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Title: Let's keep to writing, not politics.
Review: Zinsser was a professor at Yale during the sixties and sadly it shows. Throughout this book he constantly illustrates writing points he is trying to make by using political anecdotes, all of which presume the reader shares his liberal bias.In a section on eloquence he writes, "The cadences of Jefferson, Lincoln, Curchill, Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson came rolling down to me. (The cadences of Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan did not.)" OK. I'll spot him Ike and Nixon. But Reagan? He earned the title "The Great Communicator" and was teamed with a truly eloquent and gifted speechwriter, Peggy Noonan.In the following paragraph he cites Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson as two who have restored his faith in the nobility of language as a means of addressing the populace. Cuomo maybe, but Jackson?This book is dated and tiresome. Save your money and time and instead read something truly useful such as "When Words Collide".
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