Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century. Or of any century, for that matter. Her life spanned the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the First World War, and its aftermath. She distinguished herself as an explorer, mountaineer, travel writer, political...
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You won’t recognize some of the names on this list of exceptional women. Most were little known even in their own time. They represent a wide range of activities, from espionage to politics to science and to running their countries. But what they have in common with the three reigning monarchs...
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The Romanovs: 1613–1918 chronicles the 300-year rise and fall of the dynasty, detailing how 20 tsars and tsarinas transformed Russia into a massive empire. Ruthless autocracy, immense territorial expansion, and extreme personal power struggles characterized their reign. Historian Simon Sebag...
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A dwindling number of American readers recognize the name Jessica Mitford (1917-96). And those who do probably think of her as the author of her most successful book, The American Way of Death. It shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list on its publication in 1963 and stayed there for...
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You may recognize the Marshall Plan as one of the most outstanding episodes in our diplomatic history. But you’re less likely to be familiar with the man who gave his name to the project. When we think of our greatest heroes in World War II, the name George Marshall doesn’t spring to...
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You’ve probably never heard her name before. But if you fly frequently she may have saved your life. Her name was Roxie Laybourne, and she was of all unlikely things the world’s first forensic ornithologist. In 1960, when Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crashed on takeoff from Logan...
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For most Americans, the enduring image of World War II in the Philippines is the iconic shot of General Douglas MacArthur wading onto the shore of Leyte Island on October 20, 1944. The photo was posed, part of the general’s public relations campaign to grab headlines at home. But MacArthur...
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Mark Twain satirized the period as the Gilded Age, suggesting that an overlay of gold plating hid the seamy reality underneath. Later, historians fixed the term to the years from the late 1870s to the late 1890s. Then, America emerged from the devastation of the Civil War to become the...
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Today we speak of “the imperial presidency” to reflect the staggering breadth of the power that the White House has amassed over the past century. And the term is more apt than ever today under the expansive view of presidential power that has motivated the Roberts Supreme Court to...
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Throughout its eight-decade history, the Central Intelligence Agency has racked up an extraordinary number of clandestine operations gone wrong. Of course, the agency’s defenders assert we don’t know about the many successes that have never seen the light of day as well as a few that...
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Famous generals proliferate in American history. After all, ours is a story of conquest and almost unceasing warfare from the earliest days of European settlement on the North American continent well into the 21st century. The names of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, John J. Pershing, Douglas...
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The subtitle of Shannon Monaghan’s book, A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men: The Forgotten British Special Operations Soldiers of World War II, gave fair warning. Unfortunately, I missed the point. In no way could the men of Britain’s SOE, SAS, Commando, and other World War II special...
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We look upon the 1950s as a decade of conformity when little of consequence happened in the United States. But sweeping generalizations about any period in history are misleading at best, and none more so than about the Fifties. Because the period from the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950...
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Version 1.0.0 He was the first robber baron. Other familiar names from the nineteenth century—John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan—were young men in the early days of their careers when he was at the peak of his fame. Following the Civil War, he became the richest person in American...
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You might expect, if you’ve read a little about Winston Churchill, that only during World War II did he become deeply engaged with the military. But that’s far from true. From the time he enlisted in the British Army as a second lieutenant in 1895, Churchill was almost continuously...
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A decade and a half ago Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. co-produced and narrated a four-episode series on PBS, reporting on the findings he and his team came up with from studying the family history and genetic profile of 12 famous and near-famous Americans. Faces of America aired in...
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That cover photo does not do her justice. Pamela Churchill Harriman (née Digby, 1920-99) was one of the great beauties of the Anglo-American world well into her seventies, and other photos reveal that. She was ridiculed) throughout most of her life as a courtesan, having slept with hundreds of...
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The word “shogun” entered the English language in 1975 with the publication of James Clavell’s blockbuster bestselling novel, Shogun. And it gained broader attention earlier this year with the release of the 10-episode FX television series of the same name. Now, a professor of...
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She ran a modest haberdashery shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Fredericka Mandelbaum, an “upright widow, philanthropic synagogue-goer, [and] doting mother of four,” was also the boss of the country’s most notorious crime syndicate. And when Pinkerton detectives finally staged a...
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A few other names crop up from time to time. But the four men who rode atop the wave of the Gilded Age were Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. Their business activities during the final four decades of the nineteenth century drove America’s ascension into the...
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...includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.