Barrel Cactus Press Review by Brian Tanguay Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in forty-one installments by the National Era, a prominent abolitionist newspaper. The story of a…
Category: Nonfiction
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken
Ecco Review by Walter Cummins When first reading A Long Game, I kept wondering who the book was written for. The title and the author would attract those of us…
Decolonizing Ukraine: The Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom by Greta Lynn Uehling
Rowman & Littlefield Review by Brian Tanguay Because of the passage of time and the velocity at which events unfold, it’s understandable that Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea has fallen…
What Is Free Speech? The History Of A Dangerous Idea by Fara Dabhoiwala
Belknap-Harvard University Review by Brian Tanguay I confess to not having given much thought to the historical origins of free speech before reading Fara Dabhoiwala’s marvelous history, What Is Free…
The Future of Truth by Werner Herzog
Penguin Review by George Yatchisin Who better than Werner Herzog, the Bavarian mad genius, to take us on a heady time-travelling exploration on what truth might mean/be/permit? The Future of…
Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress by Roy Scranton
Stanford Review by Walter Cummins I wish Impasse had been written when my wife was still alive. The book would have provided so much information and so many ideas to…
10 Best Books of 2025
The following list was decided after consultation between California Review of Books co-editors David Starkey and Brian Tanguay and the journal’s most frequent reviewers, Walter Cummins and George Yatchisin. As…
Savings And Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank by Justene Hill Edwards
W. W. Norton & Company Review by Brian Tanguay The failure of banks and savings and loan institutions has a long history in the United States. Most people know something…
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement by Brandon M. Terry
Belknap/Harvard Review by Brian Tanguay Americans generally frame the Civil Rights era as beginning with the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision and ending with the assassination of…
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – And How It Shattered a Nation – by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Viking Review by Mark Mansour Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “1929” is a compelling and vivid chronicle of the most notorious financial crash in history, skillfully blending drama and meticulously researched history…