Editors’ Picks for May 2026

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice

Posted on May 19, 2026 in Editors' Picks

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It is, quite simply, a landmark volume.

—P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

The Routledge companion to gender and crime, ed. by Francesca Spina. Routledge, 2025 (c2026). 442p index ISBN 9781032685267, $325.00; ISBN 9781032691176 ebook, $68.99.

The difficult task of editing this lengthy and important collection has been very capably undertaken by Spina (Westfield State Univ.). Following her introduction, the handbook’s 38 chapters are divided into four parts: “Theories and Patterns of Offending,” “Gender and Victimization,” “Gendered Experiences and Challenges within the Criminal Justice System,” and “Contemporary Issues and Future Directions in Gender and Crime.” Much of the handbook’s overall value lies in how, by comprehensively addressing issues of gender and power inequalities, it combines internationalism with intersectionality. Its internationalism is displayed in chapters on Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania, and South America, written by scholars from those regions. Its intersectionality highlights how factors such as race, class, and sexuality (including those facing non-binary and transgender individuals) affect people’s realities and identities in the criminal justice system. The handbook is especially attentive to both the variety of relevant theoretical perspectives and to underresearched issues, such as the criminalization of girls, child marriage in Ghana, and pregnancy before and after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). It is, quite simply, a landmark volume. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

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Although focused on a single city, Planning White Supremacy could be quite useful at any level in an urban studies, urban planning, or Black studies program.

—J. F. Bauman, emeritus, California University of Pennsylvania

Retzlaff, Rebecca. Planning white supremacy: civil rights and city planning in Montgomery, Alabama, 1920–1970. Alabama, 2025 (c2026). 346p bibl index ISBN 9780817322540, $110.00; ISBN 9780817362348 pbk, $39.95; ISBN 9780817395834 ebook, $39.95.

Thoroughly researched, richly detailed, and lucidly written, Retzlaff’s groundbreaking volume reveals that urban planning and white supremacy deeply intersected in Montgomery, AL, a city celebrated as the “Birthplace of the Civil Rights.” Retzlaff (urban planning, Auburn Univ.), who has written numerous journal articles on planning and public policy, methodically documents how officials in this historically important southern city pursued multiple urban planning goals, including economic and industrial growth, while making white supremacy and urban segregation their central objectives. As the 112 pages of notes and bibliography in Ratzleff’s book attests, a host of scholarly books explore race in the city; among them, Ronald H. Bayor’s excellent Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta (CH, Oct’96, 34-1122) emphasizes Atlanta’s social and economic repression and systemic segregation of its African American population and the resulting neighborhood deterioration. However, given its context, his study lacks the Black activism and organized resistance found in Montgomery. Although focused on a single city, Planning White Supremacy could be quite useful at any level in an urban studies, urban planning, or Black studies program. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —J. F. Bauman, emeritus, California University of Pennsylvania

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Her analysis of the problem is thorough and well documented, including over 40 pages of notes and citations. Extremely well written.

—R. E. O’Connor, National Science Foundation

Manring, Nancy. A world of wounds: rebuilding a bipartisan environmental movement and cultivating authentic hope. Stanford, 2025. 288p bibl index ISBN 9781503643659, $110.00; ISBN 9781503644403 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9781503644410 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Manring (Ohio Univ.) has written an accurate and inspirational account of how “conservatives have been waging a decades-long systematic assault on the environmental movement, environmentalists, and the science that undergirds the environmental movement” (p. 7). Her book is not a histrionic screed from an irrational ideologue, but instead a careful account of the successful attacks on environmental science. She delineates the widespread distress arising from environmental damage that seems global and irreversible, indeed a “world of wounds” for many. Manring then suggests strategies for building a bipartisan environmental movement. The need for a bipartisan environmental movement is obvious, though her plans for building it are not well developed. Still, the book can serve as a basis for serious discussions that can take readers beyond despair. While maintaining the highest standards of scholarship, this original and important work is likely to evoke strong feelings in readers. Her analysis of the problem is thorough and well documented, including over 40 pages of notes and citations. Extremely well written. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —R. E. O’Connor, National Science Foundation

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This is splendid material, rigorously argued and presented in a clear, lively manner.

—W. P. Haggerty, formerly, Gannon University

Moschella, Melissa. Ethics, politics, and natural law: principles for human flourishing. Notre Dame, 2025. 216p bibl index ISBN 9780268209261, $40.00; ISBN 9780268209292 ebook, $31.99.

