Tag: US history
Book review: ‘American Nations’ by Colin Woodard
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard Viking Penguin (2011), hardcover, 371 pages This book is a good high-level history and analysis of how and why different non-native cultures got established in North America and then spread to dominate different regions. Woodard makes broad generalizations about […]
Book review: ‘Midnight Rising’ by Tony Horwitz
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz Henry Holt (2011), Hardcover, 384 pages Tony Horwitz delivers yet another fine history. Though not iconic like Confederates in the Attic, this solid narrative gives us a detailed account of John Brown’s early life, the origins of his fervent abolitionism, […]
Book review: ‘The Whites of Their Eyes’ by Jill Lepore
The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History by Jill Lepore Princeton University Press (2010), hardcover, 210 pages A review-blurb on the front cover of this book says, “Lepore is a better reporter than any historian, and a better historian than any reporter.” That short, muddled review is […]
Book review: ‘1861: The Civil War Awakening’ by Adam Goodheart
1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart Vintage Books/Random House (2011), hardcover, 481 pages This is a wonderful book that paints a vivid picture of America during the Secession Crisis and the early days of the Civil War. But beyond mere narrative, 1861’s main focus is on chronicling the psychological shift among Northerners that […]