Books like The Best and the Brightest

01

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III

Robert A. Caro · Biography

Master of the Senate is the third volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson and covers his years as a senator from 1949 through 1958, culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

A kindred history read.

02

Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume II

Robert A. Caro · Biography

Means of Ascent is the second volume of Robert Caro's multi-decade biography of Lyndon Johnson, covering the years between Johnson's defeat in the 1941 Senate race and his stolen victory in the 1948 Democratic primary.

A kindred history read.

03

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin · Biography

Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of Abraham Lincoln's formation of his cabinet — which included his three main rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination: William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates — is one of the most widely discussed leadership books of the twenty-first century and one of the most readable biographies of the Lincoln era.

A kindred history read.

04

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

A kindred history read.

05

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Thomas E. Ricks · History

Thomas Ricks was the Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post when he wrote Fiasco, and the book reflects years of direct access to the military officials, planners, and soldiers involved in the Iraq War.

Both dig into political decision-making.

06

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

Erik Larson · History

Isaac's Storm reconstructs the deadliest natural disaster in American history: the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, killing somewhere between six and twelve thousand people in a single day.

Both dig into hubris.

07

Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War

John Lewis Gaddis · History

Strategies of Containment is John Lewis Gaddis's systematic analysis of how American national security policy evolved across successive administrations from Truman through Reagan.

Both dig into american foreign policy.

08

The Forever War

Dexter Filkins · History

Dexter Filkins spent more than a decade covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the New York Times, and The Forever War is his attempt to render what he witnessed in a form that is closer to literature than journalism.

Both dig into american foreign policy.

09

The Pentagon Papers

Neil Sheehan et al. · History

The Pentagon Papers is the popular name for a classified Defense Department study commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967, which documented the history of American involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967.

Both dig into vietnam war.

10

Dispatches

Michael Herr · Memoir

Michael Herr went to Vietnam as a correspondent for Esquire in 1967 and spent eighteen months embedded with Marine and Army units before the experience broke him psychologically.

Both dig into vietnam war.

11

Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer · Memoir

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's firsthand account of the May 1996 Everest expedition that killed eight climbers in a single afternoon.

Both dig into hubris.

12

Startup

Jerry Kaplan · Business

Startup is Jerry Kaplan's account of GO Corporation, the pen-computing company he co-founded in 1987 and ran until it collapsed in 1994.

Both dig into hubris.