perspective that has ever since characterized also boosted the Age of Discovery that ONLINE ALERT! Yo u ’ l l fi n d I l e n e C o o - modernity. Readers see how Kepler, Gali- linked not just a continent but the entire per’s review of Jon Meacham’s Destiny leo, and Newton probe nature with new inhabited planet. In addition to sketching mathematical and empirical methodologies; an earthshaking accomplishment to balance and Power: The American Odyssey Descartes and Spinoza unfold bold concep- a character’s darker side, Garten dwells on of George Herbert Walker Bush on tual systems premised on the autonomy of leadership traits common to his gallery. All Booklist Online. This in-demand political human reason; Hugo Grotius ushers in an were prepared to capitalize on history’s fow; biography was our Review of the Day on unprecedented system of international law; they did so by believing in a single idea, mas- November 13. and Hobbes and Locke lay down political tering its details, and, applying it on a large doctrines displacing belief in the divine right scale once they had power. Robert Clive’s Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians of kings. Of particular interest to many will conquests accelerated the British Empire and the Making of America. be a revolt against Aristotelean dogma that toward global status. Mayer Rothschild prac- By Michael A. McDonnell. incubates both solid science and wild magic. tically invented international banking. Cyrus Dec. 2015. 416p. Farrar/Hill & Wang, $28 Lucid and concise, the narrative transports Field sponsored the frst transoceanic tele- (9780809029532). 977.4. readers to the pivotal historical episodes when graph. John D. Rockefeller built, rapaciously, McDonnell, an Australian history profes- the cultural world we now inhabit begins to the prototypical international corporation. sor who specializes in American history, here emerge, emancipating the individual and Garten’s twentieth-century fgures, excepting focuses on a lesser-known Great Lakes tribe, secularizing and democratizing society. Some Intel’s Andrew Grove, are political people the Anishinaabeg, who, in the seventeenth and readers will discern deep and unresolved who made important impacts on interna- eighteenth centuries, were settled at Michili- problems in the developments Grayling hails tional economics: Jean Monnet, Margaret mackinac, on the straits between Lake Michigan as progress. But this chronicle marvelously il- Tatcher, and Deng Xiaoping. Lives being and Lake Huron. McDonnell’s thesis is that this luminates the forces that launched the entire more interesting than ledgers, Garten’s sub- tribe, and its Odawa band in particular, played planet on that new trajectory four centuries jects will engage readers with globalization’s a major role in the fur trade, intertribal politics, ago. —Bryce Christensen force and controversies. —Gilbert Taylor and wars between the French and English—a role overlooked in previous histories of the re- Dead Presidents: An American Adventure The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo gion. By the 1730s, the Odawa commanded a into the Strange Deaths and Surprising and Juliet, the True Story of How “sprawling domain,” accomplished, he says, not Afterlives of our Nation’s Leaders. They Defied Their Families and Escaped only because of their strategic position on the By Brady Carlson. an Honor Killing. trade routes but also because they were able to Feb. 2016. 304p. illus. Norton, $26.95 (9780393243932). By Rod Nordland. keep peace between themselves and neighbor- 973. Jan. 2016. 336p. Ecco, $26.99 (9780062378828); e-book ing tribes by means of widely spread kinship When it comes to fnal wishes, even presi- (9780062378842). 958.104. ties. In addition, they realized the importance dents don’t always get their way. Take George Nordland, an international correspondent of playing the French and English against one Washington, who wanted a private funeral for the New York Times, chronicles the per- another in the Anglo-Indian Wars—a strategy held at Mount Vernon, but cities across the ilous plight of two star-crossed lovers in that enabled them to hold on to their territory, country also held mock funerals of their own. Afghanistan. Growing up however briefy, after the Treaty of 1783. Me- Te frst president was not alone in having on neighboring farms in ticulously researched, McDonnell’s scholarly his wishes ignored, as NPR reporter Carlson the Bamiyan Valley, Zakia yet compelling history will be a valuable addi- notes in this thoroughly enjoyable account and Ali fell in love as teens. tion to American history and Native American of presidential gravesites and memorials. Ali asked Zakia’s father, Za- collections. —Deborah Donovan From unusual deaths to unique monuments man, for Zakia’s hand in to lingering questions about causes of death marriage, but because they Republic of Spin: An Inside History of (Did William Henry Harrison really die of a were from diferent tribes, the American Presidency. cold?), our nation’s presidents made some of Zaman refused. Tis set the By David Greenberg. their most peculiar contributions to history lovers on a course that would force them to Jan. 2016. 640p. illus. Norton, $35 (9780393067064). after their terms on earth expired. With both fee their families in order to marry. Ali’s fam- 973.09. the reverence of a pilgrim and the impudence ily eventually came around, and Ali’s father, Suspicious of political spin, the intentional of a comedian, Carlson tours the presidents’ Anwar, became the couple’s greatest ally. But efort to shape the public’s impression of homes and graves, demonstrating in the pro- Zakia’s family remained staunchly opposed candidates and policies? Worries about what cess how the manner in which we remember to the union, going so far as to give up their was formerly euphemized as “publicity,” these men reveals as much about us as it livelihood to pursue the couple throughout “public relations,” and “communications” does about them—for however much they Afghanistan. After writing stories about the are nothing new, as this fascinating his- accomplished in life, the presidents are also couple, Nordland found himself in the dif- tory of presidential spin reveals. Starting remarkable for the legacy they pass on after fcult position of having to choose between with William McKinley, Greenberg paral- passing away. —Bridget Toreson helping them and maintaining his journal- lels the techniques devised by spin doctors istic neutrality. But with Zakia’s very life with intellectuals’ critiques of their meth- From Silk to Silicon: The Story of in danger—he cites numerous examples of ods. Pivoting on a key question—Does spin Globalization through Ten Extraordinary young women who have eloped and been work?—Greenberg describes the variable Lives. returned to their families, only to never be fortunes of presidents since McKinley to By Jeffrey E. Garten. seen again—the author fnds himself going produce favorable news. Teodore Roo- Mar. 2016. 464p. illus. Harper, $29.99 (9780062409973). to great lengths to help the pair. Nordland sevelt set an example of how a president 909. ofers a stark, eye-opening look at the deplor- could infuence public opinion, while Wil- Biography is author Garten’s platform for able state of women’s rights in Afghanistan son illustrated spin’s limits when he failed this history of economic globalization. Gar- through the travails of a brave, determined to build popular support for the League of ten argues that Genghis Khan, a pillager, to young couple. —Kristine Huntley Nations. As he recounts each president’s be sure, left a positive legacy of trade con- YA/M: Teens will be drawn to this adoption of an innovation, such as Coolidge nections, the Silk Road, between Asia and important, accessible read by the lengths to and radio, FDR and pollsters, Eisenhower Europe. Portugal’s Henry the Navigator, which the young lovers went in order to be and television, Greenberg wryly notes that who helped initiate the African slave trade, together. KH. critics’ fears of a public manipulated and www.booklistonline.com December 15, 2015 Booklist 17