A fascinating look at the center of American government and the colorful characters who built and have occupied it.
A history of an iconic American building.
Biographer Jones (Jim Henson, 2013, and George Lucas, 2016) writes that the building got its name when Thomas Jefferson crossed out the words “Congress House” on Pierre L’Enfant’s map of the projected federal district and wrote in “Capitol.” The building itself—“a project that came with a pedigree like perhaps no other in American history”—began to rise on September 18, 1793, when George Washington laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. It did not rise quickly; the original estimate for its completion was far too optimistic, both in time and cost. When Congress finally moved into its new quarters in November 1800, only the north wing was complete. The House of Representatives met, for the time being, in a space meant for the Library of Congress. The District of Columbia itself had fewer than 400 houses; many members of Congress shared beds in boarding houses. Work on the Capitol was ongoing, with much squabbling between legislators, the projects’ architects, and their nominal superiors—Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War in the 1850s, oversaw many important improvements. Air quality in the legislative chambers was a constant issue until air conditioning arrived in the 1920s. And the majestic dome, which caught Washington’s eye in one of the first designs submitted, underwent several changes before it reached the proportions we now know. The narrative takes further power from the many incidents that took place in and around the Capitol, including its burning by the British in 1814, an attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, its use to house Civil War soldiers, and, of course, the mob attack of January 6, 2021. “As both the symbol and the epicenter of the American experiment,” Jones concludes, “the Capitol houses not just the government but the American psyche.”
A fascinating look at the center of American government and the colorful characters who built and have occupied it.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780593185001
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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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