Friday, December 02, 2005
A List of Influential Books
Some people have asked me if there was any one book that I’ve read where I get my ideas. I tell them that there’s never just one book that can explain it all for you. I wish it was that simple, but it isn’t. Even those books that claim to tell all (or as much as they can) don’t really. Quite often, they tell things according to their own beliefs which may not be your beliefs! So, I usually ignore them.
As such, I’ll give you an ever so brief listing of some of the books that have helped me to understand things a bit. Again, it isn’t just one book that does it. Often, it’s a bit of a book here and a bit of a book there that brings clarity. Since it’s the gift-giving season, you may look at this as a possible suggestion list. To keep things short and quick, I’ll limit things to the United States.
To start, one should begin with the founding documents. Luckily for us, this is the age of the Internet and these documents can all be found on the web. Namely, these would be the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Yet, reading these can give one a headache - unless we’re lawyers! How do we get any understanding from them? One can start by reading the Federalist Papers written by two of the men who helped write the Constitution, namely Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Again, we can find these writings on the Internet. (If you can’t find yourself reading the whole group, try reading two of the best: Numbers 10 and 53, both written by Madison.)
If you’re still confused by what it all means, you can read how the Constitution came into being in the book Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen. It was written 20 years ago, but it’s still a readable volume that gives the background information on what was happening in and around the convention that hammered out this founding document. There are other books out there that may go into more depth, but this book is a good start for most people.
It’s important to have an understanding of the founding documents because it helps us understand the issues that shaped later events. The first major issue was slavery which helped bring about the calamitous event called the Civil War. Obviously, there have been volumes upon volumes written about this war. I’ll limit myself to one-volume books. My personal favorite is James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom. It’s a long book, but it’s as thorough as one can get in one book about such an unwieldy subject. I read it a dozen years ago and it still helps me understand not just the politics of that time, but of our own. Once you get past the fist 100 pages of statistical analysis, the book becomes a fast read.
If you want a shorter history, Bruce Catton, the premier Civil War historian of a generation ago wrote a series of books dealing with the Union Army. This Hallowed Ground is a one-volume work that’s half the size of McPherson’s. If you want the losing point of view, you can read Douglas Southall Freeman’s The Story of the Confederacy. Freeman also wrote a series of books on Gen. Robert E. Lee and his generals that are still considered definitive.
I’m writing this on the run, so I can only think of books concerning major events. As such, I’ll skip another 80 years and go to the Great Depression and World War II. There’s one book published a few years ago by David M. Kennedy called Freedom from Fear about the Untied States during this era. Like Battle Cry of Freedom, it’s a long yet thorough book. Also, like McPherson’s book, it’s a part of the Oxford University Press multi-volume series on the history of the United States.
If you want to read about the Second World War itself, like the U.S. Civil War, there are books innumerable! Gerhard L. Weinberg wrote a one-volume history called A World at Arms. Since it’s 1200 pages long, you can attempt to read it! If you want an abridged version, there are some pictorial histories which are enjoyable. They’re usually geared for children, but I don’t see anything wrong about adults reading them. The same goes for pictorial histories of the Civil War. American Heritage Magazine published a series of them that I’ve enjoyed since childhood.
If you’re interested in specific events of World War II, Rick Atkinson is in the midst of writing his Liberation Trilogy about the U.S. Army’s campaigns against Germany. So far, he has one book, An Army at Dawn about the American invasion of French Morocco in 1942 (Operation Torch). Later volumes will deal with the Sicilian/Italian front and the invasion of Western Europe starting with D-Day.
As for D-Day, the two best books are Stephen Ambrose’s book of the same name and Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. Ambrose deals with mainly the American story, but Ryan gives a fuller picture telling things from all perspectives. It was also published on the 15th anniversary of the battle and many of the survivors were still alive and active. Another great book by Cornelius Ryan is A Bridge Too Far about the disastrous Arnhem Campaign in the Netherlands. It’s longer than the D-Day book, but that’s because the operation took two weeks while D-Day was just one day. (If you don’t feel like reading either one, you can always watch the film version of both books.)
Again, I limited myself to the American perspective here (with a couple of exceptions). As for post-war books dealing with the Cold War, Civil Rights and other topics, there isn’t any one volume written yet that can give a proper perspective. Some have been attempted, but since the events are of recent memory, it would be difficult to be truly objective. As far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been a comprehensive history of the Cold War written yet. Those that have been written tend to be triumphalist tripe. Be that as it may, we can still read the works of the architects of the Cold War and get their reasoning behind their decisions. Of course, we may question their decisions, but it’s a beginning. George F. Kennan (American Diplomacy) and Dean Acheson (Present at the Creation) come to mind.
