Governor

Governors Island: The Jewel of New York Harbor
$60.00
Governors Island: The Jewel in the Harbor is a large, beautifully produced book. As a presentation of fascinating New York City history and US Army (and Coast Guard) history in New York City it is superb. The book is filled with photos and other illustrations.

As the island is transformed into a publicly accessible park, New Yorkers and other visitors to Governors Island have in this book a wonderful resource to answer their questions and help understand where they are and what it has been like to be there over the past 200 years.

I saw this book mentioned in the New York Times yesterday and obtained a copy today. I am positively delighted and hope that this brief paragraph has communicated that delight.

The Last Governor: Chris Patten & the Handover of Hong Kong
$18.00
The Last Governor is an encyclopedic account of Chris Patten's governorship in Hong Kong (1992-1997). Dimbleby was given unprecedented access to the inner working of HK Government House, as well as back-stage passes to some of its top bureaucrats. The author's view was very clear and he made no apology for it. Patten's adversaries were often dismissed as "apologists" or "self-proclaimed experts". Despite the author's obvious bias, the book was meticulously researched, engaging and a worthy collection for anyone interested in the history of this part of the world. Dimbleby has donated all the research material, including notes, interviews, tape recordings, to the University of Hong Kong for future researchers. A BBC documentary was made based on the same material.

Chris Patten was a very popular governor. Hong Kong people loved him. His affection for Hong Kong was also obvious, I remembered watching the live coverage of the hand-over on Australian TV. I didn't realise it until quite recently - how often does Australian TV cover an overseas "political" event LIVE ? The 2008 Obama's election was a rarity. Patten was a down-to-earth and personable governor. There were numerous stories of him having "egg tart" for lunch at a local bakery, or chatting to shop keepers while casually strolling down the street. I am a little disappointed that Dimbleby didn't say much about the rest of the family though. What was it like for Patten's wife and daughters ? What was on their mind when they boarded the royal yacht after the ceremony ? They were leaving their friends behind, the daughters were leaving part of their childhood in HK. They couldn't have known if anyone of them would ever be welcome back to the Island again. It must have been such raw emotion. One can sense some of this emotion in the writing, the author wrote in his very last paragraph,

"Chris Patten had fought a sustained public and private battle.......It had been a gruelling and often lonely five years. The scale of his purpose and the character of his responsibility had required rare qualities of leadership: a clear vision, an abnormal resolve and a profound sense of public duty. The last governor of Hong Kong had arrived in the colony as a politician, hopeful of success. He would depart as a statesman, knowing failure as well as victory, but in dignity and with honour."

Len Small: Governors and Gangsters
$24.95
This is a long overdue biographical examination of Governor Len Small, a thoroughly corrupt Illinois politician who lined his pockets with embezzled tax dollars for close to forty years. What makes the book especially valuable is that the author, Jim Ridings, a journalist, has told the story from the perspective of Downstate Illinois by focusing upon Small's hometown of Kankakee.

Small twice served as state treasurer and laundered money through a fictitious bank while skimming off profits from the high interest rates that he charged when loaning the money to meatpacking companies. Afterwards, he belatedly repaid the state treasury, but only with nominal interest added. During the Roaring Twenties, Small achieved his life's ambition by serving two scandal plagued terms as governor. While in office he had to defend civil and criminal suits related to his official misconduct while serving as treasurer. Small's main claim to fame was as "the Hard Roads Governor" who paved the state highways, but in actuality the road construction work was carefully utilized to reap political dividends for Small in the form of kickbacks and votes. Law enforcement efforts were handicapped by Small's policy of issuing paroles and pardons in return for bribes.

Many other writers have attempted to interpret the political culture in Chicago without reckoning on the fact that the city is corrupt because the entire state of Illinois has been similarly corrupt for a much longer period of time. Too many writers treat Chicago and Cook County as anomalies rather than as being part of the same fabric as the larger state. Bribery and vote fraud are not limited to the City of Big Shoulders. Ridings provides valuable context to his narrative by examining neglected regional and state newspapers other than relying upon the often cited back issues of the "Chicago Tribune" alone.

Ridings takes strong exception to those misguided individuals who romanticize the criminal exploits of murderous gangsters such as Al Capone. Those who treat Capone as a latter day Robin Hood are perpetuating a myth that does not square with reality. Likewise, the author deflates the mythology maintained in Kankakee, where the Small family continues to operate a chain of newspapers, that treats the former governor as a local hero and humanitarian rather than as con artist and a swindler.

The Governor
$24.95
Dr. Jones's book encompasses all the history that is important in understanding why Afghanistan is in the condition that it presently is in.His unique insights into the countries problems should be read by all policy makers interested in our forign policy in the region.