A valuable contribution to the literature of urban affairs and its intersection with social justice.
A vigorous history of the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C., and their long-lasting effects.
In the unrest that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, writes historian and editor Sommers, Washington suffered nearly a quarter-billion dollars (adjusted to today’s value) in damage. The D.C. city council, which had already formulated plans for how to handle rioting, adopted a series of reforms that asked for measured and, when possible, nonviolent police response and encouraged community involvement. After the 1968 riots devastated the U Street Corridor and the historically Black Shaw neighborhood, the council also called for a rebuilding program that involved nonprofits working with the government rather than private developers. Unfortunately, although the rate of violent crime was lower than those in many other American cities, conservative politicians pointed to D.C. as proof that Black people could not govern—D.C. was then a majority Black city, much more so than today—and “demanded federal intervention, military occupation, and even dictatorship.” Funds for the rebuilding were supposed to come from Great Society programs, but they were canceled when Richard Nixon, who had campaigned on a law-and-order platform, took office. It took years for D.C. to rebuild, and when it did, after a long period when White suburbanites avoided the city, it was gentrified, with historically Black neighborhoods priced beyond the means of lower-income residents—neighborhoods redeveloped by private entities. Moreover, writes Sommers, who interviewed key witnesses such as Ben’s Chili Bowl co-owner Virginia Ali, the city’s demands for self-government and representation in Congress were thwarted. Sommers draws a straight line between Nixon’s war-on-crime programs, for which D.C. was an unwilling laboratory, and the militarized police culture that led to so much unrest after the killing of George Floyd—when, as in 1968, “many conservatives immediately decried the protests and chastised participants as criminals.”
A valuable contribution to the literature of urban affairs and its intersection with social justice.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781620977477
Page Count: 320
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
© 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.
