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QUEENS OF JERUSALEM

Name: QUEENS OF JERUSALEM
Author: Katherine Pangonis
ISBN: 978-1-64313-924-1

THE WOMEN WHO DARED TO RULE

by Katherine Pangonis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2022

Readable history for specialists and general audiences alike.

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A British historian explores the lives of the women who ruled Christian-captured Jerusalem, circa 1100.

Though chroniclers of the First Crusade left a “rich trove” of narrative sources for modern historians, most of these writers were also misogynist male clerics who minimized the achievements of many powerful women. To balance the historical record, Pangonis, who specializes in the medieval world of the Mediterranean and Middle East, considers the roles and deeds of the unsung queens of Jerusalem who ruled between 1099 and 1187. Crowned in 1118, Morphia was “the first woman to preside as queen over the Kingdom of Jerusalem for any length of time.” Like the royal female consorts who preceded her, her power to rule came from her husband, Baldwin II. But the four daughters she bore him each became rulers at different times of the four states of Outremer, the lands crusaders wrested from the Muslims. Pangonis pays particular attention to Morphia’s first-born daughter, Melisende, whom Baldwin groomed to rule Jerusalem. Like princesses who stood to inherit kingdoms in Europe, though, she could not be named sole inheritor and was forced to marry according to the wishes of her father and his nobles. That did not stop her from later refusing to step down in favor of the son who forcibly deposed her. Her willfulness would be recalled in the sometimes-scandalous actions taken by her sisters, female cousins, and, later, her granddaughter, Sibylla, the last queen of Jerusalem. Married to a “suitable” match as a teenager and then quickly widowed, Sibylla rebelled against royal expectations and married the landless son of a French lord. A complex historical narrative that celebrates female agency and a tale of family intrigue spanning generations, this book sheds light on the silenced women of a fascinating medieval bloodline.

Readable history for specialists and general audiences alike.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-64313-924-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021

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CHURCHILL & SON

by Josh Ireland ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2021

Tragedy as well as triumph in this meticulous, fascinating tale of three generations of Churchills.

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Churchill as family man.

In addition to being the subject of countless biographies, Churchill published hundreds of articles and more than 40 books of his own. In this detailed, engaging narrative, Ireland demonstrates that there is more to be learned about one of the most written-about political figures in history. Exploring the statesman’s relationship with his son, Randolph, the author begins with Churchill’s own famously unhappy childhood, chronicling his parents’ “almost comically detached method of care.” Churchill overcompensated for his father’s neglect by spoiling his son, a poorly behaved boy who became a profligate student and undisciplined adult. For all his gifts and achievements, Randolph led a chaotic life. In one two-week period in 1939, anxious for an heir lest he be killed in the war, he proposed to eight different women, all of whom turned him down. The ninth, Pamela Digby, accepted, and a year later, she became mother to his son, also named Winston. Shortly after, she was forced to rent out their home and take a job to pay down his gambling debts. On the positive side, Randolph was a gifted extempore speaker, effective journalist, and influential counselor to his father—and, later, his biographer. While recounting their relationship, Ireland draws unforgettable sketches of life in the Churchill circle, much like Erik Larson did in The Splendid and the Vile. For example, the family home at Chartwell required nearly 20 servants, as celebrities, politicians, and other “extraordinary people” came and went on a daily basis. Throughout, Ireland is generous with the bijou details: Churchill hated whistling and banned it. When dining alone, he would sometimes have a place set for his cat. His valet would select his clothes, “even pulling on his socks.” After retiring to Pratt’s club after Parliament ended its evening session, he would sometimes “take over the grill and cook the food himself.”

Tragedy as well as triumph in this meticulous, fascinating tale of three generations of Churchills.

Pub Date: March 30, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5247-4445-8

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

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A PERSONAL ODYSSEY

by Thomas Sowell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 21, 2000

Hard-edged, tough-minded, and unabashedly opinionated, but a refreshingly frank record of a controversial life.

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From African-American economist and author Sowell, a forthright memoir of growing up the hard way in Harlem—without a father, but with an admirable refusal to compromise one’s principles.

As a grown man, Sowell can now discern helpful guideposts (that would later determine his success) in what was an often frightening and uncertain childhood. He is grateful that he left the South too young to be subjected to its pervasive racism, that he was in public school when its education was still excellent, and that he became a professor before affirmative action called into question many black accomplishments. Born in 1929 in North Carolina, he never knew his own father and was adopted soon after his birth by an aunt. He left the South after an idyllic childhood and moved to Harlem with his mother and two older sisters in 1939. There he entered the local public school, and was soon an outstanding, as well as an outspoken, student. The family was proud of his accomplishments, but when he was accepted at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, they objected to the hours he spent studying instead of earning money, and he had to drop out. Drafted into the Marines during the Korean War, he took advantage of the GI bill to finish high school, as well as attend college, graduating from Harvard. The following years—spent teaching at colleges like Cornell or working in Washington while he finished his dissertation—were often rocky. And he describes his run-ins with obstructive bureaucrats, careerist academics, and bigoted racists, encounters sometimes exacerbated by his often-unpopular political opinions. Though Sowell writes movingly of his son who was a late talker, this is not a personal memoir, but rather an account of a philosophical and professional evolution shaped by a lifetime of challenging experiences.

Hard-edged, tough-minded, and unabashedly opinionated, but a refreshingly frank record of a controversial life.