Looking for something to do this holiday weekend? See our picks for some fun local events.
Jesse Norman’s “Edmund Burke: The First Conservative” is a decent enough read, and if Norman did his own writing, he is a good enough writer to carry the argument and the (often dry) history of the time forward.
The book is an attempt to convince others that Grover Cleveland in his role as president of the United States deserves a high ranking from the historians who dole out such honors. But this book is different from the others because it does not attempt to lionize Grover Cleveland by making all of his activities fit a conservative agenda.
“Gospel of Freedom” is an inspired work that belongs in every English-language library. Martin Luther King Jr.’s brilliance and humanity flame bright in this powerful book worth treasuring.
Northwestern University adjunct law professor Steven Harper has taken a critical look at the business side of the legal profession, and what he sees is an education/business model that is programmed to fail.
This slightly uneven collection may be of greater interest to Sedaris newbies than to his seasoned followers, because most if not all of the pieces have previously appeared in The New Yorker or other publications. Even so, it is fun to revisit them and relish again the author’s wry perspective and his singular way with words.
The far northern reaches of the Atlantic form the background of this saga — its endless sweep of freezing waters, its storms and fogs, icebergs and darkness, its hostility to human endeavors of every kind. Were it not for the necessity of supplying Soviet Russia with war materials, by convoys of merchant vessels under escort of British and American warships, none of it would have taken place. But those convoys, under constant attack by German aircraft and submarines, and the threat of surface forces led by Tirpitz and battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau — wolves among the sheep — kept plodding doggedly onward, some to their slaughter by bombs, shells, mines or torpedoes.
Readers who love learning about the machinations of the justice system can do no wrong picking up “The Price of Justice.”
Read the rest of this review, and more reviews, at roanoke.com.
Anyone old enough to remember the Vietnam era will recall an iconic photograph first published by Associated Press: a young woman, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, scalded by napalm running away from the blast. Many years later, Yablonka’s interviews with the woman and the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut, who took the photo, helped me understand how journalists and photographers changed America’s opinion about the “war” enough to eventually cause Congress to stop funding the “conflict” and withdraw our forces.
Read the rest of this review, and read more, at roanoke.com.
BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy
By Gary May. Basic Books. 336 pages. $28.99
Reviewed by Michael L. Ramsey
MICHAEL L. RAMSEY is president of the Roanoke Public Library Foundation.
Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution made it illegal to abridge the right of a U.S. citizen to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
In 1965, the passage of the Voting Rights Act paved the way for making the enfranchisement guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment a reality in states that did not recognize the power of the federal government to regulate elections. The newly adopted law removed common obstacles such as poll taxes, residency and literacy requirements, and terrorist tactics — tactics employed in some states to prevent minorities (mostly blacks) from being able to vote.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver a ruling in the case of Shelby County v. Holder. The case was brought by a county in Alabama that asserts that the federal government has no jurisdiction in determining how a locality manages voting and that Section 5 of the act should not have been extended by Congress.
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires “preclearance” for changes in voting precincts in some states, including Virginia, where the voting rights of some citizens had been denied or severely curtailed prior to 1965.
University of Delaware history professor Gary May offers a history of the Voting Rights Act and the reasons for its necessary enactment in “Bending Toward Justice.”
May takes the reader on a long journey toward equality. On that journey, we meet many people whose names we associate with the struggle for racial justice in America: Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Walter Fauntroy, John Lewis and Rosa Parks. It is interesting to note that Parks, famous for having refused to relinquish her seat on a public bus in the 1950s, was active in voting rights issues in the early 1940s.
There are others who contributed to the campaign, but whose names became eclipsed when more famous civil rights activists joined the fray. Read more »
THE CREATION OF ANNE BOLEYN: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen
By Susan Bordo. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 368 pages. $27
By Suzanne Wardle | suzanne.wardle@roanoke.com
When Susan Bordo began researching Anne Boleyn for another project, she found conflicting representations — Henry VIII’s second wife was the ultimate sinner, a misunderstood saint, a raven-haired schemer, a blond intellectual, the deformed bearer of a deformed fetus, the dignified mother of the king’s healthiest child.
Entranced not only by these depictions of Anne, but also by the woman herself, Bordo compiled her findings, thoughts and research into “The Creation of Anne Boleyn,” a book that examines Anne’s portrayal in books, movies and television. The result is a feast of feminism and history.
Bordo begins with the history of Anne and analysis of the historical sources from which we draw our information — most of them, she points out, are detractors eager to smear her. Their unreliable commentary turned into myth then crystalized into information commonly accepted as facts — Anne’s infamous sixth finger, her alleged sex with her brother, her machinations against various figures at court. Bordo pokes holes in each one, with assuredness and a touch of humor. It’s necessary background and a must-read for anyone who thinks “The Tudors” or “The Other Boleyn Girl” are factual, but it does drag a little for those familiar with Anne and the Tudors.
The most interesting parts are the research into Anne’s death — a fate even her critics admit she faced bravely — and an analysis of Henry VIII’s abandonment of the woman for whose hand he caused years of turmoil. Read more »
