In "Minuteman/Activist: To Promote the General Welfare," 85 year-old Bill McCullough writes affectionately but honestly about growing up in the South Bronx as a member of New York's small but vibrant Irish Protestant community. The son of immigrants from County Down, McCullough faced adversity, from a youth of juvenile delinquency to a later resignation from the NYPD because he refused a bribe from a superior officer. Yet the bulk of McCoullough's book explores how he has spent the better part of his life seeking to make positive contributions to his country. McCullough's life has been nothing short of fascinating. He likes to point out that his background is similar to Secretary of State Colin Powell's. Like the Bronx-born man at the forefront of America's new war, McCullough has an impressive military background, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel. He would go on to work as a cop in downtown Manhattan for many years, and "Minuteman/Activist" offers a particularly vivid portrait of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Overall, Bill McCullough's globetrotting book (though a bit too long) is a unique history of a remarkable 20th Century Irish-American.

(507 pages / Rutledge Books / $24.95)