Protecting Moscow from the Soviets

National Writers Press, September 2008

Excerpt: “As if recorded on a tape deck surgically implanted in my brain, my father’s fierce commands played on for years, drowning out other voices, blocking out other values and slowly turning a specific fear of father into a general fear of failure and then into a relentless perfectionism in which enough was never enough and the most was not enough either.”

Praise: “Whatever led Peter Baird to publish and now republish his extremely personal essays, we should be grateful that he did. His work is especially valuable to those of us who practice law. … Protecting Moscow paints an unforgettable, Goya-esque picture of the human consequences of an unbalanced pursuit of success, and inspiration for all who struggle to overcome destructive patterns of behavior they learned in order to survive difficult childhoods. Whether motivated by courage, compassion or compulsion, Peter Baird’s willingness to display the wild wallpaper of his heart is a service to all who read his book.”
—Tom Galbraith (BA ’66), formerly of Meyer Hendricks, PLLC