Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert B. Reich: Book Beginnings; Friday 56; and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book: 

Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

by Robert B. Reich

Genre: Memoir

Published: August 5, 2025

Page Count: 571 pages

Summary: 

Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future—which went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height—4'11" as an adult—set him on a determined path to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the civil rights movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; and his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. Ultimately, Reich asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or did they come up short?

Reich hardly abandons us to despair over a doomed democracy. With characteristic spirit and humor, he lays out how we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on the American ideals we still have the power to salvage.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

I was born on June 24, 1946, ten days after the birth of Donald John Trump, twelve days before the birth of George Walker Bush, and fifty-six days before the birth of William Jefferson Blyth III, whose name was later changed to Bill Clinton. I did not become president but among my earliest memories is my grandmother Minnie Reich telling me that I would become president. I think she was trying to reassure herself that despite my being a runt, fully a head shorter than other little boys, I'd make her proud. (p. 1)

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

Let me give you a simple way to test for a good workplace. I came up with it years ago when as secretary of labor I visited them all over America. I call it the "we-they" test: Ask a frontline worker a general question like "How is it to work here?" Then listen for the pronoun. If the workers describe the company as "they" or "them," it's a tip-off that workers regard the company and its executives as being on a different team. If workers describe the company as "we" or "us," the company instills a sense of pride and ownership in its workers. (56%)

I went to hear Robert B. Reich speak last night at The Progressive Forum in Houston, and now I'm on fire for democracy. I took pages and pages of notes at the event, and I am eager to dive into this memoir. His interviewer at the event introduced him and his book, saying this book is "not just a memoir---it's a book on how to live."

He spoke about how, after the economic debacle of 2008, he spoke with people and they continually told him their two favorite candidates for president were Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. This mystified him, and he questioned them further, but the people were serious---they wanted someone who would speak out against the system they felt was against them. He found it unfortunate that the Democratic Party did not choose Bernie as their candidate.

Reich finds a lot of hope in the future. Everywhere he goes, he hears people asking the same question: How can we save democracy? He feels like there are a lot of young people who are going into politics with a populatist vision, and that gives him hope. He hears regular people talking seriously about due process and the Constitution and gerrymandering for the first time, and that gives him hope. He looks back in America's past and sees how the American people, when they see what is at stake, do the right thing, and that gives him hope.

He encourages us to use the power of economic and political boycotts against those who are folding under Trump's bullying. He urges us to speak up to those who are making decisions and to let them know we will vote people out who are doing the wrong thing. He says the only way to deal with a tyrant is not to appease the tyrant, but to get together with others and stand up to the tyrant. We cannot fall into despair or cynicism. We must keep hoping. "This," he says, "is the fight of our lives, and it is critical that we keep going for future generations." And, he ends with, "We can't wait for others to take the lead. We are the leaders we have been waiting for."

Two other books I've read by Reich, both of which I rated five-star reads:

The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It

The Common Good

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

 Have you ever read a book with a character with the same name as you? 

- submitted by Snapdragon @ Snapdragon Alcove

There are a lot of Debbies and Deborahs and Debras and Debs in my Baby Boomer-filled world, but finding them in books has been a rare experience. I do like the Deborah from the Old Testament. She was a wise judge.