Outstanding as both a biography and a work of Reconstruction-era history.
An excellent, opinionated, and discouraging dual biography of a dreadful president and a determined fighter for human rights.
Levine writes that Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), a fiercely ambitious populist who became “the absolutely wrong president for his times,” despised the South’s aristocracy but was otherwise a garden-variety Southern Democrat with no objection to slavery. It was only after Lincoln’s election that he achieved fame as the only Southern senator opposing secession. Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, where his anti-slavery rhetoric made him popular among Tennessee Blacks as well as abolitionists, who preferred him to Lincoln. Making “War Democrat” Johnson vice-presidential candidate was a gesture to win votes in the 1864 elections, which observers considered a toss-up. Although horrified at Lincoln’s murder, the new president was an improvement according to Radical Republicans. Sharing their delusion was Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), the charismatic Black speaker and writer who had been fighting slavery for two decades. Historians dutifully explain why Johnson discarded his hatred of slave owners in favor of White supremacy. Levine contributes an unobjectionable, intriguing theory, but mostly he recounts the dismal events that followed. Soon after assuming office, Johnson began pardoning Rebels in exchange for a mild loyalty oath and recognizing all-White Southern state governments. He vetoed legislation securing rights for ex-slaves, made violently racist speeches and statements, and blamed horrific White atrocities on Northern agitators. Talk of impeachment began, but Congress was reluctant to indict him for racist behavior, aware that most White voters had little objection. Taking advantage of his effort to fire the secretary of war in February 1868, the House charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act, which forbade dismissing anyone approved by the Senate. The two-month impeachment trial bored the sellout audience, but readers will appreciate Levine’s many significant insights. Douglass, who did not attend, put aside his disappointment at the acquittal, continuing to speak and write as Reconstruction failed and conditions for Blacks steadily deteriorated.
Outstanding as both a biography and a work of Reconstruction-era history.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-324-00475-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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