A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln
The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands. Doubleday, 2020. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson H. W. Brands has written perhaps his most fluent book, a constantly engaging study...
Succession and the Anarchy
Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior by Catherine Hanley. Yale University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 277 pages, $30. Reviewed by Timothy D. Lusch By none but me can the tale be told, The butcher of Rouen, poor Berold. (Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.) ’Twas a royal...
De Gaulle’s Ambition for France
A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. Allen Lane, 2018 / Penguin 2019. Paperback, 928 pages, $30. Reviewed by Owen Edwards The summary of Julian Jackson’s reading of de Gaulle is the section title of Part Four of this monumental...
England’s Real-Time Wendell Berry
At the Field’s Edge: Adrian Bell and the English Countryside By Richard Hawking. The Crowood Press, 2019. Hardcover, 222 pages, $45. Reviewed by Robert Grano The name Adrian Bell will be unfamiliar to the great majority of American readers, and even in his native...
Ah, just your typical 663-page light summer beach read for a @ubookman book review. Makes Wealth of Nations look like a Substack essay.