Bismarck: A LifeBy Jonathan Steinberg (Oxford University Press, 577 pages, $34.95) IT IS OFTEN said of larger-than-life celebrities and politicians that they “suck the oxygen out of the room.” Otto von Bismarck went one step further: he sucked the air…

The Decline and Fall of the American RepublicBy Bruce Ackerman(Belknap/Harvard University Press, 270 pages, $25.95) “Bruce Ackerman is worried,” the opening sentence of the publisher’s blurb accompanying his latest book informs us. “He is worried that the Office of the…

My Father at 100: A Memoir By Ron Reagan (Viking, 228 pages, $25.95) Chalk up another awesome insight to the Founding Fathers. When, having drafted the Constitution and seen it through to ratification, they turned their attention to filling the…

The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African BeliefBy V.S. Naipaul(Knopf, 241 pages, $26.95) “For my travel books I travel on a theme,” writes Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul. “And the theme of The Masque of Africa is African belief.” But Mr. Naipaul has a problem,…

Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food By Colman Andrews (Gotham Books, 301 pages, $28) The plague of the food fashionistas is upon us. Not satisfied with debasing and trivializing writing, painting, sculpture, and…

Oh, for the oompahs of yesteryear! Bustling, jolly German restaurants and their attendant bars, beer gardens, and wine cellars — usually with lively musical accompaniment-were once a main-stay of the American hospitality industry. Not anymore. What two world wars fought…