Steed's debut nonfiction title is an elegant, poetic history delving into the mysterious people of the Moor in western England.
The volume begins with chapter-by-chapter accounts of the generations who lived on the Moor over the course of 20 centuries, beginning with those who fought against, and subsequently fell to, Roman occupation. Steed tracks how isolated, decentralized tribes advanced and unified over hundreds of years. This section, though chronological, presents the reader with many overlying themes, such as the tensions and innovations created by the church. The second part of the book takes a more in-depth look at the mid-Victorian era. This pivotal generation saw challenges and advancements on the moor like no time before or arguably since. Set against the backdrop of an increasing stratification of society, many issues are particularly apt to modern readers, like how to best help the poor, the broadening availability of education and the challenges of health care in a unified society. The final act of the book adds interesting commentary for readers, analyzing societal pressures and their effects—and how this idea plays out in history. Steed's examination of themes like personal narrative sheds light on the power and limits of a one-dimensional view of history. His ability to create significance through history without overburdening the past with contrived meaning is the strongest aspect of this title. The book is thoroughly sourced in a scholarly style, but continuous numbering throughout the volume, rather than by chapter, creates awkward fumbling when searching for citations. Steed uses an appropriate number of maps, photos and charts to support the text, and he provides a handy list of these figures alongside the table of contents. Most photos and tables are highly effective; the few maps, however, are woefully amateur. For a book that covers so much ground, Steed offers a perfect balance of thoroughness and pace. A compelling history that speaks to the present day and the powers and pitfalls of looking to the past.
Pub Date: April 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456776879
Page Count: 388
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2012
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 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
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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