If this wasn’t a history book, I would have thought that The Death of a President by William Manchester is a Shakespearean tragedy

A biography of Anna Rosenberg, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant who helped millions of Americans through legislation, competence, and leadership

Attempts, and succeeds, to navigate the enormous amount of information to tell a fascinating, easy to read story. More importantly, the authors managed to separate the truth from the mountains of disinformation being put out by state and non-state actors, in official as well as unofficial roles.

The essays in this book or intelligent, charming, and often cranky. I know Mr. O’Rourke sees himself as a Libertarian, and probably a classical conservative, so I was interested to hear what he has to say on the current administration.

The book follows 4 decades of public service from Mr. Powel’s service in Vietnam and Mr. Cheney’s entrance to government to the administration of George W. Bush