New Books in Biography & Memoir
Episodes
Steven L. Ossad, “Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General, 1893-1981” (University of Missouri Press, 2017)
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Steven L. Ossad joins New Books at Military History to talk about his award-winning biography, Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General, 1893-1981 ...
Catherine Layton, “The Life and Times of Mary, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland” (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2018)
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As the thrice-married widow of one of the richest dukes in Victorian Britain, Mary Mitchell lived a life often at variance with the expectations of pr...
Alison B. Hirsch, “City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America” (U Minnesota Press, 2014)
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Halprin, one of the central figures in twentieth-century American landscape architecture, is well known to city-watchers for his work on San ...
Joshua Parens, “Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy” (U Rochester Press, 2016)
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, I am joined by Joshua Parens to discuss his innovative and engaging book Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Phil...
Max Boot, “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam” (Liveright, 2018)
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Counterinsurgency doctrine, the Vietnam War, and the vagaries of politics all come together in Max Boot‘s latest work, The Road Not Taken: Edward La...
Kimberly A. Francis, “Teaching Stravinsky: Nadia Boulanger and the Consecration of a Modernist Icon” (Oxford UP, 2015)
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Pedagogue, composer, and conductor Nadia Boulanger was a central figure in Igor Stravinsky’s life during the middle part of his career, providing hi...
Katrin Paehler, “The Third Reich’s Intelligence Service: The Career of Walter Schellenberg” (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
06 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who was the spymaster of the Third Reich? How did Nazi ideology influence intelligence collection? Katrin Paehler answers these questions with the fir...
June Purvis, “Christabel Pankhurst: A Biography” (Routledge, 2018)
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Despite her prominent role in the women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain, Christabel Pankhurst has not received the same degree of attention fro...
Thomas Weber, “Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi” (Basic Books, 2017)
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Few would dispute that Hitler’s ideas led to war and genocide. Less clear however, is how and when those ideas developed. In his latest book, Becomi...
Bonnie Anderson, “The Rabbi’s Atheist Daughter: Ernestine Rose, International Feminist Pioneer” (Oxford UP, 2017)
26 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As a believer in free thought, a campaigner for women’s rights, and as a supporter of abolition, Ernestine Rose had no shortage of causes to advocat...
Sandra E. Greene, “Slave Owners of West Africa: Decision Making in the Age of Abolition” (Indiana UP, 2017)
22 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s podcast we talked to Dr. Sandra Greene about her book Slave Owners of West Africa. Decision Making in the Age of Abolition published in 2...
Alexander Orwin, “Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi” (U Penn Press, 2017)
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (c. 872 – c. 950) a philosopher who wrote on politics, metaphysics, and logic as well as mathematics, psychology, and music, was ...
Andrew Lees, “Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment” (Notting Hill Editions, 2017)
12 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment (Notting Hill Editions, 2017) is a fascinating account by one of the world’s leading and most...
Jean R. Freedman, “Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics” (U Illinois Press, 2017)
08 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When folklorist Jean Freedman first met Peggy Seeger in 1979, Freedman was an undergraduate on her junior year abroad in London, while her American co...
Sterling Murray, “The Career of an Eighteenth-Century Kapellmeister: The Life and Music of Antonio Rosetti” (U Rochester Press, 2014)
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Though he never enjoyed the fame of his contemporaries Mozart and Haydn, Antonio Rosetti was a successful composer whose works received a wide audienc...
David Weinstein, “The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics” (Brandeis UP, 2017)
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Eddie Cantor was once among the most popular performers in the United States. He was influential and innovative on stage, radio, and film from the ear...
Daniel B. Schwartz, “The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image” (Princeton UP, 2012)
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Benedito/Baruch/Benedict Spinoza (1623-1677) lived at the crossroads of Dutch, scholastic, and Jewish worlds. Excommunicated from the Jewish community...
Saladin Ambar, “American Cicero: Mario Cuomo and the Defense of American Liberalism” (Oxford UP, 2017)
28 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
American Cicero: Mario Cuomo and the Defense of American Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a compelling exploration of the political life ...
Jeffrey Stewart, “The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke” (Oxford UP, 2018)
26 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Through his work as a scholar and critic, Alain Locke redefined African American culture and its place in American life. Jeffrey Stewart‘s book The ...
