Review_NONFICTION
44 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 8, 2021
Review_NONFICTION
advocacy groups. According to Popkin,
this shift discouraged consensus-building
in Congress and gave rise to a new kind of
aggressive and “self-serving” obstruc-
tionism embodied by Texas senator Ted
Cruz, who became a national political
figure by blocking bipartisan immigra-
tion reforms and forcing a 2013 govern-
ment shutdown over the Affordable
Care Act. Popkin contends that Trump
borrowed from the Cruz playbook, but
in a more exaggerated and media-savvy
manner, in order to defeat the GOP estab-
lishment (and Cruz) in the 2016 primary.
Though Popkin underplays the agency of
Republican voters who either overlooked
or embraced Trump’s authoritarian
impulses and nativist agenda, he makes a
convincing case that unchecked private
interests are at the root of America’s polit-
ical dysfunctions. Readers on the right
and left will find food for thought. (May)A Descending Spiral: Exposing
the Death Penalty in 12 Essays
Marc Bookman. New Press, $29.99 (208p)
ISBN 978-1-62097-654-8
Attorney Bookman, director of the
Atlantic Center for Capital Representation,
debuts with an incisive and well-docu-
mented critique of the death penalty.
Spotlighting 12 separate cases, Bookman
details prosecutorial misconduct, judicial
capriciousness, racial bias, and incompetent
defense lawyering. He begins with the case
of Beauford White, a Florida man executed
for taking part in a 1977 robbery in which
six people were killed. Based on testimony
that White was shocked by the murders
and tried to stop them, the jury unani-
mously voted for life imprisonment, but
the judge overruled their recommendation
and sentenced White to death. (Florida has
since abolished judicial override in capital
cases.) Detailing the case of Andre Thomas,
a Black man from Texas who believed God
told him to murder his estranged wife, her
infant daughter, and his four-year-old son
in 2004, and gouged both of his eyes out
while in custody, Bookman delves into the
legacy of lynching in America and dis-
cusses how the justice system is weighted
against the mentally ill. With lucid prose
and a firm grasp of history and legal prece-
dent, Bookman makes a persuasive argu-
ment that these dozen cases are just the
tip of the iceberg when it comes to deathforging their own paths. (May)The Nine: The True Story of a
Band of Women Who Survived
the Worst of Nazi Germany
Gwen Strauss. St. Martin’s, $28.99 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-250-23929-7
Poet and children’s author Strauss (The
Hiding Days) delivers a brisk yet uneven
group biography of nine women who
resisted the Nazis in WWII. They include
Hélène Podliasky, the author’s great aunt;
Nicole Clarence, a Jewish radio operator;
and Yvonne “Mena” Le Guillou, a French
liaison with the Dutch resistance. Caught
at various points in 1944, the women met
(most for the first time) at the Ravensbrück
concentration camp. Sent to work at a
munitions factory outside Leipzig, they
sabotaged weapons as they plotted their
escape. The chance came in April 1945,
when their work camp was evacuated and
its 5,000 prisoners were forced to march
east. After hiding in a ditch, the women
altered their clothing to appear more like
refugees and trekked west, eventually
encountering U.S. troops outside the
village of Colditz. Strauss delves into
the complications survivors faced in
“returning to life,” and infuses the narra-
tive with harrowing details about
Ravensbrück and intriguing asides on
her research process, but the nature of
how and why close relationships devel-
oped between these nine women remains
somewhat unclear. Still, fans of women’s
and WWII history will be drawn to this
deeply researched chronicle. Illus. (May)Crackup: The Republican
Implosion and the Future of
Presidential Politics
Samuel L. Popkin. Oxford Univ., $27.95
(328p) ISBN 978-0-19-091382-3
UC San Diego political scientist
Popkin (The Candidate) delivers an inci-
sive study of how inadequate campaign
finance laws contributed to congressional
gridlock and the rise of Donald Trump.
Popkin lays the blame largely on McCain-
Feingold, a 2002 bill that limited corpo-
rate donations to political parties. But
instead of decreasing the influence of
money on politics, the legislation (in con-
junction with the Supreme Court’s 2010
Citizen’s United ruling) funneled private
donations to super PACs and single-issuerians regard it
as a precipi-
tating cause of
the French
Revolution,
and explains
how Cold War–
era politics and
geographic
attributes led
Iceland to host
multiple U.S.
military bases and the Apollo astronauts
as they prepared for their mission to the
moon. Rich with entertaining anecdotes
and helpful pronunciation guides, this is
a winning introduction to a unique and
fascinating culture. (May)Downeast: Five Maine Girls and
the Unseen Story of Rural America
Gigi Georges. Harper, $27.99 (288p)
ISBN 978-0-06-298445-6
Communications strategist Georges
debuts with a heartfelt portrait of five
teenage girls growing up in Maine’s remote
and economically depressed Washington
County between 2016 and 2020. Tracking
the girls’ lives from high school into col-
lege and the workplace, Georges describes
how Willow, a photographer, struggles
with the “family secret” that her drug-
addled father beats his wife and children.
Mckenna is a star softball player who cap-
tains her own lobster boat in the summers,
while Vivian, a talented writer, pushes
against the loving constraints of home and
church. Valedictorian Josie, hellbent on
escaping small-town poverty, gets into
Yale. Recruited to play basketball at Bates
College, Audrey finds it hard to be so far
away from home. Georges provides plenty
of data about the region’s economic woes
(which have been exacerbated by Covid-19
lockdowns) and opioid overdoses, and
delves into the ways in which young
women in rural America are constrained by
traditional gender roles. But she also lov-
ingly describes the natural beauty of coastal
Maine and the strength these friends and
their families derive from their surround-
ings: “Together, they carved a communion
with the land and sea around them, and it
sustained them.” Enriched by the author’s
love of the area and deep admiration for her
subjects, this is a worthy tribute to a group
of stalwart young women committed to