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BEYOND THE WALL

A HISTORY OF EAST GERMANY

The definitive history of “the other Germany, beyond the Wall.”

A historian discards the Cold War caricature of East Germany to deliver a compelling historical study.

British historian Hoyer, the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, was born in East Germany. She begins her latest eye-opening history in 1933, when thousands of German communists fled to Russia after Hitler took power. Almost all were arrested, and 75% were killed because the paranoid Stalin assumed that many were Gestapo spies. Lucky survivors returned to revive a devastated land with no help from reparations-hungry Russia, which vacuumed up farms, machinery, infrastructure, and even the products of rebuilding factories. In 1953, after years of deprivation, the nation exploded in violence, which required Soviet troops to suppress. Shocked East German leaders paid more attention to economics and, aided by Stalin’s death in 1953 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 (which cut off a crippling brain drain), accomplished a good deal. Although no fan of communism, Hoyer points out that, by the 1960s, “East German women enjoyed greater professional and economic autonomy than their Western counterparts.” Though the Stasi was pervasive, only a minority suffered. The vast majority came to terms with life in East Germany. By the 1970s, they enjoyed the communist world’s highest living standards, but the 1980s brought difficulties as the declining Soviet Union reduced subsidies, loans, and cheap oil. Desperate leaders made overtures to West Germany, which responded favorably. The decade saw an easing of travel restrictions and censorship, and in the final years, there was an explosion of activism, the wall’s destruction, and a free election followed by unification. Hoyer incisively examines the consequences. Unemployment skyrocketed as Western entrepreneurs took over, and working women lost cheap, universal child care in favor of the West’s skimpy, expensive version. Today, former East Germans often vote for extremist far-right and -left parties, but few long for the old regime.

The definitive history of “the other Germany, beyond the Wall.”

Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023

ISBN: 9781541602571

Page Count: 496

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: June 2, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023

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107 DAYS

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

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An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.

Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025

ISBN: 9781668211656

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025

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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

THE OSAGE MURDERS AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

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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

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