Having the Last Word

About the Book

SHORT SUMMARY FOR BOOK COVER "In writing a journal, so to speak, of my own life, I determined from the beginning to make it a history of my own time: not only to tell (or remind) the reader what happened from year to year, but what I thought about it then and sometimes, on reflection, now." This work is an unusual combination of recollecting personal experiences and contemporary public events—Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the astonishing election of Harry Truman in 1948, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the trauma of Vietnam, Nixon's resignation, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and hundreds of other significant but less dramatic events. Intertwined is the tale of the author's life, full of telling detail and humor. He describes the May Day Parades in the heyday of the "Popular Front" in the 1930s; life in a Quaker school as war was coming; basic training in Texas in a mostly Jewish rifle company; romance at the Harvard Crimson at 3:00 a.m.; writing a constitution for a World Government; marriage and children; Bard College staving off bankruptcy; and Williams College changing over time from a rich boys' country club to a stellar cosmopolitan college. Beneath events and the vast changes in life in the Twentieth Century, the author tries to discern the trends (migration from farm to town), science and the remarkable new technologies (radio, movies, TV, airplanes, computers, medical miracles, and the ubiquitous automobile), the marvelous success stories (from Jim Crow to racial equality), and the failures (the dumbing down of education and learning). Has there been Progress or just Change? That is the ultimate question the author asks and speculates on the answer. * Shane E. Riorden was born in Baltimore in 1924 but his home in childhood and youth was New York. He graduated form the George School in Pennsylvania in 1942 and entered Harvard. After three years' leave for military service (Texas and combat infantry duty in Europe), he returned to finish at Harvard and attend Columbia Law School. His career was in college financial administration principally at Williams College, where he worked for 26 years, retiring in 1986. He and his wife Virginia now live in Asheville, North Carolina.

About the Author

Shane E. Riorden was born in Baltimore in 1924 but his home in childhood and youth was New York. He graduated from the George School in Pennsylvania in 1942 and entered Harvard. After three years' leave for military service (Texas and combat infantry duty in Europe), he returned to finish at Harvard and attend Columbia Law School. His career was in college financial administration principally at Williams College, where he worked for 26 years, retiring in 1986. He and his wife Virginia now live in Asheville, North Carolina.