Books

• 
• 9/27/2020
  

  Was Charles Lindbergh a Man Who Got Away?

  by Lise Pearlman

  A new book reexamines the possible role of Charles Lindbergh himself in the 1932 kidnapping of his son, once the "crime of the century."  

• 
• 9/27/2020
  

  The Troubling History of a Black Man's Heart

  by Chip Jones

  What Virginia doctors saw as a triumphant achievement was a devastating indictment of medical racism and institutional disregard for the dignity of a Black man and his family.

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  Rick Perlstein’s Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980

  by James Thornton Harris

  Rick Perlstein's latest volume in his study of the rise of the conservative movement focuses on the coming of Reaganism, but sheds light on how we got Trump.

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  “We Are Ourselves”: Review of For Workers’ Power: The Selected Writings of Maurice Brinton

  by Eric Laursen

  Maurice Brinton--the pseudonym of a British neurologist--authored an influential series of works of radical political thought that urged the British left to move away from rigid party structures and doctrinal disputes toward social movements. 

• 
• 9/13/2020
  

  Native Actors Outside the Frame

  by Liza Black

  Liza Black's new book traces the lives of prominent and anonymous Native actors, examinng the way that Hollywood films exploited their labor and images while spinning narratives that justified the historical conquest of Native lands.

• 
• 9/13/2020
  

  Richard Haass on the Need for Historically Informed Policy in a Changing World

  by David O'Connor

  "A democracy requires that its citizens be informed, and it was evident far too many citizens in the United States and other countries could not be described as globally literate."

• 
• 9/6/2020
  

  A Coup of "Clerqs"?: Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" Reviewed

  by David O'Connor

  Anne Applebaum's new book looks with concern at the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the loyal party functionaries who enable its march. 

• 
• 8/30/2020
  

  The Proud City: Patrick Abercrombie's Unfulfilled Plan for Rebuilding London

  by Simon Jenkins

  In 1942, the British government endorsed a plan that turned the Blitz into an opportunity for massive centrally-planned rebuilding of London. This was a break from the previous anarchic pattern of development, and, for better or worse, today's eclectic metropolis owes its form to the failure of the plan. 

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  Sorting Myth and History in Jackie Kennedy's Marriage to Aristotle Onassis

  by Gill Paul

  Novelist Gill Paul argues that Jackie Kennedy's current status as an icon of female empowerment conflicts with the reality of her life as a woman who grew up and was educated in a slowly changing society.

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  The Other Western Front

  by Aimee Liu

  Historical novelist Aimee Liu uncovered the history of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the western front of the Pacific theater in World War II, in the course of plotting her new novel "Glorious Boy."

• 
• 8/9/2020
  

  Reflections from "That Further Shore": A Constitutional Lawyer's Immigrant Family History

  by John Feerick

  John Feerick's work in constitutional law helped create the 25th Amendment, and an unadopted amendment to abolish the Electoral College. His recent family history and memoir shows how his immigrant parents laid a foundation for this success. 

• 
• 7/26/2020
  

  Who Opened the Door to Trumpism? David Frum's "Trumpocalypse" Reviewed

  by David O'Connor

  Through his long analysis of Trump’s follies, Frum never develops his contention that twenty-first-century conservatism helped open the door for Trump. Without a full accounting, his political mea culpa is hollow and fails to offer guidance on how to avoid mistakes in the future.

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  How Britain and Churchill Repelled the Nazi War Machine (1940-1941)

  by Jeff Roquen

  In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson has not only produced an engaging and timely portrait of the perilous period of when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany but has also illuminated how tragedy and loss can be turned into a triumph and justice through steadfast determination and solidarity of purpose.  

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  New Novel "The Collaborator" Explores the Moral Ambiguities of a Holocaust Rescuer

  by Diane Armstrong

  Do we have the right to judge the actions of people in life and death situations? Are we honour-bound to keep promises, no matter to whom they were made, and in what situations? Can a man be a hero and a collaborator?

• 
• 6/28/2020
  

  Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalism and the Confederate States of America

  by Ann Tucker

  White southerners looked to contemporary European nationalist movements and compared the South to aspiring nations abroad. This allowed them to conceive of the South as a potential nation, distinct from the North and separate from the United States, and to justify secession and the creation of the Confederacy.

• 
• 6/28/2020
  

  Big Alex McKenzie and the Last Great Fraud of the Gilded Age

  by Paul Starobin

  Alexander McKenzie’s plot to corner Alaska’s gold proved to be the last great swindle of the original gilded age, as this seamy chapter in our national life gave way to what become known as the Progressive Era.

• 
• 6/14/2020
  

  The SS Officer's Armchair

  by Daniel Lee

  The discovery of a trove of documents in an old armchair led the author on a five-year search for information about a previously anonymous Nazi, whose history intersected with the author's family in surprising ways.

• 
• 6/7/2020
  

  Excerpt: Routine Dehumanization Under Jim Crow Policing

  by Kevin Shird

  Police in Jim Crow Alabama offered two kinds of outreach to schools: an "Officer Friendly" visit to white children, and traumatizing and intimidating threats of incarceration to black children.

• 
• 6/7/2020
  

  "I Imagine Everything Happened on Beale Street": Remembering Memphis in "Brother Robert"

  by Annye C. Anderson and Preston Lauterbach

  In an excerpt from the new book Brother Robert, Annye Anderson, sister of blues legend Robert Johnson, describes time spent with Johnson in Memphis, and the trends in music, movies, and black politics that shaped Johnson's personality as well as his innovative music.

• 
• 5/31/2020
  

  The Decline and Fall of Socialist Zionism (Review)

  by Ralph Seliger

  A new book examines the diminished influence of left and labor parties in Israeli politics.