A well-crafted work on a watershed moment in American culture.
A debut nonfiction book chronicles the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
For nearly two decades, it was the policy of the United States military not to discriminate against closeted LGBTQ+ members even as it continued to prohibit openly LGBTQ+ members from serving. The same year that the rule went into effect—1993—Osburn co-founded the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to spearhead its repeal. “The repeal of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in December 2010 marks one of the most significant civil rights achievements of our generation,” writes the author. “It was the first time that Congress had passed legislation embracing equality for lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans.” This book is a firsthand account of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era, one that saw the discharge of thousands of qualified, patriotic military personnel for their sexual orientation. It is also the story of the movement that rose in opposition to that policy, shifting public opinion in a relatively short time and paving the way for future victories for LGBTQ+ rights. Using the tales of individual service members as well as his own memories and the SLDN archives, the author reconstructs a detailed portrait of a pivotal moment in the history of the American military—and American culture. Osburn’s prose is crisp and fluid. Here, he describes the tenor of a court-martial for the man who killed Pvt. Barry Winchell for dating a transgender woman: “I arrived at the small courthouse at Fort Campbell for Glover’s court-martial. It was a trailer with low ceilings, fluorescent lights, and fake wood paneling. It was not the sort of marbled hall of justice that spoke gravity and reverence. This felt more like an inconvenience.” Filled with organizing, strategizing, outmaneuvering, and politicking, the story is a surprisingly thrilling one, offering many parallels to social movements in the present day. Even those who think they know the history will likely get caught up in the drama of it. The author demonstrates how much work goes into a single moment, even one that seems inevitable in retrospect. His account is detailed and well researched, and it will likely prove to be the definitive book on the subject.
A well-crafted work on a watershed moment in American culture.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73748-240-6
Page Count: 520
Publisher: C. Dixon Osburn
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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