the Iraq War, “the worst foreign policy
decision ever made by an American president.” Smith’s negativity is sometimes too
much—“Like Big Brother in George
Orwell’s 1984, the president launched the
nation on a never-ending struggle”—but
he presents a shrewd, nuanced view of
Bush as an insecure, intellectually lazy
man who made up for youthful fecklessness with an unwarranted overconfidence
and decisiveness in office, a “
personalization of presidential power” inside a
bubble of sycophantic advisors. Smith
embeds this portrait in a lucid, highly
readable narrative, balancing rich detail
with clear delineation of the larger shape
of policy through the chaos of politics.
This is a superb recap and critical analysis
of Bush’s controversial administration.
Photos. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord
Literistic. (July)
In the Land of a Thousand Gods:
A History of Asia Minor in the
Ancient World
Christian Marek, with Peter Frei, trans. from
the German by Steven Rendall. Princeton
Univ., $49.50 (808p) ISBN 978-0-691-15979-9
Informed by decades of archaeological
fieldwork in Turkey, Marek, professor of
ancient history at the University of
Zurich, uses a sensitive, high-resolution
perspective to examine Asia Minor (as the
Romans called the Anatolian peninsula,
the geographic region that makes up most
of modern Turkey) in antiquity.
Encompassing fields as diverse as political
theory, theater, mathematics, and military
tactics, this is an expansive, formidable
work of scholarship that should prove
indispensable to students of the Near
East, though it can be impenetrable for
nonspecialists. Whether he’s unravelling
the particularities of Roman tax assess-
ment or unpacking passages of classical
literature, Marek demonstrates a deep and
nuanced knowledge that can be thrilling
to witness even when it obfuscates (as
when he casually uses ancient Greek,
Latin, and Syriac). As various forms of
centralized administration take root, a
“cacophony of war and chaos” in the early
chapters gives way to lighter subjects in
the book’s second half. For example,
inhabitants of the region spent eye-
watering sums on spectacula—including
athletic contests, impromptu declama-
tions of rhetoric, and gladiatorial bat-
tles—and Marek observes that this phe-
nomenon was embedded in a “deeply
rooted culture of pleasure” that “was
almost unparalleled until the advent of
the American Way of Life.” It’s a dense
work, but patient readers will be richly
rewarded. Maps & illus. (July)
The Common Cause: Creating
Race and Nation in the American
Revolution
Robert G. Parkinson. Univ. of North Carolina,
$45 (768p) ISBN 978-1-4696-2663-5
In this extensively researched study,
Parkinson, assistant professor of history at
Binghamton University, explores the roles
played by concepts of inclusion and exclusion among the supporters of the patriot
cause in the American Revolution.
Drawing primarily upon an immense
array of colonial American newspapers,
Parkinson emphasizes the methods by
which leaders such as Benjamin Franklin,
James Otis, and both John and Samuel
Adams mobilized the printed word in
countering the “catalog of forces acting
against American unity.” To undercut the
divisiveness of
issues such as
voting rights,
land distribu-
tion, religious
heterodoxy, and
slaveholding,
these revolu-
tionaries
focused their
readers’ hos-
tility against
both their British rulers and perceived
enemies within their own communities.
Their literature increasingly centered on
the supposed dangers presented by Native
Americans and slaves—groups that the
British urged to revolt against local
authorities. The book is academically
focused, offering a detailed and insightful
analysis of how newspapers became loci of
communication and shapers of individ-
uals’ and communities’ senses of them-
selves as political actors. Moreover,
Parkinson persuasively explains the
intensely racialized nature of citizenship
in the newly independent U.S. and the
long-standing problems posed by the
exclusion of Americans of indigenous or
African heritage from the “common
cause” of the Revolution. (July)
Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and
Murder on the Erie Canal
Jack Kelly. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-137-28009-1
In this snappy telling of an oft-told
tale, Kelly (Band of Giants), a journalist,
novelist, and historian, brings to life the
texture of central and western New York
State in the early decades of the 19th
century. The region, its settlers, and its
culture were central to the nation’s
development in the decades before the
Civil War. Central and western New
York—overrun with religious fervor,
political turmoil, and projects to improve
life and commerce—incubated much of
the cultural change that eventually spread
nationally: women’s rights, evangelical
religion, abolitionism and other reform
movements, and the Erie Canal, one of the
great engineering feats of American history. Kelly weaves his story around the
construction of the canal, which brought
people, trade, and change to the Midwest
and helped make New York City into
America’s greatest urban center. A writer
of history rather than a researcher or interpretive historian, Kelly has mined existing
books but not manuscripts or records. He
adds nothing to what’s already known
about the region’s history, nor does he
venture any particular interpretation of
his subject. But those who wish to learn
something about a critical era and a critical region will find Kelly’s book a good
place to start. (July)
Trials of the Earth: The True Story
of a Pioneer Woman
Mary Mann Hamilton. Little, Brown, $27
(336p) ISBN 978-0-316-34139-4
This compelling, no-frills posthumous
memoir from Hamilton (1866–1936)
reveals the hidden nature of late 19th-
century American life through the joys
and heartbreak of homesteading in the
Mississippi Delta. The manuscript was
originally submitted to Little, Brown in
1933; the publisher passed on it before
purchasing the rights from Hamilton’s
descendants for a new version in 2015.
Hamilton wasn’t famous, nor did she wield
political or social power; her experiences
attest to the considerable contributions
