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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.60973
EAN num: 9780767928359
ISBN number: 0767928350
Label: Broadway
Manufacturer: Broadway
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: May 19, 2008
Publishing house: Broadway
Release Date: May 19, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 9156
Studio: Broadway
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“I’m the only person in the history of Virginia elected to statewide office with a Union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos.'
Jim Webb—the bestselling author and now the celebrated, outspoken U.S. Senator from Virginia—presents a clear-eyed, hard-hitting plan of attack for putting government to work for the people, rather than special interests, and for restoring the country's standing around the world.
Infused with the intelligence, force, and firebrand style that has earned Senator Jim Webb enormous national attention from his earlest days in office, A Time to Fight offers a thorough and provocative assessment of the thorniest issues Americans face today, along with cogent solutions drawn from Webb's lifetime of experience as a much-decorated Marine, a widely traveled, award-winning journalist and novelist, a highly placed member of the Reagan administration, a Senator with a son who fought as a Marine in Iraq and, perhaps most important, a proud scion of America's vast but frequently ignored working class.
Webb exposes how America has entered a dangerous, unprecedented cycle of seemingly unsolvable unknowns. Our economic policies, particularly in this age of globalization, have produced widely divergent results leading to a country calcifying along class lines. Our demographic makeup has been altered dramatically and is set to keep on changing, through both legal and illegal immigration. Our editorialists and politicians talk about the American dream, and some urge us to bring democracy to the rest of the world. But more than two million Americans are now in prison, by far the highest incarceration rate in the so-called advanced world. Our foreign policy is confused, without clear direction; increasingly vulnerable to such largely unexamined long-term threats as China's emerging power while it has become bogged down in the never-ending struggles of the Middle East. As this drift toward societal regression has taken place, America's leadership has largely been paralyzed, unable or unwilling to stop the slide. 'Where are the leaders?' Webb asks. 'Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?'
Through vivid personal narratives of the struggles members of his family faced, and citing the courageous actions of presidents ranging from Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower, A Time to Fight provides specific, viable ideas for restoring fairness to our economic system, correcting the direction of national security efforts, ending America's military occupation of Iraq, and developing greater government accountability. Webb brings a fresh perspective to political dynamics that have shaped our country. His stirring, populist manifesto calls upon voters to make the choices that will change America for the better in this election season.
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Rated by buyers 
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My point of view, very first of all, is that there is an under-current, of a powerful, select elite who control the market, our politics and news. Most of the media I digest is in the margins.
That being said, I was surprised at the empathy I had for Jim Webb's military perspective. His autobiographical approach to dissecting the time-line of America's political parties gave me a much more human connection to the soldiers who have made history, and who are currently fighting. Webb adds much richness to this work by integrating his own story into his switch from siding with the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. He takes the reader on a journey of how others with his values have changed as the presidency has changed as well.
While I am all-too aware of the corruption of Wall Street and within our justice system, which Webb outlines, there are areas of American (and Middle-Eastern) history in which I have sadly have been ignorant. Webb, if anything, has a strong understanding of the fine points of this history and how it dangerously repeats itself when we are uninformed.
There were many military and political experts with experience who were ignored by the Bush and his cabinet members in regards to the pit-falls of initiating a war in Iraq. Webb, having fought in Vietnam, has visited the darkest places of the psyche and knows that spilling blood comes with great, unseen consequences. It is done only as a last resort. Our occupation over-seas has created more terrorism than his, and others, careful, thoughtful approach. It is more than rhetoric; He has evidence.
It is assuring to see that a Senator can be so openly opposed to a domineering, covertly and overtly aggressive administration. Webb proves the adage that the personal is political and does so with the flow of a gifted writer. Though he offers a general idea to elicit people's passion to demand a change for the better, there could have been so much more. I was left feeling like the book was unfinished. Though the information and the solutions are truthful, it is a somewhat timid truth which only touches the surface a deep ocean of manipulation and anticipated revolution.
Rated by buyers 
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"A Time to Fight" is largely autobiographical, describing Webb's family background, military career (Viet Nam), writing career (several novels), Washington bureaucrat career (Secretary of the Navy), bitterly fought 2006 Senate campaign, and now his Senate career. Very impressive, obviously.
In the midst of all that, Webb also includes numerous historical references and anecdotes, mostly about military history, politics, and economics.
The rest of the book describes some of America's pressing challenges. Some of Webb's figures are shocking. For example, on the issue of the disparity in wealth between rich and poor, Webb says that J.D. Rockefeller made about 7,000 times the average per capita income in 1894, while today's money managers can make 700,000 times the average per capita income. Webb is concerned about whether the social contract that binds us together as a nation can survive that enormous disparity in wealth or the other problems he describes, such as the Iraq War, the rising power of countries like China, our exploding prison population (largely resulting from throwing thousands of urban blacks in jail for selling pot to suburban whites), the influence of special interests on politicians, and the military-industrial complex.
Making those challenges even more difficult to solve, according to Webb, is the poisonous political environment, where neither side seems to be willing to work with the other side, and where politicians pander to their base constituencies about deeply felt, but ultimately trivial, cultural issues, such as abortion, flag burning, and gay marriage, while ignoring issues that may literally threaten our survival as a nation.
I was a bit disappointed with how vague Webb's prescriptions were for dealing with the challenges he listed, but this was still a very interesting book.
And now, I think I'll check the want ads to see if there are any openings for money managers!
Rated by buyers -
Webb offers some tough policy prescriptions in this well written treatise. These aren't the standard platitudes, and few will agree with everything he says, but he writes with uncommon command for a politician and his call to action is persuasive. There's a lot of biographical insight here, but little self-congratulation. His writes about some topics that simply never get discussed. Indeed, his chapter on criminal justice was probably where his Vice Presidential vetting stopped.
Rated by buyers 
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James Webb is far and away the finest writer in the
world today.
This book, his latest, is timely and important.
Rated by buyers 
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While I have a great deal of respect for Senator Webb, I was disappointed by his book. In the book, Webb takes to task the policies of the Bush administration, the corruption in the Senate, the truculent campaign of Chuck Robb, the conduct of the war and so on. But where he falls short is in his ability to deliver fresh ideas for how to solve some of the pressing issues that plague the country.
If the objective of the book was to leave the reader with a heightened respect for Senator Webb's service to our country and his knowledge of world affairs, the book succeeded. If the objective was to expose issues of political shortcomings, elevate the discourse, and offer compelling solutions, then it failed.
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