biography 
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SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
2/15/2021
‘George Washington’ Review: Our Founding Politician
David Stewart's new book on George Washington highlights his political skills and careful work at cultivating allies. Far from being an apolitical leader, Washington was a skilled operator whose greatest achievement was avoiding the stigma of politics.
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2/21/2021
Neal Gabler's "Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour"
by James Thornton Harris
Neal Gabler's first volume of a biography of Ted Kennedy praises the long-serving senator as the driving force of a hugely consequential period of liberal legislative success. Those looking for gossip or consideration of his personal failures may be disappointed.
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SOURCE: Civil War Memory
1/3/2021
Do We Really Need Another Biography of Robert E. Lee?
by Kevin M. Levin
Recent discussion of the forthcoming biography of Robert E. Lee by Allen Guelzo shouldn't foreclose the possibility that the book will offer insight because many historians object to Guelzo's participation in Donald Trump's conference on teaching history.
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SOURCE: New York Times
10/27/2020
Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath’s Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life
Heather Clark's new biography of the poet returns focus to her life and work rather than her afterlife.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
10/15/2020
Beyond the Myth of Malcolm X (review essay)
A new biography of Malcolm X sets his political thought in the context of the midcentury Black communities where he lived and how his Black contemporaries saw him.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/8/2020
‘JFK,’ by Fredrik Logevall: An Excerpt
Read an excerpt from Fredrik Logevall's new biography of John F. Kennedy touching on the collegiate Kennedy's observations of Europe as World War II began.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/8/2020
Groomed to Be President: David Kennedy Reviews Fredrik Logevall's JFK Bio
Fredrik Logevall's new book, the first of two volumes on the life of JFK, pushes back against perceptions of the young Kennedy as an accidental politician or intellectual lightweight, and describes the way world events shaped his worldview.
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SOURCE: LA Times
8/18/2020
Review: The New John Lewis Biography is a Stirring Tribute that Still Sells Him Short
Readers who know little about Lewis will find an often moving story, but it will prove unsatisfying to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the movement.
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5/10/2020
Spiritualism and Suspension Bridges: John Roebling and a Biographer's Sympathy for the Weird 19th Century
by Richard Haw
A biographer of Brooklyn Bridge designer John Roebling expected to write about a genius. He also ended up writing about a complete weirdo, and how one man could be both.
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SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
4/26/2020
The (Yelling) Mothers of Us All
by Rachel Shteir
A review of Leandra Zarnow's biography of Bella Abzug, "Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
2/16/20
George Washington gets romanticized by male biographers. Now a woman has taken him on.
Alexis Coe argues in “You Never Forget Your First” that the male gaze has distorted our impressions of the first president.
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2/9/20
Frank Ramsey: A Genius By All Tests for Genius
by Cheryl Misak
Unlike his friends Russell and Wittgenstein who focused on the vastness and the unknowability of the world, Ramsey believed it was more important to concentrate on what is admirable and conducive to living a good life.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian Mag
2/4/20
Karin Wulf Interviews Alexis Coe About Her Cheeky New George Washington Biography
by Karin Wulf
Alexis Coe’s cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches
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2/2/20
What Did Hitler Think About Anglo-American Capitalism?
by James Thornton Harris
A review of Brendan Simms' controversial new book, Hitler: A Global Biography.
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2/2/20
Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Most Famous Woman You Have Never Heard Of
by Tiffany A. Sippial
The work to preserve and study the history of the Cuban Revolution and its contributors—like Celia Sánchez Manduley—is arduous but important.
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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.
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SOURCE: The New York Times
9/29/19
Biographers Peter Longerich and Brendan Simms are Revisiting Hitler in a New Authoritarian Age
by Talya Zax
With nationalism and anti-Semitism on the rise around the world, Longerich’s “Hitler: A Biography” and Simms’s “Hitler: A Global Biography” look at the Nazi leader’s march to power.
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9/1/19
Writing Fiction about Real People
by Gill Paul
The best novels about real people make us re-evaluate the subject and perhaps alter our preconceived ideas.
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SOURCE: The North Star
8/24/19
Bayard Rustin: Prophet Of Freedom, Justice, And Humanity
by Stephen G. Hall
Rustin’s work combined a passion for social justice with a firm commitment to LGBTQ and human rights.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
7/25/19
Widow, slaveholder, mother of our first president
by Marjoleine Kars
Eager to uncover the real Mary, Martha Saxton, an emerita historian at Amherst College who has written biographies of Louisa May Alcott and Jayne Mansfield, set out to paint a more true-to-life portrait.
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