Best books … chosen by Jim Webb
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is a decorated Marine, an award-winning journalist and novelist, and a former secretary of the U.S. Navy. His latest book is the nonfiction best-seller A Time to Fight.
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is a decorated ex-Marine, an award-winning journalist and novelist, and a former secretary of the U.S. Navy. His latest book is the nonfiction best-seller "A Time to Fight."
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, $15). Hemingway reinvented the narrative style of the novel. He also claimed in his memoir A Moveable Feast that he learned to write by studying the paintings of Cézanne. To a literary eye, this masterfully written, wonderfully evocative story is evidence of both.
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (Presidio, $8). Tuchman’s day-by-day, hour-by-hour description of how the major governments of Europe bluffed, miscalculated, and preened until their armies marched cataclysmically into the brutal trench warfare of World War I. This examination of the opening days of that war from diplomacy to military tactics is multilayered history at its finest.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hawaii by James A. Michener (Fawcett, $9). Michener’s best book. Other than the first 100 pages of lava formations, bugs, and wayward birds, this is a moving, timeless, and fascinating cultural history of the peoples who migrated to Hawaii over a span of many centuries from Polynesia, East Asia, and America, creating its rich, multicultural society.
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer (Harper, $13). Eric Hoffer, lacking formal schooling but keenly incisive about the forces that move society, wrote this pithy examination of the makeup of mass movements at night while working as a longshoreman by day. Who joins mass movements? Who leads them? How do they succeed and fail? Hoffer lays it out, all in a book that can be read within a few hours.
Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer (HarperTorch, $9). Quite simply the best book ever written about the American military in war and peace, from the years before World War I to the beginning of Vietnam.
Main Currents in American Thought by Vernon Louis Parrington (Univ. of Oklahoma, $30). Parrington won a double Pulitzer Prize in 1928 for this collection of essays that brilliantly interweave the major philosophical trends and personalities responsible for the shaping of our nation. Still fascinating after 80 years, and relevant to our understanding of America due to the author’s propinquity to events and people now long past.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - July 25, 2024
Cartoons Thursday's cartoons - a new forecast, an old bumper sticker, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Red Speedo: a 'darkly comic' doping drama
The Week Recommends Lucas Hnath's play stars Finn Cole as a 'reptilian' swimmer determined to win at all costs
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
One Aldwych: where London's creative spirit takes centre stage
The Week Recommends This five-star Covent Garden hotel is the epitome of elegant independence
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Peng Shepherd's 6 favorite works with themes of magical realism
Feature The author recommends works by Susanna Clarke, George Saunders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Laura van den Berg's 6 favorite books with hidden secrets
Feature The author recommends works by Patricia Lockwood, Gillian Flynn, and more
By The Week US Published
-
26 of America's most unexpectedly banned books
In Depth From 'Harriet the Spy' to 'Little Red Riding Hood,' these books have all fallen afoul of censors
By The Week Staff Published
-
Conn Iggulden recommends 6 unforgettable books with historical themes
Feature The British author recommends works by Patrick O'Brian, Richard Dawkins, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Five books chosen by Nina Stibbe
Feature The author recommends works by David Sedaris, Alba de Céspedes and more
By The Week UK Published
-
Julia Phillips' 6 favorite books that explore the beauty and brutality of life
Feature The Novelist recommends works by Alice Walker, Colson Whitehead, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Joseph Earl Thomas's 6 favorite books that tackle social issues
Feature The author recommends works by Fernanda Melchor, Adania Shibli, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Ivy Pochoda's 6 favorite books that explore the dark side of human nature
Feature The thriller writer recommends works by Cormac McCarthy, Rachel Kushner, and more
By The Week Staff Published