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10-1-2017

The storm before the storm: the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic, Mike Duncan (book review)

Kathleen McCallister William & Mary, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation McCallister, Kathleen, The storm before the storm: the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic, Mike Duncan (book review) (2017). Library Journal, 142(16), 84. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/librariespubs/16

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the William & Mary Libraries at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in W&M Libraries Publications by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SOCIAL SCIENCES folks who want to join start-ups and figure Elite Campuses—Plus Oxford! show the human impact of starvation. This out the best entry point”). After a brief stint S. & S. Aug. 2017. 400p. ed. by Graydon insightful book illustrates an area of eastern in consulting, the author of Mastering the VC Carter. ISBN 9781501173745. $27; Europe fraught to this day with religious, Game worked his way up the start-up lad- ebk. ISBN 9781501173752. ED nationalist, and urban vs. rural conflict yet der, cofounded an early-stage venture capital As Vanity Fair editor Carter explains in this still coveted for its fertile farmland. VERDICT firm, and teaches business administration at book’s introduction: “every school is a com- This book will appeal to readers interested Harvard Business School. This new book pact world unto itself,” which makes them in Ukrainian history, Soviet policies, and provides a concise description of six of the “natural targets of journalistic opportunity.” the current Ukrainian-Russian conflict. seven major start-up job functions: product The past decade has seen voluminous re- [See Prepub Alert, 4/24/17.]—Laurie Unger manager, business development manager, portage on elite schools in crisis. In this vol- Skinner, Coll. of Lake Cty., Waukegan, IL marketing, growth manager, sales, and fi- ume, the author brings together a variety nance (omitting the seventh—engineer- of such articles by Vanity Fair writers. The Duncan, Mike. The Storm Before the Storm: ing—which is “expertly covered in many work is helpfully organized to highlight dif- The Beginning of the End of the Roman other books”). Each chapter contains a de- ferent but equally embarrassing “spots on Republic. PublicAffairs. Oct. 2017. 352p. scription of the job function, the attributes the school tie”: the shenanigans of secret maps. notes. index. ISBN 9781610397216. of successful employees, brief profiles of one clubs and fraternities (e.g., Yale University’s $27; ebk. ISBN 9781610397223. HIST or two professionals, and recommended re- infamous Skull and Bones Club); financial Plenty of people, notes Duncan (creator of sources. The author addresses the difference mismanagement at institutions with enor- the History of Rome podcast), are familiar in roles at start-ups vs. more mature com- mous endowments; and hard-to-categorize with the facts of the end of the Roman Re- panies and concludes with a chapter on the incidents such as the public vendetta waged public, including Julius Caeser’s dictatorship job search process, which highlights the im- against Fox’s Family Guy by the Kent School and the rise of the emperor Augustus. But far portance of networking. VERDICT A valu- headmaster. Although many readers will al- fewer could tell you about the Gaius Mari- able resource for career counselors, business ready be familiar with some of the scandals, us’s consulships, Sulla’s march on Rome, or instructors, and both new and experienced there is much to be learned in these pages. other events that weakened the Republic. professionals aspiring to become “joiners.”— For example, who knew that members of Roughly covering the 130s to the 80s BCE, Alan Farber, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Oxford’s Dangerous Sports Club—which Duncan makes an excellent effort at famil- was later involved in a bizarre “human cat- iarizing readers with those events. He lays Mautz, Scott. Find the Fire: Ignite Your apault”–related death in 2002—were the out a narrative of how external conflicts, Inspiration—and Make Work Exciting inventors of bungee jumping? VERDICT A internal uprisings, political corruption, and Again. AMACOM. Oct. 2017. 240p. illus. compelling collection that shows how trag- even well-intentioned movements toward notes. index. ISBN 9780814438220. edy too often results from hubris, lack of reform eroded the established rules and un- $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780814438237. CAREERS oversight, and the tendency of school ad- written social codes that kept the straining Mautz (CEO, Profound Performance; ministrators to protect their institution’s Republican government together. While Make It Matter) presents a holistic approach reputation at all costs. Recommended for all Duncan refrains from making explicit to battling the soul-crushing feeling of be- types of libraries.—Seth Kershner, Northwestern comparisons to modern events, threaded ing stuck in a bad job. When we fail to find Connecticut Community Coll. Lib., Winsted throughout the book is the reminder that meaning in our jobs or become bored, dis- the issues that provoked Roman unrest— connected, or stuck, we tend to look for HISTORY economic and social inequality, questions of greener pastures only to begin the whole Applebaum, Anne. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on citizenship and legal rights, and the employ- cycle again. What if we were able to iden- Ukraine. Doubleday. Oct. 2017. 496p. illus. ment of intimidation and violence as politi- tify exactly what happened between that notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780385538855. cal tools—parallel issues the United States is day we quivered through our job inter- $35; ebk. ISBN 9780385538862. HIST currently grappling with. VERDICT Award- view to our most recent “case of the Mon- For decades, the extreme famine in 1930s winning podcaster Duncan proves to be days?” Mautz introduces nine forces, or Ukraine was portrayed as no worse than just as effective at working in a written me- “anti-muses,” that drain our inspiration what resulted in Russia from Joseph Sta- dium, presenting historical personalities and (including fear, boredom, loss of control, lin’s policy of agricultural collectivization. complex situations with clarity and verve.— and disconnectedness). Chapter by chap- Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Apple- Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans ter, he presents actionable suggestions and baum (Gulag: A History) places Ukraine in alternatives rooted in a strong bibliogra- pre- and postrevolution historical context Gordon, Linda. The Second Coming of the phy of research. Along with the advice are to show why Stalin was intent on destroy- KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and meaningful anecdotes that run the gamut ing all vestiges of independent Ukrainian the American Political Tradition. Liveright: from Silicon Valley titans to the Clash’s Joe nationality. Government and closed police Norton. Oct. 2017. 288p. illus. notes. Strummer. Folded in with the sound ca- archives prove that Ukrainian peasants were index. ISBN 9781631493690. $27.95; reer advice is a good amount of humor and especially targeted for starvation as requi- ebk. ISBN 9781631493706. HIST encouragement. No overly simple trade- sitions of grain demanded by Moscow far Between 1915 and 1926, the second Ku marked solutions are presented, but rather outstripped supply. At the same time, edu- Klux Klan (KKK) attracted millions of a perspective-changing series of advice and cators, cultural, and religious leaders were members with many more sympathetic to exercises. VERDICT Readers feeling stuck at murdered. The exact number of those who their views and goals. Exploding from the work will find at least one technique here died as a result of famine and purges during Klan’s original stronghold of the Ameri- to rekindle their passion.—Jennifer Clifton, this time will never be known, but a strong can South, another group flourished in the Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis case is made that proportionally, Ukraine North, where members were elected and was devastated more than other areas of the held sway at all levels of government, in- Vanity Fair’s Schools for Scandal: Soviet Union. Oral histories and memoirs of cluding governors’ mansions, state repre- The Inside Dramas at 16 of America’s Most victims suppressed under the Soviet regime sentatives, and Congress. Historian Gordon

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