Jun 2, 2018 3 min read

Time for my annual “Spring Cleaning” column, in which I address reader issues and recommend my favorite books of the past year.

This year’s chief reader issue was, as it was last year, do I lecture and what do I lecture about? I lecture often, mostly on our Founding Fathers and the three foundational documents they created. All my topics can be found on my website, www.historylessons.net, by clicking the “Host a Lecture” icon on the homepage. If you are interested, fill out the form on that page or contact me at my email address, bruce@historylessons.net.

Recommended reading

• “Friends Divided,” by Gordon S. Wood. America’s pre-eminent historian on the Founding Generation looks at the life and times of two “frenemies,” Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who began their political lives as allies, became enemies and, finally, thankfully, reconciled in their last years. Woods memorably closes the book by noting that, boiled down, we honor Jefferson more than Adams because Jefferson was an optimist and Adams was not.
• “Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-1941,” by Stephen Kotkin. A 900-page tome, it nevertheless presents a good overview of Stalin’s rule and the complicated interplay between Hitler and Stalin, whose alliance through the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939 was one both men figured would end in war between them, but when, how, and who would double-cross the other first was the question.
• “Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life,” by Robert Dallek. On the domestic front, Dallek paints a somewhat overly flattering portrait of FDR, but rightfully shows him to have a prescient understanding of the danger Adolf Hitler posed to the world, including America, and a brilliant ability to maneuver around the constitutional roadblocks preventing him from aiding Great Britain in its lonely fight against Nazi Germany, while simultaneously moving his isolationist countrymen into supporting America’s involvement in the war.
• “The Killer Angels,” by Michael Shaara, which I re-read for the third time. This Pulitzer Prize-winning book is a work of fiction in which Shaara makes up the dialogue between the major characters, mostly Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet, but with respect to the details of the Civil War’s three-day battle of Gettysburg it is 100 percent accurate. It has been called the best novel on the Civil War ever written. It might be the best book on the Civil War ever written.
• “Bruce’s History Lessons, Books I and II.” Again, a shameless plug. You can purchase both five-year collections of my newspaper columns – years 2001-2006, and 2006-2011 – from the “Buy the Books” link on the homepage of my website, or simply Google my name, Bruce G. Kauffmann.

There, the place looks cleaner! I’ll be back next spring.

Bruce G. Kauffmann’s email address is bruce@historylessons.net.