Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick. Philbrick will be a candidate for another award with this ingenious, bottom-up look at Boston from the time of the December 1773 Tea Party to the iconic June 1775 battle. Bunker Hill was the first and bloodiest engagement of the eight years of fighting that followed. A rewarding approach to a well-worn subject, rich in anecdotes, opinion, bloodshed and Byzantine political maneuvering.-- Kirkus

Get this book

The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters

Anthony Pagden. Pagden demonstrates the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his impeccable research of the period we refer to as the Enlightenment. Seeking to define men and their relationships with nature, and especially with each other, led to this scientific revolution; it was an intellectual process, a philosophical project and a social movement. Pagden impressively illustrates the significant discussions that took place as the scientists, historians and other intellectuals of the period tried to fathom man's nature and subject dogma to reason. A book that should be on every thinking person's shelf--the perfect primer for anyone interested in the development of Western civilization.--Kirkus

Get this book

The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia

Andrei Lankov. Examination of North Korea's misery-producing dictatorship, why it cannot last and how to replace it. A Russian historian who spent time in North Korea as an exchange student and lived through his own country's break with Soviet authoritarianism, Lankov (History/Koomkin Univ., Seoul; North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea, 2007, etc.) offers an astute look into the lethal absurdities of the North Korean regime, from the time of Great Leader Kim Il-sung to grandson Kim Jong-un. A well-reasoned survey by a scholar who excels at long-term thinking. --Kirkus

Get this book

Above the Din of War: Afghans Speak about Their Lives, Their Country, and Their Future-And Why America Should Listen

Peter Eichstaedt. Veteran journalist Eichstaedt delivers from Afghanistan a dismal report on that country's continued disintegration and decline and the failure of U.S. efforts to prevent it. Eichstaedt interviewed Afghans from all walks of life: government officials, Taliban leaders, shopkeepers, mullahs, would-be suicide bombers, victims of self-immolation and others. Heartbreaking and spellbinding dispatches from a country descending into madness.--Kirkus

Get this Book

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941

Lynne Olson. A fully fleshed-out portrait of the battle between the interventionists and isolationists in the 18 months leading up to Pearl Harbor. Former Baltimore Sun White House correspondent Olson looks closely at both sides of the U.S. debate about whether to support Britain against the onslaught of Nazi Germany or remain aloof from the European conflict, epitomized by the two prominent personalities of the respective camps, President Franklin Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh.Throughout, Olson adroitly sifts through the many conflicting currents. A vivid, colorful evocation of a charged era.--Kirkus

Get this Book

American Story: A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

Bob Dotson. The longtime Today Show correspondent offers a collection of heartwarming stories about ordinary citizens, "people who live the values our country cherishes." The author mixes in a little autobiographical information, but he focuses on a succession of quiet achievers, people whose imagination, grit and goodness might otherwise have escaped the news, had he not gone in search of their stories. Many of the characters require more than the three or four pages Dotson allots them to make any lasting impression, but the sheer multitude of tales underscores his argument about an America chock-full of unassuming people whose lives enrich the nation.--Kirkus

Get this Book

Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

Rashid Khalidi. Extracting three episodes from a complex 35-year history, a distinguished Middle East scholar exposes America's unfitness to mediate between Israel and Palestine. Khalidi maintains that the U.S. and Isreal, "by far the most powerful actors in the Middle East," through successive administrations and a variety of key officials (Condoleezza Rice and Dennis Ross take a particular beating here), have conspired to deny Palestinians any semblance of self-determination. A stinging indictment of one-sided policymaking destined, if undisturbed, to result in even greater violence.--Kirkus

Get this book

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

Get this Book

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

 Get this book