A sturdy, reliable narrative that sometimes reads like a data dump of research.
Dutiful companion to the soon-to-air Burns documentary series on the fate of the American bison.
American bison, “the largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere,” are no strangers to extinction: The present species represents the fortunate survivors of an earlier extinction event that wiped out kin that were larger still. The prolific grasslands of the North American plains nurtured the species to keystone status, so that by the time Europeans arrived, herds were uncountably huge and seemingly inexhaustible, as well as uncommonly trusting. In his overland journal, Meriwether Lewis recorded that his men had to chase curious animals away with sticks and stones. For many reasons, as Duncan writes in his latest collaboration with Burns, subsequent Euro-American arrivals to the plains were bent on destroying the bison, and just about every central player in the history of the 19th-century West had some part in that destruction: Duncan brings Daniel Boone, Philip Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, and assorted European noblemen into his account. Duncan borrows a long-standing trope that links the fate of the bison to that of the Native American peoples who once hunted them and whose descendants are now preserving them. As he notes, the National Bison Range is now under Native management, and, after a Lakota woman suggested to a founder of an intertribal council, “it’s best you ask the buffalo if they want to come back,” more than 80 tribes host herds that graze on more than 1 million acres of tribal land. This book is a useful survey, although any number of earlier titles, such as Steven Rinella’s American Buffalo and Dan O’Brien’s Wild Idea, tell the story of near-extermination and recovery more vividly. Duncan draws on their insights along with many secondary sources, as well as the work of cutting-edge historians such as Pekka Hämäläinen and Dan Flores.
A sturdy, reliable narrative that sometimes reads like a data dump of research.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780593537343
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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 short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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