My latest reads reflect my poli sci degrees (Indiana & Ball State universities) as well as a career of teaching world history. I hope that it's not too academic.
My favorite history book of the year is
God & Gold by Walter Russell Mead. The author does a wonderfully entertaining job of tying together the development of the British Empire, the United States, and globalization. (I really enjoy his use of Alice In Wonderland analogies.) Mead stresses the continuities of Anglo-American history and explains why the Brits and the Americans have dominated much of world history for the last 300 years. His big-picture or global point of view explains both the strengths and weaknesses of America's position in the modern world as well as any writer I have followed. He counters some of the arguments made by one of my other favorite historians, Niall Ferguson. I would love to hear the two of them debate!
I also have enjoyed
America's Three Regimes by Morton Keller. It's a new perspective that divides the United States' political history into three time periods instead of the traditional method that focuses on short periods such as decades. He identifies the Deferential-Republican regime of the colonial and early 19th Century followed by the Party-Democratic regime from the 1820's to the 1930's. He calls the current political system a Populist-Bureaucratic regime. I was impressed by his research and the way that he constructed his argument. This books makes it a lot easier to understand how the American political system evolved and how it operates today.
I'm currently reading
The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis. So far, it's been an interesting analysis of events that all of us Baby Boomers know from our own experiences. The author's historical perspective does not always match that viewpoint that we or even American leaders had during the Cold War. However, newly released Soviet and American sources provide some surprising information that only a few insiders knew at the time. I gained a new understanding of several Cold War events after reading his analysis of the ways that the weaker non-aligned countries as well as weaker Soviet and American allies manipulated the two super powers. He also explains the conflict between America's democratic ideals and the quest for national security in a way that explains past events and relates to current events. If I wasn't retiring, this book would become part of my Advanced Placement World History Class.
Are the any other history buffs out there?