That Girl
Rick Perlstein : History
Was Patty Hearst really a rebel in search of a cause?
Ange Mlinko : Poetry
The intimate friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson takes wing in two new books.
Scott Sherman
Biographer Patrick French offers a vivid, sometimes enthralling portrait of a deeply enigmatic writer.
Noah Isenberg : Philosophy
Following the quirky, revolutionary life path of one of the most celebrated twentieth-century intellectuals.
Paula Findlen : Non-Fiction
Ingrid Rowland's Giordano Bruno rediscovers the Renaissance philosopher and heretic.
Bernard Avishai : Middle East
An authoritative new biography of Jordan's King Hussein offers an absorbing diplomatic history of the Middle East.
Brenda Wineapple : Books, Literature, & Ideas
In Henry James and his family, biographers find a fascinating story of dynastic melodrama.
Anson Rabinbach : Foreign Leaders & Political Figures
The biography of Joschka Fischer tells the story of postwar Germany.
Nona Willis Aronowitz : Feminism & Women
They just don't make women politicians like Bella Abzug anymore.
Nureyev: The Life brings new focus to an iconic figure of modern ballet.
Ben Ratliff's not-quite biography of John Coltrane considers the jazz legend's enduring influence.
Reconsidering the life and legacy of avant-garde artist and poet Francis Picabia.
Martin Duberman's biography of Lincoln Kirstein is a case study of the relationship between art and power.
A biography of Gertrude Bell investigates the woman who created Iraq out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.
A new biography describes how Edith Wharton transformed her obsessions into stories of loss, regret and entrapment.
Michael Anderson : African-Americans
Ralph Ellison was eager to be counted in any political cause--except those surrounding race.
The most durable piece of Nazi propaganda may yet turn out to be the belief that Leni Riefenstahl is an artistic genius.
Madison Smartt Bell's new biography of Toussaint Louverture explores the complexities of the man who created modern Haiti.
New biographies of Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon depict the two primeval capitalists in all their contradictory complexity.
Perry Anderson : United Nations
Two books about Kofi Annan illuminate the controlling relationship between the US and the United Nations.
Christian Parenti : Journalists & Journalism
A biography of Bernard Fall examines the life of the man who laid the foundations for contemporary war reporting.
The Friendship describes how Wordsworth and Coleridge's fiercely uneven relationship affected their lives and work.
Vivian Gornick : Judaism & Jews
Isaac B. Singer: A Life fails to fully illustrate the complexity of the writer's struggle with his heritage.
A new biography of William James portrays a man who made a brilliant career of asking tough questions.
Stefan Collini : Public Figures & Intellectuals
William Empson's writing shaped modern criticism. A new biography restores him to his proper eminence.