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Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times by Gregory Cowles, Senior Editor, Books.
Anybody interested in a quick survey of
United States history could do worse than this week’s recommended
titles. Start with Sean Wilentz’s “No Property in Man,” which argues
that the Constitution’s framers took pains (however strangled or
surreptitious they were) to ensure slavery’s eventual demise. Then move
on to David W. Blight’s new biography of Frederick Douglass, the escaped
slave who as an orator became one of the towering figures of the
abolition movement and lived three decades past emancipation to see the
cusp of the 20th century. Then read Deborah Blum’s account of industrial
food practices in the early 1900s, and of the government regulator who
made it his mission to combat contamination and outright fraud. Finally,
Derek Leebaert’s “Grand Improvisation” traces America’s rise as a
superpower after World War II, and argues that Britain played a bigger
role than is generally acknowledged.
If
you’re looking for a more global perspective — or just for some
fiction, after all that history — we also recommend a novel about sexual
politics and fertility in traditional Indian society, and a historical
novel about a mermaid on the loose in 18th-century London.
Read more...
Source: New York Time
Read more...
Source: New York Time
