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Review | 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But what happened next? More than just the discovery of the new world that we call the Americas,Christopher Columbus set off globalization of ecology, trade,...
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Review | The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis can tell a story like no other. In fact, even before I finished reading his “The Big Short,” I wanted to work the book into every conversation I had. The story was that interesting and...
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Review | Civilization: the West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
The elevator pitch for Niall Ferguson‘s “Civilization: The West and the Rest” is simple: Western civilization has risen to dominate world affairs over the last five hundred years, a record unmatched in...
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Review | With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by...
Ranked among the greatest battles in British history, along with Waterloo, defeating the Spanish Armada, and Trafalgar, the Battle of Britain stands as a turning point during World War II when the...
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Review | Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murray
I have friends who remind me, regularly, that wealth is becoming more and more concentrated among the wealthy. Further, the “not rich” are making less than they used to, relative to the wealthy. In...
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Review | Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff
In the closing months of World War II, twenty-four serviceman and WACs climbed aboard a military transport plane for a day of sightseeing over a recently discovered “hidden valley” deep in the interior...
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Review | The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In the author’s note to The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee notes that “Cancer is not one disease, but many diseases.” It anticipates Mukherjee’s history, a look...
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Review | The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die by...
One of the most interesting books I’ve read in recent years was Niall Ferguson‘s Civilization: The West and the Rest, an examination of the extraordinary rise of Western Civilization relative to the...
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Book Review | Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne...
Perhaps what is most fascinating about the strange episode of human history under which the communist oppression of Eastern Europe falls is that it has gone so long without a comprehensive history of...
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Short Review | Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages...
The medieval ages were far more like our modern age than we often think. The only thing that came to my mind prior to reading this book was knights and castles. Hardly a dark age as often portrayed,...
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Book Review | Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alistair...
Fascinating and with the touch of a master storyteller’s hand, if there’s one history I will recommend this Christmas season, it will be Alistair Horne’s Hubris: the Tragedy of War in the Twentieth...
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Book Review | Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
For a guy who literally looks like the Dos Equis man, Mark Kurlansky has managed to find some of the least interesting subject matter I could imagine and turn them into full histories. Whether it’s...
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Book Review | Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Oh, Jerusalem. There is no other place on Earth quite as tragic, drenched in both blood and history. And it makes for reading that cannot be put down. Here’s the short version of why you should read...
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Book Review | The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and...
Adolf Tolkachev’s story is one of brilliant courage and heroism. That it ends in tragedy and betrayal only seems to accentuate the stakes that he faced in his struggle to tear down the totalitarian...
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Book Review | Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Spoiler alert: The Lusitania sinks at the end and the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Dead Wake is the first book by Erik Larson that I’ve read, though I know his books by...
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Dunkirk? Speaking of WW II history, here are a few recommendations…
(Recommendations at the bottom. If you have a favorite you don’t see listed, post it in the comments.) Known as “Operation Dynamo,” the evacuation at Dunkirk began on May 26, 1940, saving 338,000...
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5 Books for the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day
As chance would have it, I happen to have a few recommendations for this 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, or what we now call Veterans Day. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque...
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