The Best American Political Writing 2005 by Royce Flippin (Editor)

From the Publisher

The Best American Political Writing 2005 is an annual compendium that culls from the nation's most influential news sources to provide the most incisive, controversial, and entertaining writing about the notable names and events of 2004 and the first half of 2005. From the 2004 presidential election to the reconstruction of Iraq; from Social Security reform to the future of the Supreme Court; from the war on terrorism and who is next to repairing American ties with Europe; editor Royce Flippin provides a diverse collection of insights, opinions, and analysis on the political events that shaped the past year.

With selections from leading publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker,the Nation, Foreign Affairs, Time, Harper's, Vanity Fair, and the Atlantic, as well as think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution. In addition, writings from the nation's top political commentators, including Ron Suskind, Peter Beinart, James Fallows, Joshua Green, Naomi Klein, Michael Wolff, Christopher Hitchens, and Philip Gourevitch, among many others, are also featured.

Library Journal

The fourth in a series of anthologies of political writings, this volume contains 31 essays published in U.S. magazines between June 2004 and May 2005. It presents a narrower look at our political discourse than was the case in prior volumes of the series, where editor Flippin went beyond periodicals to include book excerpts, newspaper pieces, articles from online sources, and even Congressional speeches. Here Flippin has chosen authors from the left, right, and center (e.g., Thomas Frank, Martin Peretz, James Fallows) who have written for such familiar publications as Time, Newsweek, Esquire, The New Yorker, Washington Monthly, the Nation, Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, and GQ. The essays are presented in six sections, covering the 2004 presidential election; politics in the Bush era; the state of the Democratic Party; national issues such as stem-cell research and Social Security reform; terrorism and the Iraq war; and American foreign policy. An optional choice for most libraries, since these essays as originally published will already be owned, but a good bet for collections strong in politics or journalism.-Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Anthology of essays on the white-hot political debates of 2004 tries to shed light on the issues and ideas that will shape politics in the coming years. Flippin has assembled many informative pieces dissecting the events that captured our political imagination last year: the presidential election of 2004, the distant horizon of 2008, the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, the drama of Terry Schiavo, Social Security reform. The collection also includes incisive essays on the future of the Democratic Party and the role of religion in public life. While two of the most trenchant pieces come from The Weekly Standard, the majority are reprinted from centrist and liberal mainstream publications like The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic and The Atlantic Monthly. One entertaining essay, "Bipolar Disorder," by Jonathan Rauch, departs from the premise of nearly all the others by challenging the prevailing wisdom that the country is deeply divided; another, "The Politics of Churlishness," by Martin Peretz, chides Democrats for not giving President Bush enough credit for advancing liberal ideas through his assertive foreign policy. But while all of the pieces entertain-or, in the case of Jane Mayer's devastating "Outsourcing Torture," outrage-problems abound. To begin with, informed readers of the publications cited here will almost certainly have already read many of these. In addition, the anthology fulfills almost too well its aim of bringing readers back to last year. Unlike fiction or poetry, even the finest political commentary has a notoriously short shelf life. Good as they may be, many of these pieces seem stale. A decent reference for political junkies and news addicts.

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