By Priscilla S. Taylor - Special to The Washington Times
That long subtitle is a good indicator of the comprehensive approach Stuart Isacoff takes to “the most important instrument ever created.” The instrument’s development is traced to Bartolomeo Cristofori, a keyboard technician in Florence, who was commissioned by Ferdinando de’ Medici, the grand prince of Tuscany, to improve on the harpsichord. Published December 16, 2011 Comments
By Muriel Dobbin - Special to The Washington Times
It might be titled “Pride and Prejudice and Murder.” And if that has a familiar ring for the global legions of Jane Austen admirers, it should. Published December 16, 2011 Comments
By Martin Rubin - Special to The Washington Times
They key word in the title of this beautifully and intelligently illustrated book is “world.” Indeed, it might just as well have been called “Department Stores of the World,” for its focus is on the worldwide nature of this merchandising phenomenon. The great stores of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles get their due, as do those of Paris (where they began), London and Berlin. Published December 16, 2011 Comments
By James Srodes - Special to The Washington Times
Do not, I repeat, do not read this book if you plan to savor the coming 11 months of political blather-skating by our apparent seekers of high office. For if you have read this book, their pious sloganeering and obfuscations during the campaign debate orgies may cause you to kick the cat across the room and do violence to your new flat-screen television. Published December 14, 2011 Comments
By Sol Sanders
The principle problem with this concise book is, of course, that the whole drama continues. I write as British Prime Minister David Cameron has just dropped a bomb into the laps of his 26 European Union partners by refusing to go along with a new treaty aimed at reinforcing economic integration and solving the crisis of the 17 members’ common currency, the euro. Published December 13, 2011 Comments
By Claude R. Marx - Special to The Washington Times
Because he was a consequential and engaging president, Ronald Reagan continues to fascinate the public and help sell books. The desire by all the Republican presidential candidates to present themselves as wanting to run the country with Reaganite values shows the resiliency of Reagan’s worldview and values. Published December 12, 2011 Comments
By Joseph C. Goulden - Special to The Washington Times
With the nation reeling under the impact of terrorist bombs and urban rioting as Vietnam War protests turned violent, Presidents Johnson and Nixon tasked the CIA with determining whether hostile foreign governments were fostering the deadly turmoil incited by black nationalist groups such as the Black Panther Party (BPP) and New Left outfits such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Published December 9, 2011 Comments
By John Greenya - Special to The Washington Times
Novelist Charles Frazier clearly agrees with Robert Frost's description of woods as "lovely, dark and deep," especially the dark and deep part. Published December 9, 2011 Comments
By Martin Rubin - Special to The Washington Times
Quite early in this look back at a life spent among artists and musicians, Rosamond Bernier lets drop a telling anecdote, where Aaron Copland confides to her about a youthfulLeonard Bernstein: "We don't have to worry about THAT one." Published December 9, 2011 Comments
By Larry Thornberry - Special to The Washington Times
Surely I'm not the only reader amazed at how downright boring professors, assorted "experts" and too often even the reverend clergy can be when addressing some of the more basic forces in our lives. Published December 9, 2011 Comments
By David A. Keene - Special to The Washington Times
The Los Angeles Times' Jim Newton wrote "Eisenhower: The White House Years" because he thinks Dwight David Eisenhower just doesn't get the credit he deserves. Published December 7, 2011 Comments
By Ray Hartwell - Special to The Washington Times
Stephen Hunter is a prizewinning journalist who, until his recent retirement, was chief movie critic for The Washington Post. In addition, for about three decades, Mr. Hunter has moonlighted as a novelist, well-known for entertaining fiction recounting the exploits of Vietnam War sniper Bob Lee Swagger and Bob Lee's father, Pacific war veteran and Arkansas sheriff Earl Swagger. Published December 6, 2011 Comments
By Joseph C. Goulden - Special to The Washington Times
Aaron Burr ranks among the most reviled characters in American history - an astounding fate for a Founding Father who came within a hair's breadth o f the presidency in 1800. Although he was never convicted in court, the term "traitor" is indelibly linked to his name. Published December 5, 2011 Comments
By Larry Thornberry - Special to The Washington Times
In this thin volume, Daniel J. Flynn tells of an era that, if not exactly prelapsarian, was a time when a fair number of regular, walking-around Americans showed interest in the intellectual tradition of the West, and a small number of artists and thinkers catered to this desire for knowledge Published December 2, 2011 Comments
By John R. Coyne Jr. - Special to The Washington Times
Condoleezza Rice served her country for eight intense years, four as President George W. Bush's national security advisor, four as his secretary of state - years in which our national life was altered profoundly and our place in the world challenged by movements and forces swirling out of remote regions of the world. Published December 2, 2011 Comments
By Sandra McElwaine - Special to The Washington Times
The venerable Robert Massie has written another fascinating book about one of his favorite subjects: Czarist Russia. The new narrative by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Nicholas and Alexandra," "Peter The Great" and "The Romanovs" reveals, in exhaustive detail, the lavish and byzantine lives of the imperial family along with the machinations, intrigues, malicious gossip and rumors that flourished in the shadows of their court. Published December 2, 2011 Comments
By Philip Kopper - Special to The Washington Times
A decade after reading Tony Horwitz's "Confederates in the Attic," I have one lasting memory of hilarity at Rebel re-enactors bedding down on blankets all in a row on frozen ground (grown men on a Civil War sleepover) - along with wonder at the kinship between the Confederacy and folks who honor its memory. Published December 2, 2011 Comments
By John M. Taylor - Special to The Washington Times
Poets are remembered for their finest writings, painters for their most vivid canvases. The fate of their mediocre work is to be forgotten. Military men are judged differently. They are expected always to perform competently but are as likely to be remembered for their defeats as for their victories. So it was with Gen. George A. Custer, and so it was with a prominent British seaman, Capt. William Bligh, whose name is forever associated with the mutiny on one of his ships, the Bounty. Published November 30, 2011 Comments
By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times
Senate Republicans appear likely to block confirmation of President Obama’s two latest nominees to the ...
By Paige Winfield Cunningham - The Washington Times
Announcing a long-anticipated rule on the the minimum benefits that insurers must offer under the ...
By Derek Kravitz - Associated Press
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday brought civil fraud charges against six former top ...