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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    February 01, 1999

    Wisconsin Lawyer February 1999: Book Review

    Book Reviews

    This Month's Featured Selections

    Closed ChambersCivic Illiteracy and Education: The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of American Youth

    By John Marciano
    (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1998).
    232 pgs. Retail: $29.95.

    Reviewed by Kerry E. Dwyer

    This book denounces the history that is taught in the schools across America. Marciano claims that the educational crisis is not the one we hear about in the media - that students do not know or understand the basic "facts" about American history. Rather, the educational crisis is that the history our youth learn is the product of the dominant-elite of society. This dominant-elite view of history is designed, according to Marciano, to foster uncritical patriotism and militarism that will prevent society from challenging the choices our government makes concerning foreign policy and aggression. As a result of the inaccurate portrayal of American history, Marciano posits that true democracy lies outside the reach of the American public.

    The first two chapters of Civic Illiteracy focus on what Marciano perceives as the inaccuracies in the usual approach to history - that the United States is devoted to principles of democracy and freedom. Pointing out examples such as the lack of teaching about the treatment of Native Americans, slaves, and women in our country, Marciano observes that history lessons in our schools overlook many instances where our government did not apply these principles. In the following two chapters, views of history from minority and feminist perspectives are offered to rebut the earlier dominant-elite views that are found in most history lessons. In the final chapters, Marciano discusses the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. First, he sets forth the government rhetoric concerning these wars and the subsequent history lessons about these wars that are taught in the schools. Then he displays the false information in these accounts that generally continues to be taught in the schools. In Marciano's view, it is only if schools cease teaching propaganda-laden history lessons and instead teach critical analysis of historic events that our youth will become educated.

    This book raises some interesting questions concerning what, or whose, version of history should be taught in American schools. It is impossible to read this text without reflecting on one's own education and recognizing the pro-American bias of these lessons. As many colleges and universities are embracing a more balanced, multicultural view of history, Marciano makes a strong argument in favor of our public primary and secondary schools doing the same.

    Kerry Dwyer, Boston College Law School 1994, is an attorney in the Milwaukee office of Wessels & Pautsch P.C. where she represents management in labor and employment law matters.

    Telecommuting for Lawyers

    By Nicole Belson Goluboff
    (Chicago, IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section, 1998).
    148 pgs. Retail: $39.96.

    Reviewed by Jeffery L. Brown

    Goluboff's book, Telecommuting for Lawyers, superbly discusses some of the major issues of telecommuting (defined as "a fancy word for what lawyers do all the time: work wherever it makes the most sense to work"). With ample examples from a range of practice types, Goluboff makes a persuasive case for why lawyers and law firms should consider telecommuting as a practice option and how they can effectively implement such a plan. Her analysis, real-world examples, forms, checklists, and resource lists make an excellent desk reference for the lawyer or law firm manager considering the creation, expansion, or evaluation of a telecommuting program.

    Rapid advances in technology, its plunging cost, and increased dissatisfaction with traditional law practice make Goluboff's book particularly timely. She describes the ways lawyers and firms have used telecommuting to increase efficiency, create flexible office hours, improve work product, empower support staff, improve the work/leisure balance, improve recruitment and retention, reduce overhead, save clients money, and increase the accessibility of lawyers.

    Goluboff doesn't deny the easy social/professional interchange and inherent efficiencies in traditional law practice. She acknowledges and examines some objections to modifying traditional law practice and the encroachment of work into places and times not traditionally thought of as the workplace. But she points out how, for an increasing number of lawyers, this model does not fit with their view of how, or where, they want to practice law or how they want to allocate time between work, family, and leisure.

    Goluboff encourages flexibility. She encourages lawyers and their administrators to think about how work can be done in more than one way to accommodate the increase in dual-career families, long commutes, and more stressful demands for billing and client development.

    Jeffery L. Brown, Harvard 1989, a frequent telecommuter, is an associate in the Madison office of Quarles & Brady. He practices in employment and commercial matters, with a particular interest in the legal issues raised by telework.

    Bidding for Power: America's Democracy on the Auction Block

    By Ed Garvey
    (Madison, WI: Garvey for Governor, 1998).
    104 pgs. Softcover. $9.95.
    To order, call (888) 334-9472.

    Reviewed by Don M. Mills

    Campaign finance reform is the centerpiece of Ed Garvey's campaign for governor of Wisconsin. To this end, Garvey's campaign has published Bidding for Power, a book attacking the influence of big money in campaigns and calling for full public financing of campaigns.

    [In the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that Garvey's opponent, Gov. Thompson, appointed me to the Wisconsin State Elections Board. Further, I generally oppose efforts to publicly finance campaigns.]

    Bidding for Power focuses on the influence of big money on the political system. If you believe the current political system is so corrupt that it is beyond redemption, this book will not challenge your view. Garvey names names, blaming these perceived problems on Republicans, Democrats, President Clinton, congressional leaders from both parties, campaign consultants, business leaders, labor leaders, lobbyists, and the media.

    Relying on personal experience and anecdotes, Garvey argues that big money is the root of all evil in the political system because: 1) candidates and consultants from both parties sell their souls to get big money; 2) special interests, including both business and labor, give big money primarily to establishment candidates; and 3) the media determines which candidates are credible based upon the amount of money they receive. It is this reliance on big money that Garvey blames for the failure of progressive legislation, such as national health care and a 50 percent capital gains tax, and for the domination of the Democratic Party by more conservative or "new" democrats.

    As a personal statement, Bidding for Power effectively communicates Garvey's cynical view of the political system and his passion for changing it. As a basis for policy, however, the book has serious shortcomings.

    In blaming big money for the rightward shift of the Democratic Party and the failure of progressive legislation, Garvey dismisses, without analysis or evidence, the possibility that these developments could be explained by the preferences of the American public.

    For a book that bills itself as the "case for publicly funded campaigns," precious little analysis is dedicated to developing a proposal to publicly fund campaigns. Most of the nine pages dedicated to Garvey's plan deal with how the proposal was developed, and the details of his plan are sketchy at best.

    A more fundamental problem is Garvey's naïve belief that public financing is the silver bullet to kill the influence of big money in politics. Under Garvey's plan, candidates would have no practical choice but to accept full public financing of their campaigns and to agree to spending limits. Candidates could then receive no special interest money and, theoretically, would not be beholden to special interests after the elections.

    In contrast to his cynical view of the current state of politics, Garvey ignores the ways in which any public financing system would certainly be circumvented by special interests. Those special interests prevented from contributing directly to candidates will independently run radio and televisions ads and make other legal expenditures (such as get-out-the-vote drives) designed to elect candidates of their choice. These independent efforts occur now and would only expand as candidates participate in Garvey's public financing plan.

    Proponents of campaign finance reform often ignore a truth that is proven year after year in politics: With so much at stake in deciding who controls the apparatus of government, special interests will find a way to influence elections, no matter what roadblocks are placed in their way. Garvey acknowledges this truth when analyzing the current state of affairs, but fails to consider it when explaining his solution.

    Don M. Millis , U.W. 1990, is a member of the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission and chair of the Wisconsin State Elections Board.


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