Jennifer Frost, “Producer of Controversy: Stanley Kramer, Hollywood Liberalism and the Cold War” (UP of Kansas, 2017)
21 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
While Stanley Kramer is considered a successful producer and director of many films as Hollywood moved out of the studio era, he also was criticized f...
James Delbourgo, “Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane” (Allen Lane, 2017)
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
James Delbourgo‘s new book Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane (Allen Lane, 2017) tells the fascinatingly complex and contro...
Brian Jenkins, “Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War” (McGill-Queens UP, 2014)
08 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Described upon his death in 1887 as the ideal diplomatist, Richard Lyons served Great Britain in a variety of roles over the course of a long and dist...
Peter Hempenstall, “Truth’s Fool: Derek Freeman and the War over Cultural Anthropology” (U Wisconsin Press, 2017)
01 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The debate over Margaret Mead’s and Derek Freeman’s conflicting ethnographic reports has gone on for decades. While no longer a hot topic, Mead-Fr...
Kyle Longley, “LBJ’s 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America’s Year of Upheaval” (Cambridge UP, 2018)
31 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was a year that at times left Lyndon Johnson feeling as though he was living in a continuous nightmare. Yet as Kyle Longley describes in his book L...
Michael Patrick Cullinane, “Theodore Roosevelts Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon” (LSU Press, 2017)
26 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
That Theodore Roosevelt remains one of America’s most recognizable presidents nearly a century after his death is due in no small measure to the fla...
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)
23 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the poin...
Hendrik Meijer, “Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century” (U Chicago Press, 2017)
18 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As a United States senator in the 1930s and 1940s, Arthur Vandenberg was one of the leading Republican voices shaping the nation’s foreign policy. T...
Richard Carwardine, “Lincoln’s Sense of Humor” (Southern Illinois UP, 2017)
10 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For many people today, the name Abraham Lincoln conjures up a mental image of a solemn but kindly statesman. Yet to his contemporaries, one of Lincoln...
Crawford Gribben, “John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat” (Oxford UP, 2017)
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Though the preeminent English theologian of the 17th century, there is much about John Owen’s life which remains obscured to us today. One of the ac...
Vanya E. Bellinger, “Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War” (Oxford UP, 2016)
03 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War (Oxford University Press, 2016) is an important and fascinating book that not only tells t...
Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs, “Jonas Salk: A Life” (Oxford UP, 2015)
29 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Polio was a scourge that terrified generations of people throughout the United States and the rest of the world until Jonas Salk’s vaccine provided ...
Scott Kaufman, “Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford” (University Press of Kansas, 2017)
22 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Catapulted into the Oval Office by an unusual set of circumstances, Gerald Ford remains a unique figure in American presidential history. In Ambition,...
Brett L. Abrams, “Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
15 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Brett L. Abrams, author of the book Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2...
Bob Batchelor, “Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), cultural historian and biographer Bob Batchelor examines the life of...
Joshua Rubenstein, “The Last Days of Stalin” (Yale UP, 2016)
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On March 4, 1953, Soviet citizens woke up to an unthinkable announcement: Joseph Stalin, the country’s all-powerful leader, had died of a stroke. In...
Paul Magid, “The Gray Fox: George Crook and the Indian Wars” (U. Oklahoma Press, 2015)
07 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
With the end of the Civil War, George Crook’s decision to continue serving in the United States Army meant reverting to a lower rank and assuming a ...
Nikki M. Taylor, “Driven Toward Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio” (Ohio U. Press, 2016)
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You may know Toni Morrison’s famed novel Beloved, but do you know much about the true story of the woman depicted in that story? You will know about...
Stephen F. Williams, “The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution” (Encounter Books, 2017)
30 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution (Encounter Books, 2017), written by legal scholar Stephen F. Williams, uses a b...
Laura E. Smith, “Horace Poolaw: Photographer of American Indian Modernity” (U. Nebraska Press, 2016)
28 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Horace Poolaw, Photographer of American Indian Modernity (University of Nebraska Press, 2016), Laura E. Smith, Assistant Professor of Art History a...
