PositiveThe New York Journal of BooksMacintyre tells many stories, perhaps too many; some seem to just fill pages and others are abbreviated, leaving out the tension inherent in a death-defying escape attempt, and still others are exciting such as the liberation of the camp at war’s end. One remarkable story is the glider built by the prisoners that although it never flew, remained hidden from the Germans. In wanting to tell the whole story a story line is lost, characters pop up and then disappear, but Macintyre wrote an interesting, at times riveting, and rewarding book.
David Hackett Fischer
RaveNew York Journal of BooksThis story is just one of hundreds, many eye-popping, in David Hackett Fischer’s new book exploring how African slaves are as much founders of America as are the iconic and familiar figures of her Founding Fathers ... For many years there has been a perspective on American slavery by the public that one could describe as either the Pollyanna view or the lachrymose view. Fischer shows us the story is far more complex and, frankly, far more fascinating ... Fischer’s book is an inquiry into what happened when Africans and Europeans came to North America, and the growth of race slavery collided with the ideas of freedom and liberty and rule of law. Like the ophthalmologist’s phoropter, Fischer, through prodigious research, proceeds to reveal a world that is clearer, more precise, richer, and revealing ... African Founders is a Promethean work, a truly magisterial and magnificent book of cultural history that extracts from potentially dry demographic data a riveting story that, in the words of another Pulitzer Prize winning historian, Gordon S. Wood, transcends all our current historiographical debates of slavery.
Paul Kennedy
RaveNew York Journal of BooksVictory at Sea may be considered a just addition to the ranks of classics ... High caliber ... This gorgeous watercolor-illustrated one-volume history of the rise of American naval power in World War II captures the desperate struggle of war at sea and its pivotal importance for the transformation of a Eurocentric world to one of American dominance ... No matter what level of expertise or knowledge the reader has, all parts are equally worth reading ... Readers who have digested many a naval history book will recall that these books are often laden with black and white photos of ships at sea, or admirals, or kamikaze attacks, but the decision to use watercolor paintings by the marine artist Ian Marshall is brilliant ... For a one-volume history, Kennedy’s book is unsurpassed for depth, breadth, insight, and narrative.
Julie Satow
MixedThe New York Journal of BooksSatow has done her research and provides a glimpse into the Gilded Age of a great hotel ... Even the ventilation system is fascinating ... For all the stories of the outrageous and ludicrous rich denizens Satow also does not neglect the economics of the hotel business, which saw its ups and downs, including disputes with the unions. However, she only glosses over that aspect ... one might hope for some insights into the internal workings, management, and business economics of running the grand dame of New York hotels. But, no, more celebrities enter the story ... Some 300 pages of The Plaza are devoted to owners, the rich, and the celebrities. If an employee gets interviewed it is only to report on the aforementioned rich. One never gets the sense of what the daily grind of running a grand hotel is like, of what it involves ... no secrets here, just what you can find by scrolling through lots of newspaper articles ... And although we are promised at the beginning of the book some Thorsten Veblen-like insights into the meaning of conspicuous consumption it is not delivered. Rather it’s a story—not of a hotel per se—but of rich developers and businessmen playing out capitalism’s natural course with a supporting staff of quirky dowagers, actresses, and other poseurs all coincidentally located in a hotel.
