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Featured Nonfiction Reviews
International law scholars Roberts (Is International Law International?) and Lamp survey arguments for and against globalization in this evenhanded guide. Documenting the viewpoints of liberal investors, leftist populists, protectionist nationalists, and others, the authors pay particular attention to commonalities and potential points of agreement. They note, for example, that classical liberal economists and corporate interests both support the free movement of people, and that the Trump administration’s China tariffs won favor with U.S. trade protectionists as well as national security experts. The authors’ focus on how each side makes its case, however, means that some details and counterarguments get skipped. For instance, the political maneuvering behind the 2018 renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is underdeveloped, while a mention of how Covid-19 exposed the fragility of “just-in-time” production methods doesn’t mention that Toyota, the company credited with innovating lean manufacturing, largely avoided the semiconductor chip shortage that has impacted other automakers. A chapter on the legacy of colonialism incisively challenges the Western viewpoints that make up the rest of the book, though it makes the selection of six “prominent narratives” about globalization to focus on seem somewhat arbitrary. Still, policymakers and business leaders will appreciate this levelheaded and wide-ranging look at a hot-button issue. (Sept.)
Rupert Russell. Doubleday, $28.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-385-54585-3
Documentary filmmaker and sociologist Russell debuts with a harrowing look at the disastrous consequences of financial speculation. Contending that recent political and social turmoil in Iraq, Ukraine, Venezuela, and other countries has been triggered by irrational price shocks that don’t correspond to actual issues of supply and demand, Russell details how small market movements are amplified and manipulated by hedge fund managers and commodities traders seeking to deliver consistent profits regardless of real-world conditions. Among a plethora of disturbing case studies, Russell describes how oil wealth generated by market speculation fueled corruption and then caused ruinous hyperinflation in Venezuela; explains how artificially low coffee prices, climate change, and agricultural debt led to a surge in migration from Guatemala toward the U.S.; notes that the terrorist organization al-Shabaab drove down cattle prices in Somalia during a 2010–2011 drought in order to compel desperate farmers to join their ranks; and contends that Western governments suspending “the rules of the game” to prop up their economies during the Covid-19 pandemic only underscores how much arbitrary control markets and prices have over the global economy. Deeply reported and thoroughly accessible, this investigation into the far-reaching consequences of economic speculation deserves a wide readership. (Feb.)
Kate Bingham and Tim Hames
Bingham, who served as the chair of the U.K. Vaccine Taskforce, and journalist Hames debut with an incisive behind-the-scenes look at the challenges Bingham faced in her role. When British prime minister Boris Johnson asked Bingham, a managing partner at a venture capital firm with a history of investing in new medicines, to helm a group charged with getting shots into arms by the end of 2020, she was initially hesitant, as her decades of experience in biotech and drug development had taught her that “drug discovery at breakneck speed” was impossible. She ended up accepting the position, only to find that the science, including the unprecedented use of mRNA, was only part of the problem. She and her team had to overcome unrealistic promises of how many doses would be available within months, and navigate confusing misstatements by Johnson, such as when he explained that Britain’s capacity for vaccine creation was limited because the country didn’t “have any enzymes.” Nonetheless, on Dec. 8, 2020, the world’s first Covid-19 vaccination took place in the U.K. The authors combine a lucid explanation of the scientific breakthroughs needed to create the first Covid vaccine with an insider look at the politics that hampered the taskforce’s efforts. The result is a valuable addition to the literature documenting the crisis. (Dec.)
Steven Simon. Penguin Press
Hubris regularly begets disaster in this astringent history of American policy in the Middle East since 1980, in which former State Department official Simon (coauthor, The Sixth Crisis) surveys decades of American successes and failures in the region. The latter far outnumber the former and include the Reagan administration’s secret, illegal arms sales to Iran; George W. Bush’s Iraq War, which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths; Donald Trump’s self-defeating repudiation of Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, which ended up accelerating Iran’s nuclear program; and many feckless stabs at an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. The author highlights persistent dysfunction in U.S. policy, including a tendency to resort to military coercion, policymakers’ rejection of lower-level experts who contradict their theories, and “a superimposition of grand ideas on antithetical Middle Eastern realities.” Stocked with sharply etched portraits of statesmen, Simon’s narrative elucidates complex issues in pithy, biting prose. (On the Iran-Iraq War: “Equally jarring is the idea that both the United States and the Soviet Union were supporting Iraq only because the prom queen—Iran—had spurned them.”) Simon’s insider savvy and bracing honesty make for an illuminating take on America’s vexed relationship with the region. (Apr.)
