A compelling history of New York City’s Southern ties.
Green, a former history professor, explores the long relationship between New York City and the South in this nonfiction work.
“In a sense,” opens the author, “the South and New York City grew up together.” While contemporary sensibilities suggest the two regions are culturally worlds apart, Green offers a convincing case of how “the South of King Cotton and New York as King Commerce” had a mutually dependent relationship throughout the 19th century. While the sordid history of Southern slavery is well known, the author reminds readers of the integral role New York played in the vile trade: “Dixie depended on New York,” the book argues, for the loans, insurance, shipping services, and supplies “needed to make their plantations run.” Even during the Civil War, the author notes, New York was a major hub of illegal arms smuggling for the Confederacy, and its mayor-turned-congressman Fernando Wood (who represented the city from the 1850s to the 1880s) was a “pro-South, pro-slavery, intensely racist politician” who opposed both Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment. While the story of the North’s complicity in slavery has been documented before, the strength of this book lies in its exploration of the post–Civil War relationship between Confederates and New York. Many Confederate officers had forged social relationships with New York merchants before the conflict, and when the war ended, thousands of Confederates moved to the Northern metropolis. Jefferson Davis’ own wife and daughter moved to New York following his death, as did his private secretary, Burton Norvell Harrison, who worked for the city’s first Rapid Transit Commission. So prevalent were former Confederates in the Big Apple that they founded their own social clubs, including a chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which remains active today. Green, whose diverse careers include working both in advertising in New York City and as a history professor in the South, has a firm grasp on the historical context of both regions and successfully blends academic rigor with an engaging writing style.
A compelling history of New York City’s Southern ties.Pub Date: June 2, 2022
ISBN: 9781685156268
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2023
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
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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