Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.
Following his award-winning World War II–era volumes Bomb (2012) and The Port Chicago 50 (2014), Sheinkin tells the sweeping saga of the Vietnam War and the man who blew the whistle on the government’s “secret war.”
From 1964 to 1971, Daniel Ellsberg went from nerdy analyst for the Rand Corp. to “the most dangerous man in America.” Initially a supporter of Cold War politics and the Vietnam War, he became disenchanted with the war and the lies presidents told to cover up the United States’ deepening involvement in the war. He helped to amass the Pentagon Papers—“seven thousand pages of documentary evidence of lying, by four presidents and their administrations over twenty-three years”—and then leaked them to the press, fueling public dissatisfaction with American foreign policy. Sheinkin ably juggles the complex war narrative with Ellsberg’s personal story, pointing out the deceits of presidents and tracing Ellsberg’s rise to action. It’s a challenging read but necessarily so given the scope of the study. As always, Sheinkin knows how to put the “story” in history with lively, detailed prose rooted in a tremendous amount of research, fully documented. An epilogue demonstrates how history repeats itself in the form of Edward Snowden.
Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers. (bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59643-952-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
A valuable complement to existing nonfiction about the Vietnam War for young people, adding an intimate dimension to the...
A personal, moving foray into the Vietnam War and its impact on the country and individuals whose lives it forever changed.
Partridge (Dogtag Summer, 2011, etc.) takes readers on a chronological, multidimensional journey through the Vietnam War years via the personal stories of eight individuals: six American soldiers from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds, a biracial (Chinese- and Italian-American) nurse, and a Vietnamese refugee. Each segment moves readers forward in time and is interspersed with brief snapshots of what was happening at home, from glimpses of the American presidents’ handling of the escalating crisis to the growing anti-war movement at home, viewed through the lens of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and protest singer Country Joe McDonald. Of particular interest is the segment on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a collaboration between veterans, government officials, and its young Chinese-American designer, Maya Lin. Emphasizing the lasting emotional legacy of the war for those who served, even as the rest of the country seemed content to put it behind them, Partridge’s narrative storytelling is incisive and masterfully woven together. A superb selection of photographs puts an indelible face on the individuals whose lives the war affected.
A valuable complement to existing nonfiction about the Vietnam War for young people, adding an intimate dimension to the larger history. (bibliography, source notes, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-670-78506-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Far better-researched and engagingly written sources on this topic exist; not recommended.
The title poses a question that the author never answers in this overview of the impact of American Indian contact with Europeans and their descendants from the 15th to the 19th centuries.
The author begins inauspiciously by giving equal weight to the opinions of history professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, a specialist in indigenous history who endorses the view that the Native experience qualifies as genocide, and Rod D. Martin, a CEO and hedge fund manager, who disagrees. Beginning with the arrival of Columbus and abruptly ending with the Wounded Knee massacre, Haugen relies almost exclusively on non-Native sources and draws heavily on commentary by non-scholars. His convoluted and dense prose will not engage readers. While the book clearly elucidates inhumane official policies calling for forcible assimilation or eradication of Native Americans, it attempts to provide equal weight for the viewpoint that the term “genocide” is not justified. Sources cited for this view include film critic Michael Medved and political scientist Guenter Lewy (who is known for arguing that “genocide” is not accurate when applied to the case of the Armenians). Ultimately, despite its provocative title, the book fails to endorse either side of the argument, leaving readers perplexed.
Far better-researched and engagingly written sources on this topic exist; not recommended. (source notes, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68282-291-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: ReferencePoint Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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