Locked in the Cabinet

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, witty, Great Read
Review: A completely delightful read. This book is MUCH funnier than I had anticipated. Most importantly, Reich pokes fun at himself as much as he does the other cast of characters. Anyone who wonders what happened to all of Clinton's campaign promises of increased job training, etc, will find their answers in this book.

Rating:
Summary: A very interesting read!
Review: A surprisingly candid account of his four years in the Clinton Cabinet, Robert Reich turns out an interesting, witty, and insightful account of the first four years of the Clinton Presidency -- as experienced through his eyes. The reader is genuinely compelled to feel Reich's puzzlement as the newly elected Administration does an about turn on many of the working mans' issues it campaigned on -- with Reich's help -- and turns to an official obsession with the bond market and a balanced federal budget. Reich is an highly intelligent and intuitive policymaker. Yet, sadly, the book is also a tale of his own mushrooming naivete at the way Washington works. Indeed, in some respects, the book is a story of entering Washington unskilled in the vagaries of politics...and never getting any better, despite four years in the Clinton Cabinet. While it is easy for the reader to identify with Reich's perplexity at every turn of Washington politics, the book is also a tale of the squandering of four good years. One walks away from this read wishing that Reich had continued to pump out his policy tomes from his safe perch in Cambridge academia. We suspect that he would have had much more of an impact than he had in all four years "locked," as he says, in the Cabinet.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmmmm
Review: Although Reich is a borderline socialist, and his ideas are nothing but liberal babble, it's a well-written and entertaining book to read.

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Summary: Robert Reich is a Proven Liar
Review: Amusing? Perhaps. But is it fact or fiction? I suggest that all of you read Jonathan Rauch's article on this book in the web magazine Slate. He proves that Reich invented episodes and situations out of whole cloth, attributing phony quotes to real people. Reich comes across as a frustrated Harvard socialist with an enormous persecution complex. Don't take my word for it, read Rauch's article!

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Summary: Like president, like labor secretary
Review: An interesting book if you had the opportunity to identify the fabrications in advance (from other book reviews). Should have had seperate chapters noted as 'fiction' or 'my interpretation.'

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Average Memoir
Review: As someone in political science, I found Reich's book an endlessly fascinating read, for several reasons:

1) His wit and humor, which he was not afraid to aim at himself.

2) Seeing national policymaking from a Cabinet Secretarial perspective, which we almost never see in books. You literally see how and why the Clinton Administration struggled with its attempts to follow through on some of its significant policy reform promises of 1992. You also see through Reich's eyes the intense competition for just mere access to a President's ear, particularly between White House staffers and Cabinet Secretaries. Finally, he states clearly one main obstacle he and other Cabinet secretaries face in policymaking and implementing: the cross-pressuredness from organized labor and free-trade advocates and how they "keep talking past each other" without seeing the partial truth in each other's positions.

3) How Reich raises some serious macroeconomic policy questions regarding economic globalization, free trade, income equality, job security, and how they possibly relate to each other and to other non-economic issues facing the nation and the world. One criticism I do have with Reich's work is that he perhaps goes overboard in citing over and over again his arguments from "The Work of Nations" and other previous books.

Note: Reich also has admitted to exaggerating about experiences with conservatives (i.e. at the National Association of Manufacturers' meeting and before one House committee) where he wasn't as "roasted" by them as he claimed to be in the hardcover version. However, we are reminded that this is a book about his own personal experiences as Secretary of Labor, so naturally we'll be seeing everything through his eyes and his political & ideological points of view.

In short, this book works on many levels, especially in the sharper focus and perspective it puts upon the seemingly maddening and confusing dynamics of 1990s politics.

Rating:
Summary: very funny analysis of politics
Review: First of all: do read the American edition of Reich's wonderful account of his Washington years. I have read the German and French translation which are both disappointing. If you know a little about American politics, if you enjoy a fund read, if you want to know why Clinton has turned out to be a failure in so many ways (remember health care?), if you want to gain an in-depth knowledge how Washington really works, if you want to meet a person with insight, care and a clear perspective on what modern liberal (yes, he dares to say the L-word) politics could (and should)be able to achieve: then do read this marvellous book.

Rating:
Summary: What a GREAT book!
Review: I am a college student who was lucky enough to read this book for a political science class. Bob Reich is clearly the most brilliant and funny man of our time. If you haven't read this book, you're missing out.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I am a student of Robert Reich's at Brandeis Univeristy and have found him to be one of the most honest, kind, and insightful people I've met. Locked in the Cabinet is a well-crafted, honest, and humorous book by a brilliant man.

I happen to hold Reich's views, but even students here at Brandeis who completely disagree with him still read his books and take his courses because they respect the intelligence behind his writing and teaching style, the candidness with which he sets his ideas forth, and the respect he shows for those who disagree with his ideas. (He's also very funny, frank, and charming--attributes which come accross in this and all of his works.)

Reich talks about the world as it is, and isn't afraid to say how he thinks it should be.

Rating:
Summary: Thumbs up
Review: I am not someone who dashes to the government/politics aisle of the bookstore first. My last course in the workings of the government was high school civics (a C as I recall). This book was entertaining enough to keep me reading and learning some of the insights gained by Reich in his tenure as Sec. of Labor. It is his take on the Dem. and Rep. agendas, but it is more a description of the Presidents friend and his experiences through the first Clinton administration. The players are shown to be very human, but dedicated and hard working. I didn't really care (or expect) that quotes might not be exact. Parts of it are very funny, and all of it was thought provoking. The growing gap between the haves and have nots and the need for good jobs in this country are important topics that this book describes in a very understandable manner. A strong thumbs up.