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 WeeklySunday, February 24, 2013
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 WeeklyFriday, February 15, 2013
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."--KirkusSaturday, February 9, 2013
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.Saturday, February 2, 2013
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 WeeklyWednesday, January 23, 2013
Isaac's Army: A Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland
Matthew Brzezinski. The history of Polish Jews who fought Nazi brutality, retold in the stories of some truly remarkable young men and women. Journalist Brzezinski (Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age, 2007, etc.) presents a meticulous, harrowing account of resistance, humanized with personal tales of individual combatants. A well-told, direct story of endurance and courage in the face of death and destruction on an apocalyptic scale, as moving and powerful as any novel.--KirkusFriday, January 11, 2013
Tower : an epic history of the Tower of London
Nigel R. Jones. Historian and journalist Jones enlightens and delights in this history of the London Tower. The author begins with tales of William the Conquerer, whose "motte-and-bailey" forts could be erected "within a week." The buildings surrounding the White Tower served not only as royal pomp, but also as the armory, where blacksmiths forged swords, fletchers made arrows and weaponry was stored, including gunpowder. A historian's history that deserves pride of place in every library.--KirkusThursday, December 27, 2012
Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World
Evan Thomas. The beatification of President Dwight Eisenhower continues in this keen
character study. Often viewed as trustworthy but bland, Eisenhower
didn't let on what was really roiling behind the comforting exterior, as
Thomas effectively argues in
this chronological look at his presidency. Thomas ably demonstrates how operating through
indirection became Ike's effective peacekeeping strategy. An astute,
thoroughly engaging portrayal.--KirkusFriday, December 14, 2012
Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying: The Secret World War II Transcripts of German POWs
Sonke Neitzel. A trove of transcripts of bugged recordings providing specific,
startling evidence that German soldiers in World War II were not just
following orders. Neitzel and Welzer
pore over two stores of documents
from the British and American national archives, numbering some 150,000
pages in all, of transcripts from recordings of German prisoners of war
secretly made in various holding facilities. The authors layer on
commentary that sometimes threatens to bury the soldiers' stories in a
gray cloak of academese, but the point remains: These German soldiers
were utterly normal, for all the atrocities they committed, men who
killed simply "because it's their job." Unique--and essential to any
understanding of German mentalites in the Hitler era.--KirkusFriday, December 7, 2012
Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union
Louis P. Masur. There have been many recent fine books on the Emancipation Proclamation and its role in recasting the character of the country. Masur does not engage that literature so much as extend it with a lucid and learned account of the process whereby Lincoln moved toward emancipation, and once so committed, made it the lodestar of the Union. This is now the best work on the proclamation. As its sesquicentennial looms (January 2013), all persons wanting to understand the contingency of freedom should read this book.--Library Journal
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