Fiscal and monetary policy wonks will admire Garten’s skillful narrative and thorough research.
A densely detailed and highly charged account of the Nixon administration’s abandonment of the gold standard.
Scratch a certain kind of old-school conservative, and you’ll hit a nerve that’s still raw over the restructuring of U.S. currency to tie it to the open market and not to the fixed exchange rate linked to a government stockpile of gold. Even Nixon himself wasn’t sold on the idea, though some of his economic advisers successfully argued that the fixed rate led to trade protectionism and discouraged international partners from developing the economic robustness that would allow them to shoulder their fair share of the burden of, say, maintaining NATO. By 1971, writes Garten, dean emeritus of the Yale School of Management, “the dollar–gold problem seemed too big and too complex, and no one was sure how to fix it without causing major global upheavals.” Hence the weekendlong secret meeting at Camp David that brought together economic strategists of varying ideological stripes. One was Arthur Burns, head of the Federal Reserve, once a strong Nixon ally who became dismayed by the president’s politicization of the economy. Though Nixon resisted Keynesian wage and price controls that some of those advisers would propound, he eventually realized “that only mandatory regulations would suffice.” While sometimes succumbing to the thick prose of the dismal science, Garten delivers incisive portraits of key players such as John Connally, secretary of the treasury; George Schultz, who “foreshadowed more than anyone else the Thatcher-Reagan revolution of extensive deregulation that was less than a decade away”; and Pete Peterson, who “captured Nixon’s attention by focusing on the decline of U.S. competitiveness and the measures necessary to reverse the nation’s deteriorating position.” In the end, although it meant that the U.S. acknowledged that it was not the sole arbiter of the world economy and surrendered some political power as well, the Camp David meeting and restructuring of the economy was “an impressive achievement.”
Fiscal and monetary policy wonks will admire Garten’s skillful narrative and thorough research.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-288767-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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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