interviews, key archives, and recently declassified documents. Utilizing the same writing style that has earned accolades from The Economist and other publications, Kechichian offers a balanced assessment of Faysal and his impact.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1

1 Saudi Arabia and the Al Sa'ud before Faysal 11

2 Prince Faysal (1906-1953) 26

3 Heir Apparent Faysal (1953-1964) 57

4 King Faysal (1964-1975) 105

5 Divergences from the United States 145

6 A Modernizing Vision for an Emergent Kingdom 172

7 The Faysal Legacy 192

App. 1 Chronology 201

App. 2 Vital Speeches 212

App. 3 Documents 223

Notes 237

Bibliography 261

Index 283

Look this: Silent Theft or HIV and Community Mental Healthcare

Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004

Author: Hendrik Hertzberg

Here at last are Hendrik Hertzberg's most significant, hilarious, and devastating dispatches from the American scene he has chronicled for four decades with an uncanny blend of moral seriousness, high spirits, and perfect rhetorical pitch. Arranged thematically, each section contains the choicest, most illuminating pieces from his body of work and begins with a new piece of writing that frames the subject at hand. A tour of the defining moments of American life from the mid-'60s to the mid- '00s, Politics is at once the story of American life from LBJ to GWB and a testament to the power of the written word.

The Washington Post - David Greenberg

Long after we've forgotten Pat Robertson's presidential bid or John Tower's confirmation battle, these essays will bear rereading (and not just because Hertzberg's warnings about the violation of Tower's privacy, along with Gary Hart's, in 1987, presaged the frenzy of prurience that befell Washington in 1998). They're keepers because they don't just plead the case for contemporary liberalism but -- with their wit, humanity and exquisite understatement -- illustrate it.

Publishers Weekly

Hertzberg's name is instantly recognizable to readers of the New Yorker, where he often writes the lead commentary on the week's political fallout. Drawing on nearly 40 years' worth of material, this collection sums up a career that has included stints editing the New Republic and speechwriting for Jimmy Carter, and offers some surprises: a baby boomer's reminiscences on the 20th anniversary of Woodstock are expected, as are repeated forays into electoral reform, but a 1972 John Lennon profile and a probe of the origins of the classic New York tabloid headline, FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD find the politics in pop culture. A long stretch of material deals with his coverage of the 1988 election, including a reflection on the possibility of Dan Quayle becoming president that leads into a discussion of disengaged leadership. And there's plenty of direct criticism of George W. Bush and his handling of the war on terror, in the context of Hertzberg's longstanding dissatisfaction with neoconservatives and self-appointed protectors of "Judeo-Christian" values. Taken as a whole, the articles show a consistent concern for a classical liberalism in which sober reasoning rests on equal footing with sly humor, but even articles from 2000 feel distant given the pace of current events. Agent, The Wylie Agency. (July 13) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The more than 100 articles collected here are fairly representative of Hertzberg's work over the last 40 years. A writer for The New Yorker, Newsweek, and The New Republic (where he was twice editor), Hertzberg also served as head speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. But it is his voice as a liberal social and political critic that makes this book important. The articles are organized chronologically within sections. For example, "Wedge Issues" covers various controversial campaign issues, beginning with an article on pornography in 1986 and ending with one on the Lawrence v. Texas High Court decision of 2003. Each section opens with a new essay by the author; New Yorker editor David Remnick provides an introduction. As an essayist, Hertzberg may be many things-irreverent, arrogant, funny, very liberal, and at times hypercritical-but he is never boring. Whether liberal or conservative, readers will find him challenging and provocative. Recommended for all libraries.-Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

One of American journalism's brightest intellectual lights shines forth in a fine-and long overdue-selection from four decades of work. Borrowing his title from that of Dwight Macdonald's left-leaning, mid-20th-century magazine, Hertzberg-who, as David Remnick notes in his foreword, is now "the political voice of The New Yorker"-offers a nicely catholic definition of what politics encompasses and who makes politics tick. In that vein, he opens this overstuffed anthology with a piece describing the San Francisco sound for Newsweek readers not yet hip to the scene, instructing them that the audiences for the likes of the politically astute Grateful Dead include people just like them, "like the crew-cut blond boy in chinos and poplin jacket, whose brunette date wears a plaid skirt and knee socks." Newsweek didn't run the essay, in which Jerry Garcia makes pronouncements worthy of Talleyrand ("Language is almost designed to be misunderstood"), but no matter: Hertzberg follows it with a generous sampling from the '60s era, including pieces that hit on Woodstock, the Weather Underground, and the invasion of Cambodia, before moving on to his stride-hitting analyses of mainstream political culture. Organized thematically, these pieces visit and revisit actors and motifs. All are marked by Hertzberg's touching insistence that humans are rational creatures and that our politics ought to reflect as much. Thus the fuss over Gary Hart's dalliance with Donna Rice, way back in the pre-Monica days, is hurtful because it "diverts our attention from public questions; it makes us respond inappropriately and disproportionately"; thus the war on drugs emerges as a "costly jihad"-just the right word-that "hasscared off some casual users, but it has done nothing to reduce the number of hard-core addicts"; thus the sitting president's way of catching lucky breaks makes for an especially maddening spectacle: "The fact that the 9/11 terrorists gave Bush what he could not earn on his own, a political majority, deepens the bitterness. "Superb writing, subtle thinking. Just the thing for politics junkies and journalism buffs, especially those wondering who merits wearing Izzy Stone's mantle today.