August 2019 - Recommended Reads 1. Your name: Robert Litan 2. Title of Book: Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century 3. Author: George Packer 4. Genre: Non-fiction (biography) 5. Why you liked it (or not): This heavily reviewed and highly praised book is a tour de force, written by the one of the best non- fiction authors of our time, George Packer of The Atlantic. The subject of the book, Dick Holbrooke, was also a force of nature and helped shaped foreign policy during our generation. Holbrooke longed to be Secretary of State but never quite made it. The book is not only a can’t-put-it-down read, but a terrific history of our age through the lens of one of the most ambitious, egocentric, but also incredibly talented persons of our generation. The high praise is deserved. This book should win every non-fiction book award in sight in 2019. * * * 1. Your Name: Jeff Fried 2. Title of Book: The Devil in the White City 3. Author: Erik Larson 4. Genre: Non-fiction (history and crime story) 5. Why you liked it: This book masterfully merges the story of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and its architect, Daniel Hudson Burnham, who also built the Flatiron Building In New York and Union Station in Washington DC, with the criminal career of one of the world’s most notorious serial killers, Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. It gives a glimpse of the Gilded Age and the upcoming 20th Century. During course of the book Larson introduces us to such luminaries as Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, and Archduke Francis Ferndinand. The narrative is similar to that of a novel. I highly recommend this book. *** 1. Your name: Gene Principato 2: Title of Book: "The Imperial Cruise - A Secret History of Empire and War" 3. Author: James Bradley 4. Genre: Non-fiction (history) 5. Why you liked it (or not): I don’t know much about US history, since I studied Far Eastern and Russian history at Penn. Accoridngly, this book was an “eye opener” about Teddy Roosevelt’s imperialistic policies in the Far East in the early 1900s. In 1905 Roosevelt sent Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the longest diplomatic mission in the history of the United States to Hawaii, Japan, the Phillipines, China, and Korea where Taft entered into a series of secret agreements in Roosevelt’s name. These pacts had long-ranging negative impacts on US relations with Asian territories and nations. One hundred years later Bradley retraced Taft’s steps and reports on the details of the deals made on Roosevelt’s behalf. While Bradley has a decidedly anti-Teddy point of view, the book is still well-written and researched. .