[freekitty]

Good list.

[WOSG]

Great list. I especially like the inclusion of Grant's autobiography, even though I've read only portions of it. Reading good biographies is one of the best ways to enjoy reading while gainin insight into character and our history. It's the aerobics of the mind!

There is a list of books that Morton Blackwell suggests every conservative should read:

http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/04RESOURCES/RTLlist.htm

Heritage Conservative Reading List also has great suggestions:

http://www.heritage.org/about/community/insider/reading_list.html

Also check my own Freeper homepage, at the bottom a list of books and thinkers that shaped my thinking:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~wosg/

[Alberta's Child]

I would add When Hell Was In Session by Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton to that list, for a superb perspective on the Vietnam War from a former POW who later pursued a career in politics long before John McCain made it "fashionable."

[Bosco]

I'll add "Stonewall Jackson" by Robertson to the list.

[shekkian]

I liked "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" by Jimmy Doolittle.

[ruoflaw]

Thanks for the list

[stevem]

I was glad to see Grant made the list. His memoirs were by far the best memoirs I ever read. It read like a fine novel, and had humor interspersed throughout...a dry humor that Grant was known for.

[carpio]

Thank you. I may make this next summer's reading list.

[VOA]

Albert Beveridge, the biographer of Marshall, called The Life of George Washington
"to this day the fullest and most trustworthy treatment of that period from the conservative
point of view."

That does sound like a good one.

I can also recommend Flexners "Washington, The Indispensible Man", which I think
is an abridgement of a multi-volume work as well.

[Pharmboy]

Douglas Southall Freeman (author of the Lee bio) is also the author of a 7 volume bio of General Washington.

[zip]

ping

[billbears]

10. Abraham Lincoln Title: A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War Author: Harry V. Jaffa

Imaginary union before the states bump. With this list, what to do after only reading two off the whole list (Adams and Lee)? Hamilton, Grant, and two about lincoln? Heck I'm sure someone wrote a book about Clay as well. Why is that one not on there? Might as well be. Sheesh!!

[Rocky]

The synopsis of book number five on the list doesn't make it sound like a biography. Is it?

Thanks for posting this list.

[GOPcapitalist]

I'd substitute Herndon's biography for all the Jaffa crap. At least it doesn't practice idolatry.

The problem with this list is that there simply aren't many truly great exclusively American biographies. Freeman's biography of Lee comes close and, of course, there are a couple decent autobiographies out there. Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery" is of a quality far superior than anything Frederick Douglass ever wrote.

But beyond that there truly aren't any American equivalents of a 12 Caesars or a Boswell's Life of Johnson.

[TrueBeliever9]

Great list. I would add George Washington Carver - but only the original written by Dr. Carver himself. I have a copy and I would not part with it for the world. Dr. Carver was a devote Christian; he states that when he read "call upon Me and I will show you great and mighty things which you know not," in the Bible that he asked the Lord to show him the secrets of the universe. The Lord replied, "little man you are too small to know the secrets of my universe, but I will allow you discover the secrets of my peanut." Dr. Carver went on to discover over 350 uses for the peanut that have never been surpassed to this day. God is good!

[BSunday]

What ?? No Stonewall Jackson ???? That list sucks.

[patriot_wes]

Here's the most important book I've read in the last three years.
"Investigating the Federal Income Tax, A Preliminary Report" - By Joseph Banister

available here http://www.freedomabovefortune.com/

[nicollo]

Great list, Thedore R.

For you readers of Theodore Rex, for a fuller understanding of the man and the times, I submit this title to your reading list, my own work on the presidency of his successor:

William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 1909-1913,
(McFarland & Co. Sep/2003).

A couple Freepers are preparing reviews. As it is newly out, major market or historical reviews haven't come in yet. You can ask your library to pick up a copy.

As for "Education," it's a polemic. Great book, nonetheless. Jaffa on Lincoln is a must, and the Grant auto-bio is the best of its kind.

