Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

Ira Katznelson. Emphasizing the long New Deal, putting it in its global context, and shifting the focus from the White House to Congress makes this book a major revision of conventional interpretations. But it's the extent of the permeating influence of Southern Democrats on national politics that is the work's revelation Katznelson rues the New Deal's surrender to special interests at the expense of the public good. Overall, a critical and deeply scholarly work that, notwithstanding, is compulsively readable--Publisher's Weekly

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The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations

Ervand Abrahamian. A relevant, readable study of the foreign-engineered 1953 Iranian coup reminds us of the cause that won't go away: oil. Abrahamian clears away much of the nostalgic Cold War cobwebs surrounding the ouster of the popular Iranian reformer Muhammad Mossadeq, employing new oral history and pertinent memoirs published posthumously by Mossadeq's advisers. The well-rendered, lucid back story explaining the current, ongoing deep distrust and suspicion between the U.S. and Iran.--Kirkus

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The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century

Paul Collins. A lively, full-to-bursting history of the turbulent 10th century in Europe, when inner dissention and external marauding began to give way to cohesion and centrality. Collins manages to enthrall readers in the vicissitudes of an early medieval era marked by random violence and unpronounceable Nordic names via his thorough knowledge of the epoch and ability to spin an engaging tale. Who knew the 10th century could be so compelling?--Kirkus

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The Pharaoh: Life at Court and on Campaign

Garry Shaw. In this delightful and lavishly illustrated guide, Egyptologist Shaw (Royal Authority in Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty) introduces the fascinating lives and times of the pharaohs in elaborate detail, recreating in stories what it was like to be one. The author helpfully provides brief biographies of most of the pharaohs, such as Hatshepsut, a strong female pharaoh who established important trading relations with one of Egypt's neighbors, and Amenhotep IV, who briefly established monotheistic worship. Shaw's captivating study is the perfect introduction to these fabled rulers.--Publisher's Weekly

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Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865

James Oakes. A finely argued book about how the destruction of slavery involved much more than Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Oakes returns to the notion that slavery, rather than states' rights or "an outbreak of hysteria, irrationality and paranoia," was truly the origin of the Civil War. A useful contribution to the literature about slavery and the Civil War.--Kirkus

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The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

Rick Atkinson. Atkinson concludes his series on the war in Europe and North Africa with this superb work. Though lacking an overall theme, the book is distinguished by its astonishing range of coverage peopling the pages are German, British, French, Canadian, and (primarily) American generals and common soldiers. Excerpts from the letters of dead soldiers on both sides, as well as from the diaries of captain generals, fill out the story. It is hard to imagine a better history of the western front's final phase.--Publishers Weekly

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The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Robert Macfarlane. Macfarlane returns with another masterful, poetic travel narrative. The author's latest, focusing broadly on the concept of walking, forms what he calls "a loose trilogy," with his two earlier books, Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places, "about landscape and the human heart." A breathtaking study of "walking as enabling sight and thought rather than encouraging retreat and escape."--Kirkus

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The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Secret White House Tapes

David Coleman. Utilizing recently released White House tapes, Coleman shows that a crisis atmosphere still prevailed within the administration after the apparent acquiescence of the Soviets. Kennedy and his advisors struggled with issues of Soviet compliance with the agreement, the difficulty in coping with a still-belligerent and supposedly dangerous Cuba, and especially with the potential flashpoint of Berlin. Coleman has provided an excellent analysis of both short- and long-term results of the crisis.

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Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy

Douglas Smith. Smith examines the much-neglected "fate of the nobility in the decades following the Russian Revolution, " when they were sometimes given the Orwellian title "former people." Smith focuses on three generations of two families: the Sheremetsevs of St. Petersburg and the Golitsyns of Moscow. This is an anecdotally rich, highly informative look at decimated, uprooted former upper-class Russians.--Publisher's Weekly

 

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