A Century Turns [REVIEW]

I had never heard of William Bennett- at least I don’t think I had. The ironic thing about this is that Bennett has been a vital part of some of our Country’s most defined intersections. More than once the man has been considered as a running mate in presidential elections, and has been called upon to assist those presidents in varying capacities from campaigning to cabinet appointment. So it was interesting to me, a sometimes history buff, to follow Mr. Bennett’s fairly balanced account and unique perspective of our Nation’s, and world’s, history from 1988 through 2008.

I was born in 1980. Suffice it to say that I literally grew up during these two decades. I can say that I remember all, if not nearly all, of the history vividly described. A Century Turns is more than one man’s perspective on the events during a score of years bookending two centuries. It’s a journey through my life. As he lays out the major events that shaped, and shook, our culture and world, Bennett had me journeying to the point in my life where the memories were conceived.

At first glance the volume seemed to be distinctly American in it’s content, and in many ways it was- centered around our Nation’s presidents and their interactions with history. However, I soon discovered that while the accounts were from an American, the events were global in both thought and reality. From the end of the Cold War to the moral sins of a President to our national struggle to move beyond memories of Vietnam to a partial-realization of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, I was completely captivated.

Beginning with the end of Ronald Reagan’s unprecedented Presidency, and moving through George H.W. Bush’s solitary term at the helm, I was struck with how much of this era of history truly laid the foundation for what would be the next steps in America’s history. Throughout the mid to late 90′s I was in high school and, unfortunately, bored to tears with the scandals that rocked William Jefferson Clinton’s administration. Other events did, however, pique my interest, such as the double murder trial of O.J. Simpson and his eventual acquittal. The millennium came and went with much fanfare, but almost completely void of the Y2K Bug that the fear-mongers had spent so much time working nearly everyone into a frenzy about. For the second time in our history a president’s son held the same office as his father. George W. Bush would lead the country, and the world, through once-thought unthinkable acts of terror on September 11, 2001, and, eventually, into two wars; one that seemed to be understood and another that should have been. The recounting of history closes too swiftly with the singular focus that a nation founded by slave owners would finally come to grips with their mantra of “all men are created equal” and elect Barack Obama, son of a white Kansasan and a black Kenyan, to our highest office, when so much more had occurred.

This book will do well in assisting the memories of any person that lived through this time in our history, and to those that didn’t experience it at all. I believe those that will gain the most are those that, like me, perhaps didn’t experience the entirety of these years. We were children and teenagers, concerned with less (or were they more?) important things than world events and politics. Bennett’s perspective will lend itself to these reader’s perspectives and remind all that freedom truly does come with a price.