A historical work with some striking images of distinctive Delaware buildings and a dry text.
An illustrated book offers a photographic journey through three centuries of Delaware history.
Between 1638, when Swedish explorers landed on its shores, and the opening of the New Castle & French Town Railroad in 1832, Delaware was something of a Colonial backwater, its few settlements largely clustered along Delaware Bay. As a result, Tabler writes, modern development took some time to reach the Delmarva Peninsula, and “Delaware’s stock of colonial structures has for the most part remained undisturbed far longer than many other colonial era states. Its key historical sites are more readily accessible today.” Those historical sites form the basis for the author’s journey through Delaware’s pre-railroad history, which benefits from his pleasing photographs. Each of the book’s pages consists of images accompanied by captions that are continued in extended footnotes at the back of the volume. There are digressions into such subjects as oyster dredges, Colonial medicine (“ ‘Tooth drawers’ sometimes used such painful practices as string pulling and hot coals to get teeth out”), and Colonial clockmaking. The shots of Delaware’s remarkable red brick buildings stand out, particularly one of a mist-shrouded State Capitol building in Dover. A late afternoon sun illuminates a mill perched on the icy banks of the Choptank River. Tabler also digs up some intriguing historical nuggets—Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de Nemours told his father he had situated the family’s gunpowder mill along Brandywine Creek in Wilmington after ruling out other possibilities in Maryland and Virginia because “the country, the people, the location are all worthless.” Brandywine Creek was so named because the Stidham family used its water to make an aquavit liqueur that, in Denmark and Sweden, is known as “Brændevin.” But the book’s structure is awkward, with readers having to jump to and fro between the picture captions and the continuations. And much of the text takes a plain, just-the-facts approach that becomes a bit enervating—“Duncan Beard (1740-1797) was both a clockmaker and silversmith....Beard was a charter member of the Masonic Union Lodge No. 5, chartered in 1765.” Still, the volume should appeal to regional history buffs and proud Delawareans.
A historical work with some striking images of distinctive Delaware buildings and a dry text.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2022
ISBN: 9798987000625
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 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
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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