May’s Best New History Books

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, by Nathaniel Philbrick
It’s surprising to remember that Benedict Arnold was once a man, not merely a byword, but in Philbrick’s (The Heart of the Sea, Mayflower) latest, he’s rendered multidimensional, with meticulously reconstructed context. Valiant Ambition covers four years in the middle of the Revolutionary War, focusing on the relationship between Arnold and George Washington, Arnold’s path towards betrayal, and the unstable, risky reality of the young United States’ struggle for freedom. An entertaining and carefully researched tale, Valiant Ambition has already accumulated significant critical praise.

Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies: The Patriots, by David Fisher
The companion book to Bill O’Reilly’s docudrama Legends and Lies: The Patriots, this is a fast-paced and lavishly illustrated take on the Revolutionary War and its major figures. Focusing both on the very famous—Ben Franklin and George Washington—but also on unheralded heroes like “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion, the book highlights the military campaigns, political moments, and tense arguments that changed the outcome of the war.

Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, by Clint Hill, with Lisa McCubbin
Clint Hill spent 17 years as a secret service agent protecting five different presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Those years saw some of the most extraordinary events in American history, from the assassination of JFK to the resignation of Richard Nixon, and Hill had a front-row seat to all of them. Together with journalist Lisa McCubbin, with  whom he also wrote the bestselling Mrs. Kennedy and Me, Hill shares his memories of Cold War standoffs, anti-Vietnam protests, Watergate, and much more.

The Romanovs: 1613–1918, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
This absorbing tale of one of history’s most decadent and dramatic periods covers 300 years and twenty tsars and tsarinas. Montefiore paints a portrait of an Imperial Russia filled with conspiracies, rivalries, and extreme danger (six of the last tsars were murdered), while also revealing the astonishing empire-building going on behind the murders and elaborate parties. Impressively researched and engrossingly written, The Romanovs is sure to please readers interested in Russia, royalty, or really great stories.

Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor, by Clinton Romesha
Red Platoon is the remarkable account of the Battle of Keating, told by Medal of Honor recipient Romesha in gripping, vivid prose. Interweaving his own first-hand version of events with interviews and government reports, Romesha recreates what happened on October 3rd, 2009 at the remote and dangerous Command Outpost Keating in painstaking and impossible-to-look-away-from detail. Already garnering praise from authors like Sebastian Junger, Dakota Meyer, and Hampton Sides, Red Platoon is an important addition to any military library.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
A slim volume with a lot to say, Tribe asks why people in our society are so profoundly separate from each other. Using the idea of “tribe,” along with anthropological investigation into tribal societies, Junger (The Perfect Storm) contrasts the small-group closeness of a tribe with the modern alienation of Western culture, focusing particularly on combat veterans who return from war to find themselves suddenly adrift without their platoon, and the high rates of PTSD such veterans suffer. An interesting, thought-provoking, and impactful book.

The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945, by Max Hastings
This impressive discussion of espionage and intelligence in World War II expands its view beyond the usual American and British suspects, creating an in-depth comparative examination of British, American, Russian, Japanese, and German intelligence agencies. Hastings (Catastrophe 1914) weaves a fascinating tale of paranoid leaders, spies who sent back remarkable findings only to have them routinely ignored, remarkable code-breakers on both sides, stunning victories, and frustrating losses.

Rough Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill, by Mark Lee Gardner
This highly readable account of one of American history’s most colorful periods takes the reader into the mind of our 26th President in the years before he ascended to power. When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, Roosevelt, an ambitious and machismo-filled assistant secretary of the Navy, resigned his position and headed west to become second-in-command to Colonel Leonard Wood’s Rough Riders. Gardner takes the reader through the Rough Riders’ formation and their victory at San Juan Hill, also highlighting the oft-overlooked African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” they fought alongside.

The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program, by Jeremy Scahill and The Staff of The Intercept
This highly critical overview of drone warfare from bestselling author Scahill and the staff of The Intercept, an online magazine most associated with the Snowden revelations, relies upon leaked classified documents to reconstruct a very different drone program than the sanitized version we think we know. The Assassination Complex tells a dark and worrying story: reliance on bad intelligence, high death tolls, an emphasis on assassination as a tool of war, and routine efforts to keep the program quiet and protected from normal democratic processes. It will also include an original contribution from Edward Snowden.

Paper: Paging through History, by Mark Kurlansky
From Leonardo da Vinci’s 4,000 works on paper, to the 6.5 billion copies of Máo zhuxí yulu, to today’s debates about “going paperless,” paper has been an important part of history. Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and Salt, turns his attention to the role paper has played over the centuries, from political boycotts, to modern environmental concerns, to important historical moments (did you know the Declaration of Independence was written on British paper?) Meticulously researched, with particular attention paid to contributions from Asia and the Middle East, Paper is a fascinating examination of a surprisingly interesting object.