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Best Nonfiction of 2012: History (page 3)

Cover art for DESERT AMERICA
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Star DESERT AMERICA: BOOM AND BUST IN THE NEW "NEW WEST"
by Rubén Martínez
"Less self-absorbed than Luis Alberto Urrea, less cynical than Charles Bowden, less otherly obsessed than William Vollmann--and right in the pocket, a necessary chronicle of a weird corner of America."
A savage journey into terror, cacti, drugs, desperation and all-around anomie in the superheated atmosphere of the desert Southwest. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE TWILIGHT WAR
NONFICTION
Released: July 23, 2012
Kirkus Star THE TWILIGHT WAR: THE SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA'S THIRTY-YEAR CONFLICT WITH IRAN
by David Crist
"Some casual readers may be turned off by the page count, but this is likely to be the authoritative history of the origins and progress of the Iranian policy morass for years to come."
An encyclopedic account of the ongoing military and diplomatic conflict between the United States and Iran. Read full book review >
Cover art for SAVAGE CONTINENT
NONFICTION
Released: July 3, 2012
Kirkus Star SAVAGE CONTINENT: EUROPE IN THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR II
by Keith Lowe
"Authoritative but never dry, stripping away soothing myths of national unity and victimhood, this is a painful but necessary historical task superbly done."
A breathtaking, numbing account of the physical and moral desolation that plagued Europe in the late 1940s. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS
NONFICTION
Released: June 7, 2012
Kirkus Star THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS: A HISTORY OF LIFE AND DEATH
by Jill Lepore
"A superb examination of the never-ending effort to enhance life, as well as the commensurate refusal to ever let it go."
A sharp, illuminating history of ideas showing how America has wrestled with birth, childhood, work, marriage, old age and death. Read full book review >
Cover art for CITY
NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
Kirkus Star CITY: A USER'S GUIDE TO THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF URBAN LIFE
by P.D. Smith
"As exciting, sprawling and multifarious as a shining city on a hill."
Smith (Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon, 2007, etc.) composes a polyphonic paean to our urban past, present and future. Read full book review >
Cover art for SEASON OF THE WITCH
NONFICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Star SEASON OF THE WITCH: ENCHANTMENT, TERROR AND DELIVERANCE IN THE CITY OF LOVE
by David Talbot
"Though he's a little too enamored with "angel-headed hipsters" and "fairy dust," Talbot takes the reader much deeper than cliché, exploring a San Francisco that tourists never discover."
An ambitious, labor-of-love illumination of a city's soul, celebrating the uniqueness of San Francisco without minimizing the price paid for the city's free-spiritedness. Read full book review >