By Michael Goldman
The release of a number of terrific new books regarding the personal and political strengths and weaknesses of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded me once again that the understanding of the nuances in the actions of political players, and their ultimate impact on historical events, is a never-ending journey.
That said, luckily there are books that paint broad mosaics of large events, thus allowing those interested in just dipping their toe into the water of history without drowning in its minutia can do so successfully.
In chronological order, here are some single-volume texts I believe will inspire you to dig deeper into the rich and complex history of our nation.
First up, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff. The title itself gives away why this is head and shoulders over any other text on the subject.
Most of us learn the American Revolution commenced in April of 1775 and ended in Yorktown in 1781.
The truth is the Revolutionary War was a long time in coming and a long time in ending and the Glorious Cause is an extraordinary way to appreciate both the fears and flaws of the founders, as well as their courage and brilliance.
The complexities leading up to the American Civil War are best explored and understood through the reading of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about the outbreak of World War I is The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, a book that many to this day still credit for leading President John F. Kennedy away from a precipitous action that could have turned the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 from a historical footnote into a nuclear holocaust.
Two essential books that must be read in tandem to understand why most Americans today have come to believe that an aggressive federal government is necessary to guarantee a safety net is always in place for its citizens in times of disaster are Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry and The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan.
In the first book, you'll travel back to a time before FEMA, when natural disasters meant destroyed lives and the federal government was legally precluded from implementing any coordinated national response to aid victims.
In the second, you'll understand just how traumatic an ecological event it had to be for the people to finally demand that the federal government no longer just observe national disasters, but instead respond and act.
Next up, World War II is represented by the most recent work, the 2012 The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts. It is not surprising that it took so long to produce this book, since it tells the story of a war larger and more convoluted than any previous conflict in world history.
On the other hand, the Vietnam conflict has produced many great works, both personal and epic, but to me none equals A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan.
If World War I was the war to end all wars and World War II was the war to save democracy, then Vietnam was the war that ought to have taught America that "wars of choice," no matter how noble their original motives, always end in disaster.
Clearly that was a lesson lost on former President George W. Bush, who ended up entangling America in its longest conflict in its history, our current mess in Iraq.
Up to now, no one has done a better job of explaining how this happened than author Michael Isikoff in his Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. American history explained and understood in eight volumes.
Let the reading begin.
Michael Goldman is president of Goldman Associates in Boston.