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Welcome!
This is for Modern History books about subjects in the last century. Amazing things have happened in that span of time, so there are some great books to read.

This is a book I really liked. It reads like a modern espionage thriller: God's Smuggler. Some parts are really tense!

I recently finished this one



The author looks and the relationship between Richard Nixon and the token Democrat in his administration between 1969-1970 and how Pat Moynihan was able to stear Nixon's domestic policy. Rather short, and it mainly focuses on Moynihan.

@happy Thanks! That looks very interesting.

here is another one I recently finished that I think would fit with this group



My thoughts, if anyone is interested

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Ethan wrote: "This is a book I really liked. It reads like a modern espionage thriller: God's Smuggler. Some parts are really tense!"

No doubt about it, Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles into Russia was also one of the best action/adventure autobiographies I've ever read.

I just finished the book cited below and it is full of interesting information about the financial scams from Ponzi through Madoff. These guy were clever but not clever enough as their actions finally caught up with them. I would recommend it.

Scandal!: The Amazing Tales of Cheats, Crooks and Criminals, and How They Helped Create the Modern Economy by Fortune Magazine

It is amazing that the POTUS has been in office for 10 months and the books are already hitting the shelves about his Presidency. Granted, things are certainly different than anything we have ever seen before and there is plenty to discuss.......but I would think that these books would date so quickly since things are changing daily (sometimes hourly) that it would hardly be worth reading them, even if you were interested in reading them in the first place.

It's because they will make money and find a ready audience, Jill. $$$ This president can say the exact same words verbatim and it is "read" and "heard" differently. The ears are different and they are wide open to want to hear more of the negative slant. Regardless if it is supposition or something that will be 180 degrees in three or 9 months.

Not to say that the changes are not often and in a completely different mode of operation from other presidencies of recent years. But the writers and media are not hearing or defining the same words similarly as they did to a voice that reflected back on themselves exactly what they wanted to hear and in the mode and style in which they want to hear it. They are still and never more so, exactly in their own echo chambers mired in minutia of scorn. They still have no idea about the state and mindset of the American public and especially the American 40 plus hour a week worker. About what they see, hear, and feel that the role of government has put to them in the USA. The everyday and the monetary. They are sick, sick, sick of being "talked down" to and told.

Well said, Jeanette. $$$$ is certainly the driving force of these current books and some are written by media personalities. The term "fake news" has become popular but how does one know if what is reported is fake or has some basis in reality? It is obvious which networks are conservative and and which ones are liberal...but is anyone neutral?

I am not trying to start a political discussion (Trump or anti-Trump) since this is not the place for it but am just curious about the political environment in which we find ourselves and how reporting influences the opinions of the American people.

It's my guess RIGHT NOW, in the people I know within 2 states that they believe very little of the news at all. You haven't even heard that ISIS has been 90% defeated and lost Raqqa on regular network news for more than 2 minutes every fourth day. But you'll hear about what word was used or what offense it caused for at least 1/2 of the news in total. Or on some channels 3/4th of the hour or more. Scorn and disdain and hate actualized in their own ire, rather than solid overseas or locale facts. And the internet is more celebrity than it is reality. All are words, and little about the results or actions, other than the terror or attacks like in Las Vegas- or something of that order- the entire news is what Trump did wrong or what he said wrong today. People who work, especially physical work. They are sick of the moaners. And they are sick of the media. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what they care and see as humans, what they are about, nor their core purposes and beliefs. And the more written conspiracy theory or minutia of disdain "proof" trasher books, the more they are visible expanding every day on their own feelings of scorning others who do not "feel" what they feel- the more the public is going to react in aversion. But they (media and social warrior pundits self-described) truly don't "get" it. Less now than ever, it seems. Their superiority is THAT convinced to themselves. They have self-segregated in a sense within their own "whole piece" belief system to what is "good" and "true". No factual history or valid news will arise out of such well-conditioned "eyes". So people go with what they see and believe almost nothing. In a city, it can be immensely different from what they hear.

by Ben Macintyre

The story of the Cambridge "old school ties" group of brilliant and charming young men who were the shining lights of British Intelligence during the Cold War is in a word....fantastic. They were led by Kim Philby who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union when in fact he and they were deeply imbedded agents of the USSR. The book concentrates solely on Philby with some mention of the other men involved.