The Civil Rights movement also has many volumes to its name. Eyes on the Prize, both book and documentary, is a great start in getting a bird’s eye view. The same goes for the Vietnam War and its slew of documentaries and books. Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow and its companion documentary Vietnam: A Television History are a great place to start. It’s always good to have an overview, especially one that tries to give both points of view.
Sometimes, we need contemporary writers to help us in understanding contemporary times. My own personal favorites who do an admirable job are David Halberstam and Garry Wills. Halberstam wrote the seminal volume on the beginning of the Vietnam quagmire in The Best and the Brightest. He published it in 1970 when the war was still being fought and the architects were out of office and out of power. His other writings deal with the auto industry, the press, the 1950s and – everybody’s favorite – sports. (I just finished reading his most recent book on Bill Belichick.)
Garry Wills wrote his own seminal volume on that other contemporary American tragedy – Watergate – in Nixon Agonistes. He also wrote about another president in Lincoln at Gettysburg which helps explain why Lincoln’s most famous speech helped bridge Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence with the Union cause. It makes one understand that the issues were more than over interpreting the U.S. Constitution, but something much deeper (from all men being created equal to giving us a new birth of freedom).
So, anything by either one of these authors will give one a better understanding about the events around us. If one prefers their own philosophical point of view, the best may be Howard Zinn on the left and William F. Buckley on the right. There are others who are doing the same thing, but theirs are just screaming screeds that will be forgotten in a few years. Both Zinn and Buckley, on the other hand, are good writers whose books will be around long after they are. I can’t say that I agree with everything either one wrote, but there are enough from one or the other that help me get a better understanding of things (plus another perspective which I wouldn’t have known otherwise).
The same can be said about any one of the books and authors that I’ve just mentioned - and any others that may come to mind if you ask! The understandings don’t necessarily come from reading the whole book, but from getting a piece here and a piece there, and then come up with one’s own conclusion. The bottom line is we shouldn’t let others think for us. We should try to be informed as much as possible. A book on the Civil War may help us understand something about the Iraq situation, or an essay in the Federalist Papers may give us an idea about a recent law that was passed or a Supreme Court decision that was made. The books that I’ve mentioned are also for general reading, so they give an overview which is a great place to start. If you’re interested in more details, you can go ahead, but it’s always best to get the whole story first.
Of course, you don’t have to take my suggestion of this as a gift list. Many of these books may still be in local public libraries. I’m not always sure of this since I know that many libraries are discarding a lot of their books and going electronic. (My own book collection is filled with library discards!) To me this is a shame. The Internet is a great resource, but there’s something to the feel of having a book in one’s hands. Plus, as many scholars may know, it’s easier to go from one book to another to still another when they’re all in front of you – or, on a nearby shelf!
As such, I’ll give you an ever so brief listing of some of the books that have helped me to understand things a bit. Again, it isn’t just one book that does it. Often, it’s a bit of a book here and a bit of a book there that brings clarity. Since it’s the gift-giving season, you may look at this as a possible suggestion list. To keep things short and quick, I’ll limit things to the United States.
To start, one should begin with the founding documents. Luckily for us, this is the age of the Internet and these documents can all be found on the web. Namely, these would be the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Yet, reading these can give one a headache - unless we’re lawyers! How do we get any understanding from them? One can start by reading the Federalist Papers written by two of the men who helped write the Constitution, namely Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Again, we can find these writings on the Internet. (If you can’t find yourself reading the whole group, try reading two of the best: Numbers 10 and 53, both written by Madison.)
If you’re still confused by what it all means, you can read how the Constitution came into being in the book Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen. It was written 20 years ago, but it’s still a readable volume that gives the background information on what was happening in and around the convention that hammered out this founding document. There are other books out there that may go into more depth, but this book is a good start for most people.
It’s important to have an understanding of the founding documents because it helps us understand the issues that shaped later events. The first major issue was slavery which helped bring about the calamitous event called the Civil War. Obviously, there have been volumes upon volumes written about this war. I’ll limit myself to one-volume books. My personal favorite is James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom. It’s a long book, but it’s as thorough as one can get in one book about such an unwieldy subject. I read it a dozen years ago and it still helps me understand not just the politics of that time, but of our own. Once you get past the fist 100 pages of statistical analysis, the book becomes a fast read.
If you want a shorter history, Bruce Catton, the premier Civil War historian of a generation ago wrote a series of books dealing with the Union Army. This Hallowed Ground is a one-volume work that’s half the size of McPherson’s. If you want the losing point of view, you can read Douglas Southall Freeman’s The Story of the Confederacy. Freeman also wrote a series of books on Gen. Robert E. Lee and his generals that are still considered definitive.
I’m writing this on the run, so I can only think of books concerning major events. As such, I’ll skip another 80 years and go to the Great Depression and World War II. There’s one book published a few years ago by David M. Kennedy called Freedom from Fear about the Untied States during this era. Like Battle Cry of Freedom, it’s a long yet thorough book. Also, like McPherson’s book, it’s a part of the Oxford University Press multi-volume series on the history of the United States.