Edited by John Corrigan, Melani McAlister, and Axel R. Schäfer. Univ. of North Carolina
These nuanced essays, compiled by religion professor Corrigan, American studies professor McAlister, and U.S. history professor Schäfer, look at the global growth of evangelicalism. The contributions “trace an alternative history of evangelical internationalism... that accounts for the racial diversity of the U.S. and global evangelical communities,” beginning with history professor Emily Conroy-Krutz’s exploration of American evangelicals’ first faltering forays into international mission work in the late 19th century. The pieces grapple with the “masculinist and imperialist logic of racial supremacy [that] often undergirded Protestant support for U.S. expansion,” as when historian Sarah Miller-Davenport posits that evangelicals viewed U.S. victory in WWII as proof that the country “was a Christian nation singled out by God,” a belief that justified missionaries’ symbiotic relationship with postwar U.S. military occupations of the Philippines and Japan. Studying evangelical movements in the Global South, religion professor David C. Kirkpatrick notes that the native-born evangelical left in Latin American countries vocally opposed U.S. intervention in their politics and critiqued the U.S. evangelical conviction in the power of benevolent foreign intervention. In foregrounding international forms of evangelicalism, this volume delivers thought-provoking visions of how the faith tradition’s domestic manifestations might take inspiration from global communities and reckon with the darker episodes in its history. Scholars of American religion should take note. (Oct.)
By Walter Russell Mead. Knopf
Mead (God and Gold), a professor of foreign affairs at Bard College, delivers a sweeping study of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Stretching from the colonial era to the present day, Mead’s comprehensive history analyzes the impacts of Christianity’s changing attitudes toward Judaism and Jews; broad political trends that enabled the acceptance of Jewish people “as active members of the American commonwealth,” exemplified by George Washington’s 1790 letter to the congregation of Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I.; and economic developments such as the rise of labor unions. Revealing inconvenient facts for both Palestinians and Israelis (“Most of the land that Zionists settled before 1947 was freely sold to them by Arabs”), Mead forcefully critiques Yasser Arafat for rejecting a peace agreement proposed by the Clinton administration and contends that U.S. foreign policy toward Israel is governed by self-interest. Though he declines to offer detailed prescriptions for how American leaders should handle Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Iranian funding of Hamas, and other contentious matters, Mead provides more than enough context to understand them. The result is a valuable resource for policymakers and voters alike. (July)
By Henry Kissinger. Penguin Press
One of America’s most legendary diplomats finds the soul in statecraft in these enlightening sketches of world leaders. Former secretary of state Kissinger (World Order) profiles 20th-century potentates, toasting German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for resurrecting democratic legitimacy from Nazism’s ashes; Charles de Gaulle for his chutzpah in declaring himself the leader of Free France during WWII; Egyptian president Anwar Sadat for his visionary quest for peace with Israel; Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew for creating a modern, multicultural city-state; British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for her stubborn conviction in reviving Britain’s economy and military reach; and Richard Nixon for his finesse in balancing geopolitical rivalries amid endless crises. Kissinger infuses his lucid policy analyses with colorful firsthand observations, quoting, for example, Thatcher’s response to his broaching of possible compromises with Argentina during the Falkland Islands war: “How can you, my old friend? How can you say these things?” Finding moral uplift in these narratives of intricate realpolitik, Kissinger claims that Nixon’s bloody, yearslong exit from the Vietnam War avoided the “spiritual and geopolitical abdication” of a quick withdrawal. Many readers will disagree with that interpretation and others, but Kissinger’s portraits of politicians spinning weakness and defeat into renewed strength are captivating. This is a vital study of power in action. Photos. (July)
Penny M. Von Eschen. Duke Univ
University of Virginia historian Von Eschen (Satchmo Blows Up the World) delivers a scattershot study of how the end of the Cold War brought about “a powerful sense of loss and longing for stability, status, and the predictability of everyday life” in the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and other countries. She convincingly argues that the West’s understanding that capitalism had “won” the Cold War contributed to a sense of “triumphalism” that resulted in insufficient responses to the Bosnian and Rwandan massacres and forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Less persuasive is Von Eschen’s argument that America’s Cold War nostalgia was rooted in a longing for an era when “people trusted government to provide such agreed-on necessities as quality public education and affordable health care,” which overlooks the Reagan administration’s dismantling of the social safety net. Elsewhere, Von Eschen unconvincingly claims that the loss of Eastern bloc adversaries “emboldened” American conservatives to place “the onus for systemic racism on oppressed people of color,” and cites the closing of a James Bond–themed restaurant in Berlin as evidence that Western nostalgia for the Cold War is “jealous” and “defensive” and can’t match the “melancholy allure” of Eastern nostalgia. In its eagerness to puncture U.S. hubris and spotlight the virtues of socialism, this revisionist history misfires. (June)
