By Jim Heffernan I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the term “structural amnesia”. I first encountered the term in Arlie Hochschild’s excellent book, “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning…
Category: I’ve been thinking
BOOK REVIEW: “The Persuaders” by Anand Giridharadas – A VERY GOOD BOOK!
By Jim Heffernan I was attracted to this book by the idea of persuasion. So much of our political discourse these days is not devoted to persuasion at all. Today, it seems…
BOOK REVIEW: The Story of the American Dream – Ours Was the Shining Future by David Leonhardt
By Jim Heffernan I was attracted to this book because of the author and the topic. David Leonhardt is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the New York Times I’ve read for…
I’ve Been Thinking … Too Old?
By Jim Heffernan Maybe it’s because I’m elderly myself, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the buzz about Joe Biden’s age. Trump is a week older than me and Biden is…
I’ve been thinking … Moral Choices and Iowa (the REAL numbers)
By Jim Heffernan I’ve been thinking about Chuck McLaughlin’s excellent “Where I Stand” column of January 19* (link below), which struck a nerve with me. What I liked about it was the…
I’ve been thinking … First Friends and Second Friends
By Jim Heffernan I’ve been thinking about a new term in my vocabulary – “second friends.” It’s a term that was coined by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) to describe his relationship with Owen…
BOOK REVIEW: Love Your Enemies by Aurthur C. Brooks
By Jim Heffernan I bought this book last April and I’m not sure why I did not review it at the time. The author is a devout Catholic with serious conservative and…
I’ve been thinking … Bespoke Reality
By Jim Heffernan I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the threats facing younger generations of Americans. I am among the oldest of the “boomers” so I perhaps grew up in the…
BOOK REVIEW: Jim Heffernan’s Top 20 Books of 2023
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tis the season of “tops of 2023” lists – so here we go … book reviewer Jim Heffernan gives us his Top 20 books. By Jim Heffernan Another year, another…
BOOK REVIEW: Our Endangered Values – America’s Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter (2006)
By Jim Heffernan This is an older book I’ve just read. At the time of writing, I was too busy with my day-job to do much non-technical reading. Even if it is…
