A richly contextual history of multiracial Jews and their travails and triumphs in the New World.
An intricate genealogy of a family of Sephardic Jews and their slaves who branched out from Barbados to embrace new opportunities in the early American republic.
In her latest deep excavation of Jewish history, Leibman—a professor of English and humanities at Reed College and winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism (2012)—focuses on two children of Abraham Rodrigues Brandon, a prominent member of his Bridgetown synagogue who, during the early 19th century, became “the island’s wealthiest Jew.” Abraham’s concubine, Sarah Esther Lopez-Gill, who became the mother of his children, Sarah and Isaac, was an African woman enslaved in the neighboring household of the Lopez family, a branch of the Sephardic immigrants who came to Barbados after expulsion from Spain. Sarah and Isaac were both born as slaves and were christened. In 1801, upon the death of their grandfather, who left them an inheritance, they were able to buy their freedom and live in his house. Such circumstances were hardly the norm. “For enslaved people, the death of owners and white kin was an anxious business,” writes the author. “One cross word, and lives could be ruined. Whites were often unpredictable in their affections.” From this time, Leibman follows Sarah and Isaac through their lives, first to Suriname, where Isaac was circumcised and they became “nação, Jews of the Portuguese nation.” Sarah was sent to be schooled in London, and she eventually married New York merchant Joshua Moses. “Their romance,” writes Leibman, “would spawn a new dynasty.” Isaac also journeyed out of the Caribbean, and the ensuing tangle of genealogy is both telling and mystifying, as the family struggled, fought for civil rights, and joined the thriving Jewish communities in New York and Philadelphia, leaving a lasting legacy. The author includes relevant artifacts, such as photos of the intertwined families.
A richly contextual history of multiracial Jews and their travails and triumphs in the New World.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-19-753047-4
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 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
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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