Bookshelf

AN EPIC AMERICAN LIFE

BY ALLYSON IRISH

It was just like many of their late-night debates in Paul Revere South: Jonathan Alter ’75, a dyed-in-the-wool lifelong Democrat and future political analyst, and Frank Lavin ’75, a Republican who later served in the Reagan administration and those of George H.W. Bush ’42 and George W. Bush ’64, trading quips about their favorite political targets.

The two longtime friends reunited this past fall for an alumni Zoom event and continued their political banter, talking about Alter’s latest book, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life.

An Emmy Award-winning author, columnist, and documentary filmmaker, Alter spent nearly six years researching and writing the biography. Having previously written about FDR and Barack Obama, Alter was inspired to look more closely at Carter after hearing the 39th president speak in 2015 at a book club event. There, Carter spoke fervently about the Camp David Accords. “It was a virtuoso performance,” Alter said.

Essentially written off as a weak one-term president, Carter’s four years are often summarized by failures: the Iranian hostage crisis and massive interest rates and the resulting inflation that depressed the nation in the late ’70s. Yet Alter found there was more to the Georgian peanut farmer-turned-politician—and more accomplishments—not always recognized by the public. With unprecedented access to family, friends, and former colleagues, Alter described Carter as “a multilayered and intellectual Renaissance man.”

Trained as a naval engineer, Carter approached everything as a problem to be solved. That tenacity of purpose, Alter said, was helpful in approaching complex issues. But Carter’s disdain of networking also dogged the president in terms of political capital and at times left him floundering for the necessary support. As for Carter’s legacy, Alter praised his diplomatic skills in coordinating the Camp David Accords, which have lasted almost 43 years, and highlighted Carter’s prescient focus on clean energy and environmental issues. “Carter was a true environmental visionary,” Alter said. “He has led an epic American life.”

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The Cannabis Business: Understanding Law, Finance, and Governance in America’s Newest Industry

BY CHARLES S. ALOVISETTI ’01 Routledge As the cannabis market transitions to a legal, regulated industry, participants experience challenges. The Cannabis Business helps clear up confusion around topics such as the distinction between hemp and cannabis and why Cannabidiol (CBD) isn’t completely legal in the United States.

A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.

BY MICHAEL CANNELL ’78 Minotaur Books, St. Martin’s Publishing Group In this riveting true story of hitman Abe Reles, Cannell traces the history of Reles and other gangsters who formed a coast-to-coast criminal empire known as the Syndicate. In 1941, just before the trial at which he was to reveal the truth about his New York mob network, Reles was discovered dead on a rooftop outside his heavily guarded hotel room.

Manhua Modernity: Chinese Culture and the Pictorial Turn

BY JOHN A. CRESPI ’86 University of California Press From fashion sketches of smartly dressed Shanghai residents in the 1920s to imagery of war in the 1930s and ’40s, the cartoon-style art manhua helped define China’s modern experience. Manhua Modernity presents an analysis of the illustrations and how they evolved through a half century of political and cultural transformation.

Vera

BY CAROL EDGARIAN ’80 Simon and Schuster Vera Johnson—the 15-year-old illegitimate daughter of Rose, the notorious proprietor of San Francisco’s ritziest bordello—narrowly survives the city’s devastating 1906 earthquake. Relying on her wit and determination, Vera and her unlikely new family of survivors navigate a world reborn in the wake of disaster.

The Paintings of J.O.J. Frost: An American Story

BY BETHE LEE MOULTON ’66 Marblehead Museum This full-color coffee-table book contains images of the folk-art works of J.O.J. Frost, a Marblehead, Mass., native who began painting historic happenings in his seaside town at the age of 70. By the time of his death six years later in 1928, he had created more than 100 paintings.