Books like President in Love — picked by fans

 After learning of the intense relationship between Woodrow and Edith Wilson, this was the next book I turned to in order to learn more about both of them and their role in history.

It provides an excellent foundation on Edith’s upbringing and adult life before she met Woodrow, which informs her actions during their marriage. It provides wonderful photographs, illustrating the era and the close circle of associates that helped and hindered them on their journey.

This collection of letters home by Chief Nurse Julia Stimson is an enlightening account of nursing during World War 1.

As a retired Registered Nurse myself, I wanted to learn more about those important and challenging times for the profession. There is nothing like reading a character’s own words to help you understand their daily turmoil and triumph. It provides a window into not only medical and nursing care, but of the vast challenges of the day, putting our own troubles into perspective.

Emily Warren Roebling was a woman we all should have heard of, but few have.

I grew up in northern New Jersey, and am fascinated with the history of New York City. When I learned of Emily’s role in building the Brooklyn Bridge, an impressive feat of engineering and icon even today, it set me on a path to learn all about her, and later to learn and write about other women who are lost in the shadows of history.

This non-fiction account of her life sheds light on not only Emily Roebling, but of the fascinating time from Reconstruction to the Gilded Age in New York City.

Every schoolchild learns the story of Orville and Wilbur Wright and the famous first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk.

But how many know of the brilliant, irrepressible, and extroverted woman who supported them throughout and is a key reason for their success? The woman who travelled to France and met with presidents, kings, and queens to sell the idea of aviation, when the American people weren’t yet believers?

In keeping with my desire to learn the rest of the story, especially the women in the background who made the grand events possible, I am studying the story of Katharine Wright Haskell.

Both heartwarming and tragic at times, it is a story of the American dream at a time when it seemed anything was possible.

An indispensable work to anyone interested in the Romanovs, and especially in the life and reign of Tsar Nicholas II. Here, in their own words from diaries and letters are the thoughts and inner-most feelings of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra, as well as numerous royal relatives – though the main focus is on Nicholas and Alexandra. Through these written words, the imperial couple and their families are revealed; they’re given a voice and come alive across more than six hundred pages of text. Interspersed as well are a variety of primary sources such as memoirs, documents, diplomatic letters, and the like. But it is the letters and diaries which take center stage and deliver an emotional read.

Russian historians Maylunas and Mironenko (he was Director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation) have done an admirable job of culling through an enormous amount of material… show more.

The authors spent ten years researching and acquiring the 30,000 letters that resulted in this collection portraying the wide range of experiences of women in uniform during World War II. I’ve returned to this book often during my research and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the role women played during the war. These eyewitness accounts of the day-to-day lives of ordinary women stepping up to do extraordinary things are compelling and inspirational.

Some people might not think writing a letter is a tremendously brave act, but it is if you are a young woman who knows in her heart that she needs to challenge a very famous and beloved author – a man even she admires! I had never heard of Eliza Davies and her letters to Charles Dickens and was captivated by the story. Davies wrote to Dickens protesting his stereotypical and harmful depiction of Jewish people in Oliver Twist. And she made a difference! I love how the story teaches kids that they, too, can make a difference and that activism takes many forms, in this case, letter-writing. Added bonus: the book contains quotes from Eliza’s actual letters, which appeals to me immensely as a history geek. 

The big question for World War II is what kept men fighting in appalling conditions, with high losses against an implacable enemy. McManus focuses on the American army to answer this question, but his answers could apply to many of the fighting men in other armies as well. The book explores the nature of combat and the psychological mechanisms used to cope with the conditions of modern war. This is a dimension of the history that too often gets overlooked as divisions and units are moved around on the historians’ map of the war, yet it is a central issue to understand what motivates soldiers and keeps them fighting effectively. Sadly, a great many did, indeed, end up as psychological casualties.

Upon receiving the news that her two young daughters had been killed by a drunk driver, Genevieve Jurgensen didn’t think she could go on, let alone ever write about her loss. Fortunately for us, she eventually found a way to tell this story. Through letters to a friend, she draws us in, circling the pain of that terrible day, musing about the mysterious ways in which loss can coexist with a happy, ongoing life. With its raw and intimate feel, the book is a profoundly moving testimony to the complicated process of healing.

Narrative Therapy (of which this book is the founding text) traces its roots back to the French philosopher Michel Foucault and postmodern philosophy. Not that anyone can agree on a definition of postmodernism. Invoking Foucault’s critique of power, narrative therapy sees the DSM-5 (the standard list of mental illness that is akin to the Bible in psychiatry) as grounded not in objective truth but as a mostly fabricated list of pseudo-diseases a profession has conjured up in order to assure it is well-paid. Narrative therapy works not on attempting to change any objective condition the client may inhabit but to motivate the patient to change his subjective view of his condition.