Gordon’s Good reads is an Edmund Morris fan! We have recommended all of his TR books and in addition placed him among the historians suggested for Obama’s ” Kitchen Cabinet” of writers! So here we go to Osawatomie, Kansas, magnificently researched by Morris in Colonel Roosevelt under the banner of TR’s The New Nationalism. It all begins on page 100 and if you wish to see where President Obama’s campaign is heading Colonel Roosevelt may be a good road map.
Recalling the importance and power of President Harry Truman’s Kitchen Cabinet, brought vividly to life in David McCulloch’s Truman, the thought occurred to me that it might not be a bad idea for President Obama to appoint his own Kitchen Cabinet to help think through some of overwhelming issues facing the president and the nation. There is a wellspring of talent in the world of books and historians from which might come some unique and a-political ideas and possibly answers.
Here we go Mr. President with a suggested list of invitees! My guess is they would all not only come but bring some well-educated perspective.
Jonathan Alter, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
Henry William Brands, The Reckless Decade, America in the 1890s. TR The Last Romantic, Traitor to his Class. ( FDR)
Robert Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Doris Kerns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
David McCullough, Truman, John Adams
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, Colonel Roosevelt, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
Gordon Wood,The Creation of the American Republic and Empire of Liberty
The body of work by the authors of these works of history is a national resource! They could very well be the best and most productive “committee ” in Washington , DC. Go for it Mr. President. You will be in great company!
I Would enjoy hearing suggestions from my blog readers for the Great Historian Kitchen Cabinet at the White House!
Gordon's Good Reads 