With the Constitution under daily threat, Lepore’s outstanding book makes for urgent reading.
The noted historian advances the cause of an aggressively, and progressively, malleable set of rules for government.
“The U.S. Constitution was intended to be amended,” writes Lepore at the outset. Whereas the functions of government were established in such a way that there would be continuity from generation to generation, and whereas the Constitution sets fairly high hurdles for change, nonetheless, by Lepore’s lights, the Founders intended for the document to be changed in order to meet the needs of the day, trusting in the Enlightenment premise that “the human mind is driven by reason.” Article V, Lepore continues, is “a sleeping giant”: In it the Founders specified that change could come in one of two ways, the first being a congressional proposal, the second a convention of the states, with a “double supermajority” of votes for approval, two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states. Although there have been flurries of amendments—including the first 10, yielding the Bill of Rights—it has been nearly 40 years since the last constitutional convention was held, even as, Lepore calculates, members of Congress proposed 2,100 amendments between 1980 and 2000. Part of the problem is congressional gridlock, a feature of government since the days of President Reagan; another is what Lepore considers the false doctrine of originalism—which, she writes provocatively, “arose from the failure of conservatives to change the Constitution by democratic means.” Lepore presses her argument with numerous case studies, including the difficult passage of an amendment to allow direct election of senators (formerly appointed by governors), the argument over an income tax (and one that progressively taxed the rich more than the poor), the failed adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a longtime favorite that has yet to come about: the abolition of the aristocratically inspired Electoral College.
With the Constitution under daily threat, Lepore’s outstanding book makes for urgent reading.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781631496080
Page Count: 768
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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