Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics Audio CD – Unabridged, December 26, 2013

I have been a fan of Krauthammer since his days at "The New Republic". I did not know who he was, but the magazine in those years (when Michael Kinsley was the editor of TNR and was appearing on Firing Line with WFB) was moderate enough that I actually subscribed to it. I dropped it during the Clinton years as it rocketed far Leftward and now pay it no attention whatsoever. But I have kept up with Mr. Krauthammer. I see him most on Special Report with Bret Baier on The Fox News Channel and often catch him on other shows, too. I also read a good fraction of his columns because they generally score around terrific on the pundit meter. And because I hear and read him regularly I did not see the need to purchase his collected columns in this book when it came out. Generally, books of collected columns sink like a stone. Some people are worth re-reading - WFB comes to mind - but while I am a fan of Mr. Krauthammer, I am not one of his rabid devotees.So, I wasn't surprised when the book did well immediately. But when it kept doing well week after week I reconsidered and realized there must be something more going on here than just a collection of old newspaper and periodical columns. So, I bought a copy. I generally do not buy many books because as a highly ranked reviewer on Amazon, I generally get sent books to review and get many more request for reviews than I can possibly read and write. But I wanted to take a look at this one. I did not try to get a review copy because books this popular are generally not sent to Amazon Reviewers like me. And because they get hundreds and thousands of reviews, I generally do not review them because my review will just disappear amongst all the others and is not needed to give some attention to a book I like. But after reading it, I wanted to write a review. Even if only a few people look at it. This book is terrific. The columns in it hold up wonderfully well and remind me of the times in which they were written and, often, of how I thought about the columns when I first read them. This is generally a pleasant experience.But I think there is much more to this retrospective than just nostalgia. Reading the book reminds of us how we saw the world in those days and then consider how we view the world today and all the intervening events that changed our expectations of reality. Krauthammer shows himself a keen analyst of his times, but also a relatively good seer of what is likely to come. Of course, he got to select that columns in the book and my memory is not good enough to find the things he got ridiculously wrong (maybe there weren't any?). So, this reconsideration of the past when it was the present to reconsider the present as it becomes the past is quite valuable as we consider the future we are heading towards.I also found myself falling into the very human trap of loving most the columns that most agree with my previously held views (maybe views that were shaped by reading Krauthammer's columns the first time?). The stronger the agreement the greater the author's obvious genius because he confirms my own brilliance! Right? Anybody else share this foible?The next step is to think about where and why you disagree with the author. The best and most valuable writers are those who help you sharpen your own views and thinking not just confirm what you already think. And I do have some disagreements with Dr. Krauthammer. Because he is so close to the game in Washington D. C., I think he sometimes becomes more enamored with the process than its purpose. He imbues it with great importance and seems much more comfortable with its present mammoth level of intrusion into our lives than I am. Since I live out here in Michigan, Washington is too present and too intrusive for my beliefs and tastes. As I understand our Founding, the Federal Government was never supposed to come to this. Krauthammer seems to be one of those Conservatives who accept the reality that it is this huge and this intrusive and what matters is winning it as it is now rather than working towards turning it back. I agree that my view might well be a fool's errand. But if we never try we can never even begin to raise the notion and the growth won't even slow. Nevertheless, I am grateful to Dr. Krauthammer for being compelling enough to make me consider his views and reconsider my own.The book is a collection of columns grouped by topic into sixteen chapters which are divided into four parts. The first section is entitled "Personal" and consists of columns he wrote about his life, which are not that many, and things which make up his life. He has written obituaries of friends which are revealing because he discusses how and why these people mattered to him. We learn about his passion for baseball, but not just baseball, but the Washington Nationals. Then there is chess, border collies, art, science, math, and current medical topics; all fascinating stuff.The second part is "Political" and consists of his columns on the political issues and events over the years. I waxed nostalgic for the Reagan years and saddened as we trudged our way towards the present morass. The columns on the Terrorist Threat and 9/11 being powerful reminders of what we foolishly doing under Obama.The third part is called "Historical" in which he presents us with fascinating columns on Judaism in the world, the Cold War and the Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton years. Isn't it hard to grasp how long ago the Bill Clinton Presidency seems today? We get important columns on the War on Terror and columns on politics and the future.The final section is a collection of three longer essays grouped under the title "Global". Krauthammer discusses when America was the Unipolar power after the Cold War, American Foreign Policy choices, and the Decline of America under Obama and its being a choice rather than an inevitability.This is a terrific read that I recommend to you and to everyone.Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Saline, MI