Vanda Krefft, “The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox” (Harper, 2017)
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Though not a figure in the public imagination today, William Fox is a man whose legacy is visible in the numerous media enterprises that bear his name...
Joseph Lelyveld, “His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt” (Vintage Books, 2016)
12 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In November 1944 Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States, despite suffering from heart disease and other...
Drew Lopenzina, “Through an Indian’s Looking-Glass: A Cultural Biography of William Apess, Pequot” (U. Mass Press, 2017)
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Through meticulous archival research, close readings of key works, and informed and imaginative speculation about a largely enigmatic life, Red Ink au...
Anthony Chaney, “Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Rise of Ecological Consciousness” (UNC Press, 2017)
01 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Chaney teaches history and writing at the University of North Texas at Dallas. His book Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Ris...
Adi Gordon, “Toward Nationalism’s End: An Intellectual Biography of Hans Kohn” (Brandeis UP, 2017)
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Not very many intellectuals really change their minds about anything. They have a big idea, often become well known because of it. Then their big idea...
Marie Alohalani Brown, “Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa Ii” (U. Hawaii Press, 2016)
27 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not often that a single person’s life can reveal the dramatic social and political shifts of a community. From his youth, John Papa I’i, an...
William J. Cooper, “The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics” (Liveright, 2017)
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of a public career that stretched from the Washington administration to the Mexican-American War, John Quincy Adams became a living li...
Laura Lee, “Oscar’s Ghost: The Battle for Oscar Wilde’s Legacy” (Amberley, 2017)
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Lee’s Oscar’s Ghost: The Battle for Oscar Wilde’s Legacy (Amberley Publishing, 2017) offers a detailed investigation of a conflict involvi...
Marion Deshmukh, “Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany” (Routledge, 2015)
17 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany (Routledge 2015), Marion Deshmukh, the Robert T. Hawkes Professor of History Emeritus a...
Robert W. Cherny, “Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art” (U. Illinois Press, 2017)
04 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Best remembered today for his work as a muralist, the Russian-American artist Victor Arnautoff lived a life worthy of Hollywood. In Victor Arnautoff a...
Barry W. Holtz, “Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud” (Yale UP, 2017)
26 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism...
Deanne Stillman, “Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill” (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
25 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. H...
Paige Bowers, “The General’s Niece: The Little-Known de Gaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France” (Chicago Review Press, 2017)
19 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When Charles de Gaulle issued his famous call in June 1940 for the French people to continue fighting Nazi Germany, among those within Occupied France...
Was Presidential Leadership Decisive in Determining the Outcome of the Civil War?
12 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the third podcast of Arguing History, historians William J. Cooper and Richard Carwardine address the question of the role presidential leadership ...
Joanna Dee Das, “Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora” (Oxford UP, 2017)
07 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine D...
Tracy A. Thomas, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Feminist Foundations of Family Law” (NYU Press, 2016)
06 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast I talk with Tracy A. Thomas about her book Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Feminist Foundations of Family Law (New York University Pres...
Tamara Plakins Thornton, “Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life” (UNC Press, 2016)
27 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To remember Nathaniel Bowditch today primarily for his famous navigational textbook is to acknowledge only one of his many achievements. As Tamara Pla...
T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, “Bricktop’s Paris: African American Women in Paris between the Two World Wars (SUNY Press, 2015)
26 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When Dorothy Sterling wrote her book about nineteenth-century black women in America, she stated in the introduction that the book was not a definitiv...
Mitch Kachun, “First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory” (Oxford UP, 2017)
23 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory (Oxford University Press, 2017) explores how Crispus Attucks’ death in the 1770 Boston M...
Marcia Walker-McWilliams, “Reverend Addie: Faith and the Fight for Labor, Gender, and Racial Equality (U. Illinois Press, 2016)
22 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Addie Wyatt stands at the intersection of unionism, feminism, and civil rights activism in post-World War II America. In Reverend Addie Wyatt: Faith a...
Rosalind Rosenberg, “Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray” (Oxford UP, 2017)
06 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rosalind Rosenberg‘s book Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a multi-layered and rich biography of Pauli Murray,...
