Trump / Russia: A Definitive History (2018): An apt companion piece to Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015)
Trump / Russia: A Definitive History (2018): An apt companion piece to Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015)
Updates
A July 13, 2018 Atlantic article is entitled: “The Russians Who Hacked the 2016 Election: Robert Mueller’s latest indictment reaches back to the origin story for the investigation into interference.”
A Dec. 8, 2018 Guardian article is entitled: “Mob mentality: how Mueller is working to turn Trump’s troops.’
A Dec. 8, 2018 Atlantic article is entitled: “Manafort, Cohen, and Individual 1 Are in Grave Danger: Robert Mueller is closing in on the president and all his men.”
A Dec. 8, 2018 Associated Press article is entitled: “Closer legal peril for Trump in probes; he sees no collusion.”
Update: A Jan. 7, 2021 Daily Beast article is entitled:
An excerpt reads:
“The president was trying to stage a coup. There was little chance of it happening, but there was enough chance that the former defense secretaries had to put out that letter, which was the final nail through that effort. They prevented the military from being involved in any coup attempt. But instead, Trump tried to incite it himself,” said Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser. “This could have turned into a full-blown coup had he had any of those key institutions following him. Just because it failed or didn’t succeed doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.”
[End]
[End]
*
A blurb for Trump / Russia: A Definitive History (2018) reads:
Summary/Review: Chronicles the forty-fifth president’s years wooing Russian deal-makers and financiers to reveal the people, dealings, and events that suggest how indebted Trump is to Russia.
[End]
The blurb is aptly brief and to the point.
Seth Hettena
The author of this well-written, well-researched study is Seth Hettena, whom a blurb at the Toronto Public Library describes as “an award-winning journalist. He was a long-time investigative reporter for the Associated Press, where he covered numerous stories of political corruption and American war crimes. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Feasting on the Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, History’s Most Corrupt Congressman.”
Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015)
I am impressed with Seth Hettena’s study, which serves as a great companion piece to Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015) by Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy.
I’ve discussed the latter, Brookings Institution study at previous posts including:
An exemplary study in story management: Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015)
Napoleonic wars and 1812 invasion of Russia
Of related interest are studies regarding Napoleon and his fatal march on Moscow in 1812, which I’ve discussed at previous posts including:
Irregular warfare
A related topic, the history of irregular warfare, is also addressed at previous posts including;
Gangs in public life
Also related to the study, Trump / Russia: A Definitive History (2018), is the role of gangs in public life, which I’ve highlighted at a previous post entitled:
Starting in the 1920s, gangster movies underlined the capabilities of talking pictures
Further contextualization of Trump / Russia (2018)
Further contextualization, of narratives addressed in Trump / Russia (2018), is featured at posts entitled:
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (1999)
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, First U.S. Edition (2016)
Topics related to reading and writing
With regard to context as it relates to topics addressed at the current post, a May 19, 2018 Lawfare article is entitled: “‘The Day that We Can’t Protect Human Sources’: The President and the House Intelligence Committee Burn an Informant.”
When we speak of genres of gangster literature, we are addressing what the processes of reading and writing actually entail – a topic cogently addressed in an Allegra Lab article entitled “Reading not to perish” by Alessandro Chidichimo.
The latter article – which I found of much interest, as it echoes themes that I’ve been thinking about for several years, in the course of my blogging – is translated from the French by Julie Billaud.
As noted at its website, ‘Allegra Lab: Anthropology, Law, Art & World’ (allegralaboratory.net) is a “collective of academics, an association and an online experiment founded in 2013.”
In general terms, we can say that genres of writing and reading built upon characters and settings – as in brief, evidence-based news reports in sources such as (by way of example) the Washington Post and New York Times or, indeed, in plays by William Shakespeare – make for compelling and engaging storytelling.
That said, however, a close study of the underlying phenomena (such as in evidence-based, book-length texts) – that extend far beyond what appear to be the key players, and the setting of the scene, dramaturgically speaking – are critical, if a person seeks to gain understanding, and make sense – at whatever level – of what the study of history, and the observation of the unfolding of current events, entails.
The study of total institutions and (by way of example) of the historical configurations associated with the rise of Nazi Germany are among the many potential ways, whereby a heightened sense of understanding of what we are dealing with, in Trump / Russia (2018), can be gained.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!