A sturdy account of how we got where we are, vindictive chaos leading the way.
Axios reporter Isenstadt charts the dark paths that led to 45’s becoming 47.
Donald Trump’s election in 2024, writes Isenstadt, marks “the most remarkable political comeback in American history.” Trump left the White House in shame, failed coup attempt and all, with an administration shattered by resignations and assorted scandals. Brooding in his Mar-a-Lago exile, though, he continued the big lie that he’d won the election to keep his base engaged and his name in the news. With able lieutenants, he also focused on gaining total control of the Republican Party, which he “wanted to run…like a big-city political machine.” That project involved taking down his Republican opposition piece by piece, especially Ron DeSantis, who “was Trump but with all the stuff Republicans liked and without all the stuff many of them did not.” Trump was successful, just as he was in reducing former allies who in his mind had become his enemies, such as Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, who, after DeSantis crashed and burned, “had become the favorite of Republican establishment donors who were determined to stop Trump.” It’s worth noting that none of those enemies plays a role in the MAGA administration. Isenstadt delivers news, such as Trump’s having seriously considered Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo for his vice president before selecting JD Vance, who had been critical of Trump in the past. No problem, writes Isenstadt: “Trump was always amenable to former detractors who wanted to kiss the ring.” Trump was enraged when Kamala Harris took Joe Biden’s place in the race against him, disparaging her in racist and sexist terms, but then again, in Isenstadt’s telling, Trump is always enraged about one thing or another, which was manifest from day 1 of his second term, when “his quest for revenge appeared underway.”
A sturdy account of how we got where we are, vindictive chaos leading the way.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781538765517
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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