Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea

Sheila Miyoshi Jager (Get this book)
Jager provides a well-grounded understanding of the evolution of the paranoid, isolated North Korean state as it emerged from Soviet protection and attempted to enforce its legitimacy across the entire peninsula by waging war on the South. The lessons of the Korean War were acute, if not always heeded, resulting in the lack of a clear victory, the militarization of American society in the forms of a large standing army and huge defense expenditures, and the newfound confidence of China, which spooked both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. An authoritative record of the divided Korean peninsula to go alongside Victor Cha's The Impossible State.--Kirkus

America 1933: The Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Shaping of the New Deal

Michael Golay (Get this book)
Historian Golay has mined the thousands of letters between Associated Press reporter Lorena Hickock (1893-1968) and Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), as well as Hickok's reports, to present an unexpectedly horrific picture of America during a terrible time. Even at the time, many counseled patience and denounced government aid as socialistic, but few readers of this gripping, painful account of third-world-level poverty and despair will agree that it is the natural order.--Kirkus

The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England

Marc Morris (Get this book)
The story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England is hardly new, but the situations that prompted it on both sides of the English Channel have never been told in so much depth. A historian who specializes in the Middle Ages, especially that period's monarchies and aristocracy, Morris takes thoroughness to new heights as he compares all the available sources in this valuable text. The author includes useful maps, an expansive genealogical tree and extensive notes. A thoroughly enjoyable book from a historian's historian who can write for the masses.--Kirkus

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

Joseph J. Ellis (Get this book)
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ellis writes book after book on the American Revolutionary period. Practice makes perfect. The author's latest alternates between 1776 colonial politics during which the Continental Congress, dominated by John Adams, finally put aside efforts at compromise and opted for independence and the fighting where George Washington's army marched from triumph in the siege of Boston to catastrophe in New York. Ellis delivers few surprises and no cheerleading but much astute commentary. A traditionalist, Ellis sticks to 1776 and writes an insightful history of its critical, if often painful, events.--Kirkus

Edmund Burke: The First Conservative

Jesse Norman (Get this book)
Member of Parliament Norman comprehensively explains the history and the writings of the man whose thoughts have been quarried by politicians for hundreds of years. The author smartly divides his biography into sections on Edmund Burke's (1729-1797) life and his thought. The Dubliner arrived in London at age 20, and while he rarely returned, he strove throughout his 30-year parliamentary career for his countrymen and especially the Catholics in that land. A top-notch introduction to Burke and his paternity of political systems throughout the Western Hemisphere. Even better, the author points out where ignoring Burke's thoughts have caused unnecessary difficulties.--Kirkus

Gettysburg: The Last Invasion

Allen C. Guelzo (Get this book)
A stirring account of the "greatest and most violent collision the North American continent [has] ever seen," just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The author ably, even vividly, captures the hell of the battlefield while constantly keeping the larger scope of Gettysburg in the reader's mind: It was, he argues, the one central struggle over one plank of the Civil War, namely the preservation of the Union, that nearly wholly excluded the other one, the abolition of slavery. Robust, memorable reading that will appeal to Civil War buffs, professional historians and general readers alike.--Kirkus

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

Dan Jones. A novelistic historical account of the bloodline that "stamped their mark forever on the English imagination." With a bit of background on the civil war between Stephen and Matilda that first gained the throne for Henry, Jones splits his tale in two at the usurpation of Richard II in 1399 by his first cousin Henry IV. This structure will whet readers' appetites for the second volume, which will cover the War of the Roses, the princes in the Tower and Richard III. Historians may question a few dates and events, but for enjoyable historical narratives, this book is a real winner.--Kirkus

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The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan

James Scott. Using voluminous official records plus interviews and an amazing number of unpublished diaries and letters, Scott delivers a gripping, almost day-by-day account of the actions of three submarines, Silversides, Tang and Drum, from Pearl Harbor to VE Day. Nazi U-boats get the publicity, but America's submarines were more effective, sinking so many Japanese vessels that by the end of World War II, civilians were starving and factories barely functioning. Military buffs will lap it up, but general readers may find it difficult to resist the tension, drama and fireworks of this underappreciated but dazzlingly destructive American weapon of WWII.

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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. When U.S. and coalition forces entered Afghanistan in 2001 and defeated the brutal Taliban regime, hopes ran high for peace and prosperity. Neither, reports the author, has occurred. Rather, Afghanistan remains a country "crumbling at the edges and collapsing at its core." Heartbreaking and spellbinding dispatches from a country descending into madness.--Kirkus

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