![]() The prose of the review is a little unclear. ![]() The first sentence (in brief writing, the vital hook) is that Brands has failed because he did not take up the proper topic. It opens, for example, "The author's return to the 'great man' school of history is somewhat problematic, since those presumed great men of American history are mostly white and seldom women." The small unsigned notice is, in its way, a perfect specimen of the problem the American literary world suffers. Or so, at least, one could assume from the prepublication notice of Brands's Heirs of the Founders that appeared in Kirkus Reviews-as mainstream a venue as exists for news about impending books. Now, the demand is that only those voices be heard. Once upon a time, the demand was that our accounts of history be opened to include obscured or oppressed voices. Too little determined to make a tale of yesterday useful for the cultural battles of today. ![]() well, what, exactly? Too little involved in the topics that should matter. ![]() ![]() And it's not for anything he's done, exactly. What might be most interesting about the news, however, is the fact that the book-reviewing world seems to be slowly turning against Brands, straining to find a way to express a discomfort with his popular writing. ![]()
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