The Failed Promise

March 1, 2021

Drawing on fresh documents and exclusive interviews with family members and associates, CNN analyst Bergen (The United States of Jihad) limns The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden (60,000-copy first printing). From retired U.S. Army Major General Eder, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line chronicles 15 mostly unacknowledged women, from a Dutch resistance fighter to an American tennis champion, who made a difference during World War II. In The Gallery of Miracles and Madness, former Guardian journalist English shows how a Weimar-era doctor's collection of artwork by psychiatric patients inspired emerging artists, which led to a Nazi backlash against so-called degenerate art and the patient-artists themselves, who were eventually gassed in a run-up to the Final Solution. Evans's Maiden Voyages moves from celebrities in first class to professional women in second class to desperate �migr�s in steerage--not to mention crew members--to reveal how the golden age of ocean liner travel changed women's lives (60,000-copy first printing). As seen in Costa biography finalist Kavanagh's The Irish Assassins, republican militants in 1882 Dublin murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke--Britain's chief secretary and undersecretary for Ireland, respectively--which ended their secret negotiations to achieve peace and independence for Ireland. Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, Levine details the battle that raged between Frederick Douglass and President Andrew Johnson as The Failed Promise of Reconstruction became evident. In Once More to the Sky, Raab collects the 10 Esquire pieces he wrote between 2005 and 2015 about the construction of One World Trade Center, adding an epilogue and including Woolhead's four-color photographs throughout. In The Ambassador, British American biographer Ronald (Cond� Nast) digs deep into Joseph P. Kennedy's controversial tenure as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (75,000-copy first printing). Former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and director of the Antiquarian Horological Society, Rooney is the author to tell us About Time--that is, the history of timekeeping worldwide.

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Starred review from May 31, 2021
University of Maryland English professor Levine (The Lives of Frederick Douglass) foregrounds in this enlightening and timely history the efforts of Frederick Douglass to persuade President Andrew Johnson and congressional Republicans to deliver “dignity and equality for Black people” in the years after the Civil War. Sworn into office hours after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Johnson, a Southern Democrat who had freed Tennessee’s enslaved people in 1864, was initially seen as “more radical and progressive” than Lincoln. But he soon declared amnesty for rebel leaders and approved state governments led by ex-Confederate officers. Radical Republicans in Congress, alarmed by the passage of Black Codes restricting the rights of freedpeople, battled Johnson for control of Reconstruction, while Douglass and other Black leaders raised alarms about racist violence and urged the federal government to extend voting and citizenship rights to African Americans. Douglass also believed that Republicans should have explicitly raised “the harm did to Black people” in their 1868 articles of impeachment, and believed Johnson’s acquittal “further encouraged racist outrages.” Brilliantly spotlighting Douglass’s rhetorical strategies and mounting despair over the failure of Reconstruction, this trenchant study speaks clearly to today’s battles over voting rights and racial justice.

July 15, 2021
An excellent, opinionated, and discouraging dual biography of a dreadful president and a determined fighter for human rights. Levine writes that Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), a fiercely ambitious populist who became "the absolutely wrong president for his times," despised the South's aristocracy but was otherwise a garden-variety Southern Democrat with no objection to slavery. It was only after Lincoln's election that he achieved fame as the only Southern senator opposing secession. Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, where his anti-slavery rhetoric made him popular among Tennessee Blacks as well as abolitionists, who preferred him to Lincoln. Making "War Democrat" Johnson vice-presidential candidate was a gesture to win votes in the 1864 elections, which observers considered a toss-up. Although horrified at Lincoln's murder, the new president was an improvement according to Radical Republicans. Sharing their delusion was Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), the charismatic Black speaker and writer who had been fighting slavery for two decades. Historians dutifully explain why Johnson discarded his hatred of slave owners in favor of White supremacy. Levine contributes an unobjectionable, intriguing theory, but mostly he recounts the dismal events that followed. Soon after assuming office, Johnson began pardoning Rebels in exchange for a mild loyalty oath and recognizing all-White Southern state governments. He vetoed legislation securing rights for ex-slaves, made violently racist speeches and statements, and blamed horrific White atrocities on Northern agitators. Talk of impeachment began, but Congress was reluctant to indict him for racist behavior, aware that most White voters had little objection. Taking advantage of his effort to fire the secretary of war in February 1868, the House charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act, which forbade dismissing anyone approved by the Senate. The two-month impeachment trial bored the sellout audience, but readers will appreciate Levine's many significant insights. Douglass, who did not attend, put aside his disappointment at the acquittal, continuing to speak and write as Reconstruction failed and conditions for Blacks steadily deteriorated. Outstanding as both a biography and a work of Reconstruction-era history.

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Starred review from July 1, 2021
There is no shortage of books about Andrew Johnson's presidency. However, a gap in the scholarship is Johnson's relationship with African American community leaders during the Reconstruction Era, particularly Frederick Douglass. As Levine asserts, Black voices are "almost entirely absent" from most works about Johnson's impeachment, and Douglass' perspective has largely been ignored. Levine argues it's not necessarily prudent to judge Johnson with today's standards. Nonetheless, he made several promises to Black leaders that he would help to build a more egalitarian society. Douglass initially believed that the Reconstruction Era would be a time of renewed prosperity, that Johnson would help African Americans obtain equal rights, and that the multiracial democracy he promised would come to fruition. But when Johnson instead focused on the reintegration of the ex-Confederate states and pardoned Confederate generals, it didn't take long for Douglass to realize he had given Johnson too much trust and credit. To make matters more complicated, not all Black community leaders shared Douglass' beliefs, creating more tension. This richly researched, comprehensive work is a crucial addition to American history sections that also traces the roots of government failure to quell anti-Black violence.

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