The Woman Who Shot Mussolini

By Frances Stonor Saunders

The woman who shot Mussolini was named Violet Gibson, and she fired in 1926. Grazed by the bullet, Mussolini resumed the march of fascism, while Gibson was dispatched to an English mental asylum and died in 1956. In this excellent biographical reconstruction, Saunders plumbs the depths of a woman who seems ultimately unfathomable. Raised in the Protestant ascendancy of late-nineteenth-century Ireland, Gibson departed from parental expectations: intelligent and inclined to mysticism, she delved into theosophy before converting to Catholicism. Saunders also uncovers a dawning political consciousness in Gibson's involvement with the peace movement, but it is Gibson's mental condition and the treatment she received that predominate here. Although her suicide attempts and assaults on others gave cause for alarm, Gibson, after her assassination attempt, was the victim of deceptions by doctors, lawyers, and family members. Venturing that the subterfuges stemmed from diplomatic expedience and mental-health patients' lack of rights at the time, Saunders nevertheless portrays Gibson's remote personality. Saunders displays fine sourcing and sensitivity in this superior historical work.

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Crime and Punishment in America

By David B. Wolcott and Tom Head

Surveys the history of criminal justice and punishment in the United States, drawing on source materials ranging from the 1654 Maryland Public Morality Codes to trial transcripts from the O.J. Simpson Trial.

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Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff

By Erin Arvedlund

This book is one of the first of what will likely be a spate of titles on Bernie Madoff. Madoff's initial contribution to Wall Street was the development of electronic trading, which revolutionized securities markets by facilitating increased trading volume at reduced cost. Simultaneously, he ran a hedge fund that proved to be a Ponzi scheme that defrauded its investors of billions. Madoff's reputation and ability to generate trust, his connections through family and friends, and his system of feeder fees contributed to his ability to perpetuate the fraud. Other explanations include lack of regulation of hedge funds and the incompetence of SEC investigators. Arvedlund, an investigative journalist, was among the first to suspect that Madoff's consistently superior returns were an illusion. Her timely book is the result of numerous interviews with individuals who had connections to Madoff, ranging from colleagues and employees to schoolmates. Madoff's greed, smoothness, and arrogance clearly come through, but so does the greed of the investors who thought they were receiving superior returns.

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Men of Color to Arms!: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality

By Elizabeth D. Leonard

In 1863, Frederick Douglass promised African Americans that serving in the military offered a sure path to full citizenship. More than 180,000 heeded the call to defend the Union against the Confederate rebellion. Later, thousands more enlisted to subdue the Indians and expand and strengthen the national domain. In this sharply drawn history, Elizabeth D. Leonard takes the story of these frequently overlooked American soldiers beyond traditional political and military confines to consider the men's aspirations and achievements as well as their setbacks and disappointments. Framed by Appomattox in 1865 and the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and packed with individuals' stories, details of battles fought, and descriptions of army life, Leonard's work examines black soldiers' contributions to the nation's post-Civil War expansion and consolidation and sheds important light on the myriad obstacles the buffalo soldiers faced in their ongoing struggle for racial equality.

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The American Resting Place: Four Hundred Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

By Marilyn Yalom, with Photographs by Reid S. Yalom

Yalom is a cultural historian; her son, Reid, is an author and photographer. Together they have produced a curious, interesting, and surprisingly moving examination of the American practices of death ceremonies and burial ranging from pre-Jamestown Native American burial mounds to our contemporary, industrialized methods. The well-written text covers a variety of topics, including class and racial distinctions in cemeteries, religious tensions engendered by the building of a Muslim cemetery after 9/11, and an examination of how municipalities are coping with overcrowded burial sites. But it is the remarkable collection of more than 60 photographs that is likely to stir emotions. These include haunting images of lonely crosses at a Spanish mission, rows of well-manicured gravesites in California, and ancient tombstones with barely legible epitaphs at a Jewish cemetery in South Carolina. Both general readers and those with a specific interest in this unusual subject should find value in this work.

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Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America

By Craig Shirley (with a Foreword by George F. Will)

This is an "inside baseball"-style account of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign of 1980. While describing in great detail the various ups and downs of the campaign, as based on his analysis of the campaign files and the recollections of some 150 individuals involved in the campaign, the author admiringly casts Reagan as a deeply principled politician who overcame opposition from within and without his own party by staunchly hewing to his beliefs.

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Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq

By Dr. Dave Hnida

Hnida never forgot the horror of his alcoholic father's WWII experience, revealed as he drove his son to college, their last time together. The need to understand that horror later drove Hnida, as a middle-aged doctor, to war himself. He signed up for two tours of duty in Iraq. On the first tour, he was equipped with an M16 and medical tools and worked with convoys along the highways of Baghdad. His second time in Iraq, during the surge, Hnida worked at a combat-support hospital, the equivalent of a MASH unit. Hnida recalls the experience of working with much younger soldiers and doctors and the struggle to adjust to army discipline and protocol on top of the rigors of war and a hostile desert environment. A family doctor in civilian life, he was assigned to the ER, fighting his own constant fear as he worked on wounds no civilian doctor ever saw. Through it all, he developed close and abiding friendships with the other doctors and admiration for the young soldiers who risked their lives on a daily basis.

