An admirable and useful addition to the history of World War II.
How global conflict made a world of outcasts.
Churchill and Roosevelt had signed the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, promoting a robust defense for free trade and promising national self-determination. However, not all of the charter’s consequences were intended. The more conventional aspects of this study focus on the three main theaters of war: El Alamein, Guadalcanal, and the Battle for Stalingrad—the latter accounting for 10% of all battlefield deaths during the entire war. The less conventional aspect leaves the exclusively military story not so much ignored as supplemented. Cultures that were previously almost unknown to each other fought side by side or clashed—often, both. With the exception of continental Europe, most action was overseas, with over 1 million men at sea. One sixth of the American population was mobilized, and in addition to producing munitions, battleships (one per week), and bombers, they changed the sheer speed and scale of warfare. The enormous shipyards in Richmond, California, drew migrants from the South, and with them, the lingering heritage of Jim Crow. Recruits needed dental care and education. Literacy rates were surprisingly low. “The war effort nationalized America’s race problem,” writes Fritzsche, a University of Illinois historian. The Japanese invasion of Singapore led to the collapse of Burma and added fuel to the “quit India” campaign. The British Empire, home to a quarter of the world’s population, began to seem contingent rather than inevitable. Fritzsche tells of the effects of war in South Africa, the Philippines, and China. Along with India, China suffered famine as a result of prioritizing military rather than civilian provisioning. Back in Europe, those beneath the bombings were left homeless and destitute. Jews were evicted and deported. Mass labor shortages pressed occupied territories into slave labor, promoting increased resistance. Migration becomes the main thesis of the book. Certainties and political structures crumble, Fritzsche argues, when everyone is from somewhere else.
An admirable and useful addition to the history of World War II.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781541603219
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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