Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




History Book Reviews Available Now (page 2)


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Cover art for ACT OF CONGRESS
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"Remember that old saw about making sausages and making laws--that you don't want to know too much about either one? Kaiser disproves it with this lucid if sometimes numbing book."
A painstaking, richly detailed look at how the suite of financial reforms that followed the bank near-collapse of 2008 came to be--and nearly didn't come to be, even as they were defanged. Read full book review >
Cover art for MACARTHUR'S WAR
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"A well-focused cautionary tale about the checks and balances of power."
Versatile military historian Alexander (Sun Tzu at Gettysburg: Ancient Military Wisdom in the Modern World, 2011, etc.), a Korean War veteran, takes on the perilous confrontation between the U.S. military and the civilian command during that war. Read full book review >
Cover art for AMERICAN PHOENIX
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"A well-researched treatment of two interesting figures in one of the most eventful times in world history. Though a bit plodding at first, it's well worth sticking with it."
John Quincy Adams spent several years as the American diplomatic representative in Russia, at the height of the Napoleonic wars. Here's the story. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE PRICE OF JUSTICE
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"An eye-opening story about the relations among politics, business and justice."
A well-constructed nonfiction legal thriller from prizewinning journalist Leamer (Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach, 2009, etc.). Read full book review >
Cover art for THE ROBERTS COURT
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"A careful, informed analysis of the origins, progress and disposition of the complex, high-stakes legal disputes that find their way to the court."
In her first book, the National Law Journal's longtime chief Washington correspondent examines the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, seven years after the appointment of the youngest chief justice since John Marshall. Read full book review >
Cover art for DOSSIER K
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013
by Imre Kertész, translated by Tim Wilkinson

"The author's novels may provide a better introduction to his work, but this memoir will help to further illuminate them."
Kertész, the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, interrogates himself in a provocative memoir that will deepen the understanding of those already familiar with his novels. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"A good bit of journalistic documentation related in lackluster writing."
Overly detailed look at the expert manipulations of an attractive young Parisian on the make and the English prince who fell for her. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE SECRET RESCUE
NONFICTION
Released: May 7, 2013

"A sometimes dry but proficient, detailed and tearless account."
A journalist unearths the story of a crash landing in war-torn Albania during World War II. Read full book review >
Cover art for SERVING VICTORIA
NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2013

"A touching portrait of Victoria offstage and unguarded."
Mining the record left by six intimate Victorian servants, Hubbard (Rubies in the Snow, 2007, etc.) discovers a great deal about the British monarch, wife and mother. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE GREAT AMERICAN JET PACK
NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2013

"While personal-flight prototypes edge from pipe dream to purchase order, this well-documented history provides a satisfying substitution."
A sapid look into the historically futile attempts to develop a gravity-defying, single-person flying machine. Read full book review >
Cover art for DR. FEELGOOD
NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2013

"A thin, mostly secondhand portrait of a misguided doctor and the harm he caused his famous clientele."
JFK, his rogue doctor and the conspiracy to kill a meth-addicted president. Read full book review >
Cover art for BUNKER HILL
NONFICTION
Released: April 30, 2013

"A rewarding approach to a well-worn subject, rich in anecdotes, opinion, bloodshed and Byzantine political maneuvering."
National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Philbrick (Why Read Moby-Dick, 2011, etc.) 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. Read full book review >