book reviews

• 
• 6/16/19
  

  A Fresh Take on Watergate Illuminates the Present

  by James Thornton Harris

  While Richard Nixon’s rise and fall has been repeatedly examined — there are more than a dozen biographies of him — John Farrell’s book, Richard Nixon, a Life, offers many new insights.

• 
• 4/19/19
  

  The Coming of American Fascism, 1920–1940

  by Chris Wright

  Michael Joseph Roberto's The Coming of the American Behemoth: The Origins of Fascism in the United States, 1920–1940 is particularly timely, as the old structures of American fascism have deepened in the last generation and colonized much of the world. 

• 
• SOURCE: G&LR
  4/27/19
  

  Historian Marc Stein On The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History

  by Marc Stein

  Why did the Stonewall Riots occur when and where they did? 

• 
• 4/28/19
  

  Racism’s Longue Durée: Why the Citizens’ Councils Matter Now

  by Anders Walker

  A review of Stephanie Rolph's new book Resisting Equality: The Citizens' Council, 1954-1989.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  4/23/19
  

  Kristin L. Hoganson Dismantles the Myth of ‘The Heartland’

  “The heartland myth insists that there is a stone-solid core at the center of the nation."

• 
• 4/21/19
  

  Presidential Personality and Politics

  by Jerome Braun

  A review of American Dialogue: The Founders and Us by Joseph J. Ellis. 

• 
• 4/18/19
  

  Do Those Closest to Trump Think He's Fit for Office?

  by Vaughn Davis Bornet

  If Trump can’t or won’t support a rational federal government in all three branches, something will have to be done about it.

• 
• 2/10/19
  

  Revisiting the Wright Brothers and the History of Human Flight

  by Ken Lawrence

  What William Hazelgrove's Wright Brothers, Wrong Story gets wrong about the Wright brothers.

• 
• 1/31/19
  

  Marie Colvin: an Amazing Woman Whose Life Was Cut Short Trying to Present Us with the Truth

  by James Thornton Harris

  In Extremis, Lindsey Hilsum's new biography of the journalist,  shows that underlying the glamor of celebrity and the adrenaline-rush of dodging gunfire was a committed humanitarian.

• 
• 5-18-14
  

  Review of Angela Stent’s “The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-first Century”

  by Walter Moss

  Stent’s book covers more than its title indicates, for it is a history and analysis of U.S.-Russian relations during the post-Soviet period from late 1991 until late 2013.

• 
• 5-18-14
  

  Review of Sherry L. Smith's "Hippies, Indians, and the Fight for Red Power"

  by Ron Briley

  Rather than simply focusing upon the excesses of the movement which degenerated into the Rolling Stones Altamont concert and the bloody murders of the Manson family, Smith chooses to emphasize the positive legacy of the counterculture’s interest in Native American history and culture.

• 
• 5-18-14
  

  Review of Bruce Dancis’s “Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison During the Vietnam War”

  by Murray Polner

  Dancis and many in his like-minded allies once believed they could bring about permanent, serious and nonviolent change.

• 
• 5-12-14
  

  Review of “Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis”

  by Murray Polner

  Patrick Henry’s masterly collection of cerebral and quite readable essays in "Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis," proves that Jews fighting the Nazis and their allies, violently and nonviolently, was fairly common.

• 
• 4-28-14
  

  Review of Sidney Pash's "The Currents of War: A New History of American-Japanese Relations, 1899-1941"

  by Ron Briley

  Pash’s history of relations between Japan and the United States leading to the Pacific War is a cautionary tale that policymakers would do well to revisit.

• 
• 4-21-14
  

  Review of "Selected Speeches and Writings of Theodore Roosevelt"

  by Murray Polner

  To read "Selected Speeches and Writings of Theodore Roosevelt" we see a more balanced and nuanced portrait of the man who refused to be silent even after losing the 1912 election to Woodrow Wilson.

• 
• 4-16-14
  

  Review of Robert K. Musil’s "Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment"

  by Lawrence S. Wittner

  Despite the central role of women in the environmental movement, surprisingly little is known about them.

• 
• 4-3-14
  

  Review of Randall Balmer’s “Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter”

  by Murray Polner

  As Rodney Dangerfield might have put it, “Jimmy Carter gets no respect.”

• 
• SOURCE: Sandbox
  3-31-14
  

  These are the 6 books about the Middle East everybody should read

  by Martin Kramer

  Events have propelled a few books into the limelight, and these six, for better or worse, had an impact, influenced perceptions, and may have changed history.

• 
• 3-31-14
  

  Review of "Stokely: A Life"

  by Ron Briley

  Peniel E. Joseph's new biography restores the voice of Carmichael to the history of the civil rights movement.

• 
• 12-30-13
  

  Review of Stephen Kinzer's "The Brothers"

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov

  Inside the narrow, dogmatic world of the Dulles brothers, the architects of America's Cold War.