The world of counter-intelligence is somewhat like a club of very special people or a family who share all their secrets over drinks and long dinners. Various operations and missions were topics of conversation that they mistakenly supposed would stay secret. Everyone trusted each other and Kim Philby was one of the most popular of this group. Little did they know he was passing everything he heard on to his KGB handlers and many people lost their lives or disappeared when these secret missions/operations were foiled based on his information.

You will shake your head in amazement at the devious and clever inner workings of such a trusted man who was a traitor to his country. I have the highest praise for this book.

I just finished this one - I agree fascinating read. I found it incredible that even after Philby had been forced to resign, MI6 rehabilitated him and used him to gather intel in Lebenon

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal is on my to-read list. Glad to hear you both enjoyed it, Jill and Happy. (Sounds like I should bump it higher on my list.)

As happy mentioned, it was incredible that Britain could not quite grasp that Philby was doing what he was doing. The "old school tie" group had too much influence in government business and one of their own was considered above reproach. The whole situation reads more like fiction than fact. And, of course, Philby was not the only turncoat feeding information to the Soviets.

It appears that the bombshell book, released today, about the first months of the Trump administration is going to dominate the news to the exclusion of anything else that might be happening in this world. Is it based on fact, wishful thinking, fiction or a combination of all? I will be interested to hear about it from anyone here who reads it....frankly it sounds very frightening.

by Michael Wolff

I'll be keen to hear what people think of it as well. Books like this generate some great reviews and comments at Amazon. I sometimes have great fun reading the spiteful comments on some books. I see this book started some great back-and-forth at Amazon and it actually sounds like a pretty decent book written by a respected journalist:

Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding

Likewise AR I've read a number of reviews that praise and slam the book and its author. On balance I'm interested to read it as it appears to offer good information with credible sources and research, and Harding has a solid journalistic background and track a record, including previously well-received books on Snowden, Litvinenko and Libya.

Geevee wrote: "Likewise AR I've read a number of reviews that praise and slam the book and its author. On balance I'm interested to read it as it appears to offer good information with credible sources and resear..."

The one thing I did notice at Amazon in regards to reviews for "Collusion" was the vast majority of the 1 star reviews were just one liners saying the book was liars and propaganda but no details on the actual book or why people didn't like it whereas the comments praising the book were proper reviews with some thought and details on the book and its contents.

Spring 1961 in Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth.; a proper "what were you thinking???" moment as Kennedy embarrasses himself utterly at the Bay of Pigs. And then Bobby goes and hands over the agenda for the Vienna talks to his Soviet conduit.
I'm loving this, wish I'd had it back in the early 90's.

Well an Iron Curtain has, quite literally, fallen across Berlin as Ulbrecht strings barbed wire across every street in sight, it would appear. Yet another finest hour in the records of the West's intelligence agencies! It only remains now to chart the spit of the city and the attendant small tragedies, and to see how Kennedy and Khrushchev work this one out.. excellent writing, I'm relishing the diplomacy to come! Happy, I'm guessing your dad would be getting activated around this point in my book...

I finished Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth. last night; thoroughly enjoyed it, my thoughts are here
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Of for a bit of a fiction break now, see you soon!

Saw your review, Jonny. Sounds like a winner. It will probably go on my tbr list but I have to pare that baby down a bit.........I have 700+ books on it!!!!! How does that happen?

Jill wrote: "Saw your review, Jonny. Sounds like a winner. It will probably go on my tbr list but I have to pare that baby down a bit.........I have 700+ books on it!!!!! How does that happen?"

I have over 1600 and I don't know how that happened either :)

Well I have One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War for later in the year - but now I think I've gone a bit arse before face, and I probably need to read Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-56 first... January's not my best month for clear thinking (mind you this year it began last November)!!!!

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Jill wrote: "Saw your review, Jonny. Sounds like a winner. It will probably go on my tbr list but I have to pare that baby down a bit.........I have 700+ books on it!!!!! How does that happen? I have over 1600 and I don't know how that happened either :) "

Mental note, mental note. You have too many unread books (450-500?). You buy too many books. Do not compare to Jill & Aussie Rick. They've had more years to accumulate such numbers....

Years of acquiring good books Dimitri, nothing better than walking into my library and being able to pick up a book on any subject I like :)

My library floor to ceiling bookshelves are packed....I have books in baskets and free standing bookshelves as well.......they are everywhere!!!!! And I still make a stop at the public library (small that it is) every week. The best addiction a person can have!!!!!

