/lit/ - Literature

>>21329135
I've finished 3/4 of these. Some of my favorite books. A few things I love about these. For one, "biography of LBJ" is a thin veneer of what these books actually accomplish. Yes of course Caro lived in the archives and we get the closest thing to the man in the flesh, but these books are so much more than that. I.e:
vol 1 - Young LBJ, but also a history of the state of Texas post-statehood and the New Deal and its implementation, specifically in Texas (which, as we learn, because of LBJ was the state to receive nearly the most New Deal funding)
Vol. 2 - history of electoral politics in Texas, and the domestic side of WWII politics at a national level
Vol 3. Functions alternately as a history of the US Senate and then the Cold War + beginnings of civil rights as fought legislatively in that august body.
haven't read vol 4 yet unforch.

Moreover, these books also feature incredible biographies within biographies:
vol 1 - Sam Rayburn + Abe Fortas + Brown & Root Construction (ever heard of Halliburton?)
vol 2 - Coke Stevenson - I would read just these chapters in a book on their own
vol 3 - Richard Russell

These books are beyond goated. Can't wait to read vol 4 in the next few months and then power broker after that.

Other good history books:
Rule of Experts by Timothy Mitchell. In fact anything by Timothy Mitchell
Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean and Asia before Europe, both by KN Chaudhuri. These were formative for me and led me to Braudel the GOAT

honorable mentions: Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, anything by Illan Pappe, Esra Ackan (for architectural history); the making of the atom bomb by richard rhodes