Robert S. Davis

“Thomas Penn in A Royal Tragedy covers the three brothers of the House of York in ‘one of the most seductive and contested stories in English history . . .’”

"the reader will find an epic who dunnit in this detailed but somewhat disorganized narrative about a different America.”

“a worthwhile, engrossing read as an education in one of the most critical parts of United States' history . . .”

"Sloyan's narrative is enlightening, fast moving, and timely . . ."

"Robert Harms tells this epic as an important chapter in the history of the world."

"Davis . . . seamlessly blends the immediate events and the background to tell history not well known."

"Dalrymple knows the scholarship well but he writes in a way that the reader goes on an enlightening and entertaining tour of the history of the British East India Company."

"Each chapter in this book becomes not just a separate life and adventure but a different way to learn about the Pilgrim experience."

"Delgado writes as high adventure . . . a clear and entertaining narrative but [one that] also makes profound observations on what war on water means."

“The background well-blended into one man's heroic story forms an epic tragedy of Poland in World War II . . .”

"Ghost Ships grabs the reader with action from the beginning and keeps the adventure going throughout."

"Anointed in Oil uniquely documents . . .

"Einstein's War is a parallel biography of the great thinker and Arthur Stanley Eddington who used Einstein's work to heal the world scientific co

"this short work's lively narrative tells a great adventure story that replaces popular misconceptions with the facts . . ."

"Spying on the South . . . goes deeper, darker, and makes stronger ties between the past and the present South than other of Horwitz's works."

"Stephen Turnbull in Pirate teaches history with charm, fun, humor, and sarcasm. You will want to sign on board!"

"this modern commentary on the Commentaries also 'lets you see Caesar the man and politician, not just the general he wanted you to see.'"

"In Women's War, Stephanie McCurry writes from a perspective of women as equally important in all social issues of the American Civil War."

"In Sea People, Pacific historian Christina Thompson tells of the European discovery of the Polynesians and the island people's opening to the wor

"A page-turner illustrated with maps, paintings, and photographs, The Aleutians takes the reader to the action there in 1942 and 1943."

"in Topgun, Pedersen has the reader even looking forward to the next paragraph."

"Ken Wells, a career professional journalist, set out to tell a personal story of all things culturally connected with gumbo."

"Clavin sets out to sort facts from popular legend and 'it was a delight to discover that the truth' 'can be at least as dramatic and potent as its fabrications.'"

"White Fury tells a highly readable complete history of the once-powerful colonial Jamaican sugar economy through the letters of Simon Taylor, one of its greatest planters."

"All of the famous photographs of the period find reprinting in this history, as do many more less known but memorable, of an unending nation told through the lives and work of remarkable a

"The War Before the War is not an encyclopedia but a deep, scholarly, engrossing introduction to its subject that impacts us even today and in many ways.

"The author's easy prose and superior, simple organization makes this work an engrossing, entertaining, and educating read on issues important then that echo today in the modern debate on t

"Fredriksen tells this critical history be contrasting the meanings in the sources, particularly in the New Testament, through the story of the money changers, the resurrection, and the End

"Srinath Raghavan engagingly writes an epic narrative that gives the reader much to ponder about what might have been, and the United States' role in the world."

"Baime wrote The Accidental President almost as if a witness to those momentous times.

"This very thick book makes a fast entertaining read that illuminates facts about the times on almost every page.

"Frontier Rebels makes for a good read, a lost bit of American history in a greater colonial epic in need of telling."

"Whitten used extensive interviews, and the records allowed to him to tell a cautionary tale on how the destruction of our world could come from complacency, lack of control, miscommunicati

"when the legend becomes so famous, it takes too long for a good read like this one to replace the sensational with the no less amazing facts"

"Hollywood makes movies about battles, helicopters, and daring escapes in the Vietnam War.

"Martin Kemp takes us on this great personal journey of adventure in exploring the art of Leonardo, and we are so much the better for it."

"Alsen uses a conversational style for this concise narrative that enlightens a part of a dark and mysterious literary figure of our time."

“The author argues that, in the ultimate contradiction, ‘Oppenheimer's foes used deceit and treachery’ ‘fueled by fear and paranoia’ to end a chance for a world safe from the nuclear weapon

"Partner to Power, however, 'reminds us that some of the most powerful people working in the White House, indeed in the whole of government, are often the least kn

“In This Grand Experiment, Jessica Ziparo tells the history of female federal employees in Washington, DC, 1861–1865, ‘an important but overlooked

“It's All Relative uses humor to discuss sex, paternity, hereditary organizations, privacy, twins, black sheep, evolution, and the import

"This work makes for thought provoking good reading including finding much lost history."

"This story is an adventure on a grand scale directed by powerful institutions but told via the actions of colorful characters"

"Read this book. Do not wait until some modern Buffalo Bill makes this story into another epic movie about the West's greatest show!"

"In The Lost Founding Father Cooper speaks to our times on national best interest in opposition to partisan politics."

"Prevas intimately knows the battlefields, mountains, and rivers; he takes the reader on a sort of travelogue as well as telling a great immortal story."

"Death of Assassin is an entertaining look at very human characters in a world on the edge of radical change."

The blood soaked epic rise of the Tudors from powerful family to self-made royalty is one of the great political dramas in history.

“Tremlett writes so well as to make this read almost as entertaining as a traditional Spanish novel but with thorough balanced scholarship.”

“A Mind to Stay is a revealing history of much of the otherwise lost reality of thousands of plantations that lack documentation.”

“This book is all about ideas and, in its compact narrative, does not bog down a great story with too much detail.”

Local history can be rich, exotic, complicated, personal, and dark but especially when an incident like the Scopes Monkey Trial serves as an “island” in regional and national social currents.

The media has a hard time, even in documentaries, of presenting factually accurate history and especially so with movies.

“For Monro’s discussion of the value of paper and ink in education, information, and learning The Paper Trail is a good read.”

As Peter Frankopan writes in The Silk Roads (reviewed in NYJB), islands are important for several reasons.

SPQR is a not always strictly chronological study of important parts of the history of the Roman Republic and Empire to 212 CE.

Henry Clay lived in an age when he could rise from a log schoolhouse to be perhaps not, as the author claims, America's greatest statesman but undoubtedly one of its major historical figures.

Genghis Khan (1162–1227) took a collection of dysfunctional Mongolian tribes and created a nation of language, literacy, and law set up to continue conquering after his death.

Morgens Trolle Larsen’s Ancient Kanesh: A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia tells the history of the exploration of a city “of the first attested commercial society in world history”

One of the hallmarks of modern communication is the glossy, well-illustrated general science based histories of the origins of our species.

The last couple of decades have seen a steady stream of fully documented, honest, readable, and scholarly single works on American slavery.

“carefully crafted, readable, honest, and concise work.”

Libraries, books, writing, and writers as subjects are fascinating, even collectively.

Napoleon: a Life is an epic biography by a popular writer who has done the “on the ground work” needed to make the latest of the thousands of biographies of Napoleon something new.

One standard for a good book is that it could be a reference for other good books.

“Seyler conveys excitement and adventure from a lost story of a pioneer explorer of the Middle East.”

One of the great pities of our time is that we live in a golden age of readable but also solid academic credible studies of Roman and Medieval history for a popular audience.

“. . . in this felucca voyage of the Nile, you see all of its history and you are constantly reminded that Egypt is also a living nation of today.”