Harvey Meyerson
Raised in Hawaii, Harvey Meyerson has pursued successive careers as a journalist in the United States and overseas, an academic (he holds a doctorate in history), congressional staffer, running an international program for NASA, and a senior position with the Library of Congres in Washington, DC. His five books range from a prizewinning account of his experiences covering the Vietnam war to a scholarly history of the Army and the American West. He and his wife reside in Honolulu.
Jefferson, the Army, and the Internet: How to Strengthen National Security, the Economy, and Grassroots Communities, blends history and current affairs. Meyerson recounts a largely overlooked aspect of the U.S. Army’s history: Its role as a domestic nation-building instrument - from building frontier roads and telegraph lines to running Franklin Roosevelt’s fabled Civilian Conservation Corps. He concludes with a timely proposal for a “Jeffersonian CCC” to revitalize rural and small-town America. Kirkus Reviews calls it “a timely, cogent work that should be required reading for policymakers.”
Reviews
Harvey Meyerson’s (Nature’s Army, 2001, etc.) persuasive narrative spans America’s founding to the present as he pitches a domestic nation-building program, modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. …The author makes the case that today’s hollowed-out heartland economy increases America’s vulnerability to terrorism and natural disasters, and he catalogs why the Army is uniquely qualified to lead a theoretical redevelopment and training program that he calls the American Resilience Corps. ….Meyerson, with his experience as a wartime journalist, congressional staffer, policy analyst, and independent scholar, blends smooth prose, detailed research, and a command of U.S. military history; he also shows a firm grasp of potential policymaking pitfalls. His supporting evidence is clear and compelling, and his proposal is a pleasure to read. …This is a substantive program, however, that’s worthy of serious national debate. –Kirkus, starred review
“Meyerson convincingly demonstrates how a more decentralized economy would improve economic competitiveness and enhance national security and he proposes a civilian-military effort toward achieving that goal that is at once imaginative and pragmatic.”— Richard Halloran, former military correspondent, The New York Times
“Since the war in Vietnam, American liberals have been reflexively suspicious of the military and American conservatives reflexively supportive. In this important new history, Meyerson explodes that simplistic binary. This is one of those books that has the potential to change the national conversation and change the nation in the process.”—Robert Perkinson, Chair, Dept. of American Studies, University of Hawaii
“Meyerson reflects on myriad domestic vulnerabilities and offers solutions consistent with our history and culture. A fascinating view of the Army’s forgotten history and a profound reflection on the current nexus of the nation and its Army.”—General David A. Bramlett, U.S. Army (retired)
Links
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/harvey-meyerson/jefferson-army-and-internet/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4767637-nature-s
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/harvey-meyerson/vinh-lon
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7006-1121
