On the Cover of Sunday's Book Review
By CARLIN ROMANO
Reviewed by ANTHONY GOTTLIEB
Carlin Romano's ambitious book argues that today's America is the best place there has ever been to do philosophy, surpassing even the Athens of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Also in the Book Review
By JUSTIN WOLFF
Reviewed by HOLLAND COTTER
Justin Wolff's look at the life of the painter Thomas Hart Benton doesn't shy away from ambiguity.
By GEOFFREY C. WARD
Reviewed by T. J. STILES
Geoffrey C. Ward's great-grandfather, who ran a pyramid scheme, was the Bernie Madoff of the 1880s.
By HEATHER ANDREA WILLIAMS
Reviewed by IMANI PERRY
Heather Andrea Williams explores the effects of slavery's separation of black families.
By AARON BOBROW-STRAIN
Reviewed by TAMAR ADLER
A history of baking and dietary reform tells how white bread, once a symbol of American progress, became "white trash."
By PETER PAGNAMENTA
Reviewed by MIRANDA SEYMOUR
Starting in the 1830s, a group of wealthy Englishmen attempted to establish a replica of home on the American plains.
By FERGUS M. BORDEWICH
Reviewed by RICHARD BROOKHISER
With the rift between North and South widening, the Compromise of 1850 both staved off a civil war and made one inevitable.
By ALLEN C. GUELZO
Reviewed by DAVID S. REYNOLDS
Allen C. Guelzo details the arguments behind the Civil War.
By CHRISTOPHER R. BEHA
Reviewed by SARAH TOWERS
A college love returns in Christopher R. Beha's first novel.
By ANNA KEESEY
Reviewed by JONATHAN EVISON
The young homesteader at the center of Anna Keesey's first novel is entangled in a range war.
By ALISON McCULLOCH
A "lost novel" by Jack Kerouac, and new books by Annalena McAfee, Anne Korkeakivi, Delia Ephron and Rosie Sultan.
CRIME
By MARILYN STASIO
In Jeffery Deaver's thriller "XO," a country-pop star is stalked by an obsessive fan.
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The former secretary of state thinks Obama should read "The Best and the Brightest," by David Halberstam.
Back Page
By TONY PERROTTET
Poets are staging events around the 2012 Olympics, but they once competed in the Games.
By GREGORY COWLES
For Dave Eggers, who addresses the decline of American manufacturing in his best-selling novel "A Hologram for the King," it felt right to ensure the books were printed in the United States.
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.
By IHSAN TAYLOR
Paperback books of particular interest.
This week, Geoffrey Ward talks about his new book, "A Disposition to Be Rich"; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Holland Cotter discusses the artist Thomas Hart Benton; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
REVIEWS BY THE TIMES'S CRITICS
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