Brian Williams

Brian Williams is the anchor of The News With Brian Williams on MSNBC and a former NBC chief White House correspondent. Here he chooses six of his favorite “decidedly American” books.

Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964 by Michael Beschloss (Simon and Schuster, $16). Along with its new companion volume, Reaching for Glory, the brilliant LBJ historian has brought these once-secret White House tapes to life. A tip: Buy the audio version and you get the actual recordings.

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Touchstone Books, $18). FDR’s wartime White House, vividly depicted by one of the true living master historians and presidential biographers.

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The Warrior Elite: The Forging of Seal Class 228 by Dick Couch and Cliff Hollenbeck (Crown, $24). Fueled by pure physical strength and unbridled patriotism, only 10 of an original class of 114 Navy SEAL candidates survive “Hell Week.” This is the book for those who may think they’ve been challenged in life.

We Were Soldiers Once… And Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Gen. Harold Moore and Joseph L. Galloway (Harper Perennial, $16). I read this extraordinary story, originally a gift from a beloved friend and Vietnam veteran, almost a decade ago, long before it starred Mel Gibson.

Real Life at the White House: Two Hundred Years of Daily Life at America’s Most Famous Residence by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb (Routledge, $40). No study of the presidency can be complete without this indispensible repository of great history and stories.

Truman by David McCullough (Touchstone Books, $22). Few authors alive today have the power to choose who will be America’s next folk hero. Sometimes the good guys win—here, it’s true of both author and subject.