By Kristin Surak
Sociologist Surak (Making Tea, Making Japan) offers an in-depth look at the rise of CBI, or Citizenship by Investment, the process by which impoverished nations benefit by selling citizenship to wealthy individuals in exchange for large investments in the country. Analyzing the history and ramifications of the practice, Surak explains that CBI programs began primarily among small eastern Caribbean microstates (St. Kitts was the originator of the scheme) in the 1980s, and have since spread to more than a dozen countries, including some with European Union membership. Although the level of investment required to obtain citizenship privileges varies, it is always an expensive matter, out of reach to all but the most wealthy. The primary benefit of CBI to these elite investors (most of whom do not live in their new country) is “mobility,” or the ability to cross borders that one’s original passport does not allow. For example, Maltese citizenship provides access to visa-free movement across the European Union, expanding one’s business opportunities and other privileges. While Surak presents an extensive overview of the complexities of these programs, the academic and digressive prose may be tough for non-specialists to follow. Still, journalists and regulators focused on international finance will find much to chew on. (Sept.)
Keyu Jin. Viking,
Americans’ misunderstanding of China’s economic growth keeps the two nations in unnecessary conflict, argues Jin, a professor at the London School of Economics, in her thoughtful debut. “Consumers, entrepreneurs, and the state: in China none of them behaves like a conventional economic agent,” she argues, suggesting that China’s economy works through a distinctive interplay between a powerful central state and an ascendant private sector. Digging into the history of China’s recent economic boom, she tells how in 1978 Deng Xiaoping, China’s supreme leader, instituted reforms moving the country away from Soviet-style central planning toward a market economy, inaugurating a system in which the state retained wide-reaching powers that allowed it to bolster the fledgling economy. Jin emphasizes the success of China’s hybrid model, noting that reforms lifted hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty, but she sometimes comes across as overly sanguine, as when she discusses polls that suggest Chinese citizens overwhelmingly have positive views of their government without noting whether this holds for, say, Uyghur people oppressed by the state. Still, she makes clear that the Chinese economy is far more complex than U.S. discourse lets on, and she offers an astute take on how the Chinese state cooperates with and intervenes in the private market. This elevates the conversation on U.S.-China relations. (May)
BY Chris Miller
International affairs analyst Miller (We Shall Be Masters) offers an insightful history of the global competition for control of the silicon chip industry. Chips, also known as semiconductors and integrated circuits, are embedded in every device that requires computing, Miller explains. He delves into the historical links between the U.S. military and Silicon Valley; the nurturing of relations between American companies and chip manufacturers and designers in Asia; and the ascendancy of the Taiwanese semiconductor industry thanks to a former Texas Instruments executive who founded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., in 1987. Miller also explains how Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution put China’s chip industry far behind its neighbors’, and tracks the rise of Chinese tech giant Huawei thanks to the advice of IBM consultants and technology transfers from such American companies as Qualcomm. Since the early 2000s, China has devoted billions to developing its technological industries through subsidies and the theft of intellectual property, setting the stage for Huawei, a leader in 5G technology, to potentially rival Silicon Valley’s influence by 2030. Miller makes clear that rising tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan pose a grave threat to global semiconductor supply chains, and ominously predicts that future wars will be determined by computing power. Well-researched and incisive, this is a noteworthy look at the intersection of technology, economics, and politics. (Oct.)
By Casey Michel.
Journalist Michel debuts with a blistering account of how greed, deregulation, and deliberate avoidance have enabled dictators and drug cartels to launder their illicit profits in the U.S. He documents the profligate spending and sadistic violence of corrupt rulers including Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his son, Teodorin, and explains how Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is believed to have “run one of the largest Ponzi schemes the world had ever seen,” laundered money through Rust Belt steel mills and Cleveland real estate. The roots of the problem, according to Michel, go back to Delaware’s campaign in the 1980s to attract capital by offering anonymity to companies registered in the state. Other states soon followed suit; in Nevada, Michel contends, it’s easier to form an anonymous shell company than to get a library card, while an estimated $900 billion is held in anonymous South Dakota trusts. Efforts to increase accountability have been resisted by business leaders and politicians including Donald Trump, who sought to abolish the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by executive order. Through rigorous research and cogent prose, Michel builds a persuasive case that the influx of unregulated money decimates America’s industrial regions and poses a grave threat to democracy. This is a stunning portrait of avarice run amok. (Nov.)