Joyce Salisbury, “Rome’s Christian Empress: Galla Placidia Rules at the Twilight of the Empire” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015)
06 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The daughter of the emperor Theodosius I, Galla Placidia successfully navigated the tumultuous politics of the late Roman Empire to rule as regent for...
Naoko Wake, “Private Practices: Harry Stack Sullivan, the Science of Homosexuality, and American Liberalism” (Rutgers UP, 2011)
01 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The influential yet controversial psychiatrist, Harry Stack Sullivan was pioneering in his treatment of schizophrenia however the way he lived private...
Elias Sacks, “Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism” (Indiana UP, 2016)
31 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The work of Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), one of Judaism’s great philosophers and defenders, has nonetheless defied easy categorization or definiti...
Kief Hillsbery, “Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
26 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Kief Hillsbery‘s Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) follows the career of Ni...
Jon Kukla, “Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty” (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
24 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To remember Patrick Henry for his defiant declaration “Give me liberty or give me death!” is to overlook a long career spent as an advocate for th...
Peter Eisner, “MacArthur’s Spies: The Solider, the Singer, and the Spymaster Who Defied the Japanese in WWII” (Viking, 2017)
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The conquest of the Philippines in 1942 brought thousands of Americans under the control of the empire of Japan. While most of them were interned or i...
Leigh Fought, “Women in the World of Frederick Douglass” (Oxford UP, 2017)
16 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Leigh Fought is an assistant professor of history at Le Moyne College. Her book Women in the World of Frederick Douglass (Oxford University Press, 201...
Patrick N. Hunt, “Hannibal” (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 218 BCE, the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca launched an invasion of Italy designed to bring the Roman Republic to its knees. Yet for all of hi...
Geoffrey D. Claussen, “Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar” (SUNY Press, 2015)
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simḥah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar (SUNY Press, 2015), Geoffrey D. Claussen provides a thorough study of the life ...
Allan H. Pasco, “Balzac, Literary Sociologist” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Balzac, Literary Sociologist (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Allan H. Pasco explores the talents of the writer whose reputation has been primarily base...
Michael J. Hogan, “The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Biography” (Cambridge UP, 2017)
27 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As president John F. Kennedy enjoyed a remarkable degree of popularity, and in the decades since his assassination his standing has only grown in the ...
Mitchell Stephens, “The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism” (St. Martin’s, 2017)
27 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mitchell Stephens‘s new book, The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism (St. Martins Press, 2017), could be d...
David Kushner, “Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D and D” (Nation Books, 2017)
23 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D and D (Nation Books, 2017) by David Kushner and illustrated by Koren Shadmi is a gorgeous...
Michael Witwer, “Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons” (Bloomsbury, 2015)
19 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons (Bloomsbury, 2015) by Michael Witwer is an exceptional biography of the co-cre...
Brad Gooch, “Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love” (Harper, 2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since their composition in the 13th century the poems of the Persian writer Rumi have enthralled millions of readers around the world. In Rumi’...
William Walsh, “Forty-Four American Boys: Short Histories of Presidential Childhoods” (Outpost19, 2017)
04 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you’re on the right or the left of the political spectrum, I’ll bet that lately the Office of the President isn’t far from your mind. Ev...
Bruce D. Haynes and Syma Solovitch, “Down the Up Staircase: Three Generations of a Harlem Family” (Columbia UP, 2017)
02 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Public scholarship takes many forms, from op-eds to activism to blog posts. In their new book, Down the Up Staircase: Three Generations of a Harlem Fa...
Susan Rubenstein DeMasi, “Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project” (McFarland, 2016)
01 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rube...
Michael J. Turner” Radicalism and Reputation: The Career of Bronterre O’Brien” (Michigan State UP, 2017)
31 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From humble beginnings James Bronterre O’Brien became one of the leading figures in British radical politics in the first half of the 19th century, ...
Clyde Farnsworth, “Tangled Bylines: A Father and Son Cover the Twentieth Century” (U. Missouri Press, 2017)
31 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Journalists intentionally leave themselves out of the stories they cover. In Clyde H. Farnsworth‘s book Tangled Bylines: A Father and Son Cover the ...
Paul Youngquist, “A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism” (U. Texas Press, 2016)
27 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The legendary band leader Sun Ra said he came from Saturn. Known on Earth for his inventive music and extravagant stage shows, he pioneered free-form ...
