From Communist reeducation camps to manipulative media algorithms, mind control is a real and often remarkably effective tool, contends historian Lemov (World as Laboratory) in this trenchant study. She traces the start of modern brainwashing to North Korean and Chinese prison camps during the Korean War, where American POWs endured brutal treatment followed by “struggle” sessions where they were forced to listen to lectures on Maoist theory and criticize American capitalism. Those who parroted the dogma got better treatment, and sometimes ended up believing it enough to defect. This one-two punch of physical trauma and disorientation followed by indoctrination formed a template, Lemov contends, for mind-control techniques in everything from U.S. military survival courses to the recruitment programs of religious cults. From there, Lemov charts a sea change to a subtler, 21st-century style of digital thought control in social media algorithms that instill positive or negative emotions in users by tweaking their feeds. Perhaps most intriguingly, Lemov’s deeply researched exploration reveals how the persuasive power wielded by charismatic figures can answer, in a warped way, a person’s yearning for self-reinvention and meaning (members of the Manson Family radiated “self-confidence and dynamism,” Lemov writes; “They felt they belonged somewhere, and this should never be underestimated as the dangerous heart of what brainwashing is”). The result is a provocative and illuminating look at how powerful ideas can overwhelm one’s better instincts. Photos. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Psychotherapist Silverman (The Missing Element) shares in this lucid guide how astrology can help readers embrace their true nature. Framing the 12 astrological signs as “keyholes” through which readers can understand their psychology, she methodically unpacks the unique strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and goals of each sign. For example, she recommends that headstrong Aries should channel their energy into productive causes rather than falling victim to stubbornness. Libras, meanwhile, can harness their creative, idealistic nature to make the world a better place, but should avoid placing unreasonable expectations on friends and partners. Silverman makes logical points about how viewing one’s traits as cosmically determined can help readers to understand them more neutrally (“It’s a relief to know your challenges are happening for a reason, and... that you’re not to blame”), while her therapeutic know-how provides, for the most part, a credible backbone to her astrological musings. (The exception is a short, abstract final chapter on the “thirteenth astrological sign,” which lies beyond the ego and can only be accessed when “you surrender, close your eyes, and listen with your heart.”) Still, advanced astrologers and beginners alike will find value here. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

The practice of segregating sports by sex is rooted in patriarchal values, not scientific fact, according to this forceful polemic from Bekker, a professor of health at the University of Bath, and philosopher Mumford (Absence and Nothing). Suggesting that performance gaps between men and women stem more from “cultural determinants” (women receive “less food, poorer nutrition and less physical activity” than men, according to some studies) than innate biological differences, the authors contend that the tradition of separating competitors by gender is rooted in societal notions of women’s inherent need for protection. History shows a pattern of women being cast aside when their abilities came too close to men’s, the authors note, pointing out that pitcher Jackie Mitchell had her professional baseball contract rescinded days after she struck out Babe Ruth in 1931. The authors call for a total rethinking of athletic competition through the centering of such values as compassion, inclusion, and collaboration, though aside from their primary goal of ending sex segregation, what such values might look like in practice is not entirely clear. Still, they construct an articulate and convincing case that the segregation of women’s sports functions less as a benefit to women than a means of propping up patriarchal systems. It’s a trenchant, provocative take on a hot-button issue. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

After the Allies’ defeat of the Afrika Corp in May 1943, “there was nowhere else to put the Germans but in America,” writes journalist Geroux (The Ghost Ships of Archangel) in this exhilarating history. Over a hundred thousand Germans were interned in newly built American camps, but camp authorities didn’t attempt to separate Nazi from anti-Nazi soldiers, or to de-Nazify true believers (in fact, camp commanders were prone to rewarding the Nazi POWs over the anti-Nazi ones because they appreciated the Nazis’ obedience and efficiency). In addition, U.S. military officials underestimated Gestapo infiltration, which was so extensive that POWs’ expression of anti-Nazi views would lead to persecution of their families back home. Eventually, a string of murders of anti-Nazi POWs led the U.S. to take the threat seriously (including by instituting a de-Nazification program spearheaded by Eleanor Roosevelt). The murderers were caught, tried, and executed, prompting accusations of Geneva Convention violations from German diplomats (the accused had been taken on “wild, blindfolded rides” and made to wear “onion-filled gas masks,” Geroux writes). The State Department refused a prisoner exchange; in retribution, the Nazis sentenced 15 American POWs to death. Reversing course, the U.S. tried to negotiate an exchange after all, and Geroux’s already impressively multipronged narrative pivots with alacrity to describing the torture the condemned American POWs endured before their nick-of-time rescue by the Red Army. It’s a riveting, whirlwind look at a little-known episode of WWII. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Nourishing Amy blogger Lanza debuts with a poorly organized assortment of basic vegan recipes. The collection is divided into two sections of 40 recipes each: part one, “Healthy Brain,” focuses on foods that Lanza claims support cognitive function via “high levels of antioxidants, B vitamins, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids”; part two, “Happy Mind,” features ingredients shown to support ”good gut bacteria” and improve one’s mood. Both sections are further split into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Lanza doesn’t spend much time on the science behind either diet, and the plentiful overlap between them makes the division feel arbitrary. Chia seeds star in both “brain food granola” and “mood-boosting” Neapolitan chia pudding, for example, breakfast recipes separated by almost 100 pages. Cocoa powder, which has been “shown to improve memory and mood,” is included in a dark chocolate truffle recipe in the first section, while dark chocolate, a “natural mood booster,” is added to a mushrooms and lentil chili in the second section. However, the recipes themselves are accessible and nutritious, with curries, salads, and protein bowls in abundance. Vegan cooks looking to expand their repertoires may find some value in Lanza’s approach, but the awkward structure limits the usefulness of this ho-hum volume. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

