From Dolly Parton (apologizing for claiming that Jews control Hollywood) to David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz (apologizing for killing people), this densely packed grab bag — subtitled “25 years of public apologies and the appalling behavior that inspired them” presents transcripts of mea-culpas from famous figures in many fields alongside capsule reminders of what they did wrong. Having affairs, demanding assassinations, calling disabled folks “cripples” — it’s the sort of collection that too many might all too easily dismiss as a cobbled-together birthday-gift book. But it’s not. Actually it’s a valuable history lesson, reassuring in its lest-we-forgetness, riveting in its revelations. Oh, the humanity. Oh, the blunders. Oh, the lame pleading and doubletalk. Its inclusion of apologizers on both sides of the political spectrum — Hillary Clinton and John Ashcroft, Jerry Falwell and Jesse Jackson, and so on — might have been a clever marketing decision but is also a kind of marvel amid the partisan ballistics that comprise today’s publishing world. For facts alone, this book could be handy for anyone studying American history. Or studying rhetoric. Or having a birthday.
Grade: A-