Moschella (philosophy, Univ. of Notre Dame) provides a helpful summary of the “new natural law,” a position developed in the last century by several philosophers seeking to revise the traditional view of natural law, originating from Thomas Aquinas. Moschella begins with an inventory of the “basic human goods” that comprise the elements of “human flourishing” and thus supply the reasons for all action. In order to ensure an ethically fruitful participation in these goods, she next identifies particular “intermediate moral norms” that guide human conduct (e.g., the Golden Rule). The second half of her work analyzes the various dimensions of community.  Moschella concentrates here on subpolitical associations, such as friendship, marriage, and family, that subsist within the greater political whole. Though she does not neglect the value of political life, Moschella sees political authority as essentially “limited and subsidiary,” restricted in the main to helping citizens and subpolitical associations achieve their goals. This is splendid material, rigorously argued and presented in a clear, lively manner. While traditional Thomists have shown little interest in the “new natural law,” this engaging study might persuade them to take a closer look. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —W. P. Haggerty, formerly, Gannon University

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Supplemented with numerous pictures and illustrations and written in an engaging style, this work is excellent for scholars or students interested in Eisenhower.

—R. V. Labaree, University of Southern California

Teasley, Martin Mack. The real Ike: Eisenhower fact and fiction. University Press of Kansas, 2025. 288p bibl index ISBN 9780700641345, $44.99; ISBN 9780700640690 pbk, $24.99; ISBN 9780700640706 ebook, $14.99.

Researched and written by Teasley, the former deputy director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum, this book offers unique insights into the life of the 34th president. Chapters interpret a wide variety of the “most common” questions the author has received. Topics covered range from the obscure (e.g., inquiries about unidentified flying objects and Eisenhower’s writing skills) to the personal (e.g., his rumored African American ancestry, his alleged affair with Kay Summersby) to significant policy issues (e.g., his view on nuclear weapons and his initiation of the “Operation Wetback” mass deportation initiative). In each chapter, Teasley weighs the evidence and offers an opinion on whether the issue is accurate, sometimes noting that a definitive answer is elusive. Though these topics will likely continue to be studied by historians, The Real Ike provides an intimate perspective that advances discussions by attending to both incomplete and perplexing understandings of Eisenhower’s personal and political life. The author made good use of the primary documents held in the Eisenhower Presidential Library to paint an intimate portrait of Eisenhower. Supplemented with numerous pictures and illustrations and written in an engaging style, this work is excellent for scholars or students interested in Eisenhower. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —R. V. Labaree, University of Southern California

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The underlying strength of her work is the impact of a changing political landscape: from the Cold War to transitions to renewed great power engagement, which constrains IRFA policymaking.

—G. Donato, Northern New Mexico College

Hand, Ashlyn W. Prioritizing faith: international religious freedom and U.S. foreign policy. New York University, 2025. 257p bibl index ISBN 9781479838691, $39.00; ISBN 9781479838721 ebook, $39.00.

Initially, Prioritizing Faith focuses on the impetus and passage of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. Though seemingly a straightforward historical-analytical study of executive-legislative relations over a controversial piece of legislation, the study quickly turns into a multilayered, cross-presidential, comparative-country study of the nexus among cultural-religious politics, foreign policy, and national security. Hand (Southern Methodist Univ.) time-bounds across the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies—an 18-year focus—and selectively studies China (communist, multireligious), Vietnam (communist, transitional, multireligious), and Saudi Arabia (staunchly theocratic). She adeptly explores the US’s purported secular responsibilities with its sacred commitments, asking if IRFA is overtly pro-Christian, pro-American, or possibly millenarian. Hand’s emphasis is that “presidential actions matter,” focusing on “[implementation] efforts through a geo-political lens.” The underlying strength of her work is the impact of a changing political landscape: from the Cold War to transitions to renewed great power engagement, which constrains IRFA policymaking. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —G. Donato, Northern New Mexico College

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The volume works well both as an introduction for non-specialists and as a backgrounder for German history courses.

—R. Spickermann, University of Texas – Permian Basin

Richardson-Little, Ned. The German Democratic Republic: the rise and fall of a Cold War state. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 272p index ISBN 9781350341524, $68.00; ISBN 9781350341517 pbk, $22.95; ISBN 9781350341548 ebook, contact publisher for price.

