Books in Brief Capsule reviews of recently released books

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

By Christopher Hitchens

Twelve, $30

Essayist Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer in the summer of 2010 (the prognosis for esophageal cancer being rather dim in medical circles) and may be the last set of essays or book of any sort that will be published during the author's lifetime.

That bleak diagnosis has not slowed his output in the least and one imagines that Hitchens is furiously working on work to be published after his demise. He published an autobiography, "Hitch 22: A Memoir," in the spring of last year and was diagnosed with cancer just as he was about to embark on a book tour. Those are the medical facts regarding the author. As to his latest collection of essays, they are uniformly brilliant, expertly argued, often infuriating, and unfailingly entertaining, much like Hitchens himself.

Hitchens was born and lived in England for about half of his life. He emigrated to the U.S. 30 years ago, living mostly in Washington since then, and became a naturalized citizen of this country in 2007 on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. He began his political and journalistic life in the UK as a very identifiable left-leaning socialist, noted for his numerous civil protest arrests while earning a degree at Oxford, but in recent years he has fervently argued for the justness and necessity of the wars being fought in the Middle East by his adopted homeland. He appears to have come full circle in his support for American intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he argues this often-shifting position from a realpolitik stance that is at times hard to refute even by the most hardened pacifist. He still regards the Vietnam War as immoral and indefensible, and regularly calls for former secretary of State Henry Kissinger to be tried as a war criminal in the Hague.

His decades-long transformation from firebrand lefty to a supporter of America's "war on terrorism" has been gradual and unapologetic. His stance on this war has not rendered him a supporter of all things neocon, however. For one thing Hitchens is most certainly an atheist of the most vehement sort, a view that distances him from politicians and pundits who invoke God and the Holy Scriptures to justify America's presence in the Middle East. His 2007 atheist screed, "God Is Not Great," was not the most subtle of arguments against the irrationality of religious belief, but it was a bestseller that gave atheism a national presence.

Hitchens is also an unrepentant daily drinker and smoker, cheerily referring to himself as an alcoholic of longstanding. Nor has he expressed any regret for this daily practice now that he is facing a death that is often associated with heavy drinking and cigarette smoking.

There are plenty of essays here about politics, but the most enjoyable pieces may be his appreciations and reviews of literary figures, both living and dead. He has written often of his friendship with British novelist Martin Amis, and also of his fondness for his late father, Kingsley Amis, who succumbed to what was most likely alcohol dementia in the 1990s. One might make the argument that Martin is Hitchens' literary brother and Kingsley his literary father. The three share a tone and style of writing that are unmistakably British. What Amis father and son did and do with fiction, Hitchens does with polemic in nonfiction essays. And the result makes for eminently pleasurable reading no matter if you agree with Hitchens and some of the unpopular positions he argues. He is often termed one of the last surviving public intellectuals, a commodity that seems to be disappearing in this country very rapidly. His imminent passing will be an inestimable loss to that tradition.

-- Ross Johnson is a Memphis musician and retired academic librarian.

Hollywood Left and Right

By Steven J. Ross

Oxford University Press, $29.95

Republicans take heart: Hollywood is not as liberal as you think. Steven J. Ross convincingly shows in "Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics" that since its early days, the movie industry has been as quietly conservative as publicly liberal. After all, where did Ronald Reagan come from?

Reagan may be the most successful actor-turned-politician, but Ross makes the case that his transition owes much to George Murphy and the conservative legacy built by Louis B. Mayer at MGM. Mayer was an up-from-nothing immigrant who became a titan ruling Hollywood's grandest studio back when the studio system was Hollywood. He also turned his ambitions to politics: He was chairman of the California Republican Party, and his friendship with Herbert Hoover led him to be the first Hollywood executive to spend a night in the White House.

He had no compunctions about combining work and politics: He brought on executive secretary Ida Koverman, who served as a political tutor and liaison, and he required MGM staff to contribute to the causes he chose. His efforts nurtured the thinking and political career of Murphy, who became head of the Screen Actors Guild and U.S. senator and in turn served as mentor to Reagan, who went from heading SAG to governor of California and president.

Ross combines biographical sketches with detailed political history of 10 Hollywood figures, five left and five right, to show that the dream factory has been equally devoted to politics on both sides of the aisle. He moves chronologically, beginning with Charlie Chaplin (left) and following with Mayer (right), Edward G. Robinson (left), Murphy (right) and Reagan (left to right), Harry Belafonte (left), Jane Fonda (left), Charlton Heston (left to right), Warren Beatty (left) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (right).

"They were leaders, not just followers. They did not simply bask in their fame and wealth; they worked as hard at their politics as they did at their screen careers," Ross writes. "They fit the Founding Fathers' model of citizen-statesmen in that they had a vision of the world they wanted to see and they were willing to work to usher in that change. And for that, they deserve our respect." It may be a challenge to get those who respect Reagan to do the same for Jane Fonda and vice versa but Ross lays out their work and lives fairly.

If there is a theme, it is that activist leftists in Hollywood have often leveraged their professional positions to create artworks that support their ideology: Belafonte, Fonda and Beatty all became producers as well as stars. Often this worked to their financial benefit, but not always. Those on the right -- Murphy, Reagan, Heston and Schwarzenegger -- tended to use the lessons they'd learned from appearing on screen and having a public Hollywood life to build a second act in politics. Ross is excellent at providing details, but he never quite figures out what they mean; he never provides the big picture.

-- Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

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