Comprehensive, readable, and accessible.
A biography of the Confederate general whose support of constitutional rights for Black Americans after the Civil War enraged Southern critics and ignited a campaign to destroy his reputation.
NoneGen. James Longstreet (1821-1904) had the courage of his convictions, and he suffered for it. Second in command to Robert E. Lee, after Appomattox, Longstreet made a startling choice, accepting the terms of the surrender and vowing to support the Union. A slave owner and loyal Confederate before the war, he came to believe that Southerners should leave behind their “Lost Cause” and move forward to rebuild their economy and society. He moved to New Orleans, taking up a post in the federal government and advocating for equal rights for Black people. In 1874, Longstreet challenged one of Reconstruction’s most outrageous assaults on federal authority, directing an integrated force of policemen and soldiers in the battle against thousands of New Orleans insurrectionists who briefly wrested power from the federal government. Wounded in the fray, he left the state and spent the rest of his life answering his detractors, who labeled him “traitor number one.” University of Virginia historian Varon, a Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize winner for Armies of Deliverance, tells Longstreet’s story with authority and insight, and she portrays a man with complicated motives. Some of Longstreet’s postwar stances can be traced to political ambition, fostered by his West Point friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, but for the most part, he was considered a friend to Black citizens and leaders until his death at 82. Varon never quite defines what gave him the perspective to think independently, but she reclaims his reputation and does him justice. Her style is accessible, and her scholarship buttresses the narrative. Readers interested in the Civil War and the horrors of Reconstruction should not miss this book.
Comprehensive, readable, and accessible.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781982148270
Page Count: 516
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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