53 thoughts on “Book Assignment #1 – 2019”

1. Adam Rhen May 28, 2019 at 11:59 pm

   The Second Amendment by Michael Waldman is a very good book that takes a deeper look at what the second amendment truly is. The first part of the book goes all the way back to before the amendment was written and the events that led up the the revolutionary war. He looks at how the amendment is very loose in its terms, being only one sentence long and not very descriptive. The author goes into depth about how the amendment was first written to protect small militias so individual states could protect themself with no federal government. He then goes into how the amendment started to be interpreted differently, opening up to different laws surrounding guns. The true meaning that the founding fathers really wanting is not really know so over time it was been morphed into what the modern society says it says. This has led to many debated between anti and pro gun citizens. The author’s thesis in this book is that you can’t just accept how things are and you need to analyze and question what is happening, just like how the second amendment is being used in today’s America.

   The author, Michael Waldman, is currently the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He was the director of speechwriting for president Bill Clinton from 1955 to 1999. The is a graduate from Columbia College and NYU School of Law. He comments widely in the medias o law and policy and voices his opinions while being nonpartisan. The other biggest book that he has had published is My Fellow Americans, and POTUS Speaks.

   The reading that I did connects with the revolutionary war in APUSH. It relates because the gun laws that the book talks about are the same laws that the people of the colonies had to abide by or tried to change to or while fighting the war against the British. The gun laws that were imposed then, have effected what is happening to us today and other times in history that we have studied. Something that I learned from this book that I did not already know is that the second amendment is something that has just been interpreted this whole time while we have been having super heated debates, when it’s really just one sentence. I was surprised that the second amendment was originally just created for militias and not even the common man. It is crazy to me the amount we talk about what it means when the original intentions

   I am curious what stance the author has on this issue because he is staying very nonpartisan. This is a topic that is at the forefront of modern politics and that makes me wonder what stance the author takes. Another question I have is what are some examples of how the second amendment is being twisted. The author in the beginning talked about the different times the amendment has come into question so I hope he covers those times.
2. Lily Paul May 29, 2019 at 5:20 pm

   In the first few chapters of my book, they discuss the social and political turmoil that was extremely present during this time period. The 1970s were full of protest and movements, unknowingly, one of the richest families in America at that time (the Hearst’s) were about to wrap up in one of the most prominent kidnappings in America and one of the most widely known events due to the extensive media coverage. The author highlighted aspects of Patty Hearst’s earlier life. While she was the daughter of one of the richest families in America and the heiress to millions, she decided not to marry into an equally as well to do family. She married a professor who was much older than her which caused quite a bit of tension between her and the rest of the family. On the night of February 4th an American extreme left-wing terrorist organization that called themselves The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) captured Patty from her Berkeley home and threw her in the back of a car. Their plan was to use her for publicity and for ransom. While the SLA saw themselves as a Robinhood type figure many saw them as a threat to public safety.
   The Auther of my book, Jeffrey Toobin, is an American lawyer, author, and legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker. He has written several books, including one on the O. J. Simpson murder case. It was later adapted as a made for TV series, The People v. O. J. Simpson. The People v. O.J. aired in 2016 and it won numerous Emmy Awards. He got his degree from Harvard Law and is most well known for being an extremely accomplished legal analyst for huge cases such as the OJ trial and the case of Patricia Hearst.
   From this class, I had known about the strong disagreements in the ’70s regarding capitalist vs. anticapitalist. Many of the younger generations saw capitalism as greedy and unamerican. However many of the older generations that retained wealth from their family line saw anticapitalists as a threat and saw them as lazy. While many people agreed that the distribution of wealth was unfair, the SLA took the conflict a step farther. The SLA committed two murders and many largescale robberies durring their existence. They were labeled as left-wing terrorists and used the publicity in an attempt to force attention on their cause.
   I’m very interested to see how members of the SLA, such as Donald Defreeze, progress throughout the duration of her kidnapping. I’m curious to see if their morals will change or if the army will ever admit to doing something wrong. As of now in the book, they seem very secretive and extremely manipulative.
3. Christopher Thorsen June 14, 2019 at 8:40 am

   My book, Assassination vacation, is essentially the author, traveling from monument to monument studying three presidential assassinations. The three that she studied are Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. The first section that I read was the section on Lincoln. In this section, the author starts off in the Lincoln memorial and proceeds to talk about Lincoln in detail, from his early career as a lawyer, all the way up to his assassination. Next, it went over Lincoln’s assassin, John wilkes booth, and his acting career and his assassination plan. It mentioned everything that we talked about in APUSH, talking about how he sent something in to the newspaper that exposed his conspirators, and how they were planning to murder two others, the vice president and secretary of state. Their main motive was vengeance for the Confederate party. While John wilkes booth did escape after he assassinated Lincoln, he did end up getting caught, and he did break a leg in the process. However he did manage to injure two people with his knife.
   Sarah Vowell, the author of the book has quite an extensive resume. She has written six other nonfiction novels, in similar styles to this one. She also voiced Violet in both of the incredibles movies. She has also written multiple essays, and published a few essay collections.
   Like I mentioned earlier, most of the stuff in this section, we covered in APUSH. However there were a few details that I didn’t remember learning. For example, we learned that one of the assassins got cold feet at the last minute, however, in the book it talked about how that specific assassin was having doubts for awhile before that and John wilkes booth had to talk him back into doing it on several occasions before hand. Another example is that Lincoln actually had a policeman assigned to his box, but at intermission, he left for a tavern, and wasn’t at his post by the time booth got there. A third fact I learned from the book was that when booth jumped out of Lincoln’s box and onto the floor the spur on the back of the boot became entangled on a flag, and because of this, his landing was messed up. It made me wonder if he actually may have came out of the jump uninjured had that not happened. Also, the book talked about how he held up his bloody knife and yelled something, and then ran over the stage and stabbed the orchestra conductor in the process.
   As for hwts I questions I have, I Wonder if their will be a sort of overarching plot, rather then the author just hopping from monument to monument just narrating her journey. I think this could make me more interested in the book. Also, I’m curious if more characters will be introduced than just the main character. Finally, I wonder why she chose presidential assassinations for a topic as It is just a little strange.