reviews

Review: Lily Geismer's Denunciation of Clintonism Ignores Clear Economic Improvement

by David Greenberg

Historian Lily Geismer's book is meant as a sharp criticism of Clintonian economic policy, but ignores the broad range of policies and the record of reduced poverty, says one reviewer. 

Lee's Fault: On Allen Guelzo's Biography

by John Reeves

A reviewer concludes that Allen Guelzo's new biography succeeds in evaluating Robert E. Lee's military career but misses in its assessment of his relationship to slavery and his legacy.

Why Did the Slave Trade Survive So Long?

by James Oakes

James Oakes reviews John Harris's new book "The Last Slave Ships: New York and the End of the Middle Passage," and praises its insight into the late years of the slave trade and slavery's relationship to capitalism. 

The Underground Activists Who Fought for Freedom Across Asia

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

A new book on the movements against colonial rule in Asia looks to grassroots movements and multiple ideological and political groups and challenges "great man" ideas of national liberation. 

Review: Was the Constitution a Pro-Slavery Document?

by Gordon S. Wood

Gordon Wood says James Oakes's new book examines the dialectical relationship between 19th century interpretations of the Constitution as a pro-slavery and anti-slavery document and argues that that debate steered Lincoln toward a commitment to racial equality as inextricable from abolition.

Review: New Book Seeks To Differentiate Between Confederate History And Historical Memory

"Adam Domby’s book provides a helpful guide through White Southern memory, a place where the Civil War never really ended."

"Time's Monster" by Priya Satia Review – Living in the Past

Time’s Monster is a book about history and empire. Not a straightforward history, but an account of how the discipline of history has itself enabled the process of colonisation, “making it ethically thinkable”.

Eric Williams’ Foundational Work on Slavery, Industry, and Wealth

by Katie Donington

Debates over Eric Williams’s work have ebbed and flowed ever since he first published Capitalism and Slavery in 1944. His book inspired a body of historiography to which many historians of slavery and abolition have added their voices over the decades.

Familiar Story of the Boston Massacre Becomes Familial

A review of Serena Zabin's upcoming book "The Boston Massacre."

New, Experimental West Side Story Is an Experiment that Goes Awry

by Bruce Chadwick

The play has lost its focus and sense of history.

A Tale of the Great Migration

by Bruce Chadwick

Blues for an Alabama Sky, a new play by Pearl Cleage, tells the story of a handful of those people. It is a deep, rich play in which their stories are carried out against the cultural backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance.

Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are Back, and the Sexual Revolution with Them

by Bruce Chadwick

The late 1960s was the heyday of America’s sexual revolution and nowhere was it bigger than in California.

There’s Nothing Like a Good Ghost Story from the Past

by Bruce Chadwick

The terrifying and wondrous Woman in Black is an international hit. It's a play staged in 2020 that was written in 1987 about an event that took place in 1927.

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.

The Film “1917” and the Allegory of the Wooden-Headed

by James Ottavio Castagnera

Viewed with one eye on this current context, “1917” can surmount its surface characterization as an exciting “war movie” to become an allegory.

1917: The War Movie at Its Very Best

by Bruce Chadwick

The movie is a story within a story – the two men within the greater war

A Play About Historical Reenactors Grapples With American Identity

by Bruce Chadwick

Talene Monahon’s new play, How to Load a Musket, takes a deep, hard look at the re-enactors of two wars, the American Revolution and the Civil War.

“A staggering tour de force – but an opportunity missed”: a historian’s review of the film 1917

by Jeremy Banning

How does 1917 deal with the realities of war and what does it show about the real events of 1917 – the retreat by German forces and life in the trenches? 

Depression Era Tenor Hits All the High Notes

by Bruce Chadwick

It is 1934, at the height of the Depression, and an opera company in Cleveland is trying to make enough money to stay in business.

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.