City of Fortune

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
     by Roger Crowley

The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune is framed around two of the great collisions of world history: the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople and the carve-up of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, and the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503.   Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion.

Crowley's narrative is a quick page turner for history lovers. He does a great job explaining the how Venice controlled the spice trade between Europe and Asia.  A trade which put them at odds with the Mongols, Genoans, and Turks.

Tyson

The Price of Peace

Yalta: The Price of Peace
by Serhii Plokhy

A major new history of the eight days in February 1945 when FDR, Churchill, and Stalin decided the fate of the world. Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. Much has been made of FDR's handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy's conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War- and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think.

TB

War Made New

War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History - 1500 to Today
by Max Boot

In War Made New Boot shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield, from the Spanish Armada to the War on Terror, and how mastery of these innovations has shaped the rise and fall of nations and empires.

Boot focuses on four "revolutions" in military affairs and describes key battles from each period to explain how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air-strikes have remade the field of battle, and shaped the rise and fall of empires.
He first looks at warfare in pre nation states. Next he explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, including the British triumph at Omdurman and the climax of the Russo-Japanese war at Tsushima, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires.

Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II, the German army's blitzkrieg, Pearl Harbor, and the firebombing of Tokyo, to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare that aided the rise of highly centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers.

Finally, in his section on the Information Revolution, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq war, arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies such as stealth aircraft have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, irregular, forces to become an increasingly significant threat to Western power.

Max Boot explains why western civilization came to dominate the world in the late 19th century. It is a great complement to Jared Diamond's book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel". The book looks at how the social organization of the countries, as well as technology, impacted the outcome of major battles as well as why important battles had the outcome they did.

TB

Best Book about the Vietnam War

Our Vietnam : The War 1954-1975
by Langguth, A. J.

Historian and journalist A. J. Langguth delivers an authoritative account of the war based on official documents not available earlier and on new reporting from both the American and Vietnamese perspectives.

In Our Vietnam, Langguth takes us inside the waffling and deceitful White Houses of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Langguth documents the ineptness and corruption of our South Vietnamese allies, and recounts the bravery of soldiers on both sides of the war.

With its broad sweep and keen insights, Our Vietnam brings together the kaleidoscopic events and personalities of the war into one engrossing and unforgettable narrative.

Langguth was a New York Times Vietnam Saigon bureau chief during the war. His narrative style allows him to tell the story of America's involvement in Vietnam like an exciting political thriller. What sets his book apart from other Vietnam books is his interviews with important but lesser known American and Vietnamese eyewitnesses. If you want one book to learn about the Vietnam War this is it.

TB

Keeping the Feast

I enjoyed Paula Butturini's first-person account of living with a loved one who has severe depression as her portrayal of an excruciatingly painful disease is written with humor, grace and a remarkably keen sense of empathy and understanding. After sustaining a near-fatal gunshot wound while covering the collapse of Romania's communist regime in the 80's, her husband, New York Times correspondent John Tagliabue slides into a severe depression reminiscent of the author's mother's descent years before which resulted in her suicide. This inspiring memoir of love, family, food, friends and healing set against the background of their adopted home in and around Rome, Italy is recommended for all. -DB

History That Might Have Been

What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Cowley, Robert (Editor)

There is no surer way to make history come alive than to contemplate those moments when the world's future-the government and wealth of nations, the faith and culture of generations-hung in the balance.

In this volume, many of our brightest historians speculate about some of history's intriguing crossroads and the ways in which our lives may have been changed for the better-or the worse.The twenty-seven original essays range across the full span of history.

Each historian examines a pivotal event, then considers the ramifications had the event come out differently. Contributor's include Victor Davis Hanson, Josiah Ober, Geoffrey Parker, Tom Wicker,and Caleb Carr. Some of my favorites are "Repulse at Hastings, October 14, 1066" by Cecelia Holland, "The Chinese Discovery of the New World, 15th Century" by Theodore F. Cook Jr. and "The Election of Theodore Roosevelt 1912" by John Lukacs.
TB

Et tu, Brute?

A Noise of War : Caesar, Pompey, Octavian and the Struggle for Rome
by A. J., Langguth


A very exciting narrative, especially if you like political maneuvering or wonder about how Caesar did it. Langguth was at one time the Saigon bureau chief for the New York Times.You will see the parallels between the United States and Republican Rome. Booklist say's it all.

Langguth's narrative of the fall of the Roman republic begins in 81 B.C. with the confrontation of Julius Caesar and the dictator Sulla and the emergence of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Langguth then proceeds, through a series of progressively graver crises and progressively closer approaches to one-man rule, to the emergence of Caesar as supreme power. The intrigues and wars that followed constitute hardly more than an epilogue, for the republic was dead. Caesar and Cicero are the focal figures in Langguth's version of that story, but a host of other memorable actors are vividly portrayed. Langguth's concern throughout is readability, and this he certainly achieves.

TB