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Theodore Roosevelt's History of the United States: His Own Words

Selected and Arranged By Daniel Ruddy

Ruddy had his work cut out for him in assembling this history of the United States from the perspective of its 26th president. Roosevelt was a prolific writer, having penned enough for 20 volumes of collected works and written, it's estimated, more than 150,000 letters. Ruddy scoured a hefty portion of these writings, along with speeches, newspaper articles, and personal accounts left by associates, to create a colorful and highly opinionated account of some of the nation's most dramatic episodes. Though the book is comprised entirely of Roosevelt's own words, Ruddy is more than an anthologist; he's an adept editor, seamlessly stitching together passages from a myriad of sources to create a cohesive, informative, and always entertaining read. As a piece of American history however, the book is less valuable, its scope too large to allow for an in-depth examination of events. But as an intimate portrait of one of our most forceful leaders, it's a resounding success. Roosevelt's words breathe life into historical personalities long since reduced to ink and paper. Though his descriptions can be unflattering (Thomas Paine is deemed "a filthy little atheist," and William McKinley purportedly had "no more backbone than a chocolate eclair") they're certainly never dull.

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Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades

By Jonathan Phillips

A fresh, no-nonsense take on the causes, human cost and continued relevance of the medieval Crusades. Both religious belief and endemic violence characterized Europe in 1095 when Pope Urban II called for a "just war" against the alarming rise of the Muslims. Employing inflated language about sacrifice and the promise of celestial rewards, the pope gathered an army of 60,000 "Christian soldiers" to regain Jerusalem. They succeeded, but Phillips (Crusading History/Univ. of London; The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom, 2007, etc.) shows how ensuing crusades failed miserably, despite the zeal of the faithful. The Second, initiated by Pope Eugenius III and Bernard of Clairvaux, ended in a humiliating retreat from Damascus; the launch of a Third Crusade by King Richard the Lionheart was in response to Saladin's retaking of Jerusalem; Pope Innocent III's call for a Fourth Crusade, led by the Venetians, ended in the shocking sack of Constantinople in 1204; Frederick II's abysmal Fifth Crusade was thwarted by the Egyptians, yet he eventually finagled his way into Jerusalem by sheer diplomacy; pious King Louis IX's determined last crusades in the Holy Land encountered significant Muslim resistance but gained him sainthood. Along the way there were tertiary struggles against the heretics, such as Innocent III's rallying against the Cathars, the rise of the Inquisition, led by the Dominican friars, and Ferdinand and Isabella's eventual regaining of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors. Phillips wisely incorporates Columbus's mandate to spread the Good Word across the seas as another significant crusade. In two terrific concluding chapters, the author traces the resurgence of the crusading metaphor into modern times, largely thanks to Sir Walter Scott and the Romantics, and considers the incendiary war language of today, as jihad and as used by President Bush in asserting a "moral right. A straightforward, pertinent study replete with passionate personages both Christian and Muslim.

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The American resting place : four hundred years of history through our cemeteries and burial grounds

 by Marilyn Yalom. Cemeteries, graveyards, burial grounds, memorial parks: whatever we call them, these honored places for the dead can bring out emotions in all of us. After an initial exploration of the impact of ethnicity, class, gender, race, and historical events on burial practices, Marilyn Yalom (A History of the Wife) looks at cemeteries across the country as a means of surveying and understanding our past. While geographically based chapters can lead to some cemeteries being covered simply because they are near others, the results generally provide fascinating insights via such topics as the repatriation of Native American remains, New Orleans cemeteries in the aftermath of Katrina, slave burials, and the changing face of immigration. Over 60 stunning black-and-white photographs by Reid S. Yalom (Colonial Noir: Photographs from Mexico) enhance the work. Chapters on military cemeteries and new trends in funerals, including pet cemeteries, green burials, and cremation, round out the volume. Although the subjects, and the author's ideas, have received fuller treatment elsewhere, she has assembled a book that touches upon all of the topics in a manner appropriate for casual readers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Catskill Village

 by Richard Philp. Catskill Village has deep roots in the long human history of the Hudson River Valley, from its native population who greeted Henry Hudson on his voyage upriver in 1609 to its early settlers. Today’s village is located on the commercially advantageous landing on the Hudson River. In 1802, the Susquehanna Turnpike opened the village to the expanding western frontier, and Catskill Village became one of the most prominent commercial ports on the Hudson River. Local trades such as shipbuilding, tanning, farming, brickmaking, fishing, and tourism flourished. By the mid-20th century, the long era of prosperity had faded, only to rise phoenixlike in the past decade with an infusion of young professionals, artists, craftsmen, merchants, and those determined to save and restore the village’s exceptionally rich architectural heritage. --summary. (Check Catalog)