Stanley, by Tim Jeal
Subtitled “The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer”, Stanley is an exceptional biography of Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904). There have been many biographies of Stanley, but this... (read more)

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner
In November, it was announced that Legacy of Ashes had won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. At the final gathering of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council in early 1961, CIA Director Allen Dulles claimed that he had corrected the deficiencies in the clandestine service ... (read more)

The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, by Jay Winik
Jay Winik is an historian of spellbinding talent. He combines a flair for seeing the biggest of pictures, asking the biggest of questions, describing the most engaging of personalities, and – best of all – of telling a grand narrative with exquisite drama. While he clearly has superior innate skills... (read more)

Indian Summer, by Alex Von Tunzelmann
Subtitled “The Secret History of the End of an Empire,” British writer Alex Von Tunzelmann’s Indian Summer chronicles the events leading up to and those immediately after Indian independence from Great Britain. At midnight on August 15, 1947, 400 million people were liberated from... (read more)

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring, by Richard Preston
In 1923, British adventure writer John Buchan complained that the “morning freshness has gone out of the business of exploration”. He would have been as shocked as I was to learn that there is a whole new geography – unexpected and unexplored – right at the heart of ... (read more)