Books

• 
• 5-19-16
  

  Review of Charles Glass's "Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe"

  by Murray Polner

  Charles Glass's slim, truthful and updated version of Syria Burning, originally published in 2015, is a perfect antidote to the lack of clarity surrounding the Syrian civil war.

• 

• Review of Hans-Joerg Tiede's "University Reform: The Founding of the American Association of University Professors"

  by Luther Spoehr

  Defining and defending academic freedom--and more.

• 
• 5-11-16
  

  Review of Adam Hochschild's "Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939"

  by Ron Briley

  The Spanish Civil War is a topic off the radar screen of most Americans, but Hochschild’s well written account reminds us that the American volunteers for Spain were more than mere pawns of the Soviet Union.

• 
• 5-3-16
  

  Review of David Cesarani’s "Disraeli: The Novel Politician”

  by Henry D. Fetter

  Disraeli may never have made much of his Jewish ancestry, but Cesarani concludes his behavior followed a customary Jewish pattern. 

• 

• Review of Dov Waxman's "Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel"

  by Murray Polner

  "Trouble in the Tribe" is a valuable road map to an ongoing and very important conflict.

• 
• 4-28-16
  

  Review of Sean Wilentz’s "The Politicians and the Egalitarians"

  by David Sehat

  The intellectual range on display in this collection of essays is truly impressive.

• 
• 4-4-16
  

  Review of "The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class" edited by Christopher D. Cantwell, Heath W. Carter, and Janine Giordano Drake

  by Robert D. Parmet

  With this diverse collection of essays, Cantwell, Carter, and Drake admirably succeed in merging the histories of religion and the working class.

• 

• Review of Larry Cuban's "Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools"

  by Luther Spoehr

  Plus ca change...

• 
• 3-23-16
  

  Review of Kevin M. Kruse’s “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America”

  by Ron Briley

  "One Nation under God" is a provocative piece of historical scholarship.

• 
• 3-22-16
  

  What's the Matter with Liberalism?

  by Mike O’Connor

  A review of Thomas Frank’s new book, "Listen, Liberal–or–What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?"

• 
• 2-29-16
  

  Review of Raymond Bonner’s “Weakness and Deceit: America and El Salvador’s Dirty War”

  by Murray Polner

  Bonner’s necessary if one-sided book is replete with barely-concealed rage.

• 
• 2-11-16
  

  Review of Susan Southard’s "Nagasaki:  Life After Nuclear War"

  by Murray Polner

  A book we should read to remind us of the horrors it’s all too easy to forget.

• 
• 1-29-16
  

  Review of Richard C. Crepeau's "NFL Football: A History of America’s New National Pastime"

  by Ron Briley

  How American professional football came to dominate national culture across boundaries of race, class, and even gender as well as cast a giant shadow internationally.

• 
• 1-29-16
  

  Review of Michael Morell’s "The Great War of our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism, from Al Qa’ida to ISIS"

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  Michael Morell spent 33 years at the CIA. Many of the details in his surprisingly candid (and even self critical) account of his tenure at the CIA are new and of importance to those studying the war on terror.

• 
• 1-24-16
  

  Review of Harry Jaffe’s “Why Bernie Sanders Matters”

  by Murray Polner

  Bernie is what he's always been -- “a Brooklyn guy on a crusade” who really believes in social justice.

• 
• 1-22-16
  

  Review of Ludmila Ulitskaya’s “The Big Green Tent”

  by Walter G. Moss

  "The Big Green Tent" is a worthy successor in a long line of first-rate Russian novels. It pulsates with life, reflects a historical era accurately, deals with important moral questions, and is extremely readable.

• 
• 1-24-16
  

  Review of Julie Des Jardins' "Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man"

  by Luther Spoehr

  The "Father of Football" and the "crisis of masculinity."

• 
• 1-13-16
  

  Review of Donna T. Haverty-Stacke’s “Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since The Age of FDR”

  by Murray Polner

  A fascinating look at the group of intellectuals who pledged allegiance to Trotsky and the federal government's campaign to disrupt their party.

• 
• 12-15-15
  

  Review of Eric Rauchway’s “The Money Makers: How Roosevelt and Keynes Ended the Depression, Defeated Fascism, and Secured a Prosperous Peace”

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  Eric Rauchway’s prodigious labor in the archives reveals the backstory for important actions in the Roosevelt years.

• 
• 12-14-15
  

  Review of Ginger Adams Otis’s “Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest”

  by Paul Moses

  "Firefight" sheds light on how favoritism can riddle a civil service system supposedly based on merit.