I've noticed a dry spell as of late in good, groundbreaking history books. David McCullough's "1776" was disappointing, in my opinion. I enjoyed Kenneth T. Walsh's "From Mount Vernon To Crawford", but that's popcorn history in my opinion. Its nothing too heavy...just an entertaining, easy read about Presidential retreats, homes and vacations.
I'm not sure how many of you are heavy history fans, but I've been dying for a great book for several years now. Something like "Truman" or "Theodore Rex". I recently loved Horace Busby's "The Thirty-First Of March" about Lyndon Johnson's final days in the White House. Unfortunately, it was taken from an incomplete manuscript that he never finished before his death, so it wasn't as rich as it could have otherwise been and was tragically short.
Has anyone heard of anything coming down the line sometime soon that could be really good? We're in such a drought...
I have been staying away from recent historical writings, due to mainly being cheap and having a deep hatred for post-modernism. Book I'm reading now is "When the Kings Departed" by Richard Watts, a 1968 book that was republished in '02. It is an in depth look at the peace making process from the Allied side in late '18-early '19, and a very good look at the utter chaos that was Germany at the conclusion of WWI and in the months following the armistice. Personally, I'm more likely to enjoy a history book written from the 30's through 60's than something that would come out now.
There's a new book on Herman Kahn, the father of nuclear weapons planning and strategies for the RAND Corporation. Kahn's On Thermonuclear War, published in 1960, is one of the most chillingly frank discussions on the scenarios of nuclear warfare ever written.
The Worlds of Herman Kahn by Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi looks at Kahn and his influence on society and his impact as a cultural phenomenon.
Not new by any means, but I also just finished re-reading Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner, which is tremendous.
On the topic of LBJ, there are two books annotated by Michael Beschloss of transcribed secret Oval Office recordings that are fascinating. They make tremendous companion readings to whatever LBJ/Vietnam/Civil Rights histories you may be reading. Taking Charge: LBJ's Secret White House Tapes 1963-1964 Reaching For Glory: LBJ's Secret White House Tapes 1964-1965
(edited by NickBockwinkelFan on 15.8.05 0235) "Well, you can't involve friendship with business. It has to be one or the other. It's either business or friendship, or hit the bricks!" --Life Lessons from Bobby the Brain Heenan WCW Uncensored 2000 preview
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