A deeply disheartening look at American terrorism.
A timely study of domestic terrorism.
Hoffman and Ware, both fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations, maintain that today’s far-right extremists have been gathering momentum since the 1970s. They began work on this book during the height of the pandemic, when “the vilification of Jews, Asians, persons of color, and immigrants, among others, was reaching unprecedented levels.” They deliver a vivid academic history that gives violent events more space than ideas, so readers should expect pages of murderous action and quotes from their perpetrators and supporters. Outraged by opposition to the Vietnam War and the success of the civil rights movement, groups of white racists became convinced that the U.S. government was hopelessly corrupt and dominated by non-whites, leftists, and immigrants, and they believed it had to be destroyed in order to create a new society. With names such as the Aryan Nation and the National Alliance, they gathered weapons and trained, issued manifestos, and occasionally engaged in armed robberies and standoffs with law enforcement. Initially incompetent in dealing with frank violence, the FBI and ATF improved, and by the 1990s, quasi-military organizations had largely vanished in favor of individual lone actors, including Timothy McVeigh. Although far-right extremists were distracted by foreign terrorists after 9/11, the election of America’s first Black president galvanized the fringe, who were further weaponized by social media—and later enraptured by Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016. Mass murderers now operate almost weekly, with ideologues perhaps outnumbered by the mentally ill. The authors clearly show how far-right rhetoric has entered the mainstream and how hatred of “government,” worship of firearms, and fear of immigrants win at the polls. Voters in nations around the world have elected autocrats and seen their democracies wither. Readers may wonder if that’s also in the cards for America.
A deeply disheartening look at American terrorism.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780231211222
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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