Forrest McDonald is a national treasure. He teaches history at the University of Alabama, and he agonizes over every paragraph to make sure that he gets his point across.
I would also recommend The Young Hamilton, by James Thomas Flexner. His Washington: The Indispensable Man is as definitive a biography of Washington as you'll find.
35 posted on 10/20/2014 1:46:53 PM PDT by Publius
("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)