Teacher and Author
Alexander Hamilton asked if people are truly capable of governing themselves by reflection and choice or if they are, instead, doomed to be buffeted by the whims of accident and force. Jill Lepore made it the organizing question of her … Continued
In These Truths, Jill Lepore asks her reader to consider a central question as she makes her way through her 800-page survey of American history. It is a question first posed by Alexander Hamilton in 1787 in what became known … Continued
I get mildly annoyed when my wife scrolls through her iPhone in bed at night. There is nothing mild about it when she deigns to play audio, almost always a song-and-dance number from some local theater production. On this particular … Continued
Twilight of the Gods is a thrilling conclusion to Ian Toll’s thirteen-years-in-the-making “Pacific War Trilogy.” The longest and, Toll admits, hardest of the three to write, the final volume is nevertheless a taut narrative of the war’s complex final year. … Continued
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876 is Bret Baier’s fourth biographical book. Even so, I couldn’t escape the feeling that he is playing at being a historian (especially since I can … Continued
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads was a gift. Listening to it in my car during the Holiday season was like an audio advent calendar. Each new commute-long section brought surprises, like daily presents wrapped up just for me. As it happened, I … Continued