Word: chapter
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Duke goes to great length to call into question the accuracy of the opening chapter, which recounts a particular event in which I was attacked and, in fact, bitten by a Dartmouth College official for distributing copies of The Dartmouth Review. But in his zeal to score a hit (or perhaps in his frustration at not being able to) Mr. Duke ends up misinforming his readers. He makes the following assertion: "What Mr. Hart does not mention anywhere in his book, however, is that the administrator was slapped with a week's suspension from work, a court imposed fine...
...would be difficult to state this information any more clearly. And, given then [sic] fact that this text appears on the first and second pages of chapter one, it's hard to see how Mr. Duke could have missed...
...contradictory nature of the Mexican political system presents problems for Riding. He puts his years as a journalist in Mexico to good use, filling his discussion of modern Mexico with anecdotes and crispy presented narrative. His chapter on the widespread corruption within the Mexican political system is one place where this works well. But the anecdotes disguise a lack of analysis, which hurts his discussion of Mexican polities. He provides a plethora of fact but fails to provide the key that ties the complex Mexican political system together...
...lived. In what seems like an inappropriate attempt to close on an hopeful note, Riding ends by praising the even-tempered, gentle nature of the Mexican people. But having failed to previously make the connection between politics and the Mexican national character, and given his pessimism of the previous chapter, his cultural generalizations sound simplistic...
...book so obviously aimed at an American audience, Riding should have stuck with the warning of his penultimate chapter. It is a timely point: Given the Reagan Administration's fear of a wave of leftist takeovers in Central America, it's important to underscore that Mexico faces the same problems which launched authoritarianism in other relatively advanced Latin American nations. With the rest of the region enjoying a democratic renaissance, Washington should be concerned about a potential dictatorship next door--and respond with something more constructive than crude intervention or sheer indifference...