History doesn’t ride
only on the backs of soldiers and politicians. It’s also formed by thought and art, which reciprocally reflect
historical circumstances.
In this
splendid book of vast coverage, Menand takes on thought and artistic expression
in the entire Western world from 1945 into the 21st century. Heavies like Martin Heidegger are joined on
stage by the likes of Elvis Presley.
In
Menand’s hands — light of touch, his style unbrokenly lucid—the most profound books
and musical compositions are comprehensible. All sorts of subjects—science, Hollywood, existentialism,
consumerism—come alive and move along with the smoothness of a French railroad
car.
All centers on the Cold War and how
it affected everything. Those who lived
through it will recognize it. Those who
didn’t will learn more than they ever knew.
"An engrossing and impossibly wide-ranging project . . . In The Free World, every seat is a good one." ―Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post
"The Free World sparkles. Fully original, beautifully written . . . One hopes Menand has a sequel in mind. The bar is set very high." ―David Oshinsky, The New York Times Book Review | Editors' Choice
One of The New York Times's 100 best books of 2021 | One of The Washington Post's 50 best nonfiction books of 2021 | A Mother Jones best book of 2021
In his follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Metaphysical…
Meant to be entertaining as well as informative, this book
romps without reverence through the lives and writings of historians, some from beyond the Western world, from ancient Greece to today. That’s 2500 years of written history!
You'll discover that, rather than being just the sober history that teachers may have taught you, historians have come in all forms and with all kinds of minds. They’ve argued with each other, sometimes been fools, showed themselves entirely human—and yet
left us some of the world’s greatest texts of religion, literature, and
learning.
Cohen defines “historian”
controversially as well as liberally, to include Shakespeare, novelists,
political figures, and television personalities. But then, as humans, don’t we all have a past
and think historically? Food for
thought—and fun along the way.
'A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous' Daily Telegraph 'Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself' The Spectator 'Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy' Hilary Mantel 'An enthralling investigation . . . consistently entertaining' The Times 'Epic . . . whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio' New Yorker
Who writes the past? And how do the biases of storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - influence our ideas about history today?
Epic, authoritative and entertaining, Making History delves…
This is the best book on the first great American political crisis
of recent memory. It’s unlikely ever to be surpassed.
Its author, an experienced journalist, offers
up almost 700 pages of propulsively brisk prose about the astonishing
corruption, amateurishness, and stunning incompetence of the presidential
administration of Richard Nixon. Even
for someone who knows much of the scandal, it’s revelatory.
Were the book’s characters for real? Why did such a natively intelligent president
fall prey to such destructive paranoia and surround himself with such
fools?
Read as an adventure story, the
book equals such rip-snorting classics as Treasure Island, such noir
novels as the best of Raymond Chandler, and such comedies as those of the preposterous ones of P. G.
Wodehouse. Hard to put down, it’s as
close to being definitive as possible. Unfortunately, it remains timely.
From Garrett Graff, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, comes the first definitive narrative history of Watergate-"the best and fullest account of the crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)-exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of the modern era.
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills entered six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that would change the course of history:…
This is “my” book since I
contributed to its first version—a 1974 report to the Impeachment Inquiry of
the US Congress occasioned by the “Watergate Era” impeachment of President
Richard Nixon.
I was then asked 45 years
later to bring it up to date, as editor, through the presidency of Barack Obama
because of the similar, continuing crisis caused by Donald Trump. It’s a strange work of history—more like an
ancient chronicle than a modern history: purposefully, like its 1974
predecessor, ruthlessly factual, episodic, without interpretation, devoid of
connective narrative tissue.
Then why
note it here? Because it is a potentially
useful record, it provides the historical context for yet another American
political crisis and offers an example to other countries seeking similar
accountings.