John Bohrer, “The Revolution of Robert Kennedy: From Power to Protest after JFK” (Bloomsbury, 2017)
25 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From the moment he entered politics as the manager of John F. Kennedy’s 1952 Senate campaign, Robert Kennedy’s political career was subsumed into ...
Patrick J. Hayes, “The Civil War Diary of Rev. James Sheeran, Confederate Chaplain and Redemptorist” (Catholic Univ. of America Press, 2016)
23 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During the Civil War Father James Sheeran served as a Catholic chaplain for the 14th Louisiana Infantry. Between his various responsibilities Sheeran ...
Linda Heywood, “Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen” (Harvard University Press, 2017)
19 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the capital of the African nation of Angola today stands a statue to Njinga, the 17th century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms. Its presenc...
Amir Engel, “Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography” (U. Chicago Press, 2017)
15 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography (University of Chicago Press, 2017) , Amir Engel, a lecturer in the German Department at the Hebrew Univ...
Tara H. Abraham, “Rebel Genius: Warren S. McCulloch’s Transdisciplinary Life in Science” (MIT Press, 2016)
11 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Fueling his bohemian lifestyle and anti-authoritarian attitude with a steady diet of ice cream and whiskey, along with a healthy dose of insomnia, War...
Rebe Taylor, “Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search For Human Antiquity” (Melbourne UP, 2017)
30 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search For Human Antiquity (Melbourne University Press, 2017), Rebe Taylor, the Coral Thomas Fellow at the ...
Sarah Bracey White, “Primary Lessons: A Memoir” (CavanKerry Press, 2013)
29 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As an African-American child growing up in the segregated pre-Civil Rights South, Sarah Bracey White pushed against the social conventions that warned...
Tania Munz, “The Dancing Bees: Karl von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Language” (U of Chicago Press, 2016)
25 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Tania Munz‘s new book is a dual biography: both of Austrian-born experimental physiologist Karl von Frisch, and of the honeybees he worked with as e...
William Kolbrener, “The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition” (Indiana UP, 2016)
24 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition (Indiana University Press, 2016), William Kolbrener, professor of English at Bar Ilan Un...
Kathleen Collins, “Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
22 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Kathleen Collins presents an extensive history o...
Steven M. Avella, “Charles K. McClatchy and the Golden Era of American Journalism” (U. Missouri Press, 2016)
04 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Charles K. (CK) McClatchy was a towering figure in the making of Sacramento and the inland empire he liked to call Superior California. As editor of t...
Dean Kotlowski, “Paul V. McNutt and the Age of FDR” (Indiana UP, 2015)
02 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One of the rising stars in American politics during the 1930s was Paul Vories McNutt. As governor of Indiana, McNutt refashioned the state government ...
Holly Hurlburt, “Daughter of Venice: Caterina Corner, Queen of Cyprus and Woman of the Renaissance” (Yale UP, 2015)
30 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Caterina Corner lived a life that was composed of a mixture of adventure, power, and tragedy. The daughter of a Venetian patrician and merchant, she w...
James McGrath Morris, “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press” (Amistad, Reprint Edition, 2017)
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his acclaimed biography Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (Amistad, Reprint Edition, 2017), James McGrath Morris ...
Stephen H. Grant, “Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2014)
21 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Henry and Emily Folger were linked together not just by their love for one another, but their shared passion for the works of William Shakespeare. In ...
Garrison Nelson, “John William McCormack: A Political Biography” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
16 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
John William McCormack served as Speaker of the House of Representatives throughout most of the 1960s, during which time he shepherded the legislation...
Damion Searls, “The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing” (Crown, 2017)
07 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and The Power of Seeing (Crown, 2017), Damion Searls presents the first biography of...
Leilah Danielson, “American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the 20th Century” (U. Penn Press, 2014)
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During a life that stretched from the Progressive era to the 1960s, A. J. Muste dedicated himself to fighting against war and the exploitation of work...
David Curtis Skaggs, “William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812” (JHU Press, 2014)
14 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Though best remembered today for his brief tenure as the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison’s most significant contributio...