Briar Patch Books

Category: Contemporary Nonfiction

  • The FBI: Too much, too little

    We know, more or less, about J. Edgar Hoover and his excesses, but there’s a lot more appalling information in the history of the FBI. Paul O’Connor reviews a new book that lays out many of the excesses and shortcomings. By Paul T. O’Connor ENEMIES: A History of the FBI. By Tim Weiner. Read by…

  • Looking at the face of evil

    By Paul O’Connor. IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: LOVE, TERROR, AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER’S BERLIN. By Erik Larson. Crown Publishers. 363 ages. $26, hardcover. Also available in paperback. In his narrative histories, Erik Larson has written about a mass murderer in Chicago and a hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, and he says he…

  • Revelations about Revelation

    Two years ago, I listened to an audio version of the New Testament, courtesy of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Having been associated with Baptist churches nearly all my life, I had, of course, read and heard many passages over and over. It was, however, very interesting and informative to “read” the New Testament in order…

  • Think you know all about our founders? Think again

    Paul O’Connor, who, like me, has been on spring break from the rigors of teaching journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has found time to review a book that’s been out a few years but is new to him. When I was the book-page editor at a newspaper, we did not…

  • What’s not to like?

    Did you like Ike? If you are old enough to remember when he was president, you probably don’t have any negative memories of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Maybe not any particularly positive ones, either. He was just there, the president, old reliable. Paul O’Connor, who’s barely old enough to have memories of Ike, reviews a book…

  • A review not to be missed

    Paul O’Connor started the year out by sending this review to me, which was an admirable way for him to start the new year. Unfortunately, I was on a bird-watching expedition to Lake Mattamuskeet when the review hit my inbox, so I didn’t start the new year in quite so efficient a manner. Fortunately, my…

  • A thought-provoking new look at the Father of Our Country

    We all know that our Founders were devout, practicing Christians favoring small government and no taxes, right? Guess again. Or better yet, read Paul O’Connor’s review of a new biography of George Washington on Briar Patch Books. By Paul O’Connor WASHINGTON: A LIFE. By Ron Chernow. The Penguin Press. 817 pages. Hardcover, $40. Softcover, $20.…

  • No laughing matter

    Bob Moyer takes a sobering look at a serious subject: humor in Nazi Germany, and what it tells us about that terrible time. By Robert Moyer DEAD FUNNY: Humor in Hitler’s Germany. By Rudolph Herzog. Translated by Jefferson Chase. Melville House. 256 pages. $26. It is unbelievable that Hitler was responsible for the deaths of…

  • The great disconnect: Our children, our world

    Here we have a new reviewer discussing a book that has been the subject of considerable attention since it was published in 2008. I wrote about the book a couple of times in op-ed columns for the Winston-Salem Journal back then, when I was the editorial-page editor. Its subject is near and dear to my…

  • American dreams

    You may derive some odd comfort from a reminder that as crazy as our times seem, they fit right in with the story of American history. Steve Wishnevsky reviews a book that looks at a past America on the brink of a great war. By Stephen Wishnevsky TWILIGHT AT THE WORLD OF TOMORROW: GENIUS, MADNESS,…