A persuasively argued case for dismantling a destructive policy.
A Canadian First Nations leader makes a case for Indigenous self-government.
As we approach the 150th year since the passage of Canada’s Consolidated Indian Act of 1876, Joseph convincingly contends that the legislative policy “has constrained and controlled the lives of Status Indians for generations.” The author, who inherited a chief’s seat in the Gayaxala clan of the Gwawa’enuxw tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation, begins with a brief history of Canadian-Indigenous relations for those who may be unfamiliar. Although King George III’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 created a framework for self-determination that recognized the area’s Indigenous residents “as nations of people,” the subsequent Indian Act viewed them as “savages, incapable of governing themselves,” while the Canadian government shifted its priorities toward assimilation that amounted to “cultural genocide,” writes Joseph. After providing historical context, the book transitions to its central thesis that the Indian Act “needs to be dismantled.” Pragmatic in his approach, Joseph emphasizes practical steps for undoing the antiquated law and looks to the future for what would ideally replace it. Foremost among his arguments is that self-government can coexist with “Canada’s fiduciary duty to Status Indians”; allocating resources to First Nations communities directly, he says, will align government funding with “community values and ideas” and make healthcare and other programs “more efficient and effective.” Backed by nearly 200 endnotes, this well-researched book effectively balances scholarship with a deep understanding of Indigenous history. The author, a former professor at Royal Roads University, is the author of multiple books on Indigenous policy and is the co-founder and president of Indigenous Corporate Training, an organization focused on improving Indigenous relations in Canada’s public and private sectors. This brief volume’s accessible approach is complemented by a robust set of appendices that include additional reading suggestions and tips on how readers can get involved in the movement to replace the Indian Act on a grassroots level.
A persuasively argued case for dismantling a destructive policy.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781774586273
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Page Two
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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