RaveThe Washington Independent Review of Books... delightfully entertaining ... serves as a testament to the Golden Age of Baseball and one of its singular champions. If you love the game, you’ll love this book.
Alex Kershaw
RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThe hallmark of a great writer is one who can keep a reader in suspense while recounting an event whose outcome is already known. Master storyteller Alex Kershaw has done just that ... Kershaw’s skill as an interviewer of veterans is impeccable, and he uses it to great effect here. As you read, you’ll cheer on the men portrayed so vividly both as warriors and as human beings ... To the author’s credit, he, like fellow WWII historian Rick Atkinson, is willing to expose the atrocities committed by Allied soldiers in the frenzy of combat and its aftermath. While the men of the \'first wave\' surely helped liberate Europe, the ways in which they did it were often grim and gruesome ... At the same time, Kershaw acknowledges the cause for which the Allied brave gave their lives and celebrates their heroism. In this regard, his book is quite balanced ... Readers who enjoy military history will find this a worthy contribution to the many D-Day volumes that already exist. Like the author’s other books, The First Wave is accessible and, in spite of the horror it depicts, is an enjoyable and exhilarating read.
H.W. Brands
PositiveWashington Independent Review of Books\"Fortunately for us, historian and biographer H.W. Brands has given us a peek into [the Old Senate Chamber] by chronicling the voices that resonated there in pre-Civil War America ... In many ways, Heirs of the Founders is a portrait not only of the men at the center of American politics during the early 19th century, but of the republic itself ... Brands fleshes out three flawed giants, each driven by ambition, each hoping to snare the presidency.\
David W. Blight
RaveWashington Independent Review of Books\"David W. Blight has given to the canon of biography a compelling, deeply researched, and engaging account of Frederick Douglass ... Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom is a book to be admired and cherished.\
Michael Beschloss
PositiveWashington Independent Review of Books\"... an original spin on the genre [of Presidential histories]. In his familiar, breezy way, Beschloss offers the thesis that, since the Constitution was ratified, American presidents have obfuscated the Founders’ view of the powers of war ... Anyone interested in wartime history will enjoy this book, even if it’s a little light on discussions of military strategy and tactics. The author sets out to examine the role of the commander-in-chief in relation to the American people and offers a good read while making prescient observations that are more than timely.\
Jane Leavy
RaveWashington Independent Review of Books\"While The Big Fella is a lush and engaging biography of one of the most enigmatic and iconic characters of the 20th century, author Jane Leavy knocks this one out of the park by also giving readers an aperture into a transformative time in American history ... Leavy proves to be a dogged researcher and mines previously untapped sources ... Leavy proves Ruth was an enigma to himself, too, and it’s her sharp prose that really propels this biography...\
Patrick K O'Donnell
RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThe mastery of O’Donnell’s writing is that he can bring together myriad themes and make them work together. The stories of body-bearers James Dell, Samuel Woodfill, Earnest Jansen, Charles Leo O’Connor, Thomas D. Saunders, Louis Razga, Harry Taylor, and James Delany would have been lost to the dustbin of history were it not for O’Donnell’s eye for detail and exacting research. Because of O’Donnell’s intimate work as a combat writer embedded with American forces in Iraq, his writing enjoys an air of authenticity ... the narrative pulses with a kind of violent verve. In many ways, this book is an homage to all the American servicemen who fought in the Great War. But the saga of the Unknown Soldier is represented more specifically by the stories of courage displayed by Younger and the body-bearers.
Ron Chernow
RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThrough sterling and hard-driving prose, backed by a stunning depth of research, Grant the man emerges on these pages ... Grant is not by any means a hagiographic study of the Civil War’s greatest soldier and 18th president of the United States. For one, Chernow puts to rest all debate about Grant’s penchant for liquor ...brims both with stories of the carnage of the Civil War and of Grant’s ability to prevail in the face of it ...Chernow rehabilitates Grant’s political reputation, defending his record on race and demonstrating his belief that the war had been fought principally to free the slaves and then protect their newfound liberties... A sweeping drama with a lush cast of characters comes to life in Chernow’s masterful biography, as does the Civil War and Gilded Age America.
