Briar Patch Books

Category: History

  • 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…

  • It’s not easy being queen

    Anne Barnhill is recuperating at her home in Garner, N.C., after having had surgery, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped writing. Nor does it mean she has stopped reading. In addition to working on her next novel, Anne has found the time and energy to review some books, including this one for our blog. (Pardon…

  • 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…

  • Read it and shiver – and laugh

    By Paul O’Connor CORPORAL BOSKIN’S COLD, COLD WAR: A Comical Journey. By Joseph Boskin. Syracuse University Press. Hardcover. 178 pages. $24.95. As a scholar of American culture, Prof. Joseph Boskin is very familiar with the work of Joseph Heller. As a Korean War-era draftee, Corporal Boskin can attest to the accuracy of Heller’s masterpiece, Catch-22.…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • A two-handed review

    Our roving contributing editor, Paul O’Connor, has interrupted his travels to review a novel set during World War II. Since his travels took him to Oregon when the author was there, he also was able to hear Jeff Shaara discuss his writing. By Paul T. O’Connor THE FINAL STORM. By Jeff Shaara. Ballantine Books. 446…