Things That Matter is a compilation of pieces that CK wrote for the Washington Post, Time, The Weekly Standard, et al., the largest number coming from the Post. These essays cover three decades of experience, though the voice is even throughout. The subtitle claims that the essays concern passions, pastimes and politics, and so they do, but the book is actually divided into four sections: personal, political, historical, and global. Needless to say, these are not absolute divisions, and the ‘global’ section consists of only three essays, each of which is approximately 4x the length of the average Post piece, which runs approximately two and a half pages. The brevity of the Post pieces makes the book feel as if it is a very fast read.Most readers will know that CK is a noted conservative commentator who was originally trained as a psychiatrist. A diving accident in his first year of medical school left him paralyzed and consigned him to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, he has a specially-engineered vehicle and drives himself wherever he needs to go. He was once a democrat, what many would term (including CK) a ‘Scoop Jackson democrat’; the party, he says, left him.Most know that he is a fervent supporter of the sometimes hapless Washington Nationals. Not all will know that he is a member of a speed chess club. Hence, the personal section of the book is particularly interesting. He writes of his brother, Marcel, of Paul Erdos the peripatetic mathematician, of the center fielder Rick Ankiel (once a successful and then, suddenly, a failed pitcher), of the brain power of border collies and ‘natural’ childbirth. His writings on science are particularly lucid; his knowledge of contemporary science goes well beyond the average layman’s and serves him well both in terms of argument and in terms of rhetoric.While CK is somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist, he is a very reverent agnostic who has little patience for flippancy in an area of such importance. He was raised an orthodox Jew and one of the most interesting and cogent essays concerns the gradual disappearance of the Jewish diaspora, a function of both fertility (1.6 average births, when 2.1 are required to sustain the numbers), intermarriage and secularism.The most important essays may well be those in chapter 16, under the ‘global’ rubric. There he outlines the principal contemporary theories of international relations and offers his own recommendations for a tempered form of democratic globalism, one in which “we are friends to all, but we come ashore only where it really counts.” Ultimately, he sees the lines of division between such views as traceable to one’s position with regard to Hobbes. He opposes Hobbes to Locke; some would oppose Hobbes to Rousseau. Regardless, the pivotal question is whether or not institutional structures can lead us to utopia when human nature is more recalcitrant than one might wish. Plans for a global community managed like a single country must confront the reality of, e.g., a North Korea and the fact that while the Soviet empire was a largely rational adversary, open to the notion of deterrence, many of our current adversaries (as he puts it) long for heaven.The more profoundly political and philosophic essays are superb, but the ‘cultural’ essays on such subjects as ‘the myth of the angry white male’, social security as ‘of course’ a Ponzi scheme, and ‘the church of global warming’ are delicious in their humor and wit. He has a gift for the acerbic but persuasive example. In talking about President Obama’s notion that we ‘didn’t build that’ but were in fact supported by government infrastructure at every turn, he offers two counter examples: “We don’t credit the Swiss postal service with the Special Theory of Relativity because it transmitted Einstein’s manuscript to the Annalen der Physik. Everyone drives the roads, goes to school, uses the mails. So did Steve Jobs. Yet only he created the Mac and the iPad.”While some of the essays will challenge the beliefs of others they are neither confrontational nor nasty. They are all interesting and they are all well-written. This is one of those ‘best sellers’ that deserves its position and its sales. Highly recommended.

Charles Krauthammer is an intelligent man with great perception of human behaviour. His views on life, politicians and humanity in general are conveyed in an interesting and thought stimulating manner. His love of life shines through this book, his views are well thought out and conveyed in a way that is clear and well reasoned. It makes you wish that he was one of your guests having a dinner and few drinks with friends.

Brilliant book. What a guy, what a life! A must read.

An excellent read, most informative.

EXCELLENT READ! There is so much in this book that I will be reading it again to take more in.

I have become an admirer of Mr Krauthammer since viewing him on FOX TV.over the past year or so.He is able to make his particular viewpoint clearly and without ambiguity.