One of the most shameful pieces of American history involves the post Civil War decades, when thousands of blacks were lynched for perceived misdeeds. Blood at the Root relates the ugly history of Forsyth County, Ga., where hateful whites decided in 1912 to drive out every remaining black resident under the threat of arson, lynching and gunfire. More than 1,000 terrified … [Read more...]
Harrowing ‘Girl Walks Out of a Bar’ could help other addicts
Lisa Smith has written a chilling account of her life as a New York lawyer addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Smith got an early start. By age 8 she was sneaking sips of alcohol at parties hosted by her parents. By 13 she hung around “almost exclusively” with drinking kids, and by 15 she was binge drinking while also trying pot and cocaine. “By 18, I was a straight-A … [Read more...]
Survey of global prison practices illuminating, if short on solutions
Baz Dreisinger is an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York, where she founded the Prison-to-College Pipeline program. In this new book, she recounts her travels to nine nations to examine their prison systems and compare them with U.S. incarceration practices. Dreisinger joins a growing chorus of U.S. leaders who … [Read more...]
‘Evicted’: A numbing look at the nexus of housing and poverty
Matthew Desmond was in college when he learned that a bank had taken his boyhood home, forcing his parents to move. “I remember being deeply sad and embarrassed,” he writes. He began building houses with Habitat for Humanity, while studying poverty and visiting homeless people. In 2008 he moved into a trailer park in a poor Milwaukee neighborhood to learn more about … [Read more...]
Beyond the pills: A look at mind over the matter of illness
Placebo-controlled medical trials “have been one of the most important developments in medicine, allowing us to determine scientifically which medicines work and which don’t, saving countless lives in the process,” writes Jo Marchant in this compelling new book. Researchers commonly test the efficacy of new drugs by dividing patients into two groups. One group receives … [Read more...]
O, say are you soused: ‘Drinking in America’
American history books rarely mention alcoholism as a significant historical issue. From the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to the presidency of Richard Nixon, liquor influenced and continues to influence American society and politics. Susan Cheever has excellent credentials, having written extensively about her own battle with alcoholism and that of her father, the writer John … [Read more...]
‘Killing Reagan’ often gripping, but marred by focus on trivia
Only months into his first term as president, Ronald Reagan barely survived an assassination attempt as he was leaving a hotel in Washington, D.C. The would-be assassin, John Hinckley, fired six “devastator” bullets designed to explode and spew hot shrapnel on impact. The first bullet hit Press Secretary James Brady in the head, crippling him for life. Other bullets wounded a … [Read more...]
‘Watchman’ a letdown, not least for Scout
Go Set a Watchman recently became an overnight blockbuster, selling more than 1 million copies in the first week. Book critics understandably sought to compare the storyline in Watchman with the theme in Harper Lee’s first book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize. Some expressed surprise that Atticus Finch, the lovable hero in … [Read more...]
‘Missoula’ reveals hidden world of trauma under the ivy
When Jon Krakauer decided to write about non-stranger rape, he was “stunned to discover that many of my acquaintances, and even several women in my own family, had been sexually assaulted by men they trusted. … I’d had no idea that rape was so prevalent.” Missoula focuses on several University of Montana students who were raped by school football players. Krakauer warns that … [Read more...]
Profile tells us a lot about pope, but still comes up short
Pope Francis has impressed Catholics and non-Catholics alike with his displays of compassion and kindness for the less fortunate. Many will recall that on Holy Thursday in 2013 Francis visited an Italian youth prison, where he said Mass and washed the feet of 12 young inmates, including a Muslim boy and two girls, one a Catholic and the other a Muslim. It was the first time … [Read more...]