2016 – Justin Daniel

This is a list of the books I read in 2016. All the reviews were written in 2016 and are archived on this site in (roughly) the order I read them in.

Book Reviews 2016

Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, Clint Hill

January 14, 20202016Being a secret service agent means you have two primary missions: to protect the President of the United States and… to investigate financial crimes. What. Yes: the secret service was originally created for the purpose of finding criminals who were counterfeiting money in the late 1800’s. Later, they were repurposed to protect the President. Clint Hill joined the secret service in the late 1950’s under then President Eisenhower. During those years, Eisenhower was a celebrated hero and wherever he went, he was enthralled with crowds of upwards of a million people. Clint Hill was with him on his journey around the world to England, Afghanistan, India, France, and other nations. The Secret Service was very different in the 1950s. Clint recalls a story where President Eisenhower opened up the White House lawn to the public for his birthday. There were no K9 dogs, no snipers, not even that many on the police force to retain order. After Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy ascended to office where he ran a entirely different ship than Eisenhower. Being a military man, Eisenhower had little compassion when it came to Secret Service agents, while Kennedy was compassionate and caring toward his body guards. One story Clint tells was during a very hot day in Florida. Apparently, Clint was wearing the traditional wool suit in the heat and Kennedy grabbed hawaiian shirts for all the Secret Service agents so they’d be more comfortable. It was sometime after this that Clint was relocated to duty with the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Being off the President’s team seemed like a step down, but it actually served Clint’s career very well with what happened next. President and Mrs. Kennedy went to Dallas to campaign for the upcoming Presidential election. On that fateful day, President Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza and Clint was one of the first to respond to the shooting. When the first gunshot rang out, Clint can be seen, on the amatuer film that imortalizes the shooting, running over to the car. Mrs. Kennedy is seen almost trying to escape the car and Clint pushed her back into the seat as it drove off to the hospital. For his actions, he was rewarded with a medal and put on President Johnson’s Secret Service team. He would live with the PTSD of the events that day for the rest of his life, something he refers to frequently throughout the book. President Johnson was, again, quite different than the previous two Presidents. Coming from Texas, he had an air of spontaneity to him. He would randomly make decisions that forced the Secret Service to scramble to make sure what happened in Dealey Plaza never happened again. He admired those he trusted, and those whom he didn’t trust, he wanted far away from him. This happened to Clint: he retells a story where he was almost forced off the President’s detail because he served Kennedy and Johnson was unsure of his loyalty. Clint tells again and again of how he took his job as bipartisan: protecting the President is not about politics, it’s about keeping the President safe. He was allowed to stay on Johnson’s detail and ended up becoming good friends with the President. After Johnson left the office, he wanted Clint to run his Secret Service detail in retirement. Clint chose to stay with the Secret Service in Washington, but the point remains: he was a hard worker dedicated to the safety of the President. Johnson also was dealing with events in world history that were entirely unlike Eisenhower and Kennedy. Eisenhower was President during the U-2 spy plane incident, where the plane was spying on the Soviets without them being aware of the Americans presence; the plane was shot down and Eisenhower had to admit to the world his cunning foible. Kennedy saw the Bay of Pigs fiasco which manifested into the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s. Kennedy also saw the beginning of the Vietnam War. Johnson, however, saw the full force of the Vietnam War and the protests that were flaring up around the country. It was a trying time to be President, there are few doubts about this. After Johnson, Clint worked on the Vice President detail of Agnew Spiro. Clint had uneasy feelings about then President Nixon after Nixon wanted a “spy” attached as a Secret Service agent to Senator Ted Kennedy’s detail. Later, the Watergate scandal forced Nixon and Spiro to resign. Lastly, President Ford ascended to the Presidency in the place of the ousted Nixon. It was during his short tenure that Clint retired from the Secret Service after 17 years of service to his country. What is incredible about his story was the political and social upheaval that he experienced during his time on the Secret Service. The 1960’s were a tumultuous time in American history and the Presidency reflected this. Eisenhower reflected old time values; Kennedy was a young wiz-kid from New England who was murdered in cold blood; Johnson took control during the height of the hippie era; Nixon left office disgraced; Ford was anything but conventional. Each President was unique and different and guided America during this difficult period in its history. Another theme is the vast effect of PTSD on people in general. Clint said that it was only recently, almost 50 years after the event, that he could talk openly about the details regarding President Kennedy’s assassination. It would haunt him throughout his career and he never spoke of the events to anyone until years afterwards. This book is a really compelling look at both how the Secret Service has evolved and American history in the late 1950’s, 60’s, and early 70’s. I felt like the pacing and the information was interesting and the narrative throughout was well written. Typically I feel like books such as this with a “ghost” author are really forced and fake. But this book was unique in that respect. [...]

