Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
Best Books of 2017 – History! The year 2017 was of course the anniversary of two enormous historical events: Martin Luther’s sparking of what would become the Protestant Revolution and the Russian revolutions of 1917 – and a bumper-crop of books dutifully appeared on both subjects, and quite a few of those books were excellent […]
Read MoreVeteran military historian Victor Davis Hanson writes a broad-scale history of the Second World War.
Read MoreFormer newscaster and sports commentator Keith Olbermann is a new star of YouTube for his strident opposition to President Trump; his new book provides the transcript.
Read MoreA sprawling new history of Iran from the 16th century to the present brings the multi-faceted story of Persia alive.
Read MoreA big, lively new history assesses the troubled life and blighted nature of Bolshevism.
Read MoreThe grand, global history of Communism's century-long reign of terror is the subject of A. James McAdams' authoritative new book.
Read MoreFormer finance minister for Greece Yanis Varoufakis has written a book about his time on the world stage during his country's financial crisis.
Read MoreIn addition to the pageantry, marital eccentricities, and political fireworks, the Tudors were also industrious religious persecutors. As "A Year with the Tudors" continues, a vivid new book tells the stories of the martyrs burned by Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I.
Read MoreTwo thousand years ago, the Roman historian Suetonius wrote about the lives and loves of the founding rulers of the Roman Empire. Historian Tom Holland takes up the familiar story in his new book Dynasty.
Read MoreIn time for the hundred-year anniversary of the Ottoman killing of over a million Armenians, a gripping new history tells the whole story of the tragedy
Read MoreFor more than a thousand years, the sprawling area of the Baltic has played host to history, art, and fitful commerce - a new history tells the story.
Read MoreIn 1939 the Nazis established their only concentration camp specifically for women; a comprehensive new book tells the history of Ravensbruck
Read MoreThe rebel pharaoh who instituted a radical new monotheism gets a highly-detailed and revisionist investigation
Read MoreA nimble and tremendously engaging history of the Middle Ages finally gets translated into English
Read MoreIt's well known that Hitler looked to Mussolini's success in Italy as a model for his own fascism, but a fascinating new book details the lesser-known fact that Hitler had another model as well - an earlier and more exotic one.
Read MoreFifty years ago, the author of "From Here to Eternity" wrote a vivid, impressionistic account of the Second World War, and that fascinating book now enjoys a new edition
Read MoreTwenty-five years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and the structure of European politics changed literally overnight. A fantastic new book dissects a turning point in modern history
Read MoreAn engrossing new history takes readers past the modern Disney version of Venice
Read MoreIn the wake of Alexander the Great's death, many voracious sub-kingdoms sprang up along the routes of his famous conquests. One of these would go on to become the Seleucid Empire, and a new book details its first century of existence
Read MoreA sweeping new history looks back half a century to the only wartime use of atomic weapons
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.