NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #96 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird (and sad) time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, continuing my series of books on the Cold War and the atomic age, here are some favorite books on pivotal figures of the nuclear age:
1) David McCullough's TRUMAN is a delight of a book, the first biography to argue the fundamental greatness of America's accidental post-war president: strandbooks.com/product/978067…
2) Herman Kahn epitomized a certain breed of nuclear hawk—and was roundly mocked for it in DR. STRANGELOVE—and you need only read his own famous treatise ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR to see the twisted logic of that era: powells.com/book/on-thermo…
3) Two great books on the fallen arc of the one-time whiz kid Robert McNamara, he of the Cold War and Vietnam: Deborah Shapley's deep biography PROMISE AND POWER strandbooks.com/product/978031… and Paul Hendrickson's more literary LIVING AND THE DEAD: strandbooks.com/product/978067…
4) Frances Fitzgerald's WAY OUT THERE IN THE BLUE is a deeply insightful and provocative portrait of Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars initiative: powells.com/book/way-out-t…
5) John Lewis Gaddis' biography GEORGE F. KENNAN is the 800-page biography of the central diplomat of the Cold War that you never knew you wanted to read: powells.com/book/george-f-…
PS: I've previously mentioned @nxthompson's THE HAWK AND THE DOVE, a dual biography of Kennan and Paul Nitze, which is excellent and a lighter read if you're not ready to commit to Gaddis's monster:
Those are tonight's #GMGReads. What are you reading this weekend? Have you purchased any new anti-racist readings recently that you're diving into? Share! #avidreadersunite
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