Books

• 
• 10/25/2020
  

  An Interview with Ian W. Toll, author of "Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945"

  by James Thornton Harris

  "Military histories have tended to take a “stay in your lane” approach, adhering to accounts of battles and operations. I prefer to weave the strands of politics and foreign policy into the fabric of the narrative."

• 
• 10/18/2020
  

  Where In The World Are You? How My Great-Grandmother’s Letters Helped Me Locate My Great-Uncle after 78 Years

  by Hazel Gaynor

  "Disaster and tragedy are often where we find our strongest bonds, and as we find ourselves separated from family and distanced from loved ones, stories of community and shared hope are, arguably, more important than ever."

• 
• 10/18/2020
  

  "The Silent Guns of Two Octobers" Reviewing a New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  Longtime JFK Library historian Sheldon Stern offers a review of a new book on the diplomatic resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

• 
• 10/11/2020
  

  Paris, City of Dreams: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann and the Creation of Paris

  by Jeff Roquen

  Nothing can compare to a visit to Paris, but until international travel resumes, readers can learn how the modern city was built through Mary McAulliffe's book. 

• 
• 10/4/2020
  

  Andrew Rotter's "Sensual Empires: Britain and America in India and the Philippines"

  by Shannon Bontrager

  Andrew Rotter extends recent work in sensory history to the study of imperialism, documenting how British and American colonialism depended on the connection between sensory experience and racial and nationalist ideology.

• 
• 9/27/2020
  

  Was Charles Lindbergh a Man Who Got Away?

  by Lise Pearlman

  A new book reexamines the possible role of Charles Lindbergh himself in the 1932 kidnapping of his son, once the "crime of the century."  

• 
• 9/27/2020
  

  The Troubling History of a Black Man's Heart

  by Chip Jones

  What Virginia doctors saw as a triumphant achievement was a devastating indictment of medical racism and institutional disregard for the dignity of a Black man and his family.

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  Rick Perlstein’s Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980

  by James Thornton Harris

  Rick Perlstein's latest volume in his study of the rise of the conservative movement focuses on the coming of Reaganism, but sheds light on how we got Trump.

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  “We Are Ourselves”: Review of For Workers’ Power: The Selected Writings of Maurice Brinton

  by Eric Laursen

  Maurice Brinton--the pseudonym of a British neurologist--authored an influential series of works of radical political thought that urged the British left to move away from rigid party structures and doctrinal disputes toward social movements. 

• 
• 9/13/2020
  

  Native Actors Outside the Frame

  by Liza Black

  Liza Black's new book traces the lives of prominent and anonymous Native actors, examinng the way that Hollywood films exploited their labor and images while spinning narratives that justified the historical conquest of Native lands.

• 
• 9/13/2020
  

  Richard Haass on the Need for Historically Informed Policy in a Changing World

  by David O'Connor

  "A democracy requires that its citizens be informed, and it was evident far too many citizens in the United States and other countries could not be described as globally literate."

• 
• 9/6/2020
  

  A Coup of "Clerqs"?: Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" Reviewed

  by David O'Connor

  Anne Applebaum's new book looks with concern at the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the loyal party functionaries who enable its march. 

• 
• 8/30/2020
  

  The Proud City: Patrick Abercrombie's Unfulfilled Plan for Rebuilding London

  by Simon Jenkins

  In 1942, the British government endorsed a plan that turned the Blitz into an opportunity for massive centrally-planned rebuilding of London. This was a break from the previous anarchic pattern of development, and, for better or worse, today's eclectic metropolis owes its form to the failure of the plan. 

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  Sorting Myth and History in Jackie Kennedy's Marriage to Aristotle Onassis

  by Gill Paul

  Novelist Gill Paul argues that Jackie Kennedy's current status as an icon of female empowerment conflicts with the reality of her life as a woman who grew up and was educated in a slowly changing society.

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  The Other Western Front

  by Aimee Liu

  Historical novelist Aimee Liu uncovered the history of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the western front of the Pacific theater in World War II, in the course of plotting her new novel "Glorious Boy."

• 
• 8/9/2020
  

  Reflections from "That Further Shore": A Constitutional Lawyer's Immigrant Family History

  by John Feerick

  John Feerick's work in constitutional law helped create the 25th Amendment, and an unadopted amendment to abolish the Electoral College. His recent family history and memoir shows how his immigrant parents laid a foundation for this success. 

• 
• 7/26/2020
  

  Who Opened the Door to Trumpism? David Frum's "Trumpocalypse" Reviewed

  by David O'Connor

  Through his long analysis of Trump’s follies, Frum never develops his contention that twenty-first-century conservatism helped open the door for Trump. Without a full accounting, his political mea culpa is hollow and fails to offer guidance on how to avoid mistakes in the future.

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  How Britain and Churchill Repelled the Nazi War Machine (1940-1941)

  by Jeff Roquen

  In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson has not only produced an engaging and timely portrait of the perilous period of when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany but has also illuminated how tragedy and loss can be turned into a triumph and justice through steadfast determination and solidarity of purpose.  

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  New Novel "The Collaborator" Explores the Moral Ambiguities of a Holocaust Rescuer

  by Diane Armstrong

  Do we have the right to judge the actions of people in life and death situations? Are we honour-bound to keep promises, no matter to whom they were made, and in what situations? Can a man be a hero and a collaborator?

• 
• 6/28/2020
  

  Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalism and the Confederate States of America

  by Ann Tucker

  White southerners looked to contemporary European nationalist movements and compared the South to aspiring nations abroad. This allowed them to conceive of the South as a potential nation, distinct from the North and separate from the United States, and to justify secession and the creation of the Confederacy.