“It smelled like a combination of mud and shit. But the fact that 400,000 people could be in an environment like that and generally be so euphoric is pretty extraordinary.“
“We need anthropology now more than ever. As Ruth Benedict once noted prophetically, ‘The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human difference.’”
“Stonewall Jackson was a man of contradictions—a God-fearing Presbyterian fighting for an unjust cause and a mediocre college professor who, when tested under fire, became a legendary gener
“Pipes recounts the gradual process by which through the sheer force of his intellect, Richard Nixon became relevant again to the debates about America’s proper role in the world.”
“In this wide-ranging story of exploration, Fetter-Vorm captures both the mystical pull of the moon and the many men and women who worked hard to understand and reach it.
“Working together during a very fragile time in our nation’s history, when there were no assurances that the United States would even exist beyond the 18th century, Jefferson and Madison co
“Outrages is a fascinating history book with a cast of characters and an epic sweep that make it read like a novel Charles Dickens could have written, if he had ev
“This political environment, in which the separation of church and state is treated as a kind of heresy rather than the real rock upon which our government stands, is what makes the timing
“Battle for the Marble Palace, Michael Bobelian’s superbly written and brilliantly contextualized history of Lyndon Johnson’s failed nomination of his close friend
“To quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’ Fortunately for us, author Clay Risen printed both.”
“[L]ong before the first mainland cowboy strapped on a six-gun, mounted a horse, and rode across Monument Valley or Texas’s King Ranch, expert horsemen were rounding up cattle on an isolate
“The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation is not only an important book that reminds us of a historical moment we might have been
LGBTQ communities in the US are gearing up for June gay pride parades, and this year will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots that continue to symbolize the coming out
“In The Guarded Gate, Okrent shows tremendous insight but also tremendous restraint, letting the alarming rise of racist eugenics unfold in its own time, and painstakingly document
“McCullough tells the story of these pioneer heroes in his characteristic narrative manner, which, as in his other books, combines eloquence, erudition, vividness, and remarkable insight.
