Inspiring profiles in courage for our time.
Longtime ABC news correspondent Raddatz chronicles ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
Heroes, it’s said, are the people who run toward danger instead of away from it. To this Raddatz rejoins, “The one sure way to spot a hero may be to look for the ones who insist they are not.” In this series of portraits of such heroes, most connected to the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, she finds plenty to admire, even as those men and women protest that “I was just doing my job” and “It wasn’t me alone.” One of her subjects, for instance, is a veteran of a “pararescue jumper” unit whose job it was to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, “often under the most dangerous conditions imaginable.” Each operation in the field put him at terrible risk, and perhaps none more so than the rescue of an officer who had suffered a bullet to the head and a fall from a cliff—just one of 13 missions the team ran that day. Later, the rescuer sought out the rescued to check on his progress, and a great friendship formed. Friendship and comradeship is a constant theme: In another portrait, four survivors of a bloody ambush in Iraq form a lifelong bond after having all experienced the bewildering transition from military to civilian life: “I’m just another dude walking down the street, trying to pay his fucking bills.” Not all of Raddatz’s heroes are combatants: One is a neurosurgeon who, after three decades of treating head wounds in field hospitals, is now volunteering his services in Ukraine. Heroic in their own way, too, are the mothers of soldiers grievously wounded in battle, doing their best to help their children recover, and the ordinary people who volunteer their time and resources to staff suicide hotlines, donate medical supplies, and counsel other veterans on the road to recovery.
Inspiring profiles in courage for our time.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781668093801
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.
An expert on Russia delivers a crucially relevant study of a country that has been continuously “subjected to the vicissitudes of ruling ideologies.”
Wolfson History Prize winner Figes, one of the world’s leading authorities on Russian history and culture, shows how, over centuries, Russian autocrats have manipulated intertwined layers of mythology and history to suit their political and imperial purposes. Regarding current affairs, the author argues convincingly that to understand Putin’s aggressive behavior toward Ukraine and other neighboring nations, it is essential to grasp how Russia has come to see itself within the global order, especially in Asia and Europe. Figes emphasizes the intensive push and pull between concepts of East and West since the dubious founding of Kievan Rus, “the first Russian state,” circa 980. Russia’s geography meant it had few natural boundaries and was vulnerable to invasion—e.g., by the Mongols—and its mere size often required strong, central military control. It was in Moscow’s interests to increase its territorial boundaries and keep its neighbors weak, a strategy still seen today. Figes explores the growth of the “patrimonial autocracy” and examines how much of the mechanics of the country’s autocracy, bureaucracy, military structure, oligarchy, and corruption were inherited from three centuries of Mongol rule. From Peter the Great to Catherine the Great to Alexander II (the reformer who freed the serfs) and through the Bolsheviks to Stalin: In most cases, everything belonged to the state, and there were few societal institutions to check that power. “This imbalance—between a dominating state and a weak society—has shaped the course of Russian history,” writes the author in a meaningful, definitive statement. Today, Putin repudiates any hint of Westernizing influences (Peter the Great) while elevating the Eastern (Kievan Rus, the Orthodox Church). In that, he is reminiscent of Stalin, who recognized the need for patriotic fervor and national myths and symbols to unite and ensure the oppression of the masses.
A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79689-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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