History & Military History
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ALGONQUIN
Empire of Deception: The Incredible
Story of a Master Swindler Who
Seduced a City and Captivated the
Nation by Dean Jobb (May 19, hardcover,
$26.95, ISBN 978-1-61620-175-3). In
Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring ’20s, a
charming con man kept a Ponzi scheme
alive for longer than perhaps anyone else in
history in this rollicking story of greed,
financial corruption, dirty politics, and
illicit sex.
AMISTAD
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the
First Lady of the Black Press by James
McGrath Morris (Feb. 17, hardcover,
$25.99, ISBN 978-0-06-219885-3). Morris brings into focus the life of one of the
least known figures of the civil rights era—
pioneering journalist Ethel Payne, the
“First Lady of the Black Press”—elevating
her to her rightful place in history. 20,000-
copy announced first printing.
ATLANTIC MONTHLY
First to Fly: The Story of the Lafayette
Escadrille, the American Heroes Who
Flew for France in World War I by
Charles Bracelen Flood (June 2, hardcover,
$25, ISBN 978-0-8021-2365-7). From a
critically acclaimed historian comes this
lively story of American pilots who defied
neutrality and flew for France before the
United States entered WWI.
BASIC
King John and the Road to Magna
Carta by Stephen Church (Apr. 7, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-465-09299-4).
In this biography of King John (1166–
1216), medieval historian Church describes
how a king famous for his misrule gave rise
to Magna Carta, the blueprint for good
governance.
One Nation Under God: How Corpo-
rate America Invented Christian Amer-
ica by Kevin M. Kruse (Apr. 14, hardcover,
$29.99, ISBN 978-0-465-04949-3)
describes how, in the middle of the 20th
century, corporate titans and evangelical
activists rewrote history and created the
pervasive myth that America was, is, and
always will be a fundamentally Christian
nation
BEACON
One Righteous Man: Samuel Battle
and the Shattering of the Color Line in
New York by Arthur Browne (June 30,
hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-8070-
1260-4). A history of African-Americans in
New York City from the 1910s to 1960 is
told through the life of Samuel Battle, the
New York Police Department’s first black
officer. Battle commissioned Langston
Hughes to write his biography, but it was
never published. Using Hughes’s manuscript and his own archival research, journalist Browne has created a fascinating narrative of this unheralded figure.
BLOOMSBURY PRESS
Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel
Holmes (Feb. 24, hardcover, $35, ISBN
978-1-62040-970-1). Holmes’s biography
of Eleanor Marx (1855–1898), daughter of
Karl Marx, paints her subject as the first
modern feminist, who spent her life fighting for the principle of equality.
A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks
in World War I That Forever Changed
the Nature of Warfare by Diana Preston
(Feb. 24, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-
62040-212-2). Preston offers a new window
onto WWI with her chronicle of the birth
of weapons of mass destruction, as Germany
altered the way war would be fought during
six weeks in April and May 1915.
CHICAGO REVIEW
The Madman and the Assassin:
The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the
Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth
; The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy
Masha Gessen. Riverhead, Apr. 7
; Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson. Crown, Mar. 10
; The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination
Barry Strauss. Simon & Schuster, Mar. 3
; A Higher Form of Killing:
Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare
Diana Preston. Bloomsbury, Feb. 24
; Hissing Cousins:
The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer. Doubleday/Talese, Mar. 31
; Joan of Arc: A History
Helen Castor. Harper, May 19
; Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History
Richard Wightman Fox. Norton, Feb. 9
; One of Us: Anders Breivik and the Massacres in Norway
Åsne Seierstad, trans. by Sarah Death. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Apr. 21
; The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789
Joseph J. Ellis. Knopf, May 12
; The Wright Brothers
David McCullough. Simon & Schuster, May 5
PW’S TOP 10:
HISTORY & MILITARY HISTORY
