Page by Page: Book Reviews

The Loneliness of the Loyal Jewish Soldier

We always flatter ourselves by the assumption of our own righteous virtue, especially when it is not put to the test. The Dreyfus story, we were told, revealed how precarious assimilation was for racial and religious minorities.

The Transfiguration of Cori Bush

The Forerunner is one of the more important autobiographies written by a St. Louisan. It ought to be read by Democrats, Republicans, and all third-party members. It takes a bit of skill to merge leftist politics, old-time Black evangelical Protestantism, and the supporting craft of nursing into something coherent.

Blues for a Blue World

The topic of the Anthropocene is so vast and, well, everywhere, that sometimes you just have to make brief forays into the muck and see if anything makes sense or connects.

The Defining Dozen Cases of Clarence Thomas

Amul Thapar, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the son of Indian immigrants, wants to show that Clarence Thomas is not alone in his views or somehow a fluke, a mistake, or an aberration as a minority jurist. In other words, Thapar wants to make clear that Thomas’s relationship with the American community of color is not defined solely by the people who hate him.

Football, Assimilation, and the Japanese-American Internment Camps of World War II

The Eagles of Heart Mountain is an impressive study of the concentration camps that imprisoned over one hundred thousand Japanese Americans during World War II. This is by no means the only history of the Japanese concentration camps, but it is unique in its focus on the Heart Mountain facility of Wyoming and its emphasis on the role of football in providing some joy and self­-expression for some of those imprisoned.

The Chronicler of the Grunts in the Good War

David Chrisinger analyzes Pyle’s writing and looks at it through a modern lens by visiting some of the key battle sites in his engaging and fast-paced book ‘The Soldier’s Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II.’ This is not a full-scale biography, but rather a deep dive into the most important part of Pyle’s life.

Carry That Weight

Unlike most McCartney biographies, which seem to have little to say about the man’s actual music output, The McCartney Legacy focuses on how Paul went about constructing and recording his work, giving an invaluable history that helps illuminate how he re-conceptualized his art in the wake of the Beatles’ break-up.

Can Grant Hill Save Basketball?

Although Game may lack the scandal and drama of other basketball autobiographies, it is an important story that allows readers to appreciate Hill’s unique basketball skills and accomplishments as well as the ways he successfully navigates the often-contested worlds of Duke and the NBA.