Lincoln Center Theater Review
The Almighty Clare Boothe Luce
by Pamela Hamilton
The almighty Clare Boothe Luce was crowned “Woman of the Century,” and she had earned it. She was one of the most powerful women of her time: the reigning queen of café society, a brilliant playwright, famous magazine editor, war correspondent, diplomat, and presidential adviser. In the course of her extraordinary life, she captured the hearts of the American public with her beauty, brains, and stunning success. “If God had wanted us to think with our wombs, why did he give us a brain?” she said, undoubtedly in a purr for effect. Her angelic face and soft demeanor belied her steely force. On her desk at Vanity Fair was a sign that read: “Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.” And so she did.
The Hill
Climate Change Solutions Do Exist
by Kermit Roosevelt and Pamela Hamilton
As climate change transforms the globe, even the most remote regions feel the effects. The oceans are warming and growing more acidic, destroying marine life and generating devastating storms. The mountains are losing their glaciers, threatening water supplies and triggering wildfires. Here in America, we are facing the same thing…
A True American Story of Heroism and Adversity
Constitutional scholar Kermit Roosevelt launches wartime policies into the spotlight with his latest book Allegiance
by Pamela Hamilton
When Kermit Roosevelt, a constitutional law scholar, considered topics for a new book to follow his award-winning novel In the Shadow of the Law, he knew just two things: he would write about the Supreme Court, having deep knowledge of its inner workings from his clerkship with Justice David Souter, and he would recapture a time in American history that most reflects our nation today. What Roosevelt didn’t expect to find were the uncanny and troubling parallels to wartime Washington after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The threat of terrorism spread across the country. Those of a certain ethnicity were seen as suspicious. The government extended federal power in the name of national security. We know from recent events at Guantanamo Bay and cases of racial prejudice where this can lead, yet we seem to have forgotten just how far we can go.
But Roosevelt remembers. While researching his book he found himself at the center of an incredible mystery, one with government corruption and personal greed at every turn. He remembers because he immersed himself in the stories of innocent people, persecuted unjustly, cast off as outsiders by their own neighbors and friends. He remembers because he was inspired by the heroism of those who gave up their freedom for others—outraged by those who took it away.
He remembers because it changed America. And it changed him too.