Dec 15, 2014 - and other so-called enemy aliens. ... In his best-selling memoir, The Other Wes. Moore (2010) ... Moore ponders the journey beyond changes.
senator, Joseph Foraker, to fight Roosevelt and right what he viewed as an outrageous injustice. Foraker was no progressive; he was a conservative Republican who had resisted most of Roosevelt’s reforms, but he was a re tired judge with a strong belief in due process and individual, not collective, responsibility. Foraker’s struggle, along with the efforts of nascent civil rights organizations, forms the core of this ultimately successful struggle for justice. —Jay Freeman Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry V lll's Most Faithful Servant. By Tracy Borman. Jan. 2 0 1 5 .456p. Atlantic Monthly, $30 (9 7 80 80 21 2 31 76 1.94 2.05 2.
Hilary Mantel’s fictional blockbusters Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012) have reinvigorated interest in Thomas Crom well. Penning a new biography of Cromwell, Borman follows the current trend, revising the common historical view of her subject as a cunningly cruel power broker. The portrait she paints of this complex man, who rose from humble origins to extraordinary— and ultimately untenable— heights, is more subtly nuanced. Though no one can deny Cromwell’s ruthless lust for power, she puts it into perspec tive, analyzing both his personal and public relationships and viewing his actions and mo tivations through a sixteenth-century lens. An ambitious man of his time and place, he nev ertheless intimately enjoyed a rich and varied domestic life. Neglecting neither the public persona nor the private man, Borman provides an insightful biography of a much-maligned historical figure. —Margaret Flanagan The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp during World War II. By Jan Jarboe Russell. Jan. 2 0 1 5 .400p. illus. Scribner, $30 (9 7 81451693669). 973.917.
The internment of Japanese Americans in camps along the Pacific Coast during WW1I is well known. With the benefit of hindsight, the action has been roundly condemned as a racially motivated overreaction and gross viola tion of constitutional and human rights. Less well known but equally reprehensible was the roundup of thousands of Germans, Italians, and other so-called enemy aliens. These includ ed entire families composed of both noncitizens and citizens and even some ethnic Germans and Italians deported from Latin American nations to the U.S. Most were sent to a camp in Crystal City, Texas, in a rather desolate area in the south of the state. Few, if any, could be considered as security threats. According to Russell, the Roosevelt administration viewed their internment as useful bargaining chips in efforts to negotiate the release of American citizens stuck in occupied Europe. Much of Russell’s account is viewed through the expe riences of two young American-born girls. O f course, the camp was nothing like the work 14 Booklist December 15, 2014
camps and death camps of the Third Reich. Nevertheless, the barbed wire, armed guards, and watch towers made clear to the residents that they were held in prison-like conditions. This is an informative, disturbing, and nec essary reminder of the dangers produced by wartime hysteria. —Jay Freeman Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923. By R. F. Foster. Jan. 2 0 1 5 .480p. Norton, $29.95 (9780393082791). 941.508.
The tide is taken from a Yeats poem that pays tribute to the radical Irish nationalists who took part in the Easter Rebellion, in 1916. In that action, a di verse crew of rebels seized parts of central Dublin until crushed by massive British 1890-1923 > firepower. Although seem ingly futile, their efforts and the execution of some of the leaders galvanized sen R , F. F O S T E R timents in Ireland around independence and led to the creation of the Irish Free State, in 1921. Foster, profes sor of Irish history at Oxford, examines the background, hopes, and dreams of dozens of the participants in a fascinating, moving, but often sad account. These were certainly idealistic men and women, but their dedica tion, even fanaticism, often seems both naive and dangerous. All, of course, were dedicated to Irish independence, but their individual concerns included feminism, sexual freedom, socialism, and cultural transformation. Foster draws parallels to other revolutionary move ments in that many of these rebels consciously set themselves in opposition to the compla cency or moderate politics of their parents’ generation. Foster views them with sympathy, affection, but also with a critical eye. This is an outstanding tableau of an exciting, often tragic era and of the characters who helped make it so. —Jay Freeman
VIVID FACES
The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters. By Wes Moore. Jan. 2015. 272p. Spiegel & Grau, $25 (9780812993578). 975.2.
In his best-selling memoir, The Other Wes Moore (2010), Moore recalled an extraor dinary life story of adolescent stumbles in inner-city America that might have cost him his life or freedom but instead led him to study at Oxford. In this follow-up book, Moore ponders the journey beyond changes in life circumstances to a search for meaning in life through work and career. He tells his own whirlwind story of Oxford, investment banking, military service, a W hite House Fellowship— all the while questioning how the work he did contributed to the lives of others. Moore recounts similar quests by others, including a retired air force lieuten ant colonel who is now the principal of an inner-city school, two returned vets who
build homes for disabled veterans, an asso ciate director of the Peace Corps, for-profit social venture entrepreneurs, and the maker of KIND snack bars. Moore has created his own nonprofit to help students adjust to that crucial first year in college. This is a beauti fully philosophical look at the expectation that work should bring meaning to our lives through service to others. — Vanessa Bush World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. Ed. by Spencer C. Tucker. 5v. 2014. 2,307p. illus. ABC-CLI0, $520 (9 7 81851099641). 940.3.
August 2014 saw the 100-year anniversary of the start of WWI, and this year has seen no shortage of books on the subject. However, this extensive examination of the war fulfills the aim of being a “definitive” set. Celebrated war-historian Tucker and his editorial team have assembled a five-volume set of nearly 1,500 entries as well as a collection of 207 primary documents. A look at the categorical index shows the depth and breadth of the work— “Events”; “Individuals”; “Ideas and Movements”; “Groups and Organizations”; “Places”; “Technologies, Objects, and Artifacts”; and “Treaties, Acts, and Other Documents.” Coverage includes significant battles, peo ple, places, and weapons; and the work encompasses the social, political, cultural, and economic issues o f the era. Volume 1 has additional narrative information introducing the origins of the war and an overview. The alphabetically arranged, signed entries range from one column (Anzac convoy, Big Bertha; most nonfamous people) to 2Vi pages (Adri atic Theater, Infantry tactics-, most battles and campaigns). There are some topics that receive much longer entries— deservedly so— such as Easternfront, which clocks in at 11 pages. The entries, overall, are succinct and well written. Each entry concludes with see also references and a selection of further reading. Black-and-white photographs, maps, and charts appear throughout. Each volume opens with the table of contents and the list of set entries, and volumes 1-4 each open with the same 15 pages of maps. Volume 4 closes with additional narrative detail, including infor mation on various military orders, medals, and ranks; a detailed annotated chronology; a glossary; and both a historiography and a bibliography. Volume 5, Documents, also contains the set categorical index mentioned above and the set index. This exhaustive encyclopedia is highly rec ommended for public and academic libraries where budget allows— particularly those with out Tucker’s earlier incarnation of this set, The Encyclopedia o f World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History (2006). — Rebecca Vnuk www. thebooklistreader. com
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