Nice Tolstoy quote from our preeminent Warrior-Scholar. Webb - citing Tolstoy, who inspired Ghandhi in his later life - enters the realm of responsible senior statesman with this book. Obama's book also shows depth of understanding - particularly his discussion of religion in colonial Virginia and how some factions tried to create a theocracy to keep the common people (Webb's kin in the western part of the state) out. These two belong together not only because they represent balanced town-and-country constituencies, but because they are kindred spirits; they are inspired by ideas and the potential for a better world those ideas bring. And they are compelled to act on their ideas. Nice to see you travelling with Mark Warner. I look forward to your review of A Time to Fight.

Looking forward to getting my own copy of this book.  Maybe I can persuade my kids to get it for me as a belated Mother's Dy present.

that there will be.  BTW, I've read about 45 pages so far, and the book totally rocks!

Will you give us a full review when you have read it? I would love to hear it...

anyway. :)

He's got a book tour that brings him out to the West Coast in early June.

As I've noted earlier, promoting this book and, more importantly, its message, in early June might synchronize very nicely with adding some rocket fuel to the Obama campaign.

After I read his personal bio on his website several years ago I thought to myself ;(and I probably speak for most people) Man, if I could have accomplished just 10% of this I would have considered myself a big over-achiever.

The most admirable thing about Jim Webb is that despite all his genius, he's still just a regular guy, his feet are planted firmly on the ground.

I just pre-ordered his book on Amazon.

It will be my first Webb book!

I got curious about the rest of his work and ended up ordering  all of them (except for the Micronesia book) from various used books sellers on Amazon.  I made my way through them in the order in which they were published and found them fascinating.  Lots of research went into them, and there are recurrent themes which we can see in his public speaking and in his non-fiction.  It probably would not be giving much away to note that most of his work is not of the happy ending variety and that it often focuses on the nature of power, the nature of duty, and how those in power abuse it and prevail over those who have the duty.  There's a lot of pain and anger in most of them, particularly in Fields of Fire and Something to Die For.  The most consistent current running through them all is the absence of appreciation those in the highest levels of our government have for the sacrifices of the military and their families and the way the powerful take for granted those sacrifices without real appreciation of the cost to those who make them.  

I look forward very much to reading this new book.