Books

• 
• 8-1-17
  

  Review of "The Eighth Wonder of the World: The Life of Houston’s Iconic Astrodome" By Robert C. Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack

  by Ron Briley

  An interesting academic book about the social issues raised by the construction of a major baseball stadium.

• 

• Review of Leigh Montville's "Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. the United States of America, 1966-1971"

  by Luther Spoehr

  The latest on "The Greatest."

• 
• 7-26-17
  

  Review of Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America”

  by Ron Briley

  The story of MacLean’s discovery of the alliance between an obscure economist and the Koch Brothers.

• 
• 7-19-17
  

  We Should Keep a Close Eye on Business, too

  by Nate Holdren

  A review of Elizabeth Anderson’s “Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about It)” and Chad Pearson’s “Reform or Repression: Organizing America's Anti-Union Movement.”

• 
• 7-17-17
  

  What Are We to Make of Charles Lindbergh?

  by Robert Huddleston

  A review of Dan Hampton’s “The Flight” and Lynn Olson’s “Those Angry Days.”

• 
• 7-2-17
  

  Review of Nancy Weiss Malkiel's " 'Keep the Damned Women Out': The Struggle for Coeducation"

  by Luther Spoehr

  Coeducation:  how an idea whose time had come finally arrived.

• 
• 6-27-17
  

  Review of Hugh Kennedy’s “Caliphate: The History of an Idea”

  by Daniel Lazare

  Somebody slapped the wrong title on Hugh Kennedy’s political history of Islam from Muhammad to the Ottomans.

• 
• 6-22-17
  

  What Kind of Feminism Is This?

  by Jeremy C. Young

  A review of Laura Kipnis’s "Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus."

• 
• 6-15-17
  

  Review of Jeffrey Moran's "The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents"

  by Bernard von Bothmer

  Has America really changed that much since the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial?

• 
• 6-12-17
  

  Review of David McCullough’s “The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For”

  by Kathryn Smith

  David McCullough is an American treasure.

• 
• 6-9-17
  

  Review of Alexandra Zapruder’s “Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film”

  by John McAdams

  The story of the Zapruder family’s saga.

• 
• 6-6-17
  

  Review of 1st Lt. L.C. Beck, Jr.’s, “Fighter Pilot”

  by Robert Huddleston

  Fighter Pilot was first published in 1946 by Wrtzel Publishing. It was reprinted in 2013 by Literary Licensing, LLC.

• 

• Review of "Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools" by Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson

  by Luther Spoehr

  Controversy belongs in the classroom.

• 

• Review of Chris Whipple's “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency”

  by Kathryn Smith

  "The Gatekeepers" is a fascinating book focusing on the chief of staff role from Nixon to Obama, ending with a bit of speculation about the man serving Donald Trump.

• 
• 5-1-17
  

  Review of Joel Whitney's "Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers"

  by William Bole

  For most readers, the indignation will probably flow mainly from the CIA's truly despicable activities, not from its curious obsession with the editorial machinations of the literary elite.

• 
• 4-27-17
  

  Review of Jerald Podair’s “City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles”

  by Henry D. Fetter

  Did the Dodgers move to LA change the city?  This author thinks so. Our reviewer doubts that.

• 
• 4-26-17
  

  Review of Susan Scott Parrish’s “The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History”

  by Mark Gamin

  Why the flood of 1927 came to dominate our culture even though other floods did equal damage.

• 
• 4-17-17
  

  Review of Brian Glyn Williams's "Counter Jihad: The American Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria"

  by Ralph Seliger

  An unsparing depiction of the so-called Neo-Conservatives, a clique of intellectuals and ideologues from whose ranks key staffers were appointed to the Bush administration’s Pentagon and the office of Vice President Cheney.

• 
• 4-4-17
  

  Review of Kevin Gutzman’s "Thomas Jefferson: Revolutionary"

  by M. Andrew Holowchak

  This short biography makes the case that Jefferson’s legacy as a statesman has been sorely underplayed.

• 
• 3-22-17
  

  Review of Richard Haass’s "A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order"

  by Daniel Lazare

  Haass is less than forthcoming about his own role in the great Middle East debacle. And that's just one of the many problems with this book.