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Collected reviews from decades of reading — organized by subject and written for clarity, context, and long-term reference.
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Anthony Gottlieb’s “The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance” (2000) stands as a remarkable achievement in making the complex world of ancient philosophy accessible to modern readers, much the way Bertrand Russell’s seminal “The History of Western Philosophy” (1946) did for previous generations. Gottlieb’s group biography does for…
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In the pantheon of “great project books,” David McCullough’s “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (1977) may be the best. It is a sweeping and authoritative chronicle of one of the most ambitious engineering projects in human history. With characteristic narrative verve and exhaustive research, McCullough traces the efforts…
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David McCullough has long been one of my favorite popular historians. He can turn almost any event into a compulsively readable, character-driven adventure story. “The Wright Brothers” (2015) was written in McCullough’s twilight years (he died in 2022) and it isn’t nearly as commanding or dense as his earlier award-winning works, like “Truman” (1992) or…
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Pauline Maier’s “From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776” (1972) is one of the most thoughtful and enduring contributions to the historiography of the American Revolution. The book represented a significant shift in how scholars approached the study of colonial radicalism, eschewing romanticized portrayals of the founding…
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Most people don’t think of the Carolinas as a major theater of operations during the American Revolution. Yet, the British looked at the South as a critical part of their strategy to isolate and destroy seditious New England, which the North administration believed was the atypical nest of rebellion. John Buchanan’s “The Road to Guilford…
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First published in 1969, Graham Webster’s The Imperial Roman Army was one of the first modern accounts of the Roman military, charting its evolution from the Republican period through to the Empire at its height. Webster’s work has long stood as a staple introduction for students and enthusiasts alike, praised for its clarity and archaeological…
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Yann Le Bohec’s “The Imperial Roman Army” (1989) is a sweeping, detailed, and authoritative account of the Roman military during the Empire’s most formative and enduring centuries. Originally published in French and translated into English in 1994, the book quickly became a cornerstone of Roman military studies. Rather than focusing solely on battlefield exploits or…
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Lawrence Keppie’s “The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire” (1984) is an informed, well-structured study of one of the most formidable and influential military institutions in world history. From the rudimentary levy-based militias of early Rome to the professionalized, standing legions of the imperial era, Keppie traces the evolution of the Roman…
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Stephen Peter Rosen’s “Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military” (1991) came out just when the idea of a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) was coming into vogue in defence policy circles. It is one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. I discovered it my first year in graduate school at…
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