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, David McCullough

January 14, 20202016I’m on a McCullough kick after reading the acclaimed 1776. This book piqued my interest because I visited Paris last Spring. It looked interesting and I wondered at what treasures it contained. It is a little bit deceiving, I think however. While this is a history of Americans in Paris in the 19th century, it also works as a history of Paris and even larger, France, in the 19th century. It coincides with my Western Civilization II class I’m taking nicely however. We just made it into the mid 19th century so I was pleasantly surprised to find some correlating information between the two sources. The book essentially is about how artists, painters, sculptors, writers, inventors, and politicians made their way to Paris and as a result, were impacted in a way that changed the course of their lives and of the nation that they represented. I’ll give you an example: Samuel Morse was a painter who made his way to Paris in the 19th century. He had painting gigs at the Louvre. Popular at this time was creating miniatures of famous paintings in the Louvre. He developed a friendship with James Fenimore Cooper who wrote the famous book “The Last of the Mohicans.” His time in Paris led him to think up an extraordinary invention: people could type out messages via an electrical current to be received, decoded, and given to the recipient from miles and miles away. He called this, the telegraph. He invented his own system of dashes and dots called “morse code.” Much of this book, at no surprise, focuses on great artists who found their stride in Paris. Among these were sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent. But the impact of Paris on artists in the 19th century reaches beyond this. For example, Harriet Beacher Stowe wrote one of the most famous pieces of American literature, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and was a guest in the great city for a period of time. An early portion of the book focuses on medical students who came to Paris for training. At this time in America, the collegiate opportunities for medicine were limited and Americans came to Paris to further their studies quite often. The first female doctor in America was trained in Paris. Politics also take up some portion of the book. Elihu Washburne was the American Ambassador and lived in Paris through the Frano-Prussia war and the siege on Paris. What I enjoyed about this book was that it is not simply a history of Americans in Paris, but a history of Paris. Each story is a microcosm of a larger picture that needs to be explained. What we tend to forget about history is that the siege at Paris by the Prussians was a real, historical event that affected real, living people. It’s easy to read a sentence or a paragraph about how terrible things were, but it’s quite another thing to look at a particular human being, tummy growling, cooking rats for food, that brings history to life; it is not merely concepts or big pictures, but how events transpired and affected people. I like that about this book, and I like it even more because I’ve been to this great city and I can picture some of the images presented. For the historian or the layman, I think this is an intriguing book worth your time. [...]

The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-boats, William Geroux

January 14, 20202016Mathews County is located in Virginia, and in order to find it, you have to want to go there. Farmers still leave trucks full of produce out on the side of the road where you can pay for fresh vegetables and fruits on the honor system. There is just a two lane road that runs through the central part of the city, where the courthouse and other administrative buildings lay. It hasn’t changed much since the 1940’s, where the majority of men from Mathew’s County men were mariners who worked on ships run by the Merchant Marines. And in these few details lies a story that is inextricably linked to the greatest conflict the world has ever known and how a family from this backwoods place worked to fight against the evil Nazi regime. One of the most overlooked details of World War II was the Atlantic war where ships carrying supplies to Europe from America were systematically gunned down in the Atlantic Ocean. America was neutral until 1942 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but under Roosevelt, they supported the Allies in the East by shipping weapons, supplies, and ammunition to England and France. Obviously, Hitler couldn’t stand for this and while angering the Americans might lead to them declaring war on Germany, Hitler thought this inevitable; therefore, he waged a fierce war for the German U-boats (the precursor to the submarine) to take down ships of the Merchant Marine’s on their trek to Europe. At the beginning of this engagement, German U-boats were tasked with destroying ships around Europe. But soon, their focus spread to the American mainland. As early as 1942 when Hitler declared war on America, U-boats were routinely seen off the coast of North and South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The Merchant Marine ships were not equipped with any sort of defensive capabilities and were pretty much sitting ducks. Hundreds of ships were lost in 1942 to U-boat attacks. This book follows seven brothers (as the title suggests) from Mathew’s County as they risked their lives to continue the supply chain to Europe. What emerges is a story of heroism and courage in the face of imminent danger. Most of the young men joined the Merchant Marines when they came of age. And although they were dodging bullets from downrange, their sacrifice is not to be overlooked. The dangerous waters of the Atlantic produced a ship graveyard that is still being studied today. In 1943, the Navy began assigning groups of ships to protect the assets crossing the sea. While I don’t have the exact statistic, ship casualties went from around 800 in 1942 to around 300 in 1943 as the government began to deal with the growing crisis. After the European war ended, ships were diverted to the Pacific to carry supplies for the war against the Japanese, and while the dangers of U-boats passed, the Merchant Marines never stopped. A quote I recently read is from Alexander the Great, where he is purported to have said, “My logisticians are a humorless lot… they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” Alexander understood the importance of logistics in the war effort. So too we have to recognize that the Merchant Marines played an integral part of the American military machine in World War II, no matter how un-sexy it is. It’s much more interesting to read about Easy Company in the European theater or the Marines on the island hopping campaign. But without the critical supplies from people like the Mathew’s men, there would be little success on the battlefield. So tip your hats and kiss a logistician the next time you see them and thank them for making things work. [...]

