Books

Review of Rick Perlstein's "The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan"

by Ron Briley

Perlstein, seeking to make some sense of the Reagan phenomenon, offers somewhat of a new take on the culture wars of America during the 1970s. He divides the nation into skeptics or doubters, willing to interrogate national policies and institutions, and true believers who unquestionably embrace American exceptionalism.

Review of Scott Eyman’s "John Wayne: The Life and Legend"

by Ron Briley

Readers seeking to place Wayne within a larger historical and cultural context would do better to consult the scholarship of historians such as Randy Roberts, James S. Olson, and Garry Wills.

Review of Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity"

by Luther Spoehr

How late 19th-century German culture influenced the thinking of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Review of George W. Bush’s "41: A Portrait of My Father"

by James Graham Wilson

It was at the suggestion of David McCullough’s daughter that Bush decided to write about his father.

Review of Eric Lichtblau's “The Nazis Next Door: How America Became A Safe Haven For Hitler's Men”

by Robert Huddleston

The Nazis Next Door does an excellent job in reopening the story of our employment of many who had served Nazi Germany: ardent-Nazis, SS officers, even convicted or alleged war criminals.

Review of Jack Fairweather’s “The Good War: Why We Couldn’t Win the War or the Peace in Afghanistan”

by Murray Polner

It is more or less a complete account of the war and an argument for what can and cannot be accomplished. His primary lesson: there are real limits to what US military power can achieve.

Review of Tavis Smiley's “Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year”

by Michael Honey

Most historians will know most of this story and in greater detail, yet Smiley has something special to offer: he has loaded the book with vignettes and personal stories gleaned from his years of interviews with people who knew King up close and personal.

Review of Stanley Aronowitz's “The Death and Life of American Labor: Toward a New Workers’ Movement”

by Robert Parmet

Stanley Aronowitz is again challenging American workers to rethink their place in the economy.

Review of Mark M. Smith's "The Smell of Battle, The Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War”

by Murray Polner

“How Did People Experience the American Civil War?”

Review of Edmund Fawcett’s “Liberalism: The Life of an Idea”

by Walter G. Moss

Although the history of ideas or intellectual history sometimes appeals only to a small reading audience, Fawcett’s book should have a broader readership.

Review of Henry Wiencek’s "Master of the Mountain"

by M. Andrew Holowchak

Wiencek accuses Jefferson of “carefully calibrated violence,” but it is Wiencek who ought to be accused of the crime, as his book is fraught with an indescribable number of analogies, metaphors, similes, and other literary devices, used to transport readers on an emotional journey.

Reviews of 3 Books about the History of Education

by Luther Spoehr

Three reviews of books on the history of American education for the price of one.

Review of Nechama Tec's "Resistance: Jews and Christians Who Defied the Nazi Terror"

by Patrick Henry

Her latest study breaks new ground even as it reiterates the major themes of her illustrious life’s work.

Review of “Antiwar Dissent and Peace Action in World War I America,” Edited by Scott H. Bennett and Charles F. Howlett

by Murray Polner

Every generation needs to be reminded of and taught the heavy price exacted by war.

Review of Roger Moorhouse’s “The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact With Stalin, 1939-1941"

by Murray Polner

Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, two bitter rivals, stunned the world when they joined together in 1939 in a non-aggression and economic pact, dividing Eastern Europe and influencing the course of WWII.

Review of David Bromwich’s “Moral Imagination”

by Walter G. Moss

In Moral Imagination’s dozen essays David Bromwich focuses on important topics, but the book’s first essay, “Moral Imagination,” is the most significant of all.

Review of Mark C. Carnes's “Minds on Fire: How Role Immersion Games Transform College”

by Steven Mintz

Mark Carnes is reimagining liberal education for the 21st century.

Review of Sarah Churchwell's "Careless People"

by Luther Spoehr

Context, creativity, and writing The Great Gatsby.

Review of Gavin Wright’s “Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South”

by Mike O’Connor

That southern businesses had to be coerced by the federal government to open their doors to blacks — which proved to be an economic boon — suggests that government economic intervention can succeed, contrary to libertarian claims.

Review of Mark Boulton’s “Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation”

by Murray Polner

In his comprehensive and compelling legislative history, Mark Boulton ably details how ideology, economics and personal and political biases shaped the way veterans have been dealt with from the Revolutionary era to Vietnam.