11 Best History & Theory, History Books

Between 1920 and 1950, America saw an unprecedented expansion of wealth and power underwritten by technological innovation, cultural confidence, and victory in war. American elites won World War II, rebuilt the world order with America at its head, inaugurated the jet age, and put a man on the moon. The boom led to a larger, richer middle class that confirmed America’s best ideals.

By the early 1970s, that ended. American elites have captured a disproportionate share of the social and economic rewards over the last fifty years. Meanwhile, the middle class has shrunk in size and has become economically insecure, owning a smaller share of national wealth than at any time in the nation’s history. This has happened even while most households have two income earners, versus the single-income households that characterized the period of shared prosperity. At the same time, technological innovation that improves people’s standard of living has dramatically slowed.

These trends undermine the basic premise behind the broad acceptance of a meritocratic elite, whose rule is predicated on the belief that if the best rise to the top, their talent and energy will create a rising tide that lifts all boats. We had that once. We can have it again.

This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of fundamental principles of freedom–amounting to a quiet repeal of the American revolution.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the summation of a lifetime of study and thought about where we as a society are headed–and why we need to change course before we do irretrievable damage.

In Israel and the West, it is called the Six Day War. In the Arab world, it is known as the June War, or simply as “the Setback.” Never has a conflict so short, unforeseen, and largely unwanted by both sides so transformed the world. The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the intifada, and the rise of Palestinian terror are all part of the outcome of those six days of intense Arab-Israeli fighting in the summer of 1967.

Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren spotlights all the participants—Arab, Israeli, Soviet, and American—that were involved in this earth-shaking clash. Drawing on thousands of top-secret documents and exclusive personal interviews, he recreates the regional and international context that, by the late 1960s, virtually assured an Arab-Israeli conflagration.

A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation.

Revised and updated with six new chapters and many new photographs following his death at age 94, this is the definitive account of George H.W. Bush’s life and career written by his only daughter with his full cooperation.

Much happened to George H.W. Bush and the country since the initial publication of My Father, My President: His nemesis, Saddam Huessin, has been captured and executed. And while his son George W. Bush has left the White House, his grandson George P. Bush serves as the Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.

As author Doro Bush Koch did for the 2006 edition, she again has contacted hundreds of the late President’s friends and associates, conducted scores of interviews with dignitaries; tapped the memories of family members, including her late mother, her four brothers, and of course, her late father himself; and collected new information from the former President’s never-before released files.

This memoir offers fascinating details about his tenure as head of the Republican National Committee during Watergate, Ambassador to the U.N., America’s liaison to China, and Vice President for eight years under Ronald Reagan. Doro shows how the 41st President felt when two of his sons entered politics. She also sheds new light on the unlikely friendship with the President’s once-rival Bill Clinton and former President Barack Obama. Distinguished by its many first-person accounts, never-before-published photos, and a foreword by the late Barbara Bush, My Father, My President is at once the history of a great man, and the chronicle of a rapidly changing nation.

The title, taken from the Great Seal of the United States (which is seen on the reverse side of the dollar bill), means “a new order for the ages.” In this major new interpretation of the framing of the US Constitution, Forrest McDonald brilliantly explains the philosophical origins from which this “new order” was born.

McDonald deftly recreates the intellectual world of the amazing fifty-five men whose genius and passion gave to us the United States Constitution. He explains their understanding of law, history, political philosophy, and political economy, and how these perspectives played out in the Constitutional Convention. Above all this ideology, he shows how the Framers were guided by their own experience, wisdom, and common sense.

This star-studded recording brings to life a history-changing political battle.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates made history and changed its course through seven legendary match-ups between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race. Although he lost the election, Lincoln’s gift for oratory and his antislavery stance made him a nationally known figure, and led to his election to the presidency in 1860. Never before presented in audio, these debates and great statesmen are brought to life by narrators Richard Dreyfuss (Douglas) and David Strathairn (Lincoln). The Lincoln-Douglas Debates provide a soundtrack to a nation discovering its better self.

How will democracy end? And what will replace it? A preeminent political scientist examines the past, present, and future of an endangered political philosophy

Since the end of World War II, democracy’s sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world’s most stable democracies. How bad could things get?

In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable — a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better.

A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life.

An intellectual biography of James Madison, arguing that he invented American politics as we know it

How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history; his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist Papers and then helped to found the Republican Party just a few years later. This so-called Madison problem has occupied scholars for ages.

As Jay Cost shows in this incisive new biography, the underlying logic of Madison’s seemingly mixed record comes into focus only when we understand him primarily as a working politician. Whereas other founders split their time between politics and other vocations, Madison dedicated himself singularly to the work of politics and ultimately developed it into a distinctly American idiom. He was, in short, the first American politician.

The US Constitution was approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. It was to become law only if it was ratified by nine of the thirteen states. New York was a key state, but it contained strong forces opposing the Constitution. A series of eighty-five letters appeared in New York City newspapers between October 1787 and August 1788 urging support for the Constitution. These letters remain the first and most authoritative commentary on the American concept of federal government.

Later known asThe Federalist Papers, they were published under the pseudonym ‘Publius,’ although written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. This presentation explores the major arguments contained inThe Federalist Papersand contrasts them with the views of the Anti-Federalists.

A collection of entertaining and cautionary tales of political missteps in American history, from the birth of the nation through the present day

Just in time for the presidential election of 2016 comes Political Suicide, a history of the best and most interesting missteps, peccadilloes, bad calls, backroom hijinks, sordid pasts, rotten breaks, and just plain dumb mistakes in the annals of American politics.

They have tweeted their private parts to women they’re trying to impress. They have gotten caught on tape doing and saying things they really shouldn’t have. They have denied knowing about the underhanded doings of underlings–only to have a paper trail lead straight back to them. Nowadays, it seems like half of what we hear about politicians isn’t about laws or governing but is instead coverage focused on shenanigans, questionable morals, and scandals too numerous to count. And while we shake our heads in disbelief, we still can’t resist poring over the details of these notorious incidents.

In Political Suicide, the foibles of our politicians are brought from the tabloid pages to this entertaining–and cautionary–tale of American history.

One Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Most of us know that America’s Founding Fathers attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia and drafted the Constitution of the United States. The delegates decided to replace the Articles of Confederation with a document that strengthened the federal government, with the most contentious issue being legislative representation. Eventually, a compromise established the bicameral Congress to ensure both equal and proportional representation. But a lot more happened as well–much of it underreported or misunderstood. That’s the focus of this insider’s look at the birth of American government as we know it today. The fact is, the Founding Fathers were ambitious. Also grouchy, scared, and hopeful. They told jokes. They fought. They schemed. They gossiped. They improvised. Occasionally, they killed each other (sorry, Alexander Hamilton). Only by seeing the Founders as real people–not icons–can we appreciate the full story of the nation’s founding with all of its drama, humor, and significance intact. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.