This book exposes the misconceptions; half-truths; and outright lies that have shaped the still dominant but largely mythical version of what happened in the White House during those harrowing two weeks of secret Cuban missile crisis deliberations. A half-century after the event it is surely time to demonstrate; once and for all; that RFK's Thirteen Days and the personal memoirs of other ExComm members cannot be taken seriously as historically accurate accounts of the ExComm meetings.
#2149592 in Books Stanford University Press 1997-12-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.10 x 6.00l; 1.48 #File Name: 0804729123340 pages
Review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Substantial work with new insights; but a flawed comparisonBy John B. CarpenterPeterson's work was key for changing my mind about the "half-way covenant" (the "compromise" solution the Puritans decided on around 1662 about what to do with children of other-wise moral and orthodox church attendees who had not experienced grace.) Before I read Peterson; I thought the half-way covenant was a sign of decline; an example of starting down the slippery slope of losing Puritan convictions. Peterson convinced me; though; that it was rather an expression of authentically evangelical concern for the world that made Puritanism so potent.Peterson uses two churches as case studies: Boston's third church (I believe) and Edward Taylor's Westfield church. The Boston church embraced the half-way covenant; Taylor did not. Peterson then contrasts these two churches to demonstrate that Taylor's sleepy Westfield church had little impulse to reach the outside world while the Boston church was showed a genuine sense of responsibility for the spiritual welfare of its society. Peterson believe that this shows that the half-way covenant was an expression of that evangelical sense of social responsibility. He convinced me. However; his comparison has its weaknesses: the Boston church was; obviously; urban and led by active; cosmopolitan members; Westfield was rural and Taylor was an introverted poet (so introverted he never published his works as long as he lived!). It maybe these factors; rather than the adoption (or not) of the half-way covenant which was decisive. Or; perhaps the adoption (or not) of the half-way covenant was merely a symptom of these other factors. Nevertheless; Peterson made some substantial contributions from which I profited greatly.
