Chevy Chase author Jay Winik tackles The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788–1800. The book looks at our nation’s early years alongside the turmoil within the era’s other major powers, Russia and France. Winik’s last book was April 1865: The Month That Saved America.
Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age by DC’s Matthew Brzezinski is a lively retelling of the international political and technological tensions of the 1950s.
Michael J. Neufeld, a National Air and Space Museum historian, looks at Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, a biography of Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi who helped develop the US space program.
US senator Christopher Dodd has compiled letters from his father, Thomas Dodd—who also became a senator—to his mother while he was helping to prosecute Nazi war criminals. The book, full of personal and historical details, is Letters From Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. Chapters by the younger Dodd, with coauthor Lary Bloom, provide context and perspective.
New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin looks at the nation’s high court under Chief Justices William Rehnquist and John Roberts in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. It covers controversial nominations, including that of Harriet Miers, and has a chapter on the 2006–07 term.
Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter’s new thriller, The 47th Samurai, is out this month. It marks the return of his sometime hero Bob Lee Swagger. The recent movie Shooter, based on Hunter’s Point of Impact, starred Mark Wahlberg as Swagger.
Attorney Ron Liebman, a partner at Patton Boggs, has written two nonfiction books about the law, Shark Tales and Grand Jury. Now he turns to fiction with Death by Rodrigo, a funny and fast-moving legal thriller.
This piece originally appeared in the September 2007 edition of the magazine.
Bill O’Sullivan is senior managing editor; from 1999 to 2007, he was a features editor. In another lifetime, he was assistant managing editor. Somewhere in the middle, he was managing editor of Common Boundary magazine and senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity. His personal essays have been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays. He teaches at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda.
Good Books: Samurai, Sputnik, and Supreme Court
History and thrillers by local authors are big in September.
Chevy Chase author Jay Winik tackles The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788–1800. The book looks at our nation’s early years alongside the turmoil within the era’s other major powers, Russia and France. Winik’s last book was April 1865: The Month That Saved America.
Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age by DC’s Matthew Brzezinski is a lively retelling of the international political and technological tensions of the 1950s.
Michael J. Neufeld, a National Air and Space Museum historian, looks at Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, a biography of Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi who helped develop the US space program.
US senator Christopher Dodd has compiled letters from his father, Thomas Dodd—who also became a senator—to his mother while he was helping to prosecute Nazi war criminals. The book, full of personal and historical details, is Letters From Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. Chapters by the younger Dodd, with coauthor Lary Bloom, provide context and perspective.
New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin looks at the nation’s high court under Chief Justices William Rehnquist and John Roberts in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. It covers controversial nominations, including that of Harriet Miers, and has a chapter on the 2006–07 term.
Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter’s new thriller, The 47th Samurai, is out this month. It marks the return of his sometime hero Bob Lee Swagger. The recent movie Shooter, based on Hunter’s Point of Impact, starred Mark Wahlberg as Swagger.
Attorney Ron Liebman, a partner at Patton Boggs, has written two nonfiction books about the law, Shark Tales and Grand Jury. Now he turns to fiction with Death by Rodrigo, a funny and fast-moving legal thriller.
This piece originally appeared in the September 2007 edition of the magazine.
Bill O’Sullivan is senior managing editor; from 1999 to 2007, he was a features editor. In another lifetime, he was assistant managing editor. Somewhere in the middle, he was managing editor of Common Boundary magazine and senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity. His personal essays have been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays. He teaches at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda.
Most Popular in News & Politics
Yet Another Anti-Trump Statue Has Shown Up on the National Mall
What to Know About the Dupont Circle “Deckover” Project
Every Bus Line in DC Is Changing This Weekend. Here’s What to Know.
8 Takeaways From Usha Vance’s Interview With Meghan McCain
Bans on Underage Vaping, Swastika Graffiti, Synthetic Dyes: New Virginia Laws Go Into Effect in July
Washingtonian Magazine
July Issue: The "Best Of" Issue
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
How Would a New DC Stadium Compare to the Last One?
The Culture of Lacrosse Is More Complex Than People Think
Did Television Begin in Dupont Circle?
Kings Dominion’s Wild New Coaster Takes Flight in Virginia
More from News & Politics
How DC’s Attorney General Got So Good at Double Dutch
DC Council Ponders New Way to Expel Trayon White, the GOP’s Budget Bill Advances, and We Found You Some Tacos With Ethiopian Flair
For DNC Chair Ken Martin, the Big Beautiful Bill Is Personal
Every Bus Line in DC Is Changing This Weekend. Here’s What to Know.
We’re Still Litigating “Obliterated,” Apparently; Man Deported After Kicking Dog at Dulles; and “Big Balls” Is Back on the Job
Did Busy Pizza Shops Really Predict US Airstrikes on Iran?
Yet Another Anti-Trump Statue Has Shown Up on the National Mall
8 Takeaways From Usha Vance’s Interview With Meghan McCain