by Mike Pitts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2014
Writing this book must have been the dream of a lifetime for Pitts, and he has risen to the occasion. Highly recommended.
When an archaeological expedition found one of England’s most maligned kings in an urban parking lot, it was a worldwide sensation. Here’s the complete story.
British Archaeology editor Pitts begins with a quick summary of Richard III’s reign and his death at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. He had been king only two years, a temporary victor in the Wars of the Roses. But after his defeat, Richard became one of history’s villains, notably in Shakespeare’s play bearing his name. However, not everyone bought the image of the evil Richard. In 2010, aspiring screenwriter Philippa Langley (whose The King’s Grave also examines the discovery of the site) called Richard Buckley of the University of Leicester archaeology department. She had a simple proposition: The Richard III Society wanted to help finance a search for the king’s body, believed to be buried in Leicester. Buckley didn’t think anyone could find the lost body, but he wanted to explore the area of the city where the body might be found. When the dig, which took place in a parking lot, turned up a skeleton the first day, it still seemed next to impossible that it could be Richard. Only upon closer examination did the team recognize the twisted spine that history had attributed to the king, as well as other important details. Pitts details the events leading up to the discovery and describes the scientific examination of the skeleton. Chemical analysis of the bones, study of the wounds the victim had sustained and reconstruction of the facial appearance of the victim—all supported the hypothesis that it was indeed Richard. DNA evidence clinched the case. The archaeological world was stunned. Pitts calls the find the most amazing since the excavation of King Tut’s tomb in 1924, and he effectively conveys the excitement of the discovery, clearly and vividly describing the process and the personalities.
Writing this book must have been the dream of a lifetime for Pitts, and he has risen to the occasion. Highly recommended.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-500-25200-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
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by Tom Clavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2020
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2018
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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