#877 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday March 13)
Good morning,
More books today!
BIOGRAPHIES
One genre that always has always fascinating to me is biography. I love learning about great lives lived. Because so many people have asked me about biographies I would recommend, I thought I’d share a list of some of my favorites. I’m confident I’ve missed a bunch, as I’ve compiled this on the fly. A note: as to World War II biographies, I have studiously avoided descending too much into the endless depressing biographies of Hitler and his henchmen. As you can see from my list, I am a particular fan of the founders and architects of America.
Here's a confession regarding a number of the biographies I cite—sometimes I skim! Often biographies can be exciting and informative in places, while ponderous and overly detailed in others. I’ve found a little history of the subject’s parents and childhood is good grounding. But as opposed to some readers, if there is a place where I lose patience, it is the period of the subject’s childhood and adolescence. I really want to get to the meat of who they are, the challenges they faced, and what they achieved. That story typically starts in the person’s 20s. While I know that the “early years” contribute to who people become, it just isn’t the focus that interests me. That said, here is the list, without commentary:
THE FOUNDERS AND EARLY AMERICA
Jefferson, by Jon Meacham
American Sphinx, by Joseph D. Ellis
Washington, a Life, by Ron Chernow
John Adams, by David McCullough
John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit, by James Traub
Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson and Benjamin Franklin, by Edmund S. Morgan
Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
American Lion, by Jon Meacham (about Andrew Jackson)
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, by H.W. Brands
Daniel Webster, by Robert Remini
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by John Meacham
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, by Fawn Brodie (one of the first “exposes” of Jefferson, published in 1974, and one of the pioneering books in the then-new field of “psychobiography”)
CIVIL WAR ERA
Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight
Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Grant, by Robert Chernow
Imperfect Union, by Steve Inskeep (John C. Fremont and his wife, the daughter of Senator Benton)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
GREAT AMERICAN LEADERS
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris (and its two successive volumes, including Colonel Roosevelt)
Mornings on Horseback, by David McCulloch
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Truman, by David McCullough
Eisenhower, by Stephen Ambrose
Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith
Eisenhower, by Stephen Ambrose
FDR, by Ted Morgan
The Wise Men, by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas (really a biography of multiple figures)
Nixon, by Stephen Ambrose
The Robert Caro biographies of LBJ, especially Master of the Senate
Henry Kissinger: White House Years, by Henry Kissinger
Bobby Kennedy, by Larry Tye
On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller, by Richard Norton Smith
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, by Randy Shilts
Profiles in Courage, by John F. Kennedy (probably written in large part by Ted Sorenson, about great leaders from the U.S. Senate)
Destiny of the Republic, by Candice Millard (gripping story of James Garfield)
King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, by Taylor Branch
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, by George Packer
No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
WORLD LEADERS
Mao, by Jung Chang
Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, by Alan Bullock
The Last Tsar, by Edward Radinsky
The Last Lion, William Manchester's three volumes on Winston Churchill
Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts
Caesar: Life of a Colossus, by Adrian Keith Goldsworthy
Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger
Mountbatten, A Biography, by Hilip Ziegler
The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson (Churchill and the family during the war)
Churchill: Walking With Destiny, by Andrew Roberts
Churchill: A Biography, by Roy Jenkins
LEADERS IN EXPLORATION, INNOVATION AND BUSINESS
Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose (about Lewis and Clark and their remarkable journey of exploration)
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Personal History, by Kathleen Graham
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller
The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow
The Warburgs, by Ron Chernow
The Wizard of Menlo Park, by Randall Strauss
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
Leonardo DaVinci, by Walter Isaacson
Galileo’s Daughter, by Dava Sobel
Einstein, by Walter Isaacson
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and The Race to Electrify the World, by Jill Jonnes
The Great Bridge, by David McCullough (the Brooklyn Bridge through the story of its builders)
Lindbergh, by A. Scott Berg
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles
The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait, by Frederic Morton
MORE “ORDINARY” PEOPLE WITH INTERESTING STORIES
The Orientalist, by Tom Reiss
Sandy Koufax, by Jane Leavy
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (part biography and part gripping story of medicine, race, and America)
The Power Broker, by Robert Caro
Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (his own story and philosophy from the Holocaust)
The Dreyfus Affair, by Piers Paul Read
An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris
The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus, by Jean-Denis Bredin
Have a great day,
Glenn