Reader-friendly, informative reporting—history that reads like a novel.
An emotionally stirring account of the single most devastating attack on London during the Blitz.
Mortimer offers an engaging, down-to-the-minute retelling of May 10–11, 1941, the night hundreds of German warplanes bombed London relentlessly, threatening Britain’s standing in the war. Part military history, part chronicle of survivors’ memories and part moving tribute to London, the result is reminiscent of Richard Collier’s The City That Would Not Die (1960), but is a captivating and important contribution in its own right. True to his journalistic roots, Mortimer opens by introducing a large cast of characters, most of whom he personally interviewed. The experiences of those who were in and around London that fateful night drive the narrative. Readers with some prior understanding of basic events and terminology of the war may have a slight advantage, though Mortimer offers great insight into the intricacies of World War II London, its population, physical layout, architecture and history, as well as the complexities of German and British warplanes and weaponry of the period. Occasional missteps (a Luftwaffe “major raid” is defined only on the final page, for example) do nothing to diminish the heartfelt testimony of survivors who, when paired with Mortimer’s dramatic renderings of what Londoners and German and British military men experienced, make for compelling non-fiction. Emphasis is placed on how fear, confusion and devastation were offset by the unprecedented ways in which Londoners came together to offer assistance. Mortimer’s focus is on people, but some of the most emotionally wrenching passages concern not the terrible loss of life, but the destruction of some of London’s most beloved architectural and historical treasures.
Reader-friendly, informative reporting—history that reads like a novel.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2005
ISBN: 0-425-20557-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton Caliber
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
Scrupulously researched and bravely presented scholarship.
A series of astute academic essays on the forging of postwar Japan.
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and Bancroft Prize, Dower (History Emeritus/MIT; Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 / Iraq, 2010, etc.) is comfortable going against the grain. He was key to bringing back into print the significant work of forgotten Canadian historian E.H. Norman, whose deep research into the Meiji state revealed the authoritarian, feudal legacies that later helped drag Japan into imperial militarism, misery and defeat. In his essay on Norman, Dower shows how this approach contrasted with the postwar modernization theorists then in vogue, who held that Japan’s militarism was essentially an aberration and hoped to put a positive spin on accomplishments since the Meiji era. Dower was told in 1970, during his time as a student, that his interest in the postwar occupation of Japan was “too recent to be history,” foreshadowing some of the obfuscation he would later encounter. Other essays here, which appeared between 1993 and 2000, are fascinating explorations into Japanese racial theories, intense militaristic and racial propaganda, pervasive sense of “victim consciousness” and eruptions of reactionary language and a faulty sense of responsibility. “The Bombed” is a riveting analysis of the effects of the atomic bombs on the Japanese psyche. Thanks to the collusion of the U.S. government, which aimed for an easy occupation of the country, the Japanese were censored from venting expressions of outrage and grief over their government's rampant militarism and the end-of-war atomic apocalypse. Dower explores the dual role of science as both destroyer and postwar miracle worker, a lesson to be gleaned by both America and postwar Japan in terms of economic growth and military technology.
Scrupulously researched and bravely presented scholarship.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59558-618-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
A careful, informed analysis of the origins, progress and disposition of the complex, high-stakes legal disputes that find...
In her first book, the National Law Journal’s longtime chief Washington correspondent examines the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, seven years after the appointment of the youngest chief justice since John Marshall.
Along with her credentials as a lawyer, Coyle brings 25 years of reporting on the high court to this careful unpacking of select, enormously consequential, 5-4 decisions, supplying useful and colorful context about the litigants, lawyers, politics and legal precedent. She’s especially good on the maneuvering of various special interest groups to identify, frame and shepherd particular cases through the legal system, all with a hopeful eye toward eventual Supreme Court review. These ingredients come together most successfully in her smooth discussion of the right to bear arms at issue in Heller, the most important Second Amendment case ever, her handling of two cases emerging from the racial diversity plans of school boards in Louisville and Seattle, and her treatment of the widely controversial Citizens United, where free speech and campaign finance law collided. Perhaps the court’s recent momentous ruling on the Affordable Health Care Act accounts for the deficiencies of this least-satisfying chapter. There’s a richer story to tell, and Coyle doesn’t appear to have all the goods. Otherwise, this is the best popular account so far of the Roberts-led court, about the varied background and clashing philosophies of the justices, the careful crafting of arguments to secure five votes, the court’s continually shifting center of gravity and the peculiar burden that rests with the chief justice. Coyle clearly disapproves of the court’s conservative bent, but she gives all sides a fair, respectful hearing and demonstrates her own reverence for the institution.
A careful, informed analysis of the origins, progress and disposition of the complex, high-stakes legal disputes that find their way to the court.Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2751-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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