A well-researched local history of an oft-ignored Philadelphia neighborhood.
A historian and archivist chronicles the intersection of community, faith, and family history in this debut nonfiction book.
Over the past four decades, McCormick notes, more than 200 books have been published on Philadelphia’s history. Most of these, she laments, make little to no mention of the city’s northeastern Frankford neighborhood. Making a convincing case for “Frankford’s pre-eminence in the city’s nineteenth-century textile industry,” this first volume in a multipart, comprehensive local history focuses on the role of the Swedenborgian community in shaping the borough, which “remained a unique ‘village’ for many of its residents” more than a century after its incorporation into the City of Brotherly Love in the mid-1800s. An obscure Christian denomination with an idiosyncratic theology, Swedenborgianism and the New Jerusalem Society of Frankford lies at the heart of the community, per the author. While the denomination’s esoteric, mystic interpretations have been the focus of religious scholars, McCormick asserts that the faith is best understood by looking at its local impact. Most of its practitioners, the author asserts, were driven by a reform-oriented ethos that deemphasized doctrine for a praxis of “‘love toward the neighbor.’” This ethos provided an avenue for members, many of whom were immigrants from Lancashire, England, to easily assimilate into a city dominated by Quaker and Catholic influences. A member of the board of directors of the Historical Society of Frankford (whose family history is intertwined with the neighborhood’s Swedenborgian community), McCormick describes the book as “a labor of love.” With an advanced degree in public history and a career as a historian, librarian, and archivist before her retirement, the author has based this narrative on a wealth of primary-source research informed by her solid grasp of relevant scholarly literature. (More than 300 pages of endnotes and bibliographic entries support the book’s text.) Written in an accessible style for those unfamiliar with Frankford, the book’s emphasis on engaging readers is reflected in its ample inclusion of newspaper clippings, maps, portraits, photographs of historical ephemera, and other visual aids.
A well-researched local history of an oft-ignored Philadelphia neighborhood.Pub Date: March 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781916787797
Page Count: 821
Publisher: AMZ Publishing Pros
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2024
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
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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