Books that gave me a fresh perspective on American history & events

by Mark Robinson
|
6 books
I’m a big believer in the idea that history teaches us even more about our present than it does about our past, so I’m constantly reading books that not only describe our history, but explain it too.
Read more... Read less...

The Quartet

Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789
Joseph J. Ellis, 2016
The decade between the end of America’s Revolutionary War and the dawn of a new, functioning government that has become the envy of the world was always a mysterious black hole for me. This book explains how four men, George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, managed to bridge the distance between the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution.

Founding Brothers

The Revolutionary Generation
Joseph J. Ellis, 2002
America’s founding fathers are rarely described or thought of in everyday human terms. They are, instead, these iconic abstractions. Joe Ellis brings them back down to earth and reveals how similar they were to senators and congressmen of today, wheeling and dealing, leveraging personal relationships and harboring petty grievances. Yet somehow, making them human does not diminish their importance or their extraordinary accomplishments.

Boom!

Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today
Tom Brokaw, 2007
Legendary journalist Tom Brokaw has written several books about the “Greatest Generation” of the Depression and WWII, but I’m a Baby Boomer. I grew up in the sixties, a time of constant change. Boom! brings a journalist’s clear-eyed perspective to those transformative years and gives my generation the portrait it deserves.

The Audacity to Win

The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory
David Plouffe, 2010
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential victory did not simply beat the odds and defy expectations; it completely rewrote the rules of political campaigns in a way that took everyone else years to catch up. As someone who has spent their professional career in marketing, I had to know: How’d they do that? David Plouffe’s behind-the-scenes memoir is as thrilling as it is informative.

Injustices

The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted
Ian Millhiser, 2016
The subtitle of this book is “The Supreme Court’s history of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.” We think of the Supreme Court as our nation’s ultimate temple of justice and fairness, but the harsh reality is that few American institutions have inflicted greater suffering on ordinary people than the Supreme Court of the United States. Ian Millhiser shares the stories of landmark decisions that have changed the course of American history.

The Defining Moment

FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
Jonathan Alter, 2007
It was a total shock to me to learn that in 1932, when FDR was elected in the midst of the Great Depression, the majority of Americans were looking for – and hoping for – an absolute dictator, someone who would take control and order everyone to do whatever was needed. FDR’s first 100 days in office were a whirlwind of executive action, but fortunately, he had no desire for absolute power and preserved the values and principles of democracy.