Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports
In a somewhat different take on politics, Barry (The Ambition  and the Power) interweaves the rise and fall of two powerful  House leaders with true stories from the sports world. The  contrast allows Barry, a former college football coach,  journalist, and editor, to illustrate the similarities and  differences between these two arenas, where "powerful" people  compete and where winning and losing have tangible consequences.  The narrative revolves around the rise of Jim Wright, Democrat  from Texas, to the speakership of the House and the efforts of  Newt Gingrich, Republican from Georgia, to destroy him  politically and ultimately replace him as speaker only to be  himself removed in ignominy a few years later. Barry argues that  these events mark the transition of U.S. politics from an era of  civil competition to one of inhospitable competition in which  personal attacks replace intelligent discourse, with the mass  media being both manipulator and manipulated in the struggle.  While one can find instances of unusually harsh incivility in  American politics in many earlier periods, this well-written  book makes good points and is worthy of a wide audience. Its  lessons, though not original, are ennobling. Thomas J. Baldino,  Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.