Books


Newsmax’s Top 25 Books on American History


Study, and savor these classics, says presidential historian Craig Shirley.


W 1


2 BY CRAIG SHIRLEY


riting and reading history is one of the greatest pleasures of life. Writing about Ron- ald Reagan and World War II has been singu- larly pleasurable.


We study history for many reasons: for the sheer joy


of reading; of knowing more than the next guy; or as the noted teacher George Santayana said, just to learn about not repeating failures. As Winston Churchill remarked, several decades after


Democracy in America By Alexis de Tocqueville The leading


book of observations of the United States


by a non-American, and the development of American social and political life.


The Federalist Papers


By Alexander


Hamilton, James


Madison, and John Jay. The important essays that supported


ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Essential.


3


The Age of Jackson


By Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. A very important study of


52 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2021


the period from 1820-1860 and the expansion of the United States.


The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787 By Catherine Drinker


4


Bowen A work of history drawn


from primary sources. It details the compromises necessary to establish the Constitution. Published in 1966, it stands as the definitive story of the crafting of the U.S. Constitution.


5


The Power Broker: Robert


Moses and the Fall of New York


By Robert Caro An important character


study in the accumulation and execution of power by an unelected of icial.


Miracle at Philadelphia:


Santayana: “Those who fail to learn from history are con- demned to repeat it.” Writers and thinkers from Benjamin Franklin to C.S.


Lewis to Dorothy Parker have observed the importance of studying history. History should be explored, studied, and savored. It should not be manipulated to make a political point,


as in the case of the 1619 Project, a pack of lies manipulating facts to serve a political purpose. Everything associated with the 1619 Project should be dis-


counted, including the harebrained fallacy that the Ameri- can Revolution was fought to protect slavery. If the 1619 Project had been presented to me in a term


paper, I would have given it a resounding “F” and a stern lecture to the off ending student.


6 7


Personal Memoirs of


Ulysses S. Grant By Ulysses S. Grant One of the most honest


works by a former U.S. president ever written.


American Moonshot: John


F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race By Douglas Brinkley The definitive


story of America’s quest to put the first man


on the moon.


Civil War Era By James McPherson A comprehensive history of the political and cultural life of the United States from the Mexican War through the Civil War.


8


Battle Cry of Freedom: The


9


Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6,


1944 By Douglas Brinkley


and Ronald J. Drez A key work in preserving the


memory of the brave men who liberated Europe on D-Day.


10


Profi les in Courage


By John F. Kennedy A Pulitzer Prize-winning book


by the future U.S. president on the courageous acts of American senators. JFK, then a senator himself, researched and wrote about the greatest senators while bedridden following back surgery.


F. Kennedy in the White House By Arthur M.


11


Schlesinger Jr. A superb firsthand


observation of one of the most hopeful and tragic presidencies.


A Thousand Days: John


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