Stephen Graubard

Stephen Graubard, the former editor of Daedalus and a Brown professor emeritus, has just published Command of Office, a history of presidential power over the past 100 years.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (Signet, $8). A work that extols the United States even while warning of its vulnerabilities, particularly what Tocqueville chose to call the “tyranny of the majority.” First published in 1835, it is as relevant to the administrations of the Bushes, Clinton, and Reagan as to that of Andrew Jackson.

An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal (Transaction, $30). One of the most influential books ever written by a European scholar on America’s most intractable social problem. Published in 1944, it documents the centuries of injustice and oppression that made the treatment of black men and women a national and international disgrace.

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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (Penguin, $25). Brilliantly ironic, as original in its treatment of Christianity as in its study of Rome’s pagan practices and rulers, Gibbon’s 1776 masterpiece remains a welcome reminder of the contribution a man of genius can make to an incontestably important theme: the evanescence of empires.

Hitler: 1889–1936, Hubris and Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis by Ian Kershaw (Norton, $22 each). This massive two-volume biography is an incomparably erudite study of one of the 20th-century’s most nefarious tyrants. Hitler’s ultimate defeat was in no sense preordained; his rise and fall reminds us of the folly of nations and of the thin veneer civilized behavior proves to be in a troubled age.

Road From Coorain by Jill Ker Conway (Vintage, $12). A uniquely moving autobiography from a writer raised in a world too little known: the Australian outback. As a study of family life, mother-daughter relations, and the vicissitudes of childhood and adolescence in a world where nature itself is a major force, this book is as revealing of the 20th century as any written about societies purportedly better known.

Pride and Prejudice