How the Movies Spawned ‘The First Assassin’

You’ve heard it said before: “The book is better than the movie.” But the movies helped me write my new book, The First Assassin.

The First Assassin is a historical thriller set primarily in Washington, D.C., at the start of the Civil War. Bestselling author Vince Flynn blurbs it on the front cover: “An excellent book–it’s like The Day of the Jackal set in 1861 Washington.”

The Day of the Jackal is a twofer: Both the book (by Frederick Forsyth) and the movie (the 1973 version) are excellent. But the book is still better. It’s super excellent.

Anyway, I started working on The First Assassin in 1996–more than 13 years ago. Yeah, that’s a long time. It was the project I kept setting aside when something more pressing came along, such as the birth of a child or a writing deadline that came with a guaranteed paycheck. (more…)

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Tags: Abraham L, abraham lincoln, Charles Pomeroy Stone, Civil War, Col. Charles Rook
Posted Nov 18th 2009 at 1:18 pm in Books and Literature, Featured Story, Film | 26392616 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmiller/2009/11/18/how-the-movies-spawned-the-first-assassin/How+the+Movies+Spawned+%27The+First+Assassin%272009-11-18+21%3A18%3A29John+J.+Miller

July 4, 2009…What Are We Celebrating Today, Exactly?

I’m one of the last liberal believers in American Exceptionalism, and as I look around the political and media landscapes around me, I’m damn lonely. Not just liberals, but conservatives – like Andrew Bacevitch – seem to be shedding any idea that America is more than just another country with bigger shopping malls than most.

I don’t agree, and I think it matters that I be right and they be wrong.

It matters because in a world where the power of images and ideas is becoming stronger every day – where people defend themselves against men with guns by using cellphone cameras – we seem to be fresh out of ideas.

There’s a physical war going on out in the world with us on one side – and on the other a group allied in large part by their rejection of our beliefs as much as their rejection of our power. They are fighting us with bullets and bombs – and with YouTube videos, discussion forums, and impassioned manifestos. They believe, alright. If you ask them, they will clearly tell you that they do and tell you in what. (more…)

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Tags: 4th of July, abraham lincoln, American Exceptionalism, Andrew Bacevitch, Beyond Survival
Posted Jul 4th 2009 at 5:27 pm in Politics | 17680238 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mdanziger/2009/07/04/july-4-2009what-are-we-celebrating-today-exactly/July+4%2C+2009...What+Are+We+Celebrating+Today%2C+Exactly%3F2009-07-05+00%3A27%3A16Marc+Danziger

There Is One Lincoln

The mystery of Abraham Lincoln was in his ability to unite opposing fractions of society while maintaining a divisive position. This ability to transcend opposites made him a subject of claim from diametrically opposed entities and worldviews.

Lincoln became an inspiration for Republicans and Democrats, evangelical conservatives and liberal-progressives alike. Even the ever dull Communists and ever angry radical socialists scraped a spark of inspiration from the mounting figure of Lincoln. But after every group had shaped its own statue of Lincoln according to its own manual, we’ve lost the real Lincoln. Lincoln has been turned into a concept and every concept began to be manipulated to fit ideologies and socio-political insecurities. And, as in the case of everything under the sun, the most insecure and the most unrelated ideologies manipulated Lincoln the most and claimed him the strongest.

In reality, there was and there is only one Lincoln. Many politicians have compared and continue comparing themselves to Lincoln without understanding that what transformed that poor tall Midwestern fellow into Abraham Lincoln was not his external attributes or his immediate surrounding. (more…)

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Tags: abraham lincoln, Lincoln's Birthday, The Railsplitter, The Real Lincoln
Posted Feb 12th 2009 at 7:45 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 4849442 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ykochar/2009/02/12/in-reality-there-is-only-one-lincoln/There+Is+One+Lincoln2009-02-12+15%3A45%3A58Yervand+Kochar

Lincoln. King. Obama?

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Tags: abortion, abraham lincoln, Barack Obama, civil rights act, conservative
Posted Jan 20th 2009 at 3:35 pm in Video | 2535762 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/arachel/2009/01/20/lincoln-king-obama/Lincoln.+King.+Obama%3F2009-01-20+23%3A35%3A08Alfonzo+Rachel