A “chronicle of oppression” that makes a rousing counter to the usual celebratory narratives of the American past.
A contrarian history of the U.S. dismissing notions of exceptionalism and triumphalism.
Sexton, author of the rousing political chronicle The People Are Going To Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore (2017), turns to the same problem that inspired his first book: the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the White House. “I could explain Trump’s victory politically, demographically, and socially,” he writes, “but historically, I was at a loss.” His explorations of the American past provide him milestones. The framing of the Declaration of Independence and, later, of the Constitution is an important one: Congress’ rejection of Thomas Jefferson’s language that considered enslaved people to enjoy the same inalienable rights as their owners did not sit well with representatives of the Southern Colonies, and the Federalist Papers helped introduce a system that traded an overthrown king for a new class of aristocrats. “Exiting the British Empire,” writes Sexton, “meant a new sovereignty, but it wouldn’t mean an entirely new society, as past hierarchies predicated on race and wealth remained firmly in place.” As the narrative progresses, the author delivers ample evidence to support that thesis: The Whiskey Rebellion was not about illegally distilling, per se, but rather about taxation and the power of the federal government (and that government alone) to issue money; Woodrow Wilson’s conception of a “league of nations” was built on “the Noble Lie of democracy” in conjunction with “the social control of a hidden aristocracy.” Today, that aristocracy is gladly served by the dispossessed middle class, betrayed by a leadership that is nominally both pious and racist, having been reduced for the sake of sheer numbers to forging alliances with the nationalists who would just as soon destroy democracy as guard it. And let’s not forget that “the Electoral College, engineered by the Founders to advantage slaveholding states against fears of majority rule in the eighteenth century, gave Trump the election.”
A “chronicle of oppression” that makes a rousing counter to the usual celebratory narratives of the American past.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4571-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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