5790. The Cycles of American History, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (read 17 May 2022) This book, published in 1986, is the 13th book by its author I have read. It expatiates a lot about the political scene as of 1986 and hence is often not pertinent to the very different political scene as it exists today. And one knows that what the author would say about today's political scene would be darker than what he had to say about the 1986 scene. The book says lots of wise things but some I could not agree with. For instance, he spends a lot of time bemoaning the fact that the 25th Amendment permits a person, such as Jerry Ford to be president even though he was never voted on by all the nation's voters. I cannot think that is a pertinent complaint. I think the 25th Amendment worked OK in 1974 and see no need to change it. All in all the book said wisely much but it seemed far removed from the situation which confronts us today--a perilous one in my view, with so many people eager to do violence to our system of government ( )

Time magazine reviewed this book in December 1986.(Link Here)