Publishers Weekly - May 30, 2016

has led to a
reconceptualiza-
tion of how the
immune system
might work,
how microor-
ganisms can
shape the devel-
opment of organ
systems, how
bacteria might
play a role in autism, and how the micro-
biome may influence an organism’s pro-
pensity for obesity. He also shows that sci-
entists have moved beyond the theoretical
by successfully performing “ecosystem
transplants” of human gut microorgan-
isms, and he envisions a future that includes
“artisanal bacteria” designed to perform spe-
cific tasks. Yong reveals “how ubiquitous
and vital microbes are” on scales large and
small. (Aug.)

City of Sedition: The History of
New York City During the Civil War

John Strausbaugh. Hachette/Twelve, $30 (432p)

ISBN 978-1-4555-8418-5

Strausbaugh follows 2013’s The Village, an encyclopedic history of New York City’s Greenwich Village, with an expert look at the city in the tumultuous years leading up to and through the Civil War. “New York City would play a huge role in the war, but it would be a hugely confused and conflicted one,” he writes. “No city would be more of a help to Lincoln and the Union war effort, or more of a hindrance.” As Strausbaugh focuses on the array of colorful characters who influenced events— including newsman Horace Greeley, abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, and Tammany Hall leader William “Boss” Tweed—he spins a complex tale of a rapidly growing and changing city where immigration, slavery, and politics all had immense roles to play. This is an entertaining, informative, and educational narrative, though the density of rich detail can get the reader bogged down;

Strausbaugh sometimes pays too much attention to pivotal individuals in the maelstrom of events. He ranges over the better part of a century to thoroughly and confidently capture the full scope of the story, resulting in an almost epic saga. Agent: Chris Calhoun, Chris Calhoun Agency. (Aug.)

The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis
and the Final Days of Imperial Iran

Andrew Scott Cooper. Holt, $35 (608p)

ISBN 978-0-8050-9897-6

Cooper (The Oil Kings), a scholar of oil markets and U.S.-Iran relations, recounts the rise and fall of Iran’s glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, challenging common characterizations of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as a brutal dictator. Focusing on the last Shah’s rule, Cooper explains the founding of the Pahlavi monarchy and details the various achievements of the White Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, “one of the 20th century’s great experiments in liberal social and economic reform.” These transformed Iran “from a semifeudal baron state into a modern industrial powerhouse” while also encompassing various social advances in women’s rights, education, health care, and more. Such reforms, Cooper argues, qualify the Western-oriented Shah as more of a benevolent autocrat than a tyrant. The first part of the book is a sweeping survey of the Shah’s time in power; the second is a riveting day-by-day account of the 1978–1979 revolution that toppled the monarchy. Based on various documentary sources as well as impressive access to royalists, revolutionaries, Queen Farah Pahlavi, and various U.S. officials, this thorough work is immensely detailed yet readable and continuously engaging.

Cooper’s attempts to downplay the regime’s abuses are unconvincing, but he provides a fascinating, distinctive, and personal account of the Shah and his rule. (Aug.)

Landmarks

Robert Macfarlane. Penguin/Hamilton, $18 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-241-96787-4

Macfarlane’s (The Old Ways) beautifully
written blend of nature writing and lexicon
connects the work of his favorite writers
to the British Isles’ natural settings and
the distinctive, lyrical vocabulary used to
describe them. Each chapter is devoted
to a different landform (such as flatlands,
coastlands, and woodlands) and followed
by a glossary of relevant terminology. The
featured authors include “word-hoarder”
Nan Shepherd, whose book The Living
Mountain has its own lengthy glossary of
colorful Scots words, such as “roarie-bum-
mlers” (fast-moving storm clouds); and
“water-man” Roger Deakin, whose book
Waterlog, about his experiences swimming
around the United Kingdom, unearthed
archaic words such as dook (a swim in
open water) and tarn (an upland pool or
small lake.) The sources of the words in
the glossaries are as diverse as the British
landscape: works by famous wordsmiths
such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and John
Clare, as well as the various cultures,
regions, and languages of Great Britain.

Macfarlane bemoans the gradual disappearance of these colorful descriptors from modern usage, resulting in a “blandscape” of general terms. It would be fabulous if his wish in writing this exceptional compilation—for these words to “re-wild” contemporary speech—comes true. (Aug.)

Addict in the House:
A No-Nonsense Family Guide
Through Addiction Recovery

Robin Barnett. New Harbinger, $16.95 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-62625-260-8

This is a straightforward, rich resource for anyone who lives with, and loves, an addict. It is presented as an intimate, personal narrative to supplement the alarming statistics surrounding addiction. Having grown up in a household marked by addiction, behavioral health specialist Barnett is the ideal guide through a journey that, as she writes, is rocky at best. Rather than adopt the tone of an expert, which risks coming off as condescending, she writes as a fellow traveler. Navigating a life with an addict is not easy: the most basic aspects of communication are compromised, and freedom from the cycles that entangle most addicts’ families requires breaking long-established patterns. Barnett presents her discussion with the qualification that it is condensed, in keeping with the “ no-nonsense” self-description of the title. Each chapter is introduced by the words of addicts, but readers seeking more detailed, first-person accounts will not find them here. And instead of answers, they will find a process, presented more as a hopeful beginning than an ultimate cure. (Aug.)