Brands isn’t terrible. As left-leaners go, he’s by far the best of the bunch . . . but this is only based on my reading of his Reagan book. I didn’t read his “Grant.”
Brinkley’s book on Katrina wasn’t bad.
Beschloss and Goodwin are typical old Left gatekeepers.
Zinn is in a propaganda league of his own.
Hofstadter at least was interesting and offered different theories.
Now, excluding myself from all discussions, I think the best modern historians are:
1. Ron Chernow. Superb scholarship, even though he’s not a prof.
2. Paul Johnson. Erratic, and he can get details wrong, but when he’s on, there is no one better at weaving together a story.
3. Burton Folsom. He and I disagree on a couple of points about FDR, but he is meticulous and can be, when he wants to go that direction, a terrific “pop” storyteller.
4. Paul Kengor. The best Reagan biographer out there-—and he didn’t even write a Reagan biography.
5. Steven Hayward’s work on Reagan and US history up to Reagan is very good.
Honorable mentions:
1. My co-author on PHUSA for all matters on the West, Mike Allen.
2. David Landes on all things technical and developmental (his history of time, for example).
3. Ronald Spector for WW II.
4. Edmund Morris, if he had died before he wrote “Dutch.”
5. Pauline Maier
“Brinkley’s book on Katrina wasn’t bad.”
It was excellent.
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Good list. Add one: William Manchester.