Modern History Notes
Adam Goodheart,"How Slavery Really Ended in America," NYTM, 1 April, argues that it ended at Hampton Roads, where it began.
Henry A. Kissinger,"Otto von Bismarck, Master Statesman," NYT, 31 March, reviews Jonathan Steinberg's Bismarck: A Life."Pretty much the perfect match of subject and reviewer. So lapidary that every sentence gleams. Among them: ‘Cynicism by itself produces a shallow opportunism. Any serious policy requires a fixed point from which to alter the world.'"
Andrew Roberts,"Among the Hagiographers," WSJ, 26 March, reviews Joseph Lelyveld's Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi And His Struggle With India.
Klaus Wiegrefe,"On the Trail of Holocaust Organizer Adolf Eichmann," Der Spiegel, 31 March, and"A Nazi War Criminal's Life in Argentina," DS, 1 April, are the first two installments in Der Spiegel's series on the Holocaust. It draws on documents only recently made public.
Richard Toye,"Helping Refugees After World War II," NYT, 1 April, reviews Ben Shephard's The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War.
Three days after the death of Manning Marable, the crowning achievement of his career, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention is published. David Garrow for the the Wilson Quarterly and Krissah Thompson for the Washington Post review the book.
John C. Chalberg reviews Thomas L. Jeffers's Norman Podhoretz: A Biography for Books & Culture, March.
David Schiff,"The Three Faces of Steve: On Stephen Sondheim," Nation, 11 April, reviews Sondheim's Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981), With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes.