Ambitious, nuanced, and thoroughly rewarding Civil War history.
The chaos of war transformed into a riveting tale of sacrifice and redemption.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Matteson turns to the Civil War in his third book, an insightful, exhilarating interweaving of grim military history and uplifting biographies. Focusing on the Union Army’s devastating loss in 1862 during the Battle of Fredericksburg, this is an affecting, courageous story about fathers and four sons and a daughter, “heroes” who “confronted war and struggled to redeem themselves within it.” Growing up, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the future Supreme Court justice and son of the famous poet and doctor, had a difficult time escaping from his father’s shadow. Wendell Sr. believed slavery a “tragic, ghastly business” but was against war; Wendell Jr. disagreed, fought for the cause, was wounded three times, and nearly died of dysentery. His father left home to find his hospitalized boy. John Pelham, another doctor’s son, fought for the Confederates and distinguished himself as a battery officer. “Few young men,” writes Matteson, “had ever fit their historical moment more exquisitely.” While the “ambitiously named” George Washington Whitman was also fighting, his brother, Walt, was in Brooklyn, “seeking the literary means to move a nation.” After he learned his brother was wounded, he sought him out and volunteered as a nurse to help wounded soldiers. Union chaplain Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, whose sister Margaret had tended to the wounded during the Roman Revolution of 1848, took care of Union soldiers until he was killed by Confederate bullets. Fledgling author Louisa May Alcott left home to become a nurse for the Army of the Potomac, treating hundreds of soldiers from the bloody battleground. When she caught typhoid, her abolitionist father, Bronson, brought her home. Intimate portraits of these main characters smoothly merge with many others, including Abraham Lincoln, George McClellan, and Jeb Stuart, who fought with Pelham. In an impressive narrative juggling act, Matteson deftly unfurls many stories within stories with a confident, novelistic flair.
Ambitious, nuanced, and thoroughly rewarding Civil War history.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-393-24707-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
