An exemplary work of political and cultural history that invites a gimlet-eyed look at our own time.
A sweeping history of the campaign to suppress liberal dissent via blacklisting and harassment.
As Risen, whose histories have ranged from whiskey to the Rough Riders, writes, “There is a lineage to the American hard right of today” in the Red Scare of old. In fear that communists were everywhere in American society, police agencies went overboard to prove it, usually to no effect. For example, Risen writes, the FBI conducted 4.76 million background checks and investigated 26,236 individuals who held or applied for government jobs in the late 1940s and early 1950s, suspecting them of espionage. “Most were eventually cleared, but 6,828 people resigned or withdrew their applications, and 560 were fired. Not a single spy was ever discovered by the program.” Just so, while the House Un-American Activities Committee made news every day, as well as making household names of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, little evidence of spying and Soviet subterfuge ever emerged. In his deftly written history, Risen attributes the rise of anti-communist paranoia to an atmosphere of isolationism and conspiracy theory—there’s that lineage to today—as well as to an anti-labor movement that expelled leftists from the union rank and file and leadership alike; the postwar right also militated against gay rights and civil rights for Black Americans, and the “conservative turn that followed put a brutal end to those small hopes.” In his wide-ranging account, Risen portrays blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters, notes the rise of militaristic toys such as little green Army men, examines anti-communism in popular culture (with Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer mowing down 40 communists, crowing, “I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it”), and closing with the pointed thought that the Red Scare was the product of fringe politics that somehow took center stage in American life.
An exemplary work of political and cultural history that invites a gimlet-eyed look at our own time.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982141806
Page Count: 460
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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