A knowledgeable, essential reframing of an incendiary issue based on common sense, historical fact, and simple decency.
Two legal titans who have been defending abortion rights for decades catch us up on the current disaster and plot the road ahead.
In 1992, Kolbert argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the case credited with saving Roe v. Wade, and Kay was instrumental in the legalization of abortion in Ireland. As they note at the beginning, they were motivated to write this book “because we both knew the Supreme Court was not the place to go to protect, never mind expand, abortion rights. We were tired of our movement repeatedly banging its head against the Court's marble walls and sought to strategize an affirmative path forward." Then, as they were writing, the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett made the conservative majority absolute and the demise of Roe more likely. Yet as the authors point out, abortion is a common medical procedure for women: Nearly 1 in 4 has an abortion by age 45. As such, "the abortion debate is an embodiment of the conflict between traditional and more modern concepts of gender roles." By placing abortion in a human rights context—thus connecting it to racial inequality, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny in general—Kolbert and Kay "offer an opportunity to dream bigger and differently and to bring in new allies." They share the firsthand stories of their landmark cases as well as heartbreaking dramas from the front lines. These include the bribing of the original Jane Roe by conservatives to flip her position on abortion; kidnapping charges against a woman who tried to help a pregnant 13-year-old; the senseless death of a young mother who was refused a medically necessary abortion; and the incarceration of a woman who ordered abortion medication for her daughter. In the closing chapters, the authors speak directly to current and potential activists, sharing the "big dreams" mentioned earlier—e.g., the EACH Woman Act (Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance)—and many other practical ideas.
A knowledgeable, essential reframing of an incendiary issue based on common sense, historical fact, and simple decency.Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-306-92562-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: April 27, 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
An inspiration for those fighting for democratic rights in the face of authoritarianism.
A spirited history of homegrown noncompliance.
There’s the history we know, and then, below that iceberg’s tip, all that we don’t. Stoermer, a public historian and teacher, does yeoman work in digging up stories that are far from the “safe, sanitized, often nationalistic version of the past.” Early on in his narrative, for example, come complex events out of early colonial New England. First is the revolt of Indigenous peoples led by the sachem Metacomet, a revolt that blossomed into “proportionally, the deadliest war in American history for the colonials,” one that textbooks would prefer to forget in favor of rosy stories of the first Thanksgiving. A decade later follows the not-unconnected Salem witchcraft trials, met by dissenters called the Unconfessed, who refused to accept the inquisitors’ assertions of heresy and sorcery, rebuking “a state that demanded its citizens validate its lies.” Given the flood of lies that inundates the country today, their resistance is a particularly valuable lesson. Almost unknown outside specialist circles is Stoermer’s account of the so-called Six, abolitionists who, prosperous and influential, “had accepted that tactical violence was necessary” in resisting slavery, financing, and otherwise supporting John Brown’s rebellion. Their story does not end happily; when the bullets flew, most of them withdrew. Throughout, Stoermer draws lessons to offer by way of a primer for today’s dissenters—for instance, “When systematic oppression operates at scale, resistance needs people who can build sophisticated infrastructure,” and, in doing so, who can contribute to a machinery of resistance to combat the machinery of the state. Usefully, he also reminds readers that even in defeat can come victory of sorts, as with the anti-Federalists who demanded that the Constitution contain amendments that “would later be used to challenge Jim Crow, expand civil rights, and protect individual liberty against state power.”
An inspiration for those fighting for democratic rights in the face of authoritarianism.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9781586424367
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Steerforth
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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