BY Adam Tooze
The real shocker of the Covid-19 virus is not its death toll—there have been deadlier pandemics—it’s “the scale of the response,” writes historian Tooze (Crashed) in this sweeping survey. In what he calls “a comprehensive crisis of the neoliberal era,” nearly 95% of the world’s economies suffered a reduction in GDP, he writes, and the World Bank estimates that the long-term wage loss will be $10 trillion. Month by month, Tooze covers the progression of the pandemic, tracing government action in Wuhan in January and Italy’s response in March as that country went into lockdown, charting the pandemic’s impact on stock markets and on mental health, the divisions in America as the presidential election loomed, the debt faced by the hardest-hit countries, and the race to create a vaccine. A comprehensive history of an unprecedented year, Tooze’s account describes how the pandemic played out politically across the globe, the interplay between climate change and the pandemic, and the myriad effects of the world economy nearly shutting down in a brief period that, as Tooze puts it, made “History with a capital ‘H.’” Readers will find this deeply informed parsing of the pandemic to be illuminating and thought-provoking. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, the Wylie Agency. (Sept.)
BY Mark Carney
Economist Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, debuts with a powerful exploration of how the rise of “market fundamentalism” has been detrimental to economic systems and democratic values. He analyzes concepts of value espoused by Aristotle, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx; explains how 19th-century neoclassicists including William Jevons “shifted the axis of value theory from objective factors of production to the subjective perceived value of goods to the consumer”; and sketches the history of money and the banking system. Contending that the three major crises of the 21st century—the 2008 recession, Covid-19, and climate change—have their roots in the dominance of monetary value over all other forms of value, Carney shows how the privileging of “technologically empowered” financial institutions over retail investors undermines the “social fabric on which finance depends,” outlines how the financial sector can help achieve a net-zero-carbon economy, and offers a 10-point framework for transitioning economies from Covid-19 relief to a “mission-oriented capitalism” that is equitable and green. Though Carney’s history lessons are somewhat extraneous to his comprehensive and creative policy recommendations, this is an exhaustive and persuasive look at how and why the global financial system needs to be reformed. (May)
BY Tara Zahra
The interwar decades witnessed “a contest over the future of globalization and globalism,” according to this eye-opening history. MacArthur fellow Zahra (The Great Departure) explains that pre-WWI trade expansionism, global mobility, and international social movements provoked simmering resentment among those who felt their political and economic interests were not best served by the new global order. In the war’s aftermath, activists and politicians fueled a drive toward self-sufficient national economies designed to be less vulnerable to exploitation by foreign powers. Central to this drive was “internal colonization,” as seen in the founding of 160 Fascist “New Cities” throughout Italy between 1928 and 1940. On the left, anticolonial activists in India and Ireland boycotted the purchase of English goods, while socialists and progressives in Europe and America advocated for workers’ gardens and back-to-the-land projects to buffer the working classes against the hazards of urbanization and industrialization—a campaign intensified by the Great Depression. Throughout, Zahra embodies these changing dynamics through profiles of such fascinating figures as Czech shoe magnate Tomáš Bat’a, who opened factories and stores in Egypt, India, and Indonesia in the 1930s. Firmly grounded in historical scholarship yet speaking clearly to today’s anxieties over globalization, this expert study has much to offer. Illus. (Jan.)
By Richard Morton Jack. Hachette
Morton Jack (Psychedelia), cofounder of the reissue label Sunbeam Records, delivers the definitive biography of English folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948–1974), who died from an overdose on antidepressants at 26 following a protracted struggle with mental illness. Mining interviews with friends and family, Morton Jack paints a tender portrait of a musician known for his “husky, resonant” voice, “intricate” guitar playing, and a deep introversion that belied his “ambitious streak” and desire for commercial success. His albums—the lovingly orchestrated Five Leaves Left (1969), pop-influenced Bryter Layter (1971), and spare Pink Moon (1972)—initially failed to gain traction, however, and by the time Drake began to garner international recognition in 1973, he’d started to spiral into probable psychosis, according to Morton Jack. His work was later repackaged and released in several album compilations from the 1980s to the 2000s and has “never lost momentum since.” Drake’s longtime producer, Joe Boyd, attributes the music’s continued relevance to “the fact that... it’s not identified with a particular time and place, which allows each generation to create its own connection.” While Morton Jack sometimes makes too much of certain aspects of the artist’s life (including Drake’s apparent lack of academic motivation in secondary school), he sets out an engrossing and ultimately heartwrenching account. (The sections on Drake’s steady descent into depression are especially affecting.) The result is a worthy tribute to a talented artist gone too soon. (Nov.)
