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Recommendations based on The Best and the Brightestby David Halberstam
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A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by Neil Sheehan
A detailed account of the Vietnam War, and one man's role in it.
This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures & disillusionment in SE Asia. A field adviser to the army when US ... (Goodreads)
Master of the Senate
by Robert A. Caro
Detailed account of Lyndon Johnson's tenure as the leader of the US Senate, and his rise to power.
The most riveting political biography of our time, Robert A. Caro’s life of Lyndon B. Johnson, continues. Master of the Senate takes Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his ... (Goodreads)
The Path to Power
by Robert A. Caro
The first volume of a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, tracing his early life and political career in Texas.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson is the political biography of our time. No president—no era of American politics—has been so intensively and sharply examined at a time when so many prime witnesses to ... (Goodreads)
Means of Ascent
by Robert A. Caro
An exploration of the ruthless ambition and cunning tactics of Lyndon B. Johnson's political career.
Robert A. Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson, which began with the greatly acclaimed The Path to Power, also winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, continues – one of the richest, most ... (Goodreads)
All the President's Men
by Carl Bernstein
Investigative journalism that uncovered the Watergate scandal and its aftermath.
The full account of the Watergate scandal from the two Washington Post reporters who broke the story. This is “the work that brought down a presidency— perhaps the most influential piece of ... (Goodreads)
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
by Barbara W. Tuchman
A captivating narrative of the 14th century and its tumultuous history.
The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a ... (Goodreads)
The Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman
A riveting account of the events leading up to World War I and its devastating consequences.
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmerman Telegram comprise Barbara W. ... (Goodreads)
A Rumor of War
by Philip Caputo
A firsthand account of the Vietnam War by a Marine, recounting its devastating impact on his life.
The 40th-anniversary edition of the classic Vietnam memoir—featured in the PBS documentary series The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick—with a new foreword by Kevin Powers. In March of 1965, ... (Goodreads)
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael Lewis
How an unconventional approach to baseball changed the competitive landscape.
Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every ... (Goodreads)
Dispatches
by Michael Herr
A journalist's account of the Vietnam War, depicting the brutality, confusion and chaos of the conflict.
Written on the front lines in Vietnam, Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches ... (Goodreads)
Battle Cry of Freedom
by James M. McPherson
A comprehensive history of the American Civil War, focusing on the political and military aspects.
Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. ... (Goodreads)
John Adams
by David McCullough
Biography of the second President of the United States and his contributions to the founding of the nation.
The enthralling, often surprising story of John Adams, one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous ... (Goodreads)
The Breaks of the Game
by David Halberstam
An in-depth look at the 1979-1980 season of the Portland Trail Blazers, exploring the highs and lows of professional basketball.
"Among the best books ever written on professional basketball." The Philadelphia Inquirer David Halberstam, best-selling author of THE FIFTIES and THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST, turns his keen ... (Goodreads)
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam
by Harold G. Moore
An account of the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, told from the perspective of the soldiers who fought it.
Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers ... (Goodreads)
Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier
by Stephen E. Ambrose
Epic tale of exploration and adventure as Lewis and Clark traverse the American wilderness.
'This was much more than a bunch of guys out on an exploring and collecting expedition. This was a military expedition into hostile territory'. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his ... (Goodreads)
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
by Eugene B. Sledge
A soldier's harrowing account of his experiences in World War II.
In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting ... (Goodreads)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A comprehensive study of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and the unique cabinet he assembled.
Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from ... (Goodreads)
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
by William Manchester
A biography of the military leader, tracing his long and complicated career in the U.S. Army.
MacArthur, the public figure, the private man, the soldier-hero whose mystery and appeal created a uniquely American legend, portrayed in a biography that will challenge the cherished myths of ... (Goodreads)
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Examines the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during WWII and their impact on the nation.
Winner of the Pulitzer for History, No Ordinary Time is a chronicle of one of the most vibrant & revolutionary periods in US history. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin weaves ... (Goodreads)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe
A journey through the psychedelic 1960s and the lives of an eclectic group of people.
Tom Wolfe chronicles the adventures of Ken Kesey and his group of followers. Throughout the work, Kesey is portrayed as desiring the creation of a new religion. Kesey forms a group of followers based ... (Wikipedia)
Chickenhawk
by Robert Mason
A soldier's unflinching account of his harrowing experiences in the Vietnam War.
A true story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first ... (Goodreads)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
by William L. Shirer
The definitive story of Nazi Germany, its rise and fall, and its lasting impacts.
Hitler boasted that The Third Reich would last a thousand years. It lasted only 12. But those 12 years contained some of the most catastrophic events Western civilization has ever known. No other ... (Goodreads)
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
A comprehensive study of the rise of Al-Qaeda and its role in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on ... (Goodreads)
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
by William Manchester
A vivid portrayal of the medieval world, its beliefs, and practices, and the emergence of the Renaissance.
From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose, and with the grace ... (Goodreads)
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
by Hunter S. Thompson
A wild journey through the 1972 US presidential election, tackling issues of politics and power.
Hilarious, terrifying, insightful, and compulsively readable, these are the articles that Hunter S. Thompson wrote for, Rolling Stone, magazine while covering the 1972 election campaign of President ... (Goodreads)
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by Richard Rhodes
Historical narrative of the scientists and engineers who developed the atomic bomb.
Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside ... (Goodreads)
1776
by David McCullough
A riveting account of the events leading up to and during the American Revolution.
In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence - when the whole American ... (Goodreads)
The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
by Daniel J. Boorstin
A comprehensive history of human discovery, from ancient times to modern era, exploring the evolution of human knowledge and understanding.
An original history of man's greatest adventure: his search to discover the world around him. In the compendious history, Boorstin not only traces man's insatiable need to know, but also the ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Executioner's Song
by Norman Mailer
The true story of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who became the first person executed in the US after the death penalty was reinstated.
In what is arguably his greatest work, America's most heroically ambitious writer follows the short, blighted career of Gary Gilmore, an intractably violent product of America's prisons who became ... (Goodreads)
Washington's Crossing
by David Hackett Fischer
A detailed account of George Washington's daring crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution, and its impact on the war.
Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within ... (Goodreads)
