In an alternative history sequel, King and Bredehoft (Democracy’s Missing Arsenal, 2013) chart the solidification of a Great Power Alliance and envision a subtly different 1914-18 war.
In the authors’ convincing semifictional world, everything stems from a single “point of divergence”: the Confederacy won the Civil War. Key consequences include earlier division into coalitions—France, America, and Russia versus Germany, England, and the Confederacy (the United States is no longer united)—accelerated advances in military technology, and a reversal of the global trend toward abolition. Their version of WWI takes place in 1898, with a “Second Alliance War” spanning 1914 to 1918. However, the historical facts stay the same: Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination sparks the conflict. Sites of clashes in the first book recur here: Canada’s English-speaking west and French-speaking east remain at odds, while Ireland’s Easter 1916 Uprising diverts British attention. Meanwhile, South America becomes a hot spot, with belligerent nations forming unexpected associations and the USA invading Chile—a prime exporter of nitrates needed for explosives. Compared to the previous volume, this is less of a historical sweep; its meticulous level of detail can be wearisome. On the other hand, the narrower time period allows for comprehensive accounts of naval battles and bombing regimes. The aftermath of Paris’ bombardment is particularly vivid: “refugees packed the Jardin des Tuileries, the smoke from their cooking rising to mingle with the denser smoke from a score of fires.” Made-up headlines and fragments of speeches and letters mimic an authentic history text, while the occasional relaxation of the narrator’s language—starting sentences with “But,” rhetorical questions, the conditional mood, and striking turns of phrase (“Nicholas II, willing to swallow virtually any anti-Jewish canard”)—keeps this from being a mere recitation of events. Those intimately familiar with World War I–era history should spot subtler differences. An overall highlight is FDR’s modified first meeting with Churchill in 1918: their instant rapport as naval personnel helps resolve Anglo-American issues. The book ends with Germany and Austria-Hungary inaugurating a new serfdom for Slavs, a chilling prophecy of continued worldwide slavery.
Stay tuned for the third installment: a treatment of WWII (here the “Third Alliance War”).Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
Not an easy read but an essential one.
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Title notwithstanding, this latest from the National Book Award–winning author is no guidebook to getting woke.
In fact, the word “woke” appears nowhere within its pages. Rather, it is a combination memoir and extension of Atlantic columnist Kendi’s towering Stamped From the Beginning (2016) that leads readers through a taxonomy of racist thought to anti-racist action. Never wavering from the thesis introduced in his previous book, that “racism is a powerful collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity and are substantiated by racist ideas,” the author posits a seemingly simple binary: “Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas.” The author, founding director of American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, chronicles how he grew from a childhood steeped in black liberation Christianity to his doctoral studies, identifying and dispelling the layers of racist thought under which he had operated. “Internalized racism,” he writes, “is the real Black on Black Crime.” Kendi methodically examines racism through numerous lenses: power, biology, ethnicity, body, culture, and so forth, all the way to the intersectional constructs of gender racism and queer racism (the only section of the book that feels rushed). Each chapter examines one facet of racism, the authorial camera alternately zooming in on an episode from Kendi’s life that exemplifies it—e.g., as a teen, he wore light-colored contact lenses, wanting “to be Black but…not…to look Black”—and then panning to the history that informs it (the antebellum hierarchy that valued light skin over dark). The author then reframes those received ideas with inexorable logic: “Either racist policy or Black inferiority explains why White people are wealthier, healthier, and more powerful than Black people today.” If Kendi is justifiably hard on America, he’s just as hard on himself. When he began college, “anti-Black racist ideas covered my freshman eyes like my orange contacts.” This unsparing honesty helps readers, both white and people of color, navigate this difficult intellectual territory.
Not an easy read but an essential one.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-50928-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
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More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SELF-HELP
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