The Washington Independent Review of Books has released its “Best of” list of books for 2021. Here are the books having to do with mid-19th Century history. I have only read one of these books, but I post them to give you a sense of the breath of good history writing out there.
Note: I included The Irish Assassins because the Irish community in the U.S. was deeply involved in this.
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule (St. Martin’s Press). Reviewed by Kitty Kelley. “Few others could write this book with such sterling credibility. Only a man of the South, a Virginian, and a soldier with a Ph.D. in history could so persuasively mount the case against a national hero, and label him a traitor. For even today, the image of Lee, who fought against his country to preserve slavery, is revered with monuments, parks, military bases, counties, roads, schools, ships, and universities named in his honor. Yet, armed with years of documented research, Seidule demonstrates that Lee, like Judas, was guilty of base betrayal.”
Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood by Fatima Shaik (The Historic New Orleans Collection). Reviewed by John P. Loonam. “The gift of Economy Hall is that it memorializes a once-active society that was swept up in — and tried to steer — some of the most pivotal events in New Orleans. More broadly, the men of the hall lived out the travails of American history — the struggle for prosperity; the tension between individuality and community and between diversity and homogeneity; the horrors of racism; and the fight for basic dignity and rights. If the arc of the universe is long, it bends toward institutions like Economy Hall.”
The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915 by Jon Grinspan (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Kitty Kelley. “Not all historians write with the verve and dash of Grinspan, whose titles snap, crackle, and pop: ‘Where do all those cranks come from?’ and ‘Reformers who Eat Roast Beef’ and ‘Investigate, Agitate, Legislate.’ For the most part, the chapters flow with narrative flair. For example, ‘Streetcar Number 126 wobbles its way up Lancaster Avenue into West Philadelphia’ starts his foray into the central issue of the Gilded Age, which was not class, race, industrialization, or immigration, but rather the political paralysis that made addressing those issues impossible. Sound a bit familiar?”
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed (Liveright). Reviewed by Eugene L. Meyer. “In On Juneteenth, Harvard historian Annette Gordon-Reed grapples with the myths and contradictions of her beloved home state — a place that once subjugated, segregated, and lynched Black people (including in her home county) and remains ruled by politicians determined to suppress the hard-won votes of minorities and maintain their own power even as demographics inevitably shift. In a series of essays, she offers a thoughtful and affectionate meditation on the state in which, despite its dualities, she still feels most at home. Where others might see a simple picture of unreconstructed racism, Gordon-Reed sees — and dissects — complexities that largely defy stereotypes. In so doing, she makes On Juneteenth an important part of the discussion about who and what we are as 21st-century Americans.”
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanagh (Atlantic Monthly Press). Reviewed by Bob Duffy. “Kavanagh vividly presents the innumerable players in this saga. And she never neglects the thorny human dimension of her story: the acts of impulse, folly, and desperation, of betrayal and heroism. In a nutshell, she has built a narrative that’s faithful to the flow of events, both overt and behind-the-scenes, while never losing sight of the frailties and passionate commitments behind them.”
The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson by Robert S. Levine (W.W. Norton & Company). Reviewed by Eugene L. Meyer. “This book lacks a bibliography, an omission that some may find puzzling. But the author’s personal bibliography, 10 titles listed in front, includes scholarly works relating to Douglass and associated topics. Further, Levine’s 31 pages of notes are extensive and helpful. Most importantly, The Failed Promise is an engaging new look at an old story. It is a welcome addition to the growing catalog of books that implicitly link the past to the present, providing historical context for the nation’s current reckoning with its original sin of slavery and its enduring legacy.”
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