General histories of the GDR are more common now, with each reflecting an ever-greater body of research. Initial research portraying it only as a top-down Communist totalitarian society has given way to research on social structures and how the GDR actually functioned at local levels. To balance the GDR’s high politics, its everyday life, the intermediary zones where the two mixed, and the state’s economic history is daunting, and to do so in an introductory volume for non-specialists is especially so. Richardson-Little (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam, Germany) does so with a non-chronological approach, dividing his subject into four concise but remarkably thorough chapters on political structures, societal history (including how dissident movements could carve out niches for themselves), international and economic relations (with West Germany, the Soviet bloc, and the “Third World”), and a final chapter showing how all of these trends culminated in the gradual societal stagnation and demise of the GDR starting in the 1970s, leading to collapse and reunification in 1989–90. Regular sidebars featuring representative individuals complement the text well. The volume works well both as an introduction for non-specialists and as a backgrounder for German history courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —R. Spickermann, University of Texas – Permian Basin

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Both brilliant and error-prone, a deeply flawed perfectionist, full of hubris and profound self-doubt, McNamara’s life shows the war within.

—A. J. Falk, Christopher Newport University

Taubman, Philip. McNamara at war: a new history, by Philip Taubman and William Taubman. W. W. Norton, 2025. 498p bibl index ISBN 9781324007166, $39.99; ISBN 9781324007173 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Brothers William (Amherst College) and Philip (Stanford Univ.) Taubman offer a compelling examination of the life, career, and inner torment of Robert McNamara, focusing on his transformation from a brilliant, metrics-driven army statistician and corporate executive to one of the most consequential and controversial figures in American history. Though in many ways a conventional and comprehensive biography, the book draws on a trove of unpublished correspondence and interviews to offer new insights into McNamara’s activities, decisions, and complicated personal and professional relationships as he moved through Harvard, the army, the Pentagon, and the World Bank. Not surprisingly, the Cold War contest in Southeast Asia looms large. As Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McNamara is best remembered as the “Whiz Kid” who engineered the escalation in Vietnam, applying systems analysis and quantitative rigor to a nationalistic conflict that defied simple calculation. Years later, McNamara confronted those decisions and expressed regret, but, absent an apology for the unforgivable, he ignited a firestorm of disgust in the media and from the public at large. Both brilliant and error-prone, a deeply flawed perfectionist, full of hubris and profound self-doubt, McNamara’s life shows the war within. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —A. J. Falk, Christopher Newport University

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Thoroughly researched, the book makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on education in urban America.

—L. Schmitz, University of Missouri St. Louis

Oram, Ruby. Home work: gender, child labor, and education for girls in urban America, 1870–1930. Chicago, 2025. 272p bibl index ISBN 9780226844312, $115.00; ISBN 9780226844336 pbk, $32.00; ISBN 9780226844329 ebook, $31.99.

In this important work, Oram (history, Texas State Univ.) examines how middle-class white women reformers, such as Florence Kelley and Jane Addams, advocated for public education reforms that reflected their beliefs about women’s proper social roles. Oram argues that these ideals were deeply shaped by race: education for white girls emphasized preparation for future family life, whereas Black girls were steered toward training for domestic labor for others. Focusing on education reform in Chicago, Home Work, the author’s first book-length publication, demonstrates how these initiatives reinforced educational inequalities rooted in race, class, and gender. Thoroughly researched, the book makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on education in urban America. Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty. —L. Schmitz, University of Missouri St. Louis

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This book deserves a wide audience that will understand why the national anthem resoundingly affirms ‘Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished.’

—T. P. Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Leavitt, Danielle. By the second spring: seven lives and one year of the War in Ukraine. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. 299p ISBN 9780374614331, $30.00; ISBN 9781250437761 pbk, $21.00; ISBN 9780374614348 ebook, $15.99.

Here is an excellent introduction to the war against Ukraine, its people, and their history. Leavitt (Univ. of Michigan) combines her PhD in Ukrainian history with a knack for accessible writing. Her deep familiarity with Ukraine bolsters the fast-paced style, effective storytelling, and compelling characters she presents. Readers meet seven workers, farmers, and professionals, most of whom are from war-ravaged eastern and southern Ukraine. Ranging from teens to seniors, their diaries and interviews document the turmoil and trauma of Russia’s pitiless invasion. Leavitt provides essential context on Ukrainian nationalism, Soviet history, economic challenges, social life, and even language-use practices. Some of this is conveyed in harrowing, poignant interludes about the struggle to repatriate the body of dissident poet Vasyl Stus from Russia, whose 1989 reburial was a watershed for modern Ukraine. The book lacks standard academic components (index, notes, detailed contents, bibliography), reducing its reference value. Yet Anna, Maria, Polina, Tania, Vitaly, Volodymyr, and Yulia all emerge as resilient, memorable individuals, and Leavitt brings their parallel tales together in a towering statement of humanity. This book deserves a wide audience that will understand why the national anthem resoundingly affirms “Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —T. P. Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

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