by William J. Jehle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2016
A thorough book on one of the least-explored corners of American music.
Jehle (Cigar Box Ukulele, 2016, etc.) outlines the curious history of cigar box instruments in this revised edition of his 2010 book.
The author, a longtime builder and player of cigar box guitars, dons a historian’s hat in this nonfiction work. The book, like its subject, is a something of a folk-art hodgepodge: “While I cannot promise that all the pieces are here,” writes Jehle in the foreword, “together we will assemble the disparate parts—snippets, one-line mentions, newspaper and magazine articles—into a cohesive whole.” Acknowledging the niche nature of his area of study, the author coins a term for the field: “detritomusicology, from the root words detritus and musicology.” He covers not only the cigar box guitar, but also cigar box versions of the violin, banjo, and ukulele. After a brief explanation of the origins of the cigar box itself, Jehle takes readers through a history of related instruments, from the first known artifact—a violin created sometime in the 1840s by a child musician who couldn’t afford a standard version of the instrument—to the creations of four later innovators: Edwin Forbes, Daniel Carter Beard, Satis Coleman, and Sam Kamaka Jr. After exploring the relationship between cigar box music and the wider popular culture, the author examines the evolution of the instruments by examining primary sources and diagrams dating from the late 19th century to the turn of the millennium. Jehle’s scrupulous prose demonstrates his deep respect for his subject. He quotes perhaps too extensively from his sources, giving the book an academic tone, which may not interest readers expecting more of a popular history. Even so, the work is well-researched and accompanied by many charts and illustrations, culled from old publications. Jehle manages to capture both the novelty and the artistry of cigar box instruments, and even readers with no previous interest in this curious subculture will come away with an appreciation for the ingenuity behind it.
A thorough book on one of the least-explored corners of American music.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5352-2158-0
Page Count: 422
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Tom Clavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2020
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2018
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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