A tightly focused account of the origins, migrations, culture, and tragic demise of the indigenous people on the islands Columbus named San Salvador and Hispaniola. The relationship between Tainos and Spaniards was cordial early on but soon deteriorated, largely due to the inept and heavy-handed administration of Columbus and his delegates. The Tainos' simple farming economy collapsed; starvation, forced labor, and disease all but exterminated them in little more than 50 years. Jacobs has not entirely resisted the temptation to judge the European explorers by the standards of our time rather than theirs, but her book is well researched, readable, and valuable for its contribution to understanding the full significance of the early encounters between the old world and the new. Notes; international list of museums and exhibits; bibliography. Map, illustrations, and index not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: April 29, 1992
ISBN: 0-399-22116-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intelligent, beautifully written portrait of ``the first great pyro-technician of the novel, [who] probably wrote more trash than any other serious novelist of his time'' (Alfred Kazin): a strait-laced Methodist minister's rebellious son, who died in 1900, at 28, after a remarkably eventful life. Enriching his own compelling narrative with revealing quotes from contemporaries, critics, and Crane's work, Sufrin details the brief life chronologically, pausing to present novels and other writings and to discuss their significance in literary history. There is much here to fascinate YA readers: Crane attended several colleges but never graduated (he got A`s in English, simply didn't go to other classes, but was always a valued baseball player); he frequented slums like N.Y.C.'s Bowery and bummed his way from one seedy lodging to another while making a precarious living as a journalist; in his one real encounter with war (Cuba, 1898), he displayed daredevil courage. Sufrin is frank and nonjudgmental about Crane's poverty, spendthrift habits whenever he managed to earn or borrow funds, and taste for low life; more important, he makes his literary innovations and accomplishments wonderfully clear, as they were to contemporary admirers like Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells. An excellent book—Bingo Brown's teacher (see above) should hand it to him when he finishes reading The Red Badge of Courage. Bibliography; b&w photos and index not seen. (Biography. 12+)
Pub Date: April 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-31669-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
A sympathetic, but sloppily written, biography that effectively presents Thomas's background, experiences, and challenges on the Supreme Court. Depicting Thomas's adroit use of his Catholic school connections, Halliburton shows how he progressed rapidly through college and law school on minority student scholarships; he attributes the justice's later beliefs to his difficulty convincing whites that his honors were based on merit, and to his problems with not being taken seriously as a corporate lawyer. Thomas's experiences in opposing the group- oriented goals of civil-rights organizations apparently hardened his positions, even as white conservatives cheered him on. Mentioning, without describing, Anita Hill's testimony, the author portrays Thomas's confirmation hearings as positive until Hill actually appeared. Presenting his subject's personal philosophy, Halliburton brings up some incongruities (like calling himself ``guilty'' of opposing apartheid). But no sources are given for quotations or specific facts (in particular, where did Halliburton get the thoughts he attributes to people?), while the bibliography lists little biographical information on Thomas. Flawed, but usable. B&w photos; chronology; index. (Biography. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-89490-414-0
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Enslow
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
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