A perceptive look at America’s unresolved history.
A sharp study of the endemic battles that have blighted the U.S. throughout its existence.
In this follow-up to When America Stopped Being Great, British journalist Bryant, a former BBC senior foreign correspondent, considers the long history of political upheaval, domestic terrorism, vicious campaigns, armed rebellions, riots, assassinations, and assassination attempts that have beset a nation he once revered. Recounting battles over voting rights, gun rights, and abortion and the terrorism perpetrated by left-wing rebels like the Weather Underground, right-wing white supremacists, and militia groups, Bryant gives ample evidence for his assertion that “division has always been the default setting” for the nation since it was founded. The insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, he contends, was no outlier but instead a direct echo of July 4, 1776. The colonies’ rebellion for independence instilled “the mutinous belief that political violence directed against the government is justifiable, historically legitimate, and endorsed by the Founding Fathers.” Although it’s been said that “Trump did not change the modern-day Republican Party, he simply revealed it,” Bryant adds that “the same could be said of American political violence.” Nor is Trump the only example of a demagogue pushing the boundaries of the presidency. “Americans,” Bryant writes, “have long had a weakness for conviction politicians who speak with the certainty of prophets.” Even John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama benefited from a predilection to “laud, lionize, and idolize.” Bryant paints a dismaying portrait of a nation with “a deep-rooted suspicion of central government; a collective sense of victimhood; an ugly nativism, racism and hostility towards the other; an anti-intellectualism; an anti-elitism; a populist anti-capitalism; a nostalgic nationalism”; and a deep-seated rage. Even in the 1950s and ’60s, mythologized “as a haven of suburban tranquility,” the country “was awash with guns.”
A perceptive look at America’s unresolved history.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781399409308
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury Continuum
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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 Yorker staff 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
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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