BY Jim Morris. Beacon
Journalist Morris debuts with a devastating and thorough critique of corporate greed, deception, and lack of concern for worker health, focusing primarily on Dupont Chemical and Goodyear Tire Company. Drawing on in-depth interviews with workers and their families, Morris documents how employees at the Goodyear factory in Niagara Falls, N.Y., have suffered from a high rate of bladder cancer for decades, and details the lack of an adequate response by corporate leaders and the U.S. government. Opening the account with the story of Rod Halford, a longtime chemical operator at Goodyear who began urinating blood in the early 1990s, Morris shows how Halford had been poisoned by a highly carcinogenic agent, the chemical ortho-toluidine, supplied by Dupont. Both Goodyear and Dupont were aware of the danger, but failed to inform workers or implement protective measures. Although many of the ill workers, including Halford, eventually sued Goodyear, the company settled the lawsuits rather than going to trial, effectively concealing the charges from the public. Morris goes on to spotlight the many American industries where dangerous chemicals are used by workers (the problem is only getting worse, Morris contends, with staggering numbers of new chemicals being introduced every year), and describes how European regulation has been much more successful in reducing cancers. Well documented, lucidly written, and disturbing to read, this is an urgent wake-up call. (Jan.)
By Michael Mac
The 1970s heralded the “emergence of spectator sports as an ever-expanding mainstream phenomenon, as well as... remarkable changes in the way athletes were paid, how they played, and how they were perceived,” according to this invigorating history. Sports journalist MacCambridge (’69 Chiefs) chronicles how sports became big business, noting that pro players in the late 1960s made so little they took off-season jobs (“The Pistons’ Dave Bing worked as a bank teller”) before a series of 1970s labor battles secured pro basketball, baseball, and football players a greater share of ballooning profits. Offering vibrant accounts of the decade’s most significant contests and their social impact, MacCambridge examines the boom in women’s sports in the context of the 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs, described here as “slouching into middle age” in his “World War II–era black horn-rimmed glasses,” and Billie Jean King, who was “at once strong and feminine, resplendent in a sequined multicolored dress.” Elsewhere, MacCambridge sharply analyzes the 1971 fight between the “boastful, draft-dodging” Muhammad Ali and the “sullen but respectful” Joe Frazier as a proxy battle over respectability politics (“Whom you were rooting for often said something about the sort of person you were”). Impressive in scope and vividly told, this is a winner. (Oct.)
Correction: An earlier version of this review had the wrong year for the Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier fight analyzed by the author.
The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy
Nick Romeo
Journalist Romeo debuts with an invigorating investigation of how governments across the globe are implementing creative and practical fixes “to urgent economic problems, from decreasing wealth inequality to addressing the climate crisis and creating meaningful jobs.” In Amsterdam, he explains, some businesses are opting into a “true price” program that incorporates “climate impact, water use, land use, and underpayment to workers” into products’ retail price. For example, a tomato picked by an underpaid worker and delivered with a diesel truck will carry an extra charge, incentivizing companies to institute more ethical practices to remain competitive. Romeo humanizes the policy talk with stories of people affected by the various programs, as when he describes how an out of work cobbler found employment doing carpentry and teaching German as part of a jobs guarantee program in Gramatneusiedl, Austria. Discussions of worker-owned cooperatives in the Basque country of Spain and participatory budgeting in Portugal will expand readers’ conception of what public policy can look like, and Romeo offers an incisive history of how neoliberal economists have limited America’s legislative imagination since the 1970s by falsely asserting that the country’s institutions and fiscal policy were founded on “immutable” laws of economics, and consequently beyond large-scale reform. This is an eye-opening handbook for a better world. (Jan.)
