Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns

Avlon, John (Editor), Angelo, Jesse (Editor), Louis, Errol (Editor). Well-catalogued and categorized, this exultant retrospective of American journalism seems ideal for today's attention spans and travel schedules. "Well done is better than well said," Benjamin Franklin wrote, but as far as this essential anthology goes, it's so well done, there's nothing left to say.--Publisher's Weekly (Check Catalog)

Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge

Danny Parker. Military historian Parker returns with a sharply focused look at a grisly 1944 incident, the massacre of more than 80 American prisoners outside Malmédy, Belgium. Assembling a massive amount of data, the author views the tragedy from the perspectives of survivors, the Germans and the Belgian civilians, some of whom aided the wounded, some of whom did not. Comprehensive, definitive, grim and gripping.--Kirkus (Check Catalog)

Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy

Susan Herman. A focused, thorough account of the federal government's panicked response to 9/11 and the consequent rollback of our civil liberties. Divided into three major sections—"Dragnets and Watchlists," "Surveillance and Secrecy" and "American Democracy"—the book offers a compelling case that the basic constitutional protections most Americans take for granted, including the rights to free speech, a fair trial and due process, as well as freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, were seriously compromised after 9/11 as a result of the government's well-meaning but ill-conceived efforts to safeguard the country against another attack.--Kirkus (Check Catalog)

Moscow, December 25, 1991 : the last day of the Soviet Union

Conor O'Clery. The author gives microscopic attention to the telling details: whose pen was used to sign documents, how CNN got to broadcast Gorbachev's speech and much more. Shaping the day, writes O'Clery, were the successive effects of the bitterness, resentments and grudges of the five-year rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin. A compelling story about how sometimes the little everyday things can shape the broad sweep of history more powerfully than ideologies or competitive economic systems.--Kirkus (Check Catalog).

The New Deal: A Modern History

Michael Hiltzik. With panache and skill, Hiltzik chronicles the rise and decline of the New Deal, from the desperate improvisation of the Hundred Days through the more carefully considered passage of such landmark legislation as the Securities Exchange Act and the Social Security Act. A timely, well-executed overview of the program that laid the foundation for the modern progressive state.--Kirkus (Check Catalog).

1812: The Navy's War

A naval expert's readable take on the U.S. Navy's surprising performance in the war that finally reconciled the British to America's independence. Daughan focuses on the personalities, ships and battles that prevented the British from suffocating the infant nation's maritime ambitions. A smart salute to a defining moment in the history of the U.S. Navy.--Kirkus (Check Catalog)

The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India

Siddhartha Deb. Deb offers a refreshingly skeptical rejoinder to the feel-good narratives of an ascendant India happily contributing to and benefiting from globalization. His mosaic of stories of striving, hopes dashed or realized, is more craggy, gritty, and realistic than the glossy accounts of information technology and free markets as benign, modernizing forces--Publisher's Weekly (Check Catalog)

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

David McCullough. Not content to focus on a few of the 19th-century American artists, doctors and statesmen who benefited enormously from their Parisian education, McCullough embraces a cluster of aspiring young people such as portraitist George Healy and lawyer Charles Sumner, eager to expand their horizons in the 1830s by enduring the long sea passage, then spirals out to include numerous other visitors over an entire eventful century. A gorgeously rich, sparkling patchwork, eliciting stories from diaries and memoirs to create the human drama McCullough depicts so well.--Kirkus (Check Catalog)

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, Kennedy, Caroline, Beschloss, Michael. Presents the annotated transcription and original audio for the 1964 interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy on her experiences and impressions as the wife of John F. Kennedy, offering an intimate and detailed account of the man and his times.--Book Description (Check Catalog).