Posted on 12/04/2018 1:57:34 PM PST by detective
“Brinkley’s book on Katrina wasn’t bad.”
It was excellent.
.
I am listening to The Bully Pulpit on audiobook now. What do you think of it?
Runners up include ... Will Durant, ...
"Popular" is the key word there. Durant is for people who want an introduction to history. Then they can read more to get perspective -- or never read anything else ever again. His books are very dated now, and there are plenty of better alternatives, but it wasn't an unworthy project when he started it. I see him as similar to Mortimer Adler, ridiculous in some ways, but not without some redeeming qualities.
You forgot a HUGE one and should replace Beschloss with:
Eric Foner
The Red Star Rising.
I haven’t read that one. For the last 2 years, if it’s not Ronald Reagan, I probably haven’t read it, with the exception of Chandler’s “Campaigns of Napoleon.”
Good list. Add one: William Manchester.
How low can you go?
I can’t stomach Goodwin ever since I was assigned “Rivals” in a US History Masters course. My response paper was that the prof didn’t want to read it himself and just threw it at us. Total waste of time.
I learned nothing from Bully Pulpit, which pissed me off because there is yet interesting territory there that she and her ghost writers ignored. Waste of time.
As for Durant, I take that one back — careless memory. I love Story of Civilization and other big picture histories he and Ariel wrote.
I was thinking of Charles Beard — oops! — and his insipid “Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.”
Scratch that on Durant, sorry. Beard’s “Economic Interpretation” is my issue, although, again, I really like his w/ Mary Beard, “The Rise of American Civilization,” a beautiful work.
Douglas Brinkley’s a nose in the air jerk. It’s safe to assume Mr. brinkley looks down on the 65 million people who voted for President Trump too.
Oh - and Cronkite was only ‘loved’ because the press was ‘gatekeeper’ and controlled the narrative...
Wonder if this idiot realizes he is slamming the mourning Bush family and not Trump with his crap....
“Lets be honest”?
Why start now?
He's a partisan a*shat, not a historian, sheesh.
Prior to his passing, I believe that the deceased specifically asked that President Trump be in attendance.
“Top five worst modern popular historians:
5. Michael Beschloss
4. H.W. Brands
3. Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. Douglas Brinkley
1. Howard Zinn”
You have barely scratched the surface.
David Maraniss for his fraudulent biographies of both Clinton and Obama is up there.
And look at these so called historians.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/barack-obama-ranked-12th-best-144659600.html
Brands didn’t do a book on Katrina. Brinkley did.
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