The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ, Bruce Ware

October 10, 20192016This short little book is packed full of information about the humanity of Christ, as seen in the title. It may be short, but it certainly is edifying and very informative into the person Jesus. The book begins with an explanation of just what the “emptying” of Christ was. This means that Dr. Ware exposits a section of Philippians 2, which says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” The implications of this are huge and some have gotten it totally wrong. The kenosis was a theory that Jesus empty the entirety of His divine nature, which must be rejected and is not what this passage is teaching. Rather, Jesus retained His divinity but in certain circumstances, He chose not to exercise it. This is crucial when understanding the humanity of Christ. Next, the proceeding chapters speak about the humanity of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. When we think of Jesus’ divine nature, we understand that He was 100% God and 100% man. The divine nature obviously needed nothing: He didn’t need to grow in wisdom in HIs divine nature because the divine is already perfect. But the man.. this is a different story. Chapter 2 speaks on how the Holy Spirit empowered the man, Jesus Christ. Chapter 3 talks about how the Spirit empowered Him to grow in wisdom. Likewise, chapter 4 speaks on how Jesus grew in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. You sense a theme here? Chapter 5 is about temptation. This was a very interesting chapter. Because Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” But you may say, “Well yea, but Jesus had His divine side so He couldn’t really have been tempted because there was no possibility the divine nature would LET him sin.” You see the problem. Dr. Ware uses this illustration that is very helpful: imagine you are a swimmer who is training for a long swim. As you are training, you begin to get better and better until the day of the race. As a precaution, you ask a boat to row beside just in case the unlikely scenario of you drowning occurs. As the race begins, you swim and swim under your own power while the boat cruises along next to you, just in case anything takes a wrong direction. This is like the temptation of Christ. He grew in faith, grew in wisdom in His humanity by the Spirit. While the Spirit empowered Him, He was able to say no to temptation in His full humanity. But His divine side wouldn’t let Him sin. This erases some the tension there is in the temptation of Christ. Chapter 6 talks about how in recent years, liberal scholars have tried to argue that Jesus could have been a woman. This argument extends from the NIV’s controversial decision to make some of the pronouns used for Jesus as neutral, which would give the possibility that Jesus could have been a man or a woman. Dr. Ware utilizes 12 arguments to say that Jesus must be a man. Chapter 7 is the substitution of Christ. One interesting point that he makes is people sometimes ask why the second Adam just couldn’t have been empowered by the Spirit to not sin and die for our sins. So, take away the divinity of the second Adam. Dr. Ware says that the punishment for sin is eternal, so only an eternal agent can be a proper substitution which is an interesting thought. Lastly, Chapter 8 focuses on the Raised, Reigning, and Return of Christ. Like I said.. Packed with information. What is helpful about. Dr. Ware’s book too is that he includes an application section at the end of each chapter with discussion questions. This would be particularly helpful in the event you wanted to work through it as a group or in a Bible study. Great, short book that will challenge you. [...]

The Cross of Christ, John Stott (2016)

October 10, 20192016This is my 5th time reading through this book, which I’ve done faithfully for the last 5 years since I became a Christian. I reviewed it in 2014 here and last year here. Each year I read it, I glean something new and refreshing. The first chapter is entitled “The Centrality of the Cross” and I think it is such an important message to constantly return to the purpose and message of the cross year after year which is why I will continue to read the Cross of Christ. It really has become my most favorite book. I think this year was particularly intriguing in my yearly run through because I did something I haven’t done in earlier years: I took notes. In my note taking, I like to highlight particularly important passages that I cross reference with a key that is in front of the book. In my note taking, I recorded almost 80 entries of important or remember-worthy details that made it into my key. Sometimes I feel as if the entire book could be highlighted because of the gravity and weightiness of the message. The book is broken down into 4 parts: Approaching the Cross, The Heart of the Cross, The Achievement of the Cross, and Living Under the Cross. I mentioned last year that this last section really gripped me because when we understand the cross, we cannot help but be moved to live it out in our lives. This year, the section “The Heart of the Cross” again became my most favorite section. Stott deals with the problem of forgiveness, satisfaction for sin, and the self-substitution of God in this section. Among my most favorite parts is the two part dichotomy of the sacrifice of Jesus by Anselm of Canterbury; “There is no-one… who can make this satisfaction except God himself… But no one ought to make it except man; otherwise man does not make satisfaction… it is necessary that one who is God-man should make it… It is needful that the very same Person who is to make this satisfaction be perfect God and perfect man, since no one can do it except one who is truly God, and no one ought to do it except one who is truly man.” The self satisfaction of God is still a truth about the cross that fascinates me today and, in my opinion, is an idea that plumbs the depth of the cross. I love this book. I think you should read it. If you want to be challenged to a greater understanding of the cross, then this is the book for you. If you have questions about the cross, then you should read this book. Just do yourself a favor and read it. [...]