Category Archives: Review
Review: Constantine’s Sword
James Carroll’s Constantine’s Sword, or Constantine’s Sword 2007, Storyville Films/First Run Features A historical documentary film on the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. Directed and produced Oren Jacoby, inspired by former priest James P. Carroll’s 2001 book Constantine’s … Continue reading
Review: The Black Death; A Personal History
(John Hatcher, Da Capo Press, 2008) There seem to be two types of readers of history; those who love history, and those who tolerate it as a necessary evil. Writing for the first group requires thoroughness, organization, solid research, and … Continue reading
Review: Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class
(Ian Haney López, Oxford University Press, 2014) On the one hand, I love this book, and I think it’s terrifically important. On the other, I was disappointed in its lack of scope. That conflict makes this a hard book to … Continue reading
Review: PBS Secret Files of the Inquisition, Episode One: The Land of Error
(2006, PBS) I am a big fan of PBS in general. So when a documentary series covering the history of the Inquisition and some of the major heretical movements in medieval Europe showed up on my Netflix recommendations list, I … Continue reading