An elucidating history that is relevant to understanding the geopolitics of Greece today.
On the bicentennial of the Greek revolution, a prominent scholar tracks the historical detail and enormous international significance of the improbable, largely grassroots uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
Mazower, a Columbia professor and winner of the Wolfson Prize for History who has written extensively about Greece and the Balkans, ably ties together the many disparate threads of this complex history of Greek independence, galvanized by the spirit of nationalism unleashed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Though the Ottomans were not present at the talks, the Christian Orthodox entities (Serbs, Greeks, Russians) built solidarity in response to Ottoman “scenes of carnage,” and the Greek question garnered sympathy. However, Mazower emphasizes that as long as the Greeks waited, the czar was not going to come to their defense. Consequently, in Odessa, “some Greeks of very obscure class” formed a Filiki Etaireia (“Society of Friends”) that would prove “the catalyst for Europe’s first successful national revolution,” which began in earnest in 1821. Despite the wildly asymmetrical dimensions of the fight—the sprawling Ottoman Empire of 24 million versus the 3 million or so Greeks scattered throughout, as well as the sultan’s vast wealth, bureaucracy, and military versus the 15,000 to 20,000 fighters the Greeks could motivate—the Greek underdogs managed to wrest “some kind of independence” from the Sultan by 1828, to be determined over the subsequent decades. The Egyptians also joined the fight against the Greeks, but the Greeks were able to win the international war of propaganda—aided by notables such as Byron, Shelley, and Delacroix, who were infatuated by Greek mythology, archaeological discoveries, and Enlightenment thinking. In a narrative that may overwhelm general readers but will prove indispensable to scholars, Mazower underscores that it was largely a provincial struggle, financed by European sympathies and bonded by Christianity. The book features extensive maps and illustrations.
An elucidating history that is relevant to understanding the geopolitics of Greece today.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59184-733-5
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 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
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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