Books

Review of Annie Jacobsen’s “The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top Secret Military Research Agency”

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

The Pentagon’s Brain provides the most comprehensive history to date of the top secret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Review of Anthony Marra’s "The Tsar of Love and Techno"

by Walter G. Moss

A brilliant writer's fictional accounts of life in the Soviet Union and under Putin. 

Review of “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

by James Graham Wilson

This is an odd, badly written book, that relies on outdated interpretations and weak sourcing.

Review of Kristen Green's "Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle"

by Luther Spoehr

Generational tensions and the fight for civil rights in a remote corner of Virginia.

Review of D.D. Guttenplan’s “The Nation: A Biography (The First 150 Years)”

by Robert Shaffer

Guttenplan has written a frank institutional history of a magazine that has played, and continues to play, an important role in U.S. history, society, and politics.

Review of Alonzo L. Hamby’s “Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century”

by Murray Polner

FDR, a flawed and complex giant and still somewhat inscrutable to those who write about him, remains a striking and extraordinary giant among all our presidents, as Man of Destiny makes clear.

Review of Kaarel Piirimae's "Roosevelt, Churchill and the Baltic Question: Allied Relations during the Second World War"

by Maris Mantenieks

Piirimae's book, is the first comprehensive study of the "Baltic Question" in Big Three diplomacy during WWII.

Review of Paul Moses’s “An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York’s Irish and Italians”

by Robert D. Parmet

“An Unlikely Union” is a highly readable account of two groups, the Irish and Italians, who, as he contends, began as foes and eventually became friends.

Review of Elijah Wald's "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties"

by Luther Spoehr

Who was shocked, and what it meant.

Review of Robert F. Burk's "Marvin Miller: Baseball Revolutionary"

by Ron Briley

Burk provides a first-rate biography of Miller which is sympathetic but not uncritical in its approach.

Review of David Sehat’s "The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible"

by Ron Briley

In The Jefferson Rule, David Sehat challenges the assumption of nonpartisan Founders and argues that concentrating upon the birth of the republic actually does a disservice to contemporary political discourse.

Review of Tim Weiner’s “One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon” (Holt 2015)

by Murray Polner

“One Man Against the World” is a credible, dramatic, original and devastating portrayal of Richard Nixon and his closest aides.

Review of Kirsten Powers, "The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech"

by Luther Spoehr

Fox News’s liberal-in-residence argues that the suppression of ideas in contemporary American politics, journalism, and higher education is a major problem.

Review of Maurizio Valsania’s “The Limits of Optimism: Thomas Jefferson's Dualistic Enlightenment (Jeffersonian America)”

by M. Andrew Holowchak

We think of jefferson as an optimist.  But this book focuses on his pessimism.

Review of Andrew Cockburn’s “Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins”

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

Cockburn has written an outstanding book on the so-called revolution in military affairs and its pitfalls.

Review of Jack Ross’s “The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History”

by David McReynolds

An extensive and admirable history of the Socialist Party.

Review of Timothy J. Williams's "Intellectual Manhood: University, Self, and Society in the Antebellum South"

by Luther Spoehr

The Southern pre-Civil War college wasn't so dreary after all.

Review of “Rot, Riot, and Rebellion: Mr. Jefferson’s Struggle to Save the University that Changed America” by Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos

by M. Andrew Holowchak

There is little in the book that will surprise readers familiar with the history of the University of Virginia, but the story’s well told.

Review of Godfrey Hodgson’s “JFK and LBJ: The Last two Great Presidents”

by Murray Polner

According to Godfrey Hodgson, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were our “last two great presidents” because no-one since has believed the federal government could do very much to help all Americans.

Review of Richard Drake’s "The Education of an Anti-Imperialist: Robert M. LaFollette and U.S. Expansion"

by Ron Briley

With the imminent formal entrance of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker into the crowded field of Republican Party Presidential contenders, it is well worth remembering that Wisconsin has a progressive historical tradition.