Notes on Modern History

Steve Donoghue reviews Robert Harvey's Romantic Revolutionary: Simon Bolivar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America for The National, 22 July.

Jonathan Liu for the Barnes & Noble Review, 10 May, Adam Langer for the San Francisco Chronicle, 15 May, William T. Vollmann, "Empire of the Senseless," bookforum, Summer, Tom Leclair, "A Novel as Big as America," NYT, 10 June, Rodney Welch for the Washington Post, 14 July, and Luke Kennard, "A Moment in the Sun: contender for the Great American Novel," The National, 22 July, review John Sayles's A Moment in the Sun: A Novel.

David Hajdu, "La Vie en Punk," The Book, 21 July, reviews Carolyn Burke's No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf.

Evan Thomas reviews Gregory A. Freeman's The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys: Courage, Tragedy, and Justice in World War II for the Washington Post, 21 July.

In "Presidents and Their Debts, F.D.R. to Bush," NYT, 21 July, H. W. Brands, Robert Dallek, Joan Hoff, Alonzo Hamby, David Kennedy, Jon Meacham, and Richard Reeves discuss the modern presidents and their deficits.