BradNelson.com

reading list

Currently Reading

The German War: A Nation Under Arms by Nicholas Stargardt
The Unwritten Order
 by Peter Longerich
Go Figure
by Tom Standage

2020

Masters of Death: The SS and the Holocaust by Richard Rhodes
Why?: Explaining the Holocaust by Peter Hayes
The Holocaust by Laurence Rees
War and Genocide by Doris Bergen
Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution by Ian Kershaw
Hitler's Soldiers by Ben Shepherd
​World War II in Global Perspective by Andrew Buchanan
The Power Broker by Robert Caro

2019

Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa by Mark Ross
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy by Max Hastings
​A History of the Southern Confederacy by Clement Eaton
The War that Forged a Nation by James McPherson
​The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine
The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
Frederick Douglass by David Blight
Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton
Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn by James Donovan
The Framers' Coup by Michael Klarman
Why Learn History by Sam Wineburg
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
Decision in Philadelphia by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution by Pauline Meier
American Colonies by Alan Taylor
American Revolutions by Alan Taylor
A Short History of Wisconsin by Ericka Janik
​Armies of Deliverance by Elizabeth Varon
The Men Who Lost America by Andrew O'Shaughnessy
Army of Evil: A History of the SS by Adrian Weale

2018

The End of Tsarist Russia by Dominic Lieven
The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
​Autopsy for an Empire by Dimitri Volkogonov
The Russian Revolution by Sean McMeekin
​Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie
The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
​The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder
October by China Mieville
The House of the Dead by Daniel Beer
​King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
​Directorate S by Steve Coll
Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
​The Generals by Tom Ricks
White Rage by Carol Anderson
​Constantinople by Philip Mansel
White Trash by Nancy Isenberg
This Fleeting World by David Christian
​Fear by Bob Woodward
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi
The Thinking Past by Adrian Cole and Stephen Ortega
​
The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley
​On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides
Anatomy of Malice by Joel Dimsdale
​
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
West with the Night by Beryl Markham

2017

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Holocaust by Martin Gilbert
1984 by George Orwell
An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
Marching into Darkness by Waitman Beorn*
Black Earth by Timothy Snyder
Hitler's Army by Omer Bartov*
KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann
Night by Elie Wiesel
​Hitler by Ian Kershaw
1491 by Charles Mann
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
Control of Nature by John McPhee
Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier
​
Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum
Red Famine by Anne Applebaum
​
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
​
Postwar by Tony Judt
​
Red Flag by David Priestland

2016

The Second World War by Antony Beevor
The Red Army and the Great Terror by Peter Whitewood*
Moral Combat by Michael Burleigh
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
The General by Jonathan Fenby
Hitler and Stalin by Allan Bullock
​
Einstein by Walter Isaacson
​
Destiny and Power by Jon Meacham
Byzantium by Jonathan Harris
The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff
Once Upon a Time in Russia by Ben Mezrich
​Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood
​
Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Jacksonland by Steve Inskeep

2015

​Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre
Winston’s War by Max Hastings
American Caesar by William Manchester
Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount, Jr.
Brothers, Rivals, Victors by Jonathan Jordan
An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Retribution by Max Hastings
In the Ruins of Empire by Ronald Spector
The Mind of the South by W. J. Cash*
The Rising Sun by John Toland
Age of Lincoln by Orville Burton
Red Notice by Bill Browder
Wildlife Wars by Terry Grosz
A History of the World by Andrew Marr
Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz
A Country of Vast Designs by Richard Merry
Alphabetter Juice by Roy Blount, Jr.
Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig Symonds
Battlefield by Peter Svenson
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Five Tragic Hours by James McDonough and Thomas Connelly
Stealing the General by Russell Bonds
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman
Shiloh by James McDonough
The Great Influenza by John Barry
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
1939: Countdown to War by Richard Overy
The Hound of Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

D-Day: Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor​
​
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle

2014

The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
The Third Reich in Power by Richard J. Evans
Duty by Robert Gates
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage
The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans
1861 by Adam Goodheart
Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren
Landscape Turned Red by Stephen Sears
Gulag by Anne Applebaum
Nixon and Mao by Margaret MacMillan
The Bonfire by Marc Wortman
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Vietnam by Stanley Karnow
Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen*
The White Scourge by Neil Foley*
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Big Burn by Timothy Egan
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
Lincoln and His Generals by T. Harry Williams
What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe
The Warrior Generals by Thomas Buell
America Aflame by David Goldfield
Jefferson Davis and His Generals by Steven Woodworth
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz
Gettysburg by Allen Guelzo
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A Brief History of Britain: 1066-1485 by Nicholas Vincent

A Brief History of Britain: 1485-1660 by Ronald Hutton
A Brief History of Britain: 1660-1851 by William Gibson
A Brief History of Britain: 1851-2010 by Jeremy Black
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
The Civil War by Bruce Catton
Enemies by Tim Weiner

2013

Inferno by Max Hastings
Inhuman Bondage by David Brion Davis 
Never Call Retreat by Bruce Catton
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
The Man Who Saved the Union by H.W. Brands
Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
America’s Great Debate by Fergus M. Bordewich
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
The Oath by Jeffrey Toobin
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
The End by Ian Kershaw
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan

2012

​The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote
The Civil War: Fredericksburg to Meridian by Shelby Foote
The Civil War: Red River to Appomattox by Shelby Foote
The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton
Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton
Stiff by Mary Roach
Training Ground by Martin Dugard
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore 

2011

​The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
King of Heists by J. North Conway
Revolution 1989 by Victor Sebestyen
Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
A Platter of Figs by David Tanis
The Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky by Benson Deng, et al
The War Lovers by Evan Thomas
The Fourth Star by David Cloud and Greg Jaffe
Confidence Men by Ron Suskind
Decision Points by George W. Bush
Impeached by David O. Stewart
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
The Commanders by Bob Woodward
Veil by Bob Woodward
Eclipse by Mark Perry
Collision Course by Joseph McCartin
Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier
Island of Vice by Richard Zacks

2010

​The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
Custer Died For Your Sins by Vine Deloria Jr.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Heat by Bill Buford
Great Plains by Ian Frazier
The Lynchings in Duluth by Michael Fedo
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward
Tried by War by James McPherson
Lone Star Nation by HW Brands

2009

​John Paul Jones by Evan Thomas
Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof
The Way to Bright Star by Dee Brown
Write It When I’m Gone by Thomas DeFrank
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
River of Doubt by Candice Millard
Fraud of the Century by Roy Morris Jr.
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor
Cod by Mark Kurlansky
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Indian Wars by Bill Yenne
Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop
The Boys of ‘98 by Dale Walker
The Somme by Peter Hart
Fire and Brimstone by Michael Punke
The Great Bridge by David McCullough
The Burma Road by Donovan Webster

2008

​The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Hunting the Jackal by Billy Waugh
Charlatan by Pope Brock
1776 by David McCullough
Sea of Thunder by Evan Thomas
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Burn Before Reading by Stansfield Turner
State of Denial by Bob Woodward
The War Within by Bob Woodward
The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton McCartney
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides

2007

​At the Center of the Storm by George Tenet
The Fifth Profession by David Morrell
Mighty Fitz by Michael Schumacher
Chief of Station, Congo by Larry Devlin
Spymaster by Ted Shackley
Class 11 by TJ Waters
Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara
A Spy for All Seasons by Duane Clarridge
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara
Gone For Soldiers by Jeff Shaara
Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara
  • Home
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.