news archive
July 2024
Posted 07.12.24: A starred Publishers Weekly review of Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary, M.D.: “The medical establishment suffers from a reluctance to re-examine its own beliefs in light of new evidence, according to this impassioned cri de coeur.... The sensational case studies demonstrate the depths of doctors' intransigence, and Makary's clinical experience offers penetrating insights into the psychological mechanisms at play. Incisive and damning, this is a much-needed wake-up call.” And from Kirkus Reviews: “An eye-opening look at how the American medical industry's rigidity has stunted its reliability.”
Posted 07.11.24: Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin by Howard Markel is a New York Times “Editors' Choice”: “Markel, a medical historian, delivers a fresh take on a seminal event in the history of science—the publication of On the Origin of Species—along with lively portraits of the allies and adversaries who debated Darwin's scandalous theory, and, not least, of the naturalist himself, plagued by debilitating illness and, hot on his heels, an equally brilliant competitor.”
Posted 07.04.24: “Independence Day is a good day to consider how our independence was won. If you're looking for a fresh read on that, I've just finished reading Alan Pell Crawford's new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South.... Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account of those events, rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes.... Crawford, the author of books such as the aging-Jefferson study Twilight at Monticello, aims to revive the story of the war in the South. As he notes in his introduction, the Civil War and the role of slavery in the South had a good deal to do with why commemoration of these battles and campaigns did not keep pace with those in the North.... We witness the breathtaking bravery and endurance of hardship that characterized amateur soldiers and self-taught officers surviving bayonet charges, forced marches in the snow and blazing heat, wounds dressed without modern medicine, and all manner of untreatable diseases.”—Dan McLaughlin, National Review
June 2024
Posted 06.28.24: “Mr. Crawford's account is incisively and carefully written, splendidly paced, and supported by a mine of primary and secondary sources. This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South by Alan Pell Crawford is military history in an older tradition, in which the outcomes of great conflicts depend on the foresight, character and courage of individual men. Yet Mr. Crawford, a journalist and historian based in Richmond, Va., doesn't ignore the role of slavery in the ferocity of southern resistance.... Rivetingly related.”—Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal
Posted 06.16.24: “In Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin, Howard Markel, a medical historian (he favors a diagnosis of lactose intolerance as Darwin's primary ailment), details how the scientist came to write his magnum opus, as well as the many trying days he endured on its behalf.... He does capture the pathos and passion of the debate.”—Sam Kean, The New York Times Book Review
Posted 06.03.24: "Howard Markel, a medical doctor and masterful science chronicler, turns his attention to the time just before Darwin published his world-changing 'Origin of Species'—and just after, when critics blamed its author for unseating God. Wildly entertaining and thoughtful, too."—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe, on Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin
May 2024
Posted 05.29.24: “A vivid re-creation of the Revolutionary War in the American South, a guerrilla-style conflict that paved the way for the British surrender at Yorktown. In this intriguing work of military and social history, Crawford argues convincingly that the South was where ‘the most decisive battles…were fought.' The author mines the historical record to show that the Southern conflict was an exceedingly violent version of a guerrilla war, one that pitted loyalists against revolutionaries at every level of Southern society.... He provides a clear picture of the stark cost of American independence on both sides of the conflict. A clear, coherent, and even suspenseful account of the American Revolution.”—Kirkus Reviews on This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South by Alan Pell Crawford
Posted 05.15.24: A New York Times Bestseller! The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson
Posted 05.14.24: "Darwin's On the Origin of Species landed like an asteroid, generating surges of intellectual excitement and extreme criticism. The debate over his theory of natural selection set up a central clash between science and organized religion. Quarrels among scientists also flared. Historian and physician Markel asserts, ‘Darwin's thesis forever changed our understanding of the life sciences and the natural world.' An illuminating approach to the Darwin disputes."—Booklist on Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin by Howard Markel
Posted 05.12.24: “There is no modern world. Despite technology, human nature remains the same. Indeed, the march of technology can lead to moral regression, as affluence and leisure corrode the character of individuals and nations, tempting destruction. That is the underlying message of the Hoover Institution classicist Victor Davis Hanson in his book, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation. Mr. Hanson makes his point by telling the story of four states and civilizations that were completely obliterated by war and by their own hubris and naiveté.... This book is about flourishing civilizations cut down in their prime, often with relatively little warning, with vast geopolitical consequences.... Mr. Hanson makes all of this relevant to the modern reader by combining granularity with big-picture analysis and teasing out meaning from a mastery of details....Though the author of this profound book doesn't mention it, what stands out in these four accounts is the working of time. We believe that what we have built is so magnificent it must go on forever. But then it is eradicated, and the world does not come to an end. Only our own world has done so.”—Robert D.Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal
April 2024
Posted 04.19.24: “Among those who delve into English literature, the esteem in which John Cowper Powys is held is consistently high.... Wolf Solent is slowly becoming recognized, in Powys's own country at least, as one of the greatest English novels. His presence in English letters, so long in coming, continues to grow.... There followed three other ‘Wessex' novels — A Glastonbury Romance, Weymouth Sands, and Maiden Castle — all deeply mystical and steeped in his elemental philosophy.... Wolf Solent is considered the peak of his achievement”—from “The malice-dance of John Cowper Powys” by Simon Heffer, The New Criterion, May 2024
Posted 04.16.24: “[In Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin] Howard Markel presents a gripping account of the period between 1858 and 1860 when Darwin wrote and published On the Origin of Species.... The result is a detailed and dramatic close-up of a consequential period in scientific history.”—Publishers Weekly “A deeply satisfying new account of two crucial years in Darwin's life. Science historian Markel, author of The Secret of Life, The Kelloggs, and An Anatomy of Addiction, illuminates a short period beginning in 1858.... Darwin's two iconic years rendered masterfully by a highly knowledgeable chronicler.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
March 2024
Posted 03.21.24: We mourn the death of Martin Greenfield, author of the eloquent memoir, Measure of a Man: From Auschwitz Survivor to Presidents' Tailor. As Mark Levin wrote, "It's a remarkable book."
