A convincing argument that the 13 colonies were part of a vast imperial system—but not the most important part.
Their revolution preoccupies Americans but was only one of many problems facing Britain, says this history.
O’Shaughnessy is professor of history at the University of Virginia; Burnard was professor of slavery and emancipation at the University of Hull, England. In their insightful history, they point out that Britain possessed more than twice as many Atlantic colonies as the 13 that would become the United States. Focusing on world affairs, they view the American Revolution as an imperial event during a clash of imperial powers after which the independent United States embraced British-style imperialism, racing west to conquer their own empire at the expense of Spain, Mexico, and Indigenous people. Unlike traditional U.S.-centric accounts, the book maintains that the 1756-1763 Seven Years’ War dominated the century. Britain won a smashing victory over rival powers (mostly France, Spain, and Austria), acquiring Canada, many West Indian islands, and dominance in India, but it was crushingly expensive. Ironically, the losers’ primitive bureaucracy enabled them to repudiate debts, but Britain’s advanced banking system permitted no such option. The authors describe Britain’s efforts to govern and defend a burgeoning empire while paying off the cost of acquiring it. Irish and West Indian gentry relied on Britain’s army for protection against their tenants and enslaved people and willingly paid more taxes. India’s wealth, till then enriching the private East India Company, was reclaimed for the empire. American colonists, having driven most Indigenous tribes beyond the Appalachians, felt little threat, detested British soldiers, and believed that their unpaid militia was all they needed. The authors remind readers that when France and Spain declared war after 1778, Britain withdrew much of its army from the colonies to fend off its major rivals, which it accomplished so successfully that the loss of the colonies turned out to be a temporary glitch in an expanding empire that did not peak until the following century.
A convincing argument that the 13 colonies were part of a vast imperial system—but not the most important part.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780300280180
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
