Books I Have Read in 2008      Books I Have Read ...      1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War Benny Morris Yale University Press, 2008 A Vital Work on the 1948 Israeli-Arab War + Benny Morris and his Critics + An Accessible History of a War That Changed History In 1948 Benny Morris shows himself to be a first-rate historian with an accurate and detailed command of the events leading up to the first Arab Israeli War and the war itself. The book is primarily the military history of the conflict, and Morris is a well informed chronicler of military ...             Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America Walter R. Borneman Random House, 2008 High recommendations for Polk + James K. Polk - An Underappreciated President + Less of a biography than a survey of the times + Polk: The Man Who Transformed The Presidency + An Underrated President             Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress Joseph Wheelan PublicAffairs, 2008 American Hero + Mr. Wheelan's excellent portrayal of John Quincy Adams. + The Amazing JQA + Hurrah For Mr. Adams + Mr. Adams Last Crusade             American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaninathaniel Hawthorne, and ... Susan Cheever Tantor Media, 2007 Focusing on Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, this brilliant, controversial, and fascinating biography explores the lives and work of those who were, in the mid-19th century, the center of American thought and literature. 6 CDs.             What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) Daniel Walker Howe Oxford University Press, USA, 2007 Very well-balanced, fully detailed antebellum history + Essential American History + An enjoyable history, but viewed through a modern moral lense ... + A marvelous historical account             This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War Drew Gilpin Faust Knopf, 2008 A Very Moving History of Our Country's First Experience with Massive Death + Almost a great book + Giving Life to Death This is a profoundly moving book about America's first real experience with the massive death that war can cause. At the time, America did not know how to deal with the overwhelming death rate and the resulting confusions with burial, identification and keeping basic statistics. Sometimes it was ...             Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography David S. Reynolds Vintage, 1996 The best biography of Whitman available + A thorough bio that depicts a complicated man + Great Supplemental Text + Excellent Cultural Biography             Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography David S. Reynolds Vintage, 1996 The best biography of Whitman available + A thorough bio that depicts a complicated man + Great Supplemental Text + Excellent Cultural Biography             What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) Daniel Walker Howe Oxford University Press, USA, 2007 Very well-balanced, fully detailed antebellum history + Essential American History + An enjoyable history, but viewed through a modern moral lense ... + A marvelous historical account             1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War Benny Morris Yale University Press, 2008 A Vital Work on the 1948 Israeli-Arab War + Benny Morris and his Critics + An Accessible History of a War That Changed History In 1948 Benny Morris shows himself to be a first-rate historian with an accurate and detailed command of the events leading up to the first Arab Israeli War and the war itself. The book is primarily the military history of the conflict, and Morris is a well informed chronicler of military ...             Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America Walter R. Borneman Random House, 2008 High recommendations for Polk + James K. Polk - An Underappreciated President + Less of a biography than a survey of the times + Polk: The Man Who Transformed The Presidency + An Underrated President             American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaninathaniel Hawthorne, and ... Susan Cheever Tantor Media, 2007 Focusing on Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, this brilliant, controversial, and fascinating biography explores the lives and work of those who were, in the mid-19th century, the center of American thought and literature. 6 CDs.             This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War Drew Gilpin Faust Knopf, 2008 A Very Moving History of Our Country's First Experience with Massive Death + Almost a great book + Giving Life to Death This is a profoundly moving book about America's first real experience with the massive death that war can cause. At the time, America did not know how to deal with the overwhelming death rate and the resulting confusions with burial, identification and keeping basic statistics. Sometimes it was ...             Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress Joseph Wheelan PublicAffairs, 2008 American Hero + Mr. Wheelan's excellent portrayal of John Quincy Adams. + The Amazing JQA + Hurrah For Mr. Adams + Mr. Adams Last Crusade          products you might be interested in   we recommend A Very Moving History of Our Country's First Experience with Massive Death randomly chosen music: Rolnick: Macedonian Airdrumming; Sanctus