The Good, the Bad & the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers by Mungo MacCallum
I've never been to Australia, although I'd like to visit there and New Zealand, and have encountered my share of Aussies over the years, and have followed the country's politics. You can learn a lot about a society by reading about its political leaders. A book with a similar title could easily be written about the Presidents of the United States. The author has long been one of Australia's leading journalists and brings personal insight into the most recent PMs. The book is very readable and interesting, especially for one who had no prior knowledge of Aussie Prime Ministers before Billy Hughes (pictured below), who represented his country at the Versailles Peace Conference following World War I where he managed to draw the ire of US President Woodrow Wilson, who chided him on how few people he represented. Hughes responded "I speak for 60,000 dead." The last and most recent prime ministerial profilee is Tony Abbott, who has been out of office since 2015.
I particularly enjoyed reading about the longest-serving prime minister, Robert Menzies (1949-66), whose prime ministership the author summed up as follows: "the Menzies years had been relaxed and comfortable, but they had been largely a waste of time", as well as Harold Holt, who went for an ocean swim in 1967 and never came back (the kind of stuff that fuels conspiracy theories), and Gough Whitlam, whose removal by the Governor-General in 1975 ignited a constitutional crisis.
The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity by Elmar R. Gruber & Holger Kersten
This is the kind of thing that would get me tossed out of most churches. The book is very interesting and I refer back to it often. Did you know how much of what Jesus of Nazareth had to say corresponds with Buddhist teachings? Or how much of the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus were apparently borrowed from Buddhist and Indian traditions? Did you ever wonder what he was up to during all those years before he began his teaching? This book is tough going at times, but fits in with my heterodox belief system.
That was not my last work of theological history for the year (I just didn't read them all consecutively). I also explored some books dealing with Chinese history before eventually returning to religion.
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang
This woman, who was the de facto leader of China during the waning years of absolute monarchy from 1861 until her death in 1908, rarely receives sympathetic treatment from historians. Jung Chang, a very fine biographer, gives Cixi her due, pointing out that she was setting the stage for China to become a constitutional monarchy at the point of her passing. Tough and clever, she was certainly an interesting historical character.
The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave
One family provided a number of significant characters who played a role in the history of China from the end of the Manchu dynasty to the rise of the Communists. Charlie Soong, a runaway from China who became educated in the United States and returned to his native country as a Methodist missionary, and became successful in business, fathered three daughters named Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling, who were also American educated and married, respectively, H.H. Kung (who became perhaps the wealthiest man in pre-Communist China), Sun Yat-sen (the leader of the revolutionary movement to create a republic), and Chiang Kai-shek (an underworld character who became the autocratic leader of the republic and ended up as the exiled leader of Nationalist China in Taiwan). Their intertwined stories read like something of a thriller, and was made into a Chinese-language movie in 1997. The author Seagrave paints a rather grim picture of the family and its influence although the book is well researched and very readable, if a bit dense at times. Charlie Soong had sons also, and they played roles in the story as well, but not quite as interesting as the sisters. Below are the Soong sisters as young women, the eldest, Ai-ling, in front, flanked by Ching-ling on the left and May-ling on the right.
This was not the end of my reading with regard to the Soong sisters.
The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of Modern China by Hannah Pakula
The youngest of the Soong sisters, May-ling, is the subject of this monumental biography. She was always looking up to her formidable eldest sister Ai-ling, who "rewarded" her by apparently fixing her up with Chiang Kai-Shek. May-ling was the most Americanized of the sisters, spending the years from age 9 through college in the USA. Once she married Chiang Kai-Shek, she was clearly the brains (not to mention English-language voice) of the duo and became celebrated in the Western world, but notorious in China for her lavish lifestyle. American journalist Edward R. Murrow referred to her as having "pure sex appeal". She also, along with Ai-ling, protected Ching-ling from being punished by Chiang Kai-Shek, stemming from the middle sister's support for the Communists following the death of Sun Yat-sen. Needless to say, the convoluted family connections led to difficulties for the sisters. Once the Communists won, Ching-ling was made a Vice Chair of the People's Republic. May-ling survived her husband and sisters to live in New York, passing away at the grand old age of 105 in 2003. Hannah Pakula treats May-ling better than did Sterling Seagrave. Despite her many faults, she was not an entirely unsympathetic character (although I still find Chiang Kai-Shek utterly loathsome).
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Spurred by the racial issues that jolted the country by mid-year, I shifted directions with my reading at this point.
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
This is an excellent book regarding the popular mid-20th century travel guide for African-Americans, and related issues pertaining to black culture. The Harvard educated author draws upon her own family experience in discussing the subject matter, which she does very well.
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
This is a well-researched and highly readable history of the Civil Rights movement, focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Well worthwhile. It is interesting to read how much criticism the Civil Rights protestors of the 1950s and '60s took for moving too fast and recklessly (some things don't change much). The Kennedy administration found their activities to be very inconvenient at times, but the Justice Department stepped up when needed. Reading about the Freedom Riders was especially interesting. John Lewis died right at the point that I was reading about his activities, adding poignancy. This is not the first book I have read about Dr. King or the Civil Rights movement, but it may well be the best.
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Back to theology at this point:
Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Ehrman is a provocative New Testament scholar who has overcome his youthful Christian fundamentalism to author books like this one that examines where commonly accepted notions regarding heaven and hell come from. He says not from the Jewish tradition or the teachings of Jesus. Since I believe that both concepts are deeply flawed (and don't believe in Satan or hell at all), this is another book that I refer back to often. Very readable and interesting throughout.
Searching for Guan Yin by Sarah E. Truman
This was perhaps my most enjoyable reading experience of the year. It is the story of a young Canadian woman obsessed with Guan Yin, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion. She went all the way to China to satisfy her interest and find out the degree to which Guan Yin remains significant in modern Chinese culture. She comes across as an interesting person who encounters plenty of interesting people and has many adventures and misadventures along the way. I also find Guan Yin to be a compelling figure and can, at a certain level, relate to the author's quest. As many people told her along the way, she need not have journeyed to China to find Guan Yin, but she would have missed out on quite an experience if she had not done so. Below is one of the many statues of Guan Yin:
The Story of Buddhism by Donald S. Lopez Jr.
I finished off the year reading this book about the nature and history of Buddhism. A bit dry at times but it discusses the many different perspectives that are contained within that faith system. What? You thought only Christianity contains divisions and differnces of opinion? Once belief systems start getting written down, how to interpret what has been written comes into play. And thus divisions and differing schools of thought.
I could have finished off with Guan Yin and been satisfied. Such is the nature of the reading experience.
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What does 2021 hold? I am back to the Soong sisters, with Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang, which I am currently reading. Discussion of that book is for a future post.
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