Books by David Halberstam
“Halberstam was a New York Times reporter, one of the first members of the American press to report in-depth from Vietnam itself. He arrived in South Vietnam during mid-1962, in the middle of the Kennedy administration. Initially, he believed in the cause, believed it important for the United States to help the South Vietnamese prevail against the insurgency. Over time, he began to doubt this belief. As problems plagued the war effort, he reported the fact, much to the annoyance of the White House, including Kennedy himself. That’s the background. It’s a sprawling, mesmerizing work. It belongs on any short shelf of essential Vietnam War books.” Read more...
Fredrik Logevall, Historian
The Reckoning
by David Halberstam
The Reckoning is an account of the problems in the American auto-industry and is the story of how America goes from dominating the auto industry and really being synonymous with it to losing a step to the Japanese. There are a lot of things I like about the book, but the nub of it is that he bases it in the wider context of American decline and the loss of American supremacy in the post-war period and the rise of the Japanese challenge.
Interviews where books by David Halberstam were recommended
The best books on Economic History, recommended by David J Lynch
The author of When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out says the villains were reckless banks that binged on cheap capital to fuel a housing and credit bubble that was larger even than that in the US
-
1
JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
by Fredrik Logevall -
2
Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy
by John F Kennedy -
3
Profiles in Courage
by John F Kennedy -
4
Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History
by Ted Sorensen -
5
The Best and the Brightest
by David Halberstam
The best books on JFK, recommended by Fredrik Logevall
The best books on JFK, recommended by Fredrik Logevall
Of the thousands of books written about JFK, America’s iconic 35th president, which ones should you read first? Fredrik Logevall, professor of history and international affairs at Harvard University, talks us through five key books, starting with the first volume of his biography, tracking JFK’s coming of age in the years that also saw America transforming from economic powerhouse to global superpower.
The best books on US Militarism, recommended by Stephen Glain
American presidents may not want to send troops into battle or militarise foreign policy but, in the end, most of them do. The author and journalist explains how this happens, and why it’s not even the military that’s to blame. He picks the best books on American militarism.
The best books on Reportage and War, recommended by Martin Bell
The former BBC war reporter picks out essential reading on the Bosnia and Vietnam wars and explains why a book of poetry speaks more to him about the reality of conflict than any other writing
