A fierce and knowledgeable examination of Bengal’s oppression.
A history book focuses on Bengal’s treatment at the hands of the British.
“The British Empire came to India to trade but stayed to rule, realizing that establishing military control was the only way in order to enhance their profits,” writes Chowdhury at the outset of his searing study of British rule in India. “All was done for only British interests, entailing profits that went to British coffers, not for the blood, sweat and energy of a single Indian.” In this volume, he deals with the modern-era history of the region bordered by the Himalayas in the North and the Bay of Bengal in the South: the Indian province of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh. He points out that not only is West Bengal a strategic trading hub for Southeast Asia, producing millions of tons of rice every year, but also that the Bengal area was equally lavish and productive prior to the arrival of direct British imperial control in the 19th century—after which largely came exploitation and destruction. In this passionate book, Chowdhury skillfully takes readers through some of the most famous events of this colonial occupation, including the Amritsar Massacre in April 1919, in which more than a thousand people were killed or injured, and the 1942-44 Bengal famine, which he sees as a direct result of British rule under Winston Churchill. “British colonial government printed large amounts of money for military expenditure,” the author writes, which caused the price of rice in Bengal to rise by 300%. “Since wages did not rise, ordinary people were pushed even deeper into poverty.” In textured, urgent, and erudite prose, Chowdhury expertly covers various events, including those in the present day, in order to show how a “2.0 version of the British colonial project” has been at work in far more recent times, attempting to revive a “divide and rule” policy so that “outside players can pounce with their economic aid and investment.”
A fierce and knowledgeable examination of Bengal’s oppression.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9798895469354
Page Count: 545
Publisher: Fabrezan & Phillipe
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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 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
SEEN & HEARD
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