Books in Brief

America’s 30 Years War: Who Is Winning? by Balint Vazsonyi (Regnery, 284pp., $24.95)

MASTER Pianist Balint Vazsonyi writes about politics as if he were playing a concerto. He introduces America’s 30 Tears War with vignettes of his life as a musical prodigy in Communist Hungary and as a grateful refugee in Sixties America. These experiences grow into the themes of his book, which traces Western political thought from King Arthur’s Round Table through the Americans with Disabilities Act, with a few interludes from Lenin and the French Revolution. Vazsonyi wonders if America is becoming the totalitarian state he left behind. It is sheer bravura, and the flag-burning cover is the only sour note in this powerful performance. —James Panero

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America’s 30 Years War: Who Is Winning? by Balint Vazsonyi (Regnery, 284pp., $24.95)

MASTER Pianist Balint Vazsonyi writes about politics as if he were playing a concerto. He introduces America’s 30 Tears War with vignettes of his life as a musical prodigy in Communist Hungary and as a grateful refugee in Sixties America. These experiences grow into the themes of his book, which traces Western political thought from King Arthur’s Round Table through the Americans with Disabilities Act, with a few interludes from Lenin and the French Revolution. Vazsonyi wonders if America is becoming the totalitarian state he left behind. It is sheer bravura, and the flag-burning cover is the only sour note in this powerful performance. —James Panero