The
author, most recently, of “Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as
Commander in Chief” says that coming of age in Minnesota in the ’50s, he
saw the South as “a mysterious, almost foreign land.”
What books are currently on your night stand?
Ron
Chernow, “Washington: A Life,” and Daniel James Brown, “The Boys in the
Boat.” In very different ways, these books chronicle unlikely triumphs
over seemingly insuperable odds to found a nation from 1775 to 1797 and
to win an Olympic gold medal in 1936.
What was the last truly great book you read?
James
Oakes, “Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United
States, 1861-1865.” A powerful analytical narrative of the confluence of
politics and war that ended America’s shame and trauma.
Who are the best historians writing today?
Bernard
Bailyn, David Brion Davis, Gordon Wood, Eric Foner, David McCullough,
David Hackett Fischer. In elegant prose, based on impeccable research,
they have covered the broad sweep of American history from the early
colonial settlements through Harry Truman’s administration.
What’s the best book ever written about the Civil War?
The
best book is actually an eight-volume series published from 1947 to
1971, by Allan Nevins: “Ordeal of the Union,” “The Emergence of Lincoln”
and “The War for the Union.” It is all there — the political, economic,
social, diplomatic and military history of the causes, course and
consequences of the war, written in the magisterial style for which
Nevins was famous.
Do you have a favorite biography of a Civil War-era figure?
Jean
Edward Smith, “Grant.” A lucid and empathetic account of the victorious
general and underrated president that helped usher in the current
revival of Grant’s reputation.
What are the best military histories?
John
Keegan’s “The Face of Battle” is perhaps the most important military
history ever written, establishing a new way of embedding armies and
warfare in broader historical currents. Craig L. Symonds’s books on
Civil War generals and admirals, on naval history and on World War II
entitle him to first rank among military historians. Stephen W. Sears
and Gordon C. Rhea have written the best campaign and battle histories
for the Civil War, while Gary W. Gallagher and Joseph T. Glatthaar have
written the best studies of armies and commanders. Rick Atkinson’s
trilogy on the U. S. Army in North Africa and Europe in World War II is
beyond compare.
And what are the best books about African-American history?
John
Hope Franklin’s “From Slavery to Freedom” continues to stand alone as
the best general history. Ira Berlin’s books on slavery and free blacks
in the era of slavery, plus the monumental multivolume series he
oversaw, “Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation,” are landmarks
in the field.
During
your many years teaching at Princeton, did you find that students
responded differently over time to the history books you assigned? Did
their Civil War interests change during that period?
During
nearly 40 years of teaching the Civil War era, I saw an increasing
interest in the experience of civilians, especially women, and in the
impact of the war on communities and families. Two constant favorites
over the whole time of my teaching, however, were Solomon Northup’s
“Twelve Years a Slave” (the book, not the movie), the best firsthand
account of slavery, and Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels,” a novel
about the battle of Gettysburg that, to my mind, provides the most
incisive insights into the various meanings of the war for the men who
fought it.
What kind of reader were you as a child?
I
devoured my quota of comic books as a child in the 1940s, but my
earliest years as a reader coincided with World War II. My uncle was a
fighter pilot in the European theater, so I also read a good many boys’
books and even adult books about the Army Air Corps in the war; two that
stick in my memory were “Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress” and “God
Is My Co-Pilot.” By my teenage years, my interests turned to sports, and
I read and reread a series of novels about Chip Hilton, a high school
athletic hero.
If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?
C.
Vann Woodward, “Origins of the New South, 1877-1913.” Coming of age in
Minnesota in the 1950s, I saw the South as a mysterious, almost foreign
land. Woodward’s book, and his other books and essays, helped to
demystify the region. I went on to do my graduate work under his
tutelage at Johns Hopkins, which helped launch my career as a historian.
If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
Doris
Kearns Goodwin, “The Bully Pulpit,” which shows how Presidents Theodore
Roosevelt and William Howard Taft dealt with recalcitrant Congresses —
sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?
Mark
Twain, John Dos Passos and William Faulkner. Primarily writers of
fiction, these disparate personalities were also, in effect, historians
of American life whose novels contained profound insights on the
cultures that they both embraced and rejected. Their dinner table
conversation would add spice to the menu.
Disappointing,
overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were
supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down
without finishing?
Edward
Gibbon, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Believing that
every historian should be familiar with this classic, I set out to read
all six volumes but have yet to finish the first, wearied by the dreary
cycles of palace revolts, murders and assassinations chronicled in
sometimes impenetrable prose.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
A.
Scott Berg, “Wilson,” a biography of a famous Princetonian by a
prominent Princeton alumnus, which everybody connected with Princeton
should read; and Winston Churchill’s six volumes on “The Second World
War,” the classic account of that cataclysm by one of its most famous
participants. Churchill’s volumes have been gathering dust on my
bookshelves for many years, a source of considerable embarrassment that I
hope soon to remedy.
What do you plan to read next?
Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton,” the ideal follow-up to his biography of George Washington.
No comments:
Post a Comment