Summary 1

Bob Herbert begins his writing, A Fire in the Basement, with an effort to unify his readers and himself against a common enemy, the government. Herbert begins at a grassroots level by describing a scene from an interrogation room. He then continues with a list of other atrocities, caused by government officials. After a few stories, he stops to compare modern day America with America from the 1950's and the 60's, where he claims that America was better back then, because individuals tried to right the wrongs in our country. Herbert uses the remaining stories to emphasize that point.
After milking as much sympathy from his readers as he can, Herbert begins to describe his own philosophy relating to the decline of our country. He addresses many of our countries' current controversies; such as the good ole American ideals, and the politicians who claim to believe in them, while working for their own agendas. He assaults the morality of the war in Iraq and the “abuse” of war prisoners. He also addresses the economic problems of the day, starting with divisions among the classes and ending with the underpaid and the jobless. During these discussions, he quotes a few of the great leaders in our country's past, and compares their actions with those of the politicians in our era.
These brief quotes lead into the final portion of his writing, which is about leadership. He begins with Harry Truman and his attempts as president to rebuild our country. Herbert wishes for such leadership today, to wake up American citizens to the wrongs all around them. He closes with an analogy of a building, symbolizing America, whose basement is on fire. He points out that "we're behaving as if we cannot even smell the smoke." However there is more to it than that. We not only kmow that there is a problem, we know who started it. We can't wait for the fire-starters, who claim to be firemen, to put out the fire. We will lose too much. So, why not stop it ourselves?