JFK: Growth Under Fire
JFK: Growth Under Fire is about what actually happened during John F. Kennedy’s 1,036 days as president. Based extensively on primary research at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, it moves beyond the mythology of Camelot to examine Kennedy making decisions under extraordinary pressure. It traces his remarkable transformation on civil rights and his handling of Cuba, Berlin, and Vietnam. At its center is Kennedy’s historic showdown with Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he resisted powerful demands for military action and chose negotiation over an all-out attack. The result offers an important lesson for today: strength in a crisis can mean resisting force rather than using it. The book also draws on extensive, non-digitized oral histories with Robert Kennedy that illuminate some of the presidency’s darkest episodes, from the administration’s showdown with the steel industry to its crackdown on the Mafia.
Turning Points
Essays on decisive moments in modern history, when individual choices and unexpected events redirected the course of public life.
The Lost War: America’s World War II Battle for Burma
Fought with mules carrying mortars over mountains, the Burma campaign in World War II pitted American, Chinese, British, and indigenous forces against a desperate, battle-worn Japanese army. The Lost War includes a detailed account of the Mars Task Force, a classified cavalry unit that finished what the legendary Merrill’s Marauders could not, including accounts published here for the first time. It is also the story of General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, the abrasive American commander who fought with his Chinese and British allies almost as fiercely as he fought the Japanese. Stilwell and the GIs who fought under him are largely forgotten in America—but remembered and memorialized by private citizens in China to this day.
Siege: Civil War South Carolina
An immersive narrative of the campaigns that tested South Carolina’s cities, coasts, and communities during the American Civil War.
Forgotten Battles and American Memory
Short, sharply drawn accounts of lesser-known engagements that illuminate the wider military and political struggles of their time.
Hallowed Ground
A reflective journey through sites of conflict and remembrance, considering how landscapes carry the memory of war.