Despite his résumé as an actor (Cheers
, Superman
, The
Empire Strikes Back
), Ratzenberger sees himself as a blue-collar everyman and identifies more closely with the factory workers he interviews on his Travel Channel cable TV show, John Ratzenberger's Made in America
than he does with the "Hollywood elite." Like his show, Ratzenberger's book celebrates manufacturing in America—and then digresses into a stimulating if contradictory mishmash of political ideas. Nostalgic and perhaps more than a little naïve, Ratzenberger wants to return America to its golden age: "We need to get back to being the industrial giant." At times, his politics resemble those of Michael Moore circa Roger & Me
, as in his critique of corporations for abandoning loyal employees by moving operations overseas. But it's the "Hollywood powers that be" and "intellectual elites" who bear the brunt of Ratzenberger's anger. President Bush, meanwhile, gets his compliments for a lack of "contempt for the average American's intelligence" and for his actions in Iraq. Compelling for his unpredictability, this patriotic, independent-minded author will alternately frustrate and fascinate both progressives and conservatives. (Oct. 11)