Posted 03.07.24: The #1 New York Times Bestseller! Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans by Peter Schweizer.
February 2024
Posted 02.12.24: Kirkus Reviews on The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson: “Civilizations collapse for many reasons, and these days we worry not so much about war but about climate change and natural disasters. However, as classicist and military historian Hanson warns, it's not out of the question that a modern enemy (Putin) might attempt to erase an opponent (Ukraine) as surely as Cortés brought down the Aztecs. ‘The gullibility, and indeed ignorance, of contemporary governments and leaders about the intent, hatred, ruthlessness, and capability of their enemies are not surprising,' writes the author, surveying a world in which genocide is no stranger.... He writes vividly about relevant cases.... A good choice for geopolitics and military history alike, ranging from specific battles to general principles of warfare.”
Posted 02.12.24: “David Lehman's exuberant collection of essays, poems, and annotated lists captures the manifold associations stirred by a lifetime's attention to crime fiction and movies, touching on everything from wisecracks to cigarettes to musical soundtracks to Kenneth Fearing as 'the patron saint of poetry noir'.”—Geoffrey O'Brien in The New York Review of Books on The Mysterious Romance of Murder
January 2024
Posted 01.26.24: "A rather interesting geographical and geopolitical analyses of six men from the founding generation. For all that has been written of these men, or at least almost all of them, Barone's perspective is taken literally from the ground up. Michael Barone demonstrates masterfully the mental mapping that these men applied to the new nation through domestic and foreign policy, and how their view of the world, whether in politics or economics, still affects modern Americans.... What Barone achieves in his book is a convincing argument that the Founders knew the land: its forests, hills, mountains, streams, rivers, and coastline. It was this knowledge of America's rough terrain, its rich soil, and its climate that enabled the Founders to envision ways to defeat the nation's enemies, sustain its population, and become an economic power. It also informed them of the importance of westward expansion as well as the importance of protecting its coasts from European powers, along with the entire Western Hemisphere." — Dustin Bass, The Epoch Times, on Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America's Revolutionary Leadership
Posted 01.26.24: “Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America's Revolutionary Leadership offers valuable insight into the practical wisdom of the men who made America.... Barone is at his best when actually discussing the Founders' fascination with geography as both an intellectual pursuit and political quantity. The book's strongest chapters are those dedicated to the three Virginians, who, more than Barone's other subjects, actually gave a lot of thought to maps, land, and geography.... An important reminder of the oft-neglected practical dimension of America's creation... By showing that the Founders were worried about porous borders and scheming foreign powers—and indeed, that they shaped not just our national identity but our physical nation in response to these concerns—Michael Barone highlights the enduring relevance of the American Founding, and reminds us that it is impossible for us to understand our country as it is without considering the men who first mapped it out in their minds." — Tim Rice, Washington Free Beacon
Posted 01.17.24: “Michael Barone's Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America's Revolutionary Leadership focuses on this spatial sense among key members of the revolutionary generation. By ‘mental maps,' Mr. Barone intends more than a regional affinity. He means a ‘geographical orientation'—the perspective that place confers. He argues that, for the Founders, it shaped ‘what the new nation they hoped they were creating would look like and be like.' Mr. Barone, a distinguished journalist and political analyst, develops his theme through a series of six biographical portraits.... The Founders' geographical visions, as Mr. Barone shows, informed their sense of how America's distinctive regional cultures might fuse into a common whole.”—Adam Rowe, The Wall Street Journal