A painstakingly reported, clearly written case study that is all too relevant today.
A detailed account of the shooting deaths of police and self-described black nationalists on July 23, 1968, in Cleveland.
Cleveland-based lawyer and author Robenalt (January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever, 2015, etc.) devotes roughly 75 percent of the book to Cleveland’s historical racism (both individual and systemic) and conditions that led to the shootout. Some of the characters and their personal histories within the Cleveland metropolitan area are so specific that non-Cleveland readers might feel adrift. Others, however, contribute to a story that was being played out in similar fashion across the United States, as the author appropriately explains. And the cast of characters at the end of the book is especially helpful. A major narrative thread involves the seeming anomaly of African-American politician Carl Stokes being elected mayor just eight months before the fatal day. As the first black mayor of a large American city, Stokes was poised to ameliorate racial tensions; Robenalt offers explanations about why that failed to occur. “Stokes was elected in an apparent triumph of the ballot over the bullet,” writes the author. “But even his election could not turn back the generations of frustration, anger, and neglect.” In addition, the author provides sometimes-surprising insights on why visits to Cleveland by Martin Luther King Jr. upset some of the leading individuals on both sides of the racial divide. Naturally, Clevelanders hoped that those directly responsible for the carnage—three police dead, 12 police wounded, at least three black nationalists dead and one wounded, at least two civilians dead from the crossfire—would face severe punishment. The leader of the black nationalists who fired shots did face trial in a Cleveland court, and a jury sentenced him to death. One fact about the trial highlighted the systemic racism contributing to the shootout: The jury was all white.
A painstakingly reported, clearly written case study that is all too relevant today.Pub Date: July 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-89733-703-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.
A delightful new translation of what is widely considered the first work of history and nonfiction.
Herodotus has a wonderful, gossipy style that makes reading these histories more fun than studying the rise of the Persian Empire and its clash with Greece—however, that’s exactly what readers will do in this engaging history, which is full of interesting digressions and asides. Holland (In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire, 2012, etc.), whose lifelong devotion to Herodotus, Thucydides and other classical writers is unquestionable, provides an engaging modern translation. As Holland writes, Herodotus’ “great work is many things—the first example of nonfiction, the text that underlies the entire discipline of history, the most important source of information we have for a vital episode in human affairs—but it is above all a treasure-trove of wonders.” Those just being introduced to the Father of History will agree with the translator’s note that this is “the greatest shaggy-dog story ever written.” Herodotus set out to explore the causes of the Greco-Persian Wars and to explore the inability of East and West to live together. This is as much a world geography and ethnic history as anything else, and Herodotus enumerates social, religious and cultural habits of the vast (known) world, right down to the three mummification options available to Egyptians. This ancient Greek historian could easily be called the father of humor, as well; he irreverently describes events, players and their countless harebrained schemes. Especially enjoyable are his descriptions of the Persians making significant decisions under the influence and then waiting to vote again when sober. The gifts Herodotus gave history are the importance of identifying multiple sources and examining differing views.
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.Pub Date: May 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-02489-6
Page Count: 840
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
“Ideology is fairy tales for adults.” Thus writes economist and conservative maven Sowell in a best-of volume shot through with…ideology.
Though he resists easy categorization, the author has been associated with hard-libertarian organizations and think tanks such as the Hoover Institution for most of his long working life. Here he picks from his numerous writings, which have the consistency of an ideologue—e.g., affirmative action is bad, period. It’s up to parents, not society or the schools, to be sure that children are educated. Ethnic studies and the “mania for ‘diversity’ ” produce delusions. Colleges teach impressionable Americans to “despise American society.” Minimum-wage laws are a drag on the economy. And so on. Sowell is generally fair-minded, reasonable and logical, but his readers will likely already be converts to his cause, for which reason he does not need to examine all the angles of a problem. (If it is true that most gun violence is committed in households where domestic abuse has taken place, then why not take away the abusers’ guns as part of the legal sentencing?) Often his arguments are very smart, as when he examines the career of Booker T. Washington, who was adept in using white people’s money to advance his causes while harboring no illusions that his benefactors were saints. Sometimes, though, Sowell’s sentiments emerge as pabulum, as when he writes, in would-be apothegms: “Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can’t stop with just one”; “I can understand why some people like to drive slowly. What I cannot understand is why they get in the fast lane to do it.” The answer to the second question, following Sowell, might go thus: because they’re liberals and the state tells them to do it, just to get in the way of hard-working real Americans. A solid, representative collection by a writer and thinker whom one either agrees with or not—and there’s not much middle ground on which to stand.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-465-02250-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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