Well thank you sir ...

for those kind words.

I have heard rave reviews about 1776. McCullogh is clearly up there in terms of modern works. Some of these I was familiar with (with 1776 the next on my list of purchases). However, I was altogether unaware of Jaroslav Pelikan and his masterpiece you enthusiastically endorsed. This I will add to my list. And that's what's great about just this type of thread - comparing/sharing tools in the tool box. That was the simile one of my favorite history professors used. He balked at the idea of students selling their books at the conclusion of their requisite course. He considered a library much like a tool box. "You don't sell your wrench just because you bought it to fix one leaky faucet." And I have kept that perspective ever since.

Let me add a few of my own suggestions. Niall Ferguson's Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order And The Lessons For Global Power. And "the real" series by Andrew M. Allison. The Real Thomas Jefferson, The Real George Washington and The Real Benjamen Franklin are all fantastic contemporary publications & can be purchased online for as little as $12.

In terms of modern "classics" I would rank W. Cleon Skousen's The 5,000 Year Leap near the top - it should be required reading in every high school in America. As well as William L. Shrirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich. I have a second edition circa 1960 if you can believe it. My mother picked it up at a flea market (clearly the tool box analogy was lost on someone out there). Written in 1959 this became the definitive post war account of Nazi Germany, as Shrier lived and worked in the Reich the first half of its' existence, not to mention documents and memories were still fresh enough for first hand accounts.

You're right - there are scores we could name. I sought one name and got many. In fact I intend to list some of the names here on a sheet of paper (along with my trusty Amazon password info) & put it at the end of my "currently reading" shelf so as to have fresh names for exploring the past when my current selections are at their conclusion.

Funny. There is an electronic device I'm sure you're all familiar with. A "Kindle." It's a sleek, electronic mini lap top looking thingamajig, similar to the much vaunted new Ipad. You can load hundreds (perhaps thousands, I don't know) books into it, and carry a virtual library around with you, accessible at the ease of your finger tips. And I hate it. I understand, I get it, this is the inevitable Gene Roddenberry future and I'm behaving like a grumpy "back in my day" old man (and barely into my 30's no less). But here's the thing. Something, I'm not sure what, but something is lost without that feel and smell of a fresh new book. It's like freshly brewed coffee. It has a distinctly pleasing aroma filled with boundless pounds of potential. Only to be matched by a used, dog eared, perhaps underlined here & there (in my case), slightly frumpled book sitting on your shelf. Walking buy a shelf and seeing the titles leap out on the book ends which jut out gives me a smile. Occasionally I pull one out and have a look through. See what I underlined, what was "so important" 6 years ago to me. And just seeing the titles of read (& sometimes reread) works also keeps the arguments and positions formed as their result, fresh in my mind. At least more fresh then were they resting in some sub folder on an over sized ipod. So, let us list on, whenever they occur to you or a new gem has been stumbled across, for there is no list so sad as a "completed" reading list.