Classic choices

Christian Century, Feb 24, 2004

Richard D. Heffner, host of public television's The Open Mind, offers this selection of best books (PW Daily, February 3):

* Public Opinion, by Walter Lippmann (Free Press), reflects a profound understanding of the importance of a well-informed public.

* The American Political Tradition, by Richard Hofstadter (Vintage), analyzes the men who made our political tradition. It constitutes the most brilliant statement ever of American political leadership.

* Democracy in America, b) Alexis de Tocqueville (Signet), is a perceptive, prophetic description of the impact of majority rule upon the dynamics of American society.

* The Power Broker; by Robert A. Caro (Vintage), an extraordinary look at New York's Robert Moses, is perhaps the most important study of modern American political power.

* Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman (Viking), whose subtitle tells it all: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

* And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861, by Kenneth M. Stampp (out of print), an analysis of Lincoln's "strategy of defense" at Fort Sumter, makes a compelling statement that conflict may be inevitable, but war is not.