In making a solid case for our country’s overinvestment in personal and national security, May asks a germane question: are...
If violent crime statistics indicate a downward trend, why are Americans so afraid?
“There was never a ‘golden age’ of security,” writes May (American Studies and History/Univ. of Minnesota; America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril and Liberation, 2010, etc.). “But there were moments in the twentieth century when citizens and policymakers believed that the government had a responsibility to create the conditions in which Americans could achieve safety and a decent standard of living.” According to the author, the Cold War and Atomic Age changed this situation, as the government admitted its inability to protect citizens from the impact of a bomb and encouraged them to take action themselves. Citizens found this admission unsettling, and, combined with the changes in society regarding the civil rights movement, Americans set out to protect themselves and the model of the traditional family against threats of crime, bombs, and, eventually, terrorism. The events of 9/11 ushered in new fears, and the war on terror came to have a similar effect on fear levels, with Americans once again responsible for their own protection. May asserts that though Americans are actually safer than ever from violent crime and more at risk from people they know than strangers, the fear of the unknown still has a strong hold on society. People retreat more into private, secured homes and gated communities, which actually detract from any sense of real community and statistically have not been proven safer. “Hostility toward government and a lack of concern for the common good may have made the nation considerably less secure,” writes the author, who closes with a more tenuous correlation between this fortress mentality and threats of “unregulated private enterprise” and the unchecked increase in wealth of the ultrarich due to misdirected attention and resources.
In making a solid case for our country’s overinvestment in personal and national security, May asks a germane question: are we focusing on the right threats?Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-465-05592-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fine summation of O’Connor’s long scholarly career that should be of wide interest to students of American history and...
A learned and literate history of the Athens of America.
O’Connor (Civil War Boston, 1997, etc.) offers a straightforward narrative of the city from its founding in the 17th century to the present. The organization is chronological, although O’Connor occasionally skips about to treat important themes such as religion and race and ethnicity. The somewhat old-fashioned year-by-year presentation is by no means stodgy, for the author believes that the history of Boston can be seen as one of conflict—whether between Separatists and Anglicans, Protestants and Irish Catholics, or blacks and whites. In every era, such conflicts have spilled out beyond Boston’s confines to influence the nation as a whole. “The basic tenets of Puritanism,” the author notes, “may have been confined to a relatively tiny segment of the New England seacoast during the first half of the 17th century, but they were to have an impact on American society and culture that would extend far beyond their immediate geographical surroundings.” O’Connor gives attention to topics that have received too little attention in standard histories, including the curious flowering of proto-hippie freethinking sects and cults in the 1820s and ’30s—a many-faceted movement, he notes, that coalesced in abolitionism, much to the chagrin of the city’s conservative ruling class. He downplays the role of “great men” (focusing instead on larger issues of race and class), and he notes that the city’s neighborhoods (and, thanks to busing, its schools) are now populated by a variety of minority groups who constitute a “minority majority” and reflect decades of “white flight” from the urban center.
A fine summation of O’Connor’s long scholarly career that should be of wide interest to students of American history and social issues.Pub Date: May 4, 2001
ISBN: 1-55553-474-0
Page Count: 291
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
Highly detailed and as exciting as the best Patrick O—Brian novel, this is one of the best accounts of the great British admiral’s dazzling achievements, from the deputy director of England’s Royal Naval Museum. Published to commemorate a pivotal year in the “Nelson decade” (the period from 1795 to 1805, of which the bicentennial is currently being marked), this brief account looks at the period that solidified Nelson’s position as Britain’s chief hope in maintaining her position as the world’s leading maritime power. The author combines outstanding scholarship with narrative skill to capture the excitement of such events as the evacuation of Elba, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, the blockade of Cadiz, and the attack on Tenerife (in which Nelson lost his arm). White also debunks many of the myths that have surrounded Nelson over the years, such as his supposed disobedience at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent—a “disobedience” that saved the battle and won an earldom for Sir John Jervis, the commanding admiral of the British fleet at St. Vincent. Illustrated throughout by period paintings (unfortunately not in color), the book utilizes boxed sidebars to present new information on Nelson and his battles. This varies in importance, from done-to-death topics like who really cut off Nelson’s arm to such really juicy bits as the revelation that a former Nelson mistress, Adelaide Correglia, spied for him during his blockade of the Italian port of Leghorne (Livorno). Written with sweep and excitement, capturing the spirit of Nelson by looking at one memorable year, this will be a treat for any naval history fan.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7509-1999-X
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
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