Bookshelf

The generation after the millennials loves smartphones, avoids books, craves safety and doesn’t tolerate intolerance. Christine Rosen reviews “iGen” by Jean M. Twenge.

The Jersey, a British warship docked off Brooklyn during the American Revolution, served as a prison where some 11,500 perished. A. Roger Ekirch reviews “The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn” by Robert P. Watson.

Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes worked at a time when the study of economics was concerned with society and its values. Richard Vedder reviews “Hayek vs Keynes” by Thomas Hoerber.

On July 29, 1878, astronomers, tourists and even Thomas Edison traveled to the still-wild West to get a good glimpse of the total eclipse. Evan Hepler-Smith reviews “American Eclipse” by David Baron.

Trilling was a bundle of conflicting impulses—capable of both great insight and great arrogance; politically liberal with conservative tendencies. Daphne Merkin reviews “The Untold Journey” by Natalie Robins.

Arturo Toscanini was among the most gifted conductors of his age. He was also a true hero of democracy. Lloyd Schwartz reviews “Toscanini: Musician of Conscience” by Harvey Sachs.

Today’s stadiums aren’t built for fans but for retailers: They’re places to sell you things. Will Blythe reviews “The Arena” by Rafi Kohan.

Why won’t liberals give up identity politics? Even if it doesn’t win elections, it has given them a sort of cultural hegemony. Barton Swaim reviews “The Once and Future Liberal” by Mark Lilla.

A portrait of four high-society American women who sat to be painted by John Singer Sargent. Jane Kamensky reviews “Sargent’s Women” by Donna M. Lucey.

A debut novel that centers on wedlock and childbirth, in a society where those two mean everything. Geoff Wisner reviews “Stay With Me” by Ayobami Adebayo.

Sam Sacks on novels by Orhan Pamuk and Karl Ove Knausgaard.

Tom Nolan reviews “Fast Falls the Night” by Julia Keller.

Hundreds of seaside creatures synchronize their behavior to the ocean’s ebb and flow. Lincoln Paine reviews “Tides” by Jonathan White.

The author of “Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary” on books about impeachment.

Meghan Cox Gurdon on “The Mermaid” by Jan Brett and other books.

Whether or not we like to admit it, humans share a symbiotic relationship with insects. Howard Schneider reviews “Bugged” by David MacNeal.

It can be surprising, thrilling and disconcerting to return to children’s literature as adults, when our own children come into the world. Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews “Wild Things” by Bruce Handy.

As postwar Brooklyn lost manufacturing jobs, a new cohort of white-collar families and “knowledge workers” began flocking there. Michael Woodsworth reviews “The New Brooklyn” by Kay S. Hymowitz.

Witnesses to crimes rarely face a penalty for failing to intervene. The events of wartime Europe show how costly such passivity can be. Jeremy Rabkin reviews “The Crime of Complicity” by Amos N. Guiora.

The U.S. conflict with Britain in 1812-15 was both a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars and a divisive clash among North Americans. Allegra di Bonaventura reviews “Unshackling America” by Willard Sterne Randall.

When Will Kellogg broke from his brother John to start his own cereal company, litigation began before the first box of Corn Flakes was shipped. Bryan Burrough reviews “The Kelloggs” by Howard Markel.

As highs climbed toward 100 degrees, raw sewage roasting on the Thames created the “Great Stink.” Alexandra Mullen reviews “One Hot Summer” by Rosemary Ashton.

The Duke of Buckingham tried to kidnap his sister-in-law. A page-boy done up as a lady fooled him. Richard Davenport-Hines reviews “Love, Madness, and Scandal” by Johanna Luthman.

More than enforced lies, fables of a noble war helped some Soviet women cope with monstrous memories. Catherine Merridale reviews “The Unwomanly Face of War” by Svetlana Alexievich.

The author of “The Mighty Franks” on books that blur the line between memoir and novel.