21 Books Like The Reason Why

This one isn’t fantasy at all. In fact, it’s probably the most accurate fictional retelling of the battle of Gettysburg out there. But I love it so much I had to list it here.

Furthermore, the characters involved—such as Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain—are deeply spiritual men, meaning that many pages meditate on the meaning of all this blood and loss. These meditations evoke a sense fantasy often can: that the visible world contains a mystery deeper than our limited minds can grasp. 

Yet the text remains deeply human. The Civil War pits brother against brother, friend against friend. In it, there is a great speech by Col. Chamberlain addressing his men which captures a theme of the book.

“This is a different kind of army,” he says. “If you look back through history you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight… show more.

This book is an eminently readable classic of historical writing that analyzes human historical behavior as it is causally intertwined with human health and disease evolution.

It inspired me to add health and disease as variables in my interpretation of cultural evolution, effectively completing the definition of my maturing model of scholarship.

I loved this book enough to read it twice. In fact, felt compelled to read it twice because of Connell’s amazing portrayal of Custer and dozens of other figures, both American and Native American, both well-known and obscure.

The battle of the Little Bighorn lasted only a few hours but had an amazing impact, and Connell tells the story with remarkable originality.     

Morris’s history of the rise and fall of the Zulu kingdom remains a classic. Trained as a journalist, Morris presents a vivid, lively, and compelling narrative, tracing the rise of Shaka’s Zulu kingdom, the outbreak of war in 1879, and the tragic aftermath of civil war and national disintegration. Although more recent scholarship casts doubt on some of Morris’s assertions, his book remains the starting point for understanding the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.

Before becoming a journalist and author, Prebble served in the ranks of the British Army’s Royal Artillery throughout WW2. This experience gave him sympathy for the ordinary soldier that runs through much of his work, and especially this account of the lop-sided and bloody battle that ended the Jacobite rebellion of 1746. In Culloden, Prebble draws upon eyewitness testimony to reconstruct the brutal reality behind the romantic legends spun around the ‘Young Pretender’ Bonnie Prince Charlie, and chronicles the harsh consequences for the men – many of them Scottish Highlanders - he led into rebellion against King George II. In restrained but evocative prose, Prebble tells the grim story with balance and compassion. Culloden inspired an innovative docudrama by Peter Watkins, while Prebble himself co-wrote the screenplay of the film Zulu.

Winner of a special Pulitzer Prize in 1960, of the five titles selected here, this is the only one to be written by a professional historian. Despite his academic background and meticulous research in Europe’s archives, Mattingly’s book is anything but dry, and remains a classic of accessible historical non-fiction. The opening chapter, describing the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots in 1587, is brilliantly written, and as the narrative moves inexorably towards the sprawling naval battle between England and Spain it fills a wide canvas with equally striking events and personalities. Mattingly’s intimate knowledge of the source material, combined with his writing skills, enables him to tell the exciting story of the Armada’s disastrous fate and to place it in the broader diplomatic context - what he saw as ‘the first great international crisis in modern history’.

It’s hard to understand why people often don’t like well-educated leaders. When leaders in public or high-profile roles use research, evidence, and facts to guide their work, people often criticize them for acting like “know it alls.”

But great school leaders are well-read and should be interested in evidence and facts. In Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Hofstadter argues that anti-intellectualism—hostility toward intellectualism, academic theories, and science—is a core American value that applies to politics, religion, and not just education.

Given that the current US politics deemphasizes the importance of reading, studying, and facts, this book helps us understand why many parents and communities don’t value the people who lead schools. This book will help readers understand the current conditions of our country.

Morrison, the winner of two Bancroft Prizes and Two Pulitzer Prizes (likely the most by anyone in history) was a close friend of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

He was given the rank of Admiral, in the Reserves and went to the Pacific, where he had full access to all naval reports and correspondence. Morrison’s 15 volumes are extremely well written and unsurpassed for their accuracy in describing the incredible struggle that began on December 7, 1941 and finally ended in August in Tokyo Bay.  

Morrison is particularly interested in the naval battles, and no one could tell them better than Morrison. He is particularly good at the incredible orders that Admiral Halsey gave to Admirals Scott and Callaghan, full well knowing that they were going to their deaths; with light cruisers and destroyers, they pitched into a battle with a far superior Japanese naval force, losing most of their… show more.

As soon as I told my agent I wanted to write this book she told me I had to read David Niven’s autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon, and she was absolutely right.

This book is the follow-up to the first (brilliant) autobiography, and this one spends less time on David’s personal life, and is more a recounting of Hollywood stories, as he lived them. Fascinating, shocking, and an absolute must for lovers of Old Hollywood!  

These were an early read for me, and at 14 years old, I consumed every Flashman book I could find. Harry Flashman was the bully responsible for the abusive treatment of Tom in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and I so wanted to see him get the fate he deserved. 

Flashman is a cad, a bully, a coward, and the worst sort of officer, but he always seems to turn up trumps—a phrase with strange resonance today. These meticulously researched novels—this one is set amidst the Charge of the Light Brigade - put Flashman in the worst of situations, only for him to cheat, lie, and bluff his way out. They taught me that heroes don’t always have to be noble or nice.