1/ My Top 10 Epic History Books
2/ Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - my first Big History book. I fell in love with the genre’s attempt to bring empiricism to answering the big questions like (why is the world the way it is?) - amzn.to/2EqZGYi
3/ The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer - Shirer was living in Germany and reporting on the rise of the Nazis starting in 1925. Incredible portraits of Hitler and the Nazi high command. amzn.to/2sszLd1
4/ Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. by Chernow - Chernow reveals a complex, nuanced and quirky man who could, in a single day, seem a cold-blooded monster and a great philanthropist. A vivid tapestry of late 19th/early 20th century America. amzn.to/2EDzFUN
5/ Sapiens by Harari - A delightful exploration following a simple prompt: If aliens landed on Earth tomorrow, what would they think of this homo sapient experiment? Hilarious, insightful and original. amzn.to/2HbC5Zc
6/ Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Goodwin - Goodwin makes the case that Lincoln triumphed because of his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. IMHO, she succeeds. amzn.to/2ErKFpe
7/ The House of Morgan by Chernow - Starting with the Morgan’s obscured beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987, Chernow tells the definitive story of the rise of modern finance through the rise of the Morgan banking dynasty. amzn.to/2CivFUx
8/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Caro - What is power? How does one get it? How does one yield? Does it inevitably eat one alive? All that and more Caro weaves into the life of New York’s master builder: Robert Moses. amzn.to/2ECjpDI
9/ Snowball by Schroeder - A touching portrait of Warren Buffett and a wonderful history of post-War American business. Buffett is revealed for the complex human he is: a mix of strengths and frailties, triumphs and failures, love and loss. amzn.to/2ChDCcF
10/ Boyd by Coram - With most of his life’s work buried in the military complex, Boyd may be the least known, but great thinker of the 20th century. Coram tells, in detail, why he may be the greatest strategist since Sun Tzu. amzn.to/2Ep5aTf
11/ Debt: The First 5000 years by Graeber - An anthropologist walks into an economics's bar and points out that everyone is wrong about everything. Graeber retells human history arguing debt is the central force of human society. amzn.to/2HbH8sR
12/ Bonus: Almost finished with the first volume of The Last Lion by Churchill and it’s epic. The imagery is so good. I almost cried in the gym today listening.
13/ The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Distant Mirror and Fukuyama are next on my list. What else should I add?
