Massively detailed account of the middle period of the Revolutionary War. Atkinson writes military history, but here he also includes long discussions of the political dimensions of the war, especially American relations with France. He also has a gift for brisk, colorful character sketches, and there is no shortage of amazing characters in this war. George Washington is at the center of the story, as he should be, but the British generals come in for many pages of persistent, obvious mistakes, not merely military errors, but also errors in assessing the nature of the American resistance, which is far angrier and more determined than the British ever understand. A great work of history.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington's army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat.
“This is great history . . . compulsively readable . . . There is no better writer of narrative history than the Pulitzer Prize–winning Atkinson.”—The New York Times (Editors' Choice)
The first twenty-one months of the American Revolution—which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton—was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the…
I write spy fiction because I’ve lived close to the seams of power—working and traveling across the U.S., Europe, and China—and I’m obsessed with how ideas turn into decisions. I read philosophy for clarity, history for humility, and intelligence studies for the uncomfortable truth that good intentions aren’t enough.
My novel, A Spy Inside the Castle, grew from years of research and the harder work of translating it into human stakes. I’m passionate about books that illuminate secrecy and strategy without losing sight of people. These five shaped my thinking and, more importantly, kept me honest on the page.
I read The Mission because it opened my eyes to the real story behind the headlines.
Weiner takes you inside CIA missions from the 21st century and shows what was happening behind the curtain while the public only saw the surface.
I was struck by how different the secret history looks compared to the official version. He makes you feel like you’re finally getting the account that no one saw at the time. For me, that transparency is incredibly powerful.
'No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win him a second Pulitzer' JOHN SIMPSON, GUARDIAN
The epic successor to Tim Weiner's National Book Award-winning classic, Legacy of Ashes: a gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in the 21st century, reaching from 9/11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to today's battles with Russia and China - and with the President of the United States.
At the turn of the century, the Central Intelligence Agency was in crisis. The end of the Cold War had robbed the agency of…
Jill Lepore, a professor of both history and law at Harvard, a regular contributor to the New Yorker and the author of fifteen books, is both prolific and proficient. She pulls off the difficult task of writing in-depth sweeping histories that are both impressively researched while also eminently lively and approachable.
Her latest publication traces the history of the U.S. constitution. Its real focus, though, is on how the document was designed to be amended, the myriad ways it has been amended and the many failed efforts along the way to amend it even more. The end result is a solid rebuff of the theory of “originalism” that tends to interpret the constitution as something basically locked into place in 1789.
Lepore never fails to view topics from unexpected angles. Even if at first you balk at her thrust, her documentary back-up and her lively writing style will, at least,…
The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world-and one of the most difficult to amend. At what cost? In this landmark, lavishly illustrated book, Harvard professor of history and law Jill Lepore argues that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. Challenging both originalism and the Supreme Court's monopoly on constitutional interpretation, Lepore argues that the framers never intended for the Constitution to be kept, like a butterfly, under glass but instead expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, improving the machinery of government. In a radical account, Lepore offers a sweeping,…
This is a great new biography of a powerful but terribly flawed figure from 20th century America.
The Taubman brothers (an academic and a journalist) have together produced a compelling picture of Robert S. McNamara, former Harvard Business School academic, Ford Motor Company executive, U.S. Secretary of Defense, and President of the World Bank. McNamara's epic career is narrated in detail in a highly readable, extensive book that is partially based on new sources that have come to light only recently. The Taubmans had access to reams of private correspondence that previous researchers and biographers haven't seen, including, for example, letters from McNamara's mother to his son at college, and Jackie Kennedy's letters to McNamara during his time at the Pentagon. Like a lot of other scholarship, journalism (or indeed documentary film) about McNamara, what emerges is a complex figure, portrayed here as haunted and broken by his moral and…
Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. While he could be cold and arrogant, he was an invaluable friend to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam, even after he concluded that the war was unwinnable.
In McNamara at War, Philip and William Taubman trace McNamara's career from a young faculty member at Harvard Business School and his Second World War service to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and…
President Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy thrives in Oyster Bay, Long Island. As you drive into town, a commanding statue of Roosevelt on horseback greets you. Just beyond lies Sagamore Hill, his beloved home, and the summer White House. Once the center of Roosevelt’s family life, today it is a national park. It is also at the center of Brett Baier’s new book, To Rescue the American Spirit.
In this book, Baier brings readers into Roosevelt’s world, sharing new insights into his life and examining the key decisions and defining moments that shaped America during his presidency. His narrative reveals Roosevelt’s complexity-- the reformer who fought corruption, the conservationist who preserved the vast American wilderness, and the stateman who projected strength – giving readers a vivid portrait of our 26th president and powerfully underscoring why Roosevelt’s values—courage, conservation, and character – still matter.
I have often walked the grounds of Sagamore Hill,…
New York Times Bestseller "This captivating portrayal of Teddy is Bret Baier's gift to us. From Roosevelt's resilience over tragedy to his heroism in war, from his midnight rambles as police commissioner to his dramatic fights for reform as governor and president, Baier summons the irrepressible spirit of the man. What an engaging storyteller! What a joy to read!" -Doris Kearns Goodwin
From #1 bestselling author and Fox News Channel's Chief Political Anchor, a fresh and fascinating exploration of the extraordinary life of Teddy Roosevelt, revealing how his bold leadership thrust America onto the world stage and changed the course…
Guns, Furs, and Gold offers a riveting narrative of the American West by exploring the interactions of the Arikaras, Crows, Cheyennes, and Arapahos with each other and with Euro-American traders, explorers, and settlers from 1804, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on their voyage of discovery, to 1864, when…
Well, I’ve devoted my life to literature (to a lesser extent, to music) as a critic, professor, and author of eleven books, from fiction to criticism to collected journalism to memoir and poetry. I’ve won several awards and fellowships for my own work. So, literary history and biography/autobiography are in my territory, so to speak. You can find more about me and my books at my website.
Cowley was at the center of the Lost Generation in Paris and America, but he also was instrumental in championing such post-WWII authors as Kerouac and Kesey, among others.
This biography covers all his roles and interactions with such authors throughout his life. I found the book often felt to me like a fascinating lecture on the literary life of the 1920s-80s from your favorite English professor in college. So much detail is filled in on the lives and works of the writers of the period as they fit into Cowley’s own work and life.
To take one great example, the story of how Cowley was more responsible than anyone else for rejuvenating Faulkner’s career after his books went out of print, in part through Cowley’s The Portable Faulkner. After Cowley’s labors on Faulkner’s behalf, the obscure Faulkner went on to get all his books reprinted, taught in college…
A finalist for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker
A delightful and majestic reckoning with the ascent of American fiction in the twentieth century through the prism of the under-known man who had an astonishing amount to do with it
Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical “man of letters” of his generation—Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris…
