An impressively researched, impassioned history of traditional Polynesian culture.
A Samoan orator chief examines Polynesian culture in this historical sequel.
Dedicated to Samoan High Chieftess and the independent nation’s first female prime minister, Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, this survey of Polynesian culture pays particular attention to the role of matriarchy in the development of Samoan and Manu’an culture. The first volume of the second installment of a series on Polynesian history, this expertly researched work notes that early Polynesian culture was matriarchal in nature. Women anchored, protected, and ensured the “wellbeing of the family and home front,” while men embarked on oceanic expeditions. As explorations gave way to settlements over time and men became “home-bodies,” Polynesia saw a “revolutionary” cultural shift that changed the structures of families, leadership, and organizations. Despite the “disruptions” caused by the rise of these male-dominated systems as settlements grew, Levi convincingly points to ways in which Polynesian clans embraced a “combination of matriarchal and patriarchal culture” that remains evident throughout the region today. This is perhaps most striking, according to the author, in the Samoans’ and Manu’ans’ “greatest asset,” a “love for each other” that “gives them the cohesiveness and unity to weather any storms that befall them.” Blending the scholarly approach of an anthropologist with the passion of a proud Samoan, Levi’s analysis takes aim at worn and racist stereotypes of the “noble savage,” providing an effective counternarrative of Polynesian “sage nobility.” Above all, the book’s guiding principle is that “Samoan and Manu’an history belongs to the people.” To this end, the volume pays particular attention to the history of daily life, from titles, salutations, and “Family-Centric chiefdom” to tattoos, weavings, seating arrangements, and house construction. The work’s research is especially impressive, demonstrating a firm grasp of thousands of years of oral tradition and local lore in addition to written histories in both English and Samoan. And while the book is occasionally repetitive in a narrative that spans 350 pages, the academic verbosity is offset by a passionate writing style and ample use of engaging maps, photographs, charts, and other visual elements that make the volume accessible to a general audience.
An impressively researched, impassioned history of traditional Polynesian culture. (epilogue; conclusion)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954076-07-5
Page Count: 381
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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