books

• 
• 1/26/20
  

  How Neville Chamberlin Misread Hitler and Allowed the Third Reich to Threaten the World Order

  by Jeff Roquen

  In the new and magisterial study Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill and the Road to War, Tim Bouverie incisively reconstructs the ideological landscape of post-WWI Britain to explain how Chamberlain and other politicians and pundits misread Hitler and ultimately allowed the Third Reich to threaten the entire world order.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  1/20/20
  

  The Radical Lives of Abolitionists

  by Britt Rusert

  History has tended to sanitize the lives of abolitionists, many of whom were involved in other radical movements as well, including Free Love, which promoted women’s independence and an end to traditional marriage. A review of Holly Jackson's American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation.

• 
• 1/22/20
  

  The History of Presidential Misconduct Beyond Watergate and Iran-Contra

  by HNN Staff

  At the AHA, James Banner, Kathryn Olmstead, Kevin Kruse, and Jeremi Suri discussed how they revived a long forgotten report on presidential misconduct. 

• 
• SOURCE: Hollywood Progressive
  1/19/20
  

  Reflections on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North

  by Walter G. Moss

  Besides a page-turning novel and discussions of love, death, and the meaning of life, there is much more to value in The Narrow Road.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/20/20
  

  The Neighborhoods We Will Not Share

  by Richard Rothstein

  Persistent housing segregation lies at the root of many of our society’s problems. Trump wants to make it worse.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/14/20
  

  Archivist and bookseller plead guilty to pilfering $8M in rare texts from Carnegie Library

  One by one, rare books vanished from the library — the Journal of George Washington; a copy of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” valued at nearly $1 million; an Atlas by a 19th-century German explorer worth $1.2 million.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/13/20
  

  The 10 Most Checked-Out Books in N.Y. Public Library History

  Librarians and analysts spent over six months parsing through hundreds of titles to compile the list. They considered all book formats, including e-books and foreign-language editions.

• 
• 1/12/20
  

  A New History of American Liberalism

  by Bruce W. Dearstyne

  Liberals looking for an enlightening but sobering account of their movement's history should read James Traub. 

• 
• 1/12/20
  

  Why The West Is Losing The Fight For Democracy

  by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes

  We once had trouble imagining a future that is not essentially democratic and capitalist. That is not the way we think today. Most of us now have trouble imagining a future, even in the West, that remains securely democratic and liberal.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/8/20
  

  The Surprising History of McDonald’s and the Civil Rights Movement: Marcia Chatelain's Latest Book Reviewed

  In “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” Marcia Chatelain has written a smart and capacious history suggesting that McDonald’s should summon all of those thoughts, and then some.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/7/20
  

  When White Supremacists Overthrew an Elected Government: David Zucchino's Wilmington's Lie Reviewed

  “Wilmington’s Lie” is a tragic story about the brutal overthrow of the multiracial government of Wilmington, N.C., in 1898.

• 
• 12/29/19
  

  Great Britain’s Secret Role in Prodding a Reluctant U.S. to Superpower Status

  by James Thornton Harris

  America’s rapid emergence as a global superpower after 1945 is the subject of Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower 1945-1957. Author Derek Leebaert challenges the conventional wisdom that an exhausted Great Britain voluntarily “handed the baton” of world leadership to the U.S. after World War II. 

• 
• SOURCE: LA Review of Books
  12/13/19
  

  A New Kind of Bondage

  by Jason S. Sexton

  TONY PLATT’S Beyond These Walls provides a relentless critique of the United States’s carceral regime, prompting us to rethink how criminal justice institutions operate.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  12/14/19
  

  NPR Interviews Jonathan Rosenberg: 'Dangerous Melodies' Examines Classical Music And American Foreign Relations

  Jonathan Rosenberg, a professor of history at Hunter College, has a new book that examines this phenomenon. It's called Dangerous Melodies: Classical Music in America from The Great War through the Cold War.

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  12/9/19
  

  Kate Shaw: Andrew Johnson Was Impeached for Being a Racist Demagogue

  An interview with Kate Shaw, a professor of law at Cardozo Law School and co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: BBC History Magazine
  12/10/19
  

  37 books for history lovers: 11 Historians Select Their Favorite Books of 2019

  In the Christmas 2019 issue of BBC History Magazine, on sale now, 11 historians selected their favourite historical page-turners published in 2019 .

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  Accessed 12/10/19
  

  Annette Gordon-Reed Reviews Alan Taylor's Book Thomas Jefferson's Education for The Atlantic

  by Annette Gordon-Reed

  "The University of Virginia was supposed to transform a slave-owning generation, but it failed."

• 
• 12/8/19
  

  Jack Miles' God in the Qur’an brings the three Abrahamic traditions to the table

  by Zaman Stanizai

  We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed.

• 
• 12/8/19
  

  The Capital City and the Civil War

  by S.C. Gwynne

  In the winter of 1863–64, Washington was the most heavily defended city on earth.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  12/3/19
  

  Books by Garret Martin, Balazs Martonffy, Ronald Suny, and Kelly McFarland Featured in Article on NATO at 50

  by Jeff Inglis

  At 70, is NATO still important? 5 essential reads.