A convincing rehabilitation of a statesman who fought for equality before it became fashionable.
The notorious “Radical Republican” gets his day in the sun.
Though Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) was considered a villain for decades after his death, many historians now agree that he fought for the highest ideals of democracy. An ambitious Pennsylvania lawyer, he became an abolitionist in the 1830s, writes Levine in this useful biographical portrait. Most contemporaries and historians, at least until the 1960s, considered abolitionists fanatics and devoted much energy to analyzing their motives (a sense of justice was apparently off-limits). Although the author admits that Stevens excelled in sarcasm and invective, regularly enraging Southern representatives, who considered abuse their monopoly, the demagogue portrayed by previous historians is nowhere in evidence here. Stevens chaired the powerful Ways and Means Committee when war broke out in 1861. A pivotal figure, he urged Lincoln to free the slaves long before the president came around. By 1865, Northern leaders, exasperated by the war, had lost their objection to emancipation, but almost everyone (historians included) considered that an end in itself. Only Radical Republicans urged that the freed slaves receive legal protection, the vote, and opportunity to make a living. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, aided Radicals by his sheer dreadfulness. He proclaimed publicly that Blacks were inferior and unfit for citizenship and vetoed legislation to aid them. Pardoning prominent Confederates, he welcomed all-White state representatives back into Congress. These actions, along with widespread oppression, violence, and murder, offended Northern opinion enough to persuade moderates to vote with Radicals who were always a minority. With Stevens’ support, Congress rejected all-White delegations, overturned Johnson’s vetoes, sent troops to protect freed slaves, and passed the 14th Amendment, which aimed to ensure legal protection but defeated other commendable efforts such as enforcing voting rights and distributing land to freed slaves. Because Stevens died at the peak of Reconstruction, he did not witness its failure.
A convincing rehabilitation of a statesman who fought for equality before it became fashionable.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4767-9337-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 Yorker staff 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 blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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