Jami Nakamura Lin
In this gorgeous and unique debut memoir, Lin draws on the Japanese myth of the Hyakki Yagyo (the “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” in which demons and spirits march through the streets at night) to document her struggles with bipolar disorder and her father’s fatal illness. Organizing her tale into a traditional Japanese four-act structure, Lin recounts an adolescence marked by debilitating rage and depression, which led to feelings of shame at appearing “monstrous” to herself and others. After a voluntary admission to the psych ward at 17, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Eventually, Lin learned to regulate the disorder, married, and had a child, though her happiness was undercut by the agony of watching her father’s struggle against the cancer that eventually killed him. Throughout, Lin draws on characters from the Hyakki Yagyo (like the hideous, flesh-eating Oni Baba, or the vengeful ghost whale known as Bakekujira) to contextualize and come to terms with her feelings, sometimes using them to personify her “ugly” emotions, other times using them to interrogate cultural narratives about monstrousness. Interspersed throughout are full-color illustrations of each creature by her sister, Cori. “The story is a different story,” Lin writes of the mythic yardstick she uses to process her own tragedies; “The story is the same story.” The result is a memorable and moving exorcism of the monsters within. (Oct.)
Rebecca Boyle
Science writer Boyle debuts with an excellent exploration of how the moon has shaped life on Earth. She explains that the moon likely formed from debris loosed after a Mars-size planet collided with Earth in the early days of the solar system, and that the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth stabilizes the planet’s tilt and keeps seasonal change consistent. Noting the moon’s central role in early religion, Boyle argues that a god associated with the moon and worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia “was one of the first gods in human history, if not the very first.” The moon was also central to the development of modern science, Boyle contends, examining how systematic observations of the moon made by early astronomers Thomas Harriot, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo in the late 17th and early 18th centuries established a new approach for studying the natural world. Throughout, Boyle’s dexterous blend of science and cultural history is elevated by her spry prose (“The entire horizon dims to a livid red glow as Earth begins to moan and tremble, shockwaves rattling through its crust and deep into its mantle,” she writes of the cosmic collision that created the moon). This illuminates. (Jan.)
Mary Beard
Cambridge University classicist Beard (SPQR) provides a captivating examination of the social lives of the Roman emperors, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and ending with Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Covering almost three centuries and close to 30 emperors, Beard explores the day-to-day practicalities and pastimes of imperial rule. She highlights the “fraught relations” between emperors and senators, who did not take well to Rome’s transformation from republic to autocratic empire; takes readers on a tour of the emperors’ public works (including the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum); and recreates their palaces and gardens, “from the service corridors to the ornamental lakes,” explaining how “Roman palaces were built for dining, with multiple entertainment suites.” Beard follows emperors on their travels (Hadrian managed to visit most of the empire), depicts them at chariot races, introduces their spouses and lovers, and describes the massive retinue of slaves, freedmen, soldiers, and secretaries who kept the imperial system going. Noting that the way emperors were remembered depended on the attitude of their successors (they were glorified after a peaceful succession, vilified as tyrants and perverts when violently replaced), Beard acknowledges how uncertain the modern picture of them remains, despite vast archival and archaeological evidence. Still, she manages to paint a nuanced and holistic portrait. This immersive account is a treat for history buffs. (Oct.)
Gregory Wallance
Historian Wallance (The Woman Who Fought an Empire) delivers a riveting biography of American journalist George Kennan (1845–1924), who traveled in Siberia and investigated czarist Russia’s prison-exile system. Wallance describes Kennan braving subzero temperatures, uncharted taiga, bed bugs, and near starvation to map an overland telegraph route from St. Petersburg to the Bering Strait as part of the 1865 Russian-American Telegraph Expedition. During this journey, he became convinced the Russian prison system—which allowed families to follow convicted loved ones into exile—was more humane than Western penal systems. Years later, in 1885, he was commissioned by the Century Illustrated Monthly to document the Russian system. Traveling with artist George Albert Frost, whose sketches illustrate this book, Kennan gained unprecedented access to a vast network of imperial prisons and exile communities where he interviewed wardens, inmates, political exiles, and their wives, and uncovered, contrary to his expectations, “bureaucratic incompetence, corruption... and the extraordinary Russian capacity to inflict and endure suffering.” Wallance contends Kennan’s writings “left Americans so appalled and angry at Russia’s mistreatment of its citizens that the relationship between the two countries was never the same.” (According to Wallance, Kennan’s works supposedly inspired Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov to write “their own books” on the exile system.) Resurfacing a mostly forgotten episode of Russian-American relations, this strikingly narrated adventure enthralls. (Dec.)
Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the title of the author’s previous book. It also had the incorrect year for George Wallance’s death.
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