I doesn't help my TBR that Mrs Happy works in our local library :)

Also my TBR is 3700+ ( There had better be an afterlife - that is the only way I'll ever make a dent in it :))

3700+!!!!!!!!!!! I think we will all be meeting in the afterlife, sitting in a comfy chair with our pile of books!!!

I've read a couple of books so far this year which fall within this discussion. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal was excellent, I won't say more except to endorse Jill's recommendation further up this page. The Great Train Robbery: Crime of the Century was also very good, a little too detailed in places (for me), but excellent in terms of being a wider social history as well as an interesting description of the robbery itself.

Although neither deals with especially wholesome topics (traitors, armed robbery...) both present their subjects factually, without embellishing or sensationalising.

by Ben Macintyre

by Nick Russell-Pavier

I had put The Great Train Robbery: Crime of the Century on my tbr list a while ago. Thanks for your comments, Tony. I just finished a book that was really detailed so I will put off reading this one for a while....sometimes we need a break.

I'm a great fan of author David McCullough and am now reading The Wright Brothers. He has such an enjoyable style and pacing to his books and this one does not disappoint. I am about half-way through and would recommend it.

I've read a few of David McCullough's books and I've enjoyed them. Keep us posted on "The Wright Brothers".

The odd part about the Wright Brothers is that they had no life except flying........no social life, no lady friends, no hobbies, few friends etc. They were totally immersed in creating a flying machine (although they did start with bicycles).

They sound like the perfect 'odd' coupe eh!

They were almost like identical twins.....so tuned into each other and their work. Total dedication that left no room for anything else in their lives and they seemed to be happy with that. I will be writing a review tomorrow (or later tonight), as I just finished it and have moved on to:

by Anthony McCarten

I came home with copies of these two new books:

The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight by Cathy Scott-Clark

The Guardian review in case anyone is interested:


Korea: Where the American Century Began by Michael Pembroke

This book has only just been released in Australia so if your interested here are a few links:

I've liked anything McCulough has written - including The Wright Brothers, but I thoughT it was a bit short.

That was my one complaint about the book, happy. It was really short but after concentrating on the development of the "flying machine", there wasn't much more to say about the Wright Brothers.

Today I am going to start reading this new Australian release:

Korea: Where the American Century Began by Michael Pembroke

The book I'm currently reading on the Korean War has been quite interesting so far. The author just discussed the actions of the captain of this ship and his role in saving thousands of Korean civilians:

Great story Rick, got a smile out of the crew using brooms to pack the ship..

Its amazing how many people he managed to squeeze onto such a small boat!

My relationship with this group is mostly a stalking one ... I enjoy keeping up with all your great book recommendations. However, I thought it was time to recommend a book that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned on here. I just finished reading . It’s a marvelously inspiring story of perseverance, teaming, hard work, and humility. The author expertly weaves a personal interest story amidst the backdrop of major historical events ... he never loses the primary story while describing the fascinating stage: Depression, Dust Bowl, pre-WW2 Nazi propaganda, etc. I was moved by the life transformation that the crew experience affected in Joe Rantz, the philosophical similes of a humble shell-builder (Pocock), and the beauty of diversity working in unity within the crew itself. I couldn’t put the book down.

Always good to receive recommendations from fellow group members Cindy - stalkers or not ;) - and I'm sure it'll find its way onto people's lists. Thanks for this.

I agree, Cindy......that is a great book. Please jump into the discussions at any time....this is a small group but oh, we do love our books!!

Although this book is not exactly "modern" history, it is close enough. It tells the story of six African-Americans, several of whom where born slaves, who through intelligence, strength, determination and in a couple of cases, luck, rose above the racial hatred that permeated the US during and after the Civil War to become millionaires. They opened the door for following generations of Blacks to become independent entrepreneurs. Well done except for a couple of glaring editing errors and is a great look at an almost forgotten era in Black history.

by Shomari Wills

I recently finished


This is a very good look and the Soviet Union's attempts to collectivize the Ukrainian agricutlure in the early 1930s and what resulted.
The author estimated that 3.9 million people died in 3 yrs of the "famine" and an additional 600,000 where never born.


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Great review Happy, funny enough I am planning to read this book next month, your review sealed the deal for me :)