[nicollo]

If anyone is interested in the Progressive Era, here's Nicollo's brief dos and don'ts list:

Wm. McKinley
- Margaret, Leech, "In the Days of McKinley, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1959

T.R.
- Morris, as already stated above
- Henry F. Pringle, "Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography," New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931 -- a great, great, and yet enduring work. Read it.
- H.W. Brands, "T.R.: The Last Romantic," Basic Books, New York, 1997 -- a good read and an easy overview of his full life.
- Carl E. Hatch, "The Big Stick and the Congressional Gavel: A Study of Theodore Roosevelt’s Relations with his Last Congress, 1907-1909," Pageant Press, New York, 1967 -- a little noticed but excellent book on the last year of the Roosevelt presidency.

Taft
- Henry F. Pringle, "The Life and Times of William Howard Taft," New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939 (reprinted by Archon Books, Cambden, Connecticut, 1964) -- the defining work on Taft and a great book. I challenged many of Pringle's views on the Taft presidency.
- David H. Burton, William Howard Taft: In the Public Service, Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida, 1986 -- a quick overview of Taft and his life mission of public service. Quite a career.
- None of the modern biographies of Taft are any good, such as those by Donald Anderson and Paulo Colleta. Stick with Pringle and my book.

Times of TR and Taft & others:
- Archie Butt, "The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt, Edited by Lawrence F. Abbott, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1924 and "Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt," Military Aide, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1930 (reprinted by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1971) -- personal letters written by TR and Taft's military aide. Great running commentary on the times, although awfully full of social gossip. The real fun stuff is in the letters that DID NOT get published, and which are housed in the GA State Archives.
- Philip C. Jessup, "Elihu Root," Dodd, Meade & Co., New York, 1938 -- Root is a central character to the period. A must read.
- Allan Nevins, "Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1954 -- gotta understand automobiles to understand the era. First read my book, then read Nevins. He entirely missed the politics of the era that led to the Model T. He is otherwise entirely correct on Ford.

Progressive Era autobiographies:
- Cannon, Joseph Gurney, The Memoirs of Joseph “Uncle Joe” Cannon, Transcribed by Helen Leseure Abdill, Vermilion County Museum Society, Danville, IL, 1996 -- Uncle Joe Cannon -- gotta read it! Mr. Standpatterism himself. Cannon has been badly mistreated in history.
- Clark, Champ, My Quarter Century of American Politics, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1920 -- Speaker of the House from 1910 to 1919 (approx). Great read and a fair autobiography. He has fantastic insight on the characters of his day. Clark was a good man.
- Mark Sullivan, Mark, "Our Times: 1900-1925," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 -- multi-volume and long work. Often wrong, but there is good history in it.
- T. Roosevelt and Robert La Follette -- self-serving and often factually incorrect apologias and knives-in-the-backs of their enemies. Unfortunately taken as pure history, which they are not. Caveat lectur.
- William Howard Taft, "Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers," Columbia University Press, New York, 1916 (reprinted as The President and His Powers, Columbia University Press, New York and London, 1967) -- yet a classic, and a fundamental statement on the presidency. It is often studied in the context of Roosevelt's autobiography and his statements in it on the presidency, but these are entirely different works.
- William Allen White, "The Autobiography of William Allen White," The MacMillan Company, New York, 1946 -- an autobiography of a whacky Bull Mooser. Even White admits that 1912 was a mistake.
- HH Kohlsaat, H.H., "From McKinley to Harding," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1923 -- good read, up there with Mark Sullivan's, but much easier to get through.

Must Reads on the Progressive Era, even if you disagree with the thesis:
- Richard Hofstadter, "The Age of Reform," Vintage Books, New York, 1955 -- great book, if too weighted on "reform" and missing politics.
- Gabriel Kolko, "The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916," The Free Press, New York, 1963 -- Kolko is a leftist and an ass. He comes "this close" to getting it about the Era, but his commie bias gets in the way.

For idolitry of the Progressives and other books to avoid:
- Claude Bowers, "Beveridge and The Progressive Era," The Literary Guild, New York, 1932
- Manners, William, "TR and Will: A Friendship That Split the Republican Party," Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc., New York, 1969 -- ugggh.
- George E. Mowry, "The Era of Theodore Roosevelt: And the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912," Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1958 -- 1950's academic liberal / New Dealism idolitry of big government.
- Arthur S. Link, "Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era: 1910-1917," Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1954 -- same as the Mowry book. Go here only to understand how the Academy has it all wrong, and still does.

[Mr. Mojo]

BTTT