A unique glimpse into the life of a Civil War solider.
The wartime letters of a Confederate soldier take center stage in Holt’s nonfiction book.
A Confederate infantryman from North Carolina, Matthew Yow is survived by almost 60 letters, written between 1862 and his 1864 death, that have been passed down by his descendants. Most of the letters were written to his wife, Catharine, and their children. Presented for the first time to a public audience in this remarkable collection, Yow’s wartime commentary, which largely focuses on homesickness, lack of supplies, and other daily experiences of soldiers, offers an intimate portrait of the experiences of a Confederate infantryman. Lightly edited for clarity (mostly limited to punctuation marks and the capitalization of letters), the transcriptions are accompanied by historical commentary written by Holt, Yow’s great-granddaughter. Organized chronologically, each group of letters includes a brief overview that provides context about how they correspond to the broader movements of soldiers within the 48th North Carolina Infantry. Further background is provided by ample introductory and appendix material, including a short biography of Yow, a list of other soldiers who were part of his company, and a detailed family tree. Holt’s commentary is backed by 275 endnotes that demonstrate a firm command of the relevant scholarly literature. While most of the research is thorough, the book’s handling of white supremacy falls out of step with contemporary historiography; an appendix essay on “Remembrance and Reconciliation,” for example, offers a sanitized history of postwar reconciliation services that ignores their connection to the emergence the “New South” and its system of Jim Crow segregation, as detailed in the work of historian David W. Blight and others. (The book’s introduction importantly emphasizes Yow’s initial ambivalence toward the Confederacy—he even deserted once before being caught.) Neither the book’s commentary nor Yow’s letters mention his views on slavery; Matthew and Catherine Yow are described as yeomen farmers whose meager earnings came from “the fruits of their labor.” Buried in the book’s endnotes is the key detail that both Matthew and Catherine’s parents were enslavers.
A unique glimpse into the life of a Civil War solider.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9798989721900
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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