A persuasively argued and accessibly written historical work.
Rome’s fall and Islam’s dramatic rise take center stage in this final installment of author and podcaster Holmes’ multivolume history.
In the year 637, writes the author in the introduction, “the unthinkable happened” as Roman Jerusalem fell to Islamic conquerors. Indeed, while this volume marks the conclusion of Holmes’ five-book series on the Roman Empire, the rise of a multicontinental Islamic state—built on shocking victories over both the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires—drives much of its novel historiographic claims. Holmes covers the last year of Justinian’s reign in 565 through the Arab siege of Constantinople in 718, and offers a broad overview of major political and military events during this span. Although the history is well known, what stands out is the book’s astute analysis, which addresses central questions about Rome’s decline. While surveying Emperor Heraclius, for instance, the book suggests that although he may have been a skilled tactician in his war with Persia, by the time he turned his attention to Muslim warriors, he’d lost his physical and mental acumen for battle. Central to the book’s thesis is that early Arab military victories were largely due to fortuitous timing and Muhammad’s revolutionary political movement, which united most of the Arabian Peninsula. The rise of Islam coincided with a period when a prolonged war weakened both Rome and Persia; it also marked the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age. Overall, this volume makes a significant contribution to the discussion of the fall of Rome—a dominant topic on library shelves for more than a millennium. It does so by blending a traditional top-down history with an environmental survey based on contemporary scientific data. Particularly convincing is the book’s argument that the aforementioned Little Ice Age caused a demographic and economic collapse in Rome and Persia, but had little effect on Arabia, which was largely unaffected by the impact of climate change. Holmes complements his compelling storytelling and engaging thesis with ample maps and images.
A persuasively argued and accessibly written historical work.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781739786571
Page Count: 325
Publisher: Puttenham Press Ltd
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2025
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
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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