An impressive work of research and synthesis tracing the end of an empire.
An ambitious history of the beginning of the end of vast dominions of the British Empire on Sept. 29, 1923.
British historian Parker, author of Battle of Britain, Panama Fever, and other books, digs into the archives to create a multilayered portrait, with deep contextual background, of the British Empire in 1923. At the time, it “covered nearly 14 million square miles, 150 times the size of Great Britain and a quarter of the world’s land area. Four hundred and sixty million people, a fifth of the world’s population, [were] subjects of Britain’s King-Emperor George V.” Yet even at its apex, the empire was showing cracks in the facade, whether in Palestine, Cape Town, Nairobi, Sydney, Rangoon, or Jamaica, as the author illustrates incrementally through newspaper articles, diaries, documents, novels, and other sources. Trade had established British global supremacy, highlighted by the dominance of the British navy, yet World War I had ruptured the old order. Across the empire, the entire social and economic edifice, based largely on race and privilege, was being questioned. Parker astutely examines pieces of the empire in turn, exploring relevant economic, political, social, and racial developments. Australia, for example, where D.H. Lawrence had just published his novel Kangaroo, desperately needed to attract new settlers. The author also chronicles the journey of the dissipated Prince of Wales, who was touring multiethnic India followed by Malaya, where rubber was supplanting tin production and the attitude of British “paternalistic trusteeship” was uneasily on display. In addition to social and political figures, Parker investigates the work of authors such as Somerset Maugham, George Orwell, and E.M. Forster, who presented frankly critical depictions of the failing order. The author also introduces the first political movements to challenge the British government in India, Kenya, Nigeria, and the West Indies.
An impressive work of research and synthesis tracing the end of an empire.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781541703827
Page Count: 608
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
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
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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