If you want to read about the Second World War itself, like the U.S. Civil War, there are books innumerable! Gerhard L. Weinberg wrote a one-volume history called A World at Arms. Since it’s 1200 pages long, you can attempt to read it! If you want an abridged version, there are some pictorial histories which are enjoyable. They’re usually geared for children, but I don’t see anything wrong about adults reading them. The same goes for pictorial histories of the Civil War. American Heritage Magazine published a series of them that I’ve enjoyed since childhood.
If you’re interested in specific events of World War II, Rick Atkinson is in the midst of writing his Liberation Trilogy about the U.S. Army’s campaigns against Germany. So far, he has one book, An Army at Dawn about the American invasion of French Morocco in 1942 (Operation Torch). Later volumes will deal with the Sicilian/Italian front and the invasion of Western Europe starting with D-Day.
As for D-Day, the two best books are Stephen Ambrose’s book of the same name and Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. Ambrose deals with mainly the American story, but Ryan gives a fuller picture telling things from all perspectives. It was also published on the 15th anniversary of the battle and many of the survivors were still alive and active. Another great book by Cornelius Ryan is A Bridge Too Far about the disastrous Arnhem Campaign in the Netherlands. It’s longer than the D-Day book, but that’s because the operation took two weeks while D-Day was just one day. (If you don’t feel like reading either one, you can always watch the film version of both books.)
Again, I limited myself to the American perspective here (with a couple of exceptions). As for post-war books dealing with the Cold War, Civil Rights and other topics, there isn’t any one volume written yet that can give a proper perspective. Some have been attempted, but since the events are of recent memory, it would be difficult to be truly objective. As far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been a comprehensive history of the Cold War written yet. Those that have been written tend to be triumphalist tripe. Be that as it may, we can still read the works of the architects of the Cold War and get their reasoning behind their decisions. Of course, we may question their decisions, but it’s a beginning. George F. Kennan (American Diplomacy) and Dean Acheson (Present at the Creation) come to mind.
The Civil Rights movement also has many volumes to its name. Eyes on the Prize, both book and documentary, is a great start in getting a bird’s eye view. The same goes for the Vietnam War and its slew of documentaries and books. Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow and its companion documentary Vietnam: A Television History are a great place to start. It’s always good to have an overview, especially one that tries to give both points of view.
Sometimes, we need contemporary writers to help us in understanding contemporary times. My own personal favorites who do an admirable job are David Halberstam and Garry Wills. Halberstam wrote the seminal volume on the beginning of the Vietnam quagmire in The Best and the Brightest. He published it in 1970 when the war was still being fought and the architects were out of office and out of power. His other writings deal with the auto industry, the press, the 1950s and – everybody’s favorite – sports. (I just finished reading his most recent book on Bill Belichick.)
Garry Wills wrote his own seminal volume on that other contemporary American tragedy – Watergate – in Nixon Agonistes. He also wrote about another president in Lincoln at Gettysburg which helps explain why Lincoln’s most famous speech helped bridge Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence with the Union cause. It makes one understand that the issues were more than over interpreting the U.S. Constitution, but something much deeper (from all men being created equal to giving us a new birth of freedom).
So, anything by either one of these authors will give one a better understanding about the events around us. If one prefers their own philosophical point of view, the best may be Howard Zinn on the left and William F. Buckley on the right. There are others who are doing the same thing, but theirs are just screaming screeds that will be forgotten in a few years. Both Zinn and Buckley, on the other hand, are good writers whose books will be around long after they are. I can’t say that I agree with everything either one wrote, but there are enough from one or the other that help me get a better understanding of things (plus another perspective which I wouldn’t have known otherwise).
The same can be said about any one of the books and authors that I’ve just mentioned - and any others that may come to mind if you ask! The understandings don’t necessarily come from reading the whole book, but from getting a piece here and a piece there, and then come up with one’s own conclusion. The bottom line is we shouldn’t let others think for us. We should try to be informed as much as possible. A book on the Civil War may help us understand something about the Iraq situation, or an essay in the Federalist Papers may give us an idea about a recent law that was passed or a Supreme Court decision that was made. The books that I’ve mentioned are also for general reading, so they give an overview which is a great place to start. If you’re interested in more details, you can go ahead, but it’s always best to get the whole story first.
Of course, you don’t have to take my suggestion of this as a gift list. Many of these books may still be in local public libraries. I’m not always sure of this since I know that many libraries are discarding a lot of their books and going electronic. (My own book collection is filled with library discards!) To me this is a shame. The Internet is a great resource, but there’s something to the feel of having a book in one’s hands. Plus, as many scholars may know, it’s easier to go from one book to another to still another when they’re all in front of you – or, on a nearby shelf!
