A vital acquisition for anyone who studies the Renaissance and seeks the true role of the Medici in the history of Florence.
A fascinating warts-and-all history of the rise and fall of the Medici.
Hollingsworth (The Borgias: History’s Most Notorious Dynasty, 2011, etc.) effectively debunks the myths surrounding this legendary family, from the first moneylenders who moved into Florence in the 13th century through the end of the dynasty in 1737. Throughout the centuries, the author amply shows, the Medici lied, cheated, inveigled, and sweet-talked their way into absolute diplomatic and political power. They built up their banking business through the generations, and it became the basis for the family wealth. The Medicis understood the power of local politics and used their money to control it until Florence was no longer a republic but rather a dictatorship. Some of the best elements of this eye-opening book are the casts of characters and their relationships, which begin each chapter. Since so many Medici shared the same first name, these lists are extremely helpful in keeping the players straight. Equally illuminating are the dozens of illustrations. A major event in the family’s history occurred in 1420, when Giovanni di Bicci relinquished control of the bank to his sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo, who, despite his later appellation of “Magnificent,” was an inexperienced playboy who lacked political acumen. His blatant embezzling, plus the decline of the economy, gave rise to the attacks of Savonarola on the materialism and corruption of his administration. Hollingsworth also points out that Florence was not the only important city during the Renaissance; Milan, Rome, Venice, Naples, and Mantua were also significant. Florence certainly profited from the architects, artists, and writers of the period, but the Medici’s use of those artists was for the greater glory of Medici, not Florence. The true builder, Cosimo I, came to power in 1544 and became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. He grew the economy and city and laid the foundation for the persisting perception of Medici greatness.
A vital acquisition for anyone who studies the Renaissance and seeks the true role of the Medici in the history of Florence.Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68177-648-4
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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