The 1664 deal that transferred power from the Dutch to the English in what is now New York City was an inventive act that would be foundational to the metropolis to come, according to historian Shorto’s revelatory sequel to The Island at the Center of the World. When Richard Nicolls, the Englishman tasked with capturing New Amsterdam, came up against Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of the Dutch enclave, the two men astonishingly disobeyed orders from their respective empires to fight and instead negotiated peacefully. Long considered merely a sign of Dutch decline, Shorto sees more to the story of the handover: the contrarian Nicolls and the abrasive Stuyvesant were not only the right men at the right time—both constitutionally suited to ignore authority—but also a kind of new man brought into being by the very empires that had molded them. Agents of imperial capitalism, they were more interested in business than war: the deal preserved and expanded the unique system of free enterprise that had been brewing on the tiny island, with unprecedented freedom of religion and property guaranteed by Nicolls for residents of the already famously business-friendly and pluralistic city. (The earlier Dutch theft of Manhattan from the Wampanoag, Shorto suggests, also presaged another uniquely American form of dealmaking—the scam.) Shorto’s storytelling is wry and accomplished, transforming a campaign of letter-writing and procedural legerdemain into a brisk and amusing saga. Readers will be wowed. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rock ’n’ roll has been transformed from the wild music of youth into a genre dominated by elder statesmen who traffick in nostalgia, according to this fine-grained history. Music journalist Hepworth (Never a Dull Moment) traces the start of rock’s “third act” to the 1985 Live Aid concert held at London’s Wembley stadium, where such bands as Queen drew a massive transatlantic TV audience, whetting appetites for “large spectacle” concerts that allowed fans to feel they were part of “something bigger.” That set the stage for a wave of older rockers (including the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney) to embark on seemingly endless world tours, capitalizing on nostalgia to make money off rereleases and cement their legacies in the newly established Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The author skillfully breaks down how such changes have turned rock into “the very thing it was supposed to be an alternative to,” as aging musicians try to fulfill a desire for something that’s beyond music—“a sense of connection that was established at a young age” for older fans, and for younger ones a window into a mythical scene that “they couldn’t help but feel they’d missed out on.” The result is a revealing and richly detailed look at rock’s ongoing evolution. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Fat Black Femme Podcast host Higgins debuts with an earnest account of how they came to embrace their identity as a “Black, fat, queer, feminine, nonbinary man.” Narrating their story through sketches of the celebrities who influenced them, Higgins recalls learning from singer Luther Vandross’s interviews how to “duck and dodge” questions about their own sexuality during their uneasy childhood in 1990s California. As a teenager in a repressed and religious household, Higgins found a queer, fat, and Black role model in America’s Next Top Model judge André Leon Talley; later, as an adult who’d come out but was contending with the queer world’s “subtle messages—both online and off—that not just my race but my size was an issue,” Higgins admired the unapologetic confidence of fat Black queens like Latrice Royale of RuPaul’s Drag Race. While Higgins’s prose is clunky in places and their takeaways tend toward the trite (“We are not who people say we are but who we want to be”), they offer an emotionally honest discussion of the challenges of straddling diverse and sometimes competing identities. Higgins’s fans will be inspired. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Community organizer Bracy debuts with a bracing takedown of the venture capital financing model. The pressure VC places on startups to scale “at breakneck pace” drives businesses to make reckless decisions, she contends, describing how investors tanked the once profitable LocalData, which created software to help municipal governments streamline property tax information, by pushing it to expand into offerings for the real estate sector that never caught on. Exploring how other businesses bend the law in pursuit of growth, Bracy details how Shef, which delivers food prepared by amateur cooks to customers’ homes, tests the boundaries of regulations requiring salable food be cooked in commercial-grade kitchens. Elsewhere, Bracy excoriates such VC-backed companies as Uber for ushering in a gig economy that classifies would-be employees as contractors to lower costs. Bracy’s evenhanded analysis makes clear that for all VC’s failings, it has sometimes provided needed funds for such valuable companies as the insulin manufacturer Genentech, and she provides pragmatic suggestions for remedying VC’s worst excesses. For instance, she recommends requiring investors to hold their stakes in companies for longer than the standard 10 years, incentivizing them to focus on a business’s long-term viability over unsustainable short-term gains. It’s a convincing call for change. Agent: Leila Campoli, Stonesong. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

These whimsical meditations from essayist Greene (The Museum of Whales You Will Never See) reflect on the peculiarities of everyday life. One entry recounts the time Green was walking on a perilously steep road in an unnamed town and encountered a man holding a mysterious package who called himself the devil. Another describes how she met a “sorcerer” while traveling, then takes a meta turn as Greene reflects on her literary use of the figure (later revealed to be a museum director with a penchant for fantastical stories) as a metaphor open to readers’ interpretation. Greene’s illustrations, many styled after those of 19th-century naturalists, enrich the essays. For instance, the humorous “Ted Cruz Is a Sentient Bag of Wasps” skewers the Texas senator for changing his stances with the frequency of the insects’ weeks-long life cycle, and marginal line drawings of wasps multiply on each page as the discussion of Cruz’s hypocrisy becomes increasingly damning. Greene has a knack for evocative descriptions—as when she suggests her sister’s basset hound–shar-pei mix is “built like... a claw-foot tub”—and her deliberate withholding of identifying details about the places and people that populate her essays lends them a fablelike quality reminiscent of Kafka and Borges. Every bit as strange and wonderful as the title promises, this delights. Illus. Agent: Duvall Osteen, UTA. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/17/2025 | Details & Permalink