New History Books for This Week

New arrivals are of the historical kind. Jay Winik’s mammoth study of the early years of the Republic, The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World 1788-1800 (Harper $29.95) and brings together such figures as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Catherine the Great, Robespierre, Napoleon and Selim III, sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
The companion book to Ken Burns’ new seven-part documentary, The War, set to debut on September 23rd, is now available. Another mammoth opus, the book, published by Knopf at $50.00, this work focuses on the men and women who actually fought the war, in all of its heroism and gruesomeness and is richly illustrated.
The Book Thief (Alfred Knopf for Young Readers $11.99) is now out in paperback. Very well reviewed when it was published last year, it is a novel about young Liesel Meminger, a foster child, who tries to eke out a living in wartime Munich by stealing.

What are you reading?