Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
A girl, a widow, a matriarch, a mother, a businesswoman, and a minister's slave: a new history traces the Salem Witch Trials through the lives of six women who paid dearly for their proximity to one of the most mysterious incidents in American history
Read MoreKing and Woolman's new book Assassination of the Archduke, boasts new sources, very close to Franz Ferdinand and his wife -- too close?
Read MoreThe meek and peaceful Jesus has become the standard Christian image of the Messiah. Religious scholar Reza Aslan's controversial new book shatters that image and replaces it with something very different: a violent revolutionary who came not to bring peace but a sword.
Read MoreA debut novel of alternate history spins out one of the most tantalizing hypotheticals of the past: what if Anne Boleyn had managed to give King Henry VIII a healthy male heir? Some of the answers - and some of the resulting mysteries - may surprise you.
Read MoreThe typical image of Winston Churchill comes from the dark days of World War II: a fat, old, bald Prime Minister eloquently defying Hitler's Germany. But before there was a monument there was a man, as an engaging new biography brings to light.
Read MoreBen Jonson said that the once wealthy and acclaimed Edmund Spenser died "for want of bread"; a new biography tries to disentangle myth from fact, and to make the case for the great poet's relevance today
Read MoreAs Americans go to the polls this month to elect a president, some recent biographies examine the lives of five very different men who once held the office.
Read MoreQueen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was a cherished and beloved fixture of the British royal family for almost a century (and would certainly have stolen the show at her daughter's Diamond Jubilee, had she lived to see it) - but a new book claims the Queen Mum was just an ordinary human being - and not always a very nice one
Read MoreShe's occupied the throne of Great Britain and the Commonwealth for 60 years, and in June Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. Three new biographies try to understand the woman wearing the crown.
Read MoreHe survived years of dangerous exile, won his crown on the battlefield, and founded one of the most famous dynasties in human history - and yet we still haven't embraced Henry VII. A spirited biography seeks to change that.
Read MoreOne hundred years ago this month, the luxury liner Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, with the loss of over 1500 lives. The centenary has released a flood of books, including some gems not to be missed.
Read MoreHe fought a world war with France, survived the Black Death, and gave England a real Parliament. Froissart and Chaucer loved him, Shakespeare (almost) wrote about him, and the Victorians disparaged him. He was Edward III, and he has a king-sized new biography from Yale University Press.
Read MoreMaligned as nothing but handsome breeding stock, this German import did more to redefine the role of the monarchy than any subsequent royal, consort or king.
Read MoreHe lost his famous mother when he was a boy, became a teen idol, had a storybook wedding, and he's second in line to be King of England. The monarchy Prince William inherits will be like nothing his predecessors have experienced - if it exists at all. "A Year with the Windsors" concludes.
Read MoreHe's been waiting for the throne longer than any Prince of Wales before him, and he's changed the nature of the monarchy while he's been waiting. But will we ever see King Charles III? 'A Year with the Windsors' takes a look at the heir.
Read MoreLodestar or mirror? Passé or ne plus ultra? Elizabeth II has presided with consistency over an inconsistent age. And what have we learned of her?
Read MoreWhen his brother the king abdicated, shy Prince Bertie suddenly became king - and he was just settling in when the World War II threw his kingdom into chaos. 'A Year with the Windsors' continues.
Read MoreHer reign was epic in length and social impact, but it very nearly didn't happen at all. She ruled through two generations of her people, and she left the British monarchy very different from how she found it. She is Queen Victoria, and our Year with the Windsors starts as it must: with her.
Read MoreFor two centuries, he's been the founding myth of his nation: first in war, first in peace, Washington the paragon. Ron Chernow's new biography does nothing to tarnish that image -- but should it?
Read MoreWhat we know about Edward II came from the brilliant mind of Christopher Marlowe. A new biography seeks to separate the real man from the dramatist’s fertile imagination.
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.