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I love how he narrated his book 1776 for the audiobook version. He has an amazing voice coupled with his great writing style.

His Excellency, by Joseph J. Ellis, is very good. I strongly recommend it. Founding Brothers, by Ellis, is also very good (and short).

David McCullough has several tremendous US history books, including John Adams, 1776, The Wright Brothers, The Path Between the Seas.

Speaking confidently could also be seen as removing uncertainty and focusing a team to move toward a goal. One of the more interesting things I learned from reading "1776" was the difference between the confidence George Washington projected, and the uncertainty in his letters to friends.

The difference lies in how the leader 1. Recognizes a need for change in direction/vision and 2. Accepts ownership if the vision needs correction.

It takes a leader to confidently provide a vision and execute towards it. It also takes a leader to quickly notice a need to change course, own it, and keep momentum going.

I love reading an actual book (iPad is a bit of a pain), but I’m in the car over an hour a day. So, I do like audiobooks and have an Audible subscription.

My enjoyment really depends on the narrator. An appropriate to the material narrator is a joy, but some are just awful. The authors reads 1776 and he is awesome. I do love the radio dramas with a full cast.

1. Imperium/Conspirata/Dictator [Cicero Trilogy] - Robert Harris (excellent)

2. The Fear Index - Robert Harris (good)

3. 1776 - David McCullough (good)

4. Sharpe's Eagle - Bernard Cornwell (good)

5. Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn (okay, fun if you read original Thrawn books)

6. Star Wars: Alliances - Timothy Zahn (okay, not as fun as above)

7. Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn (fun!)

8. Star Wars: X-Wing series books by Aaron Allston (fun!)

9. Art and Fear - Bayles & Orland (not that impressed)

So I rediscovered Star Wars stuff I enjoyed a lot as a kid and re-read them as well as some newer SW stuff which was all right but not the same as encountering it at 13 years old.

Discovered Robert Harris this year, he's great. Going to keep reading more of his stuff.

I was re-reading some of the Hornblower books by C S Forester (amazing stuff) and branched out to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe. It was good fun. Going to read more of that large series.

>This is not how companies normally do their thing. I’ve been listening to Adam Smith’s 1776 classic on the Wealth of Nations, and just passed through the chapter on how the market is set by masters trying to get away with paying the least possible, and workers trying to press for the maximum possible. An antagonistic struggle, surely.

Sounds exactly like Jeff Bezos, who owns part of Basecamp.

The best I've read wasn't a strategy book per se.
1776 - http://www.amazon.com/1776-David-McCullough/dp/0743226712 by David McCullough was full of useful insights on General George Washington and how he used his smarts to defeat the enemy. He wasn't a great strategist, but very pragmatic (like counting the number of shoes on the feet of his “army’ to asses their battle readiness) and willing to take risks. It book was also entertaining as Hell.

It definitely depends on my mood and what I'm doing.

My default is Lindsey Stirling[1]. Her music is up-tempo instrumental. I'll also put on a Pandora station seeded on Natalie McMaster.

Sometimes I'm doing something where I'm spending a bunch of time waiting on the machine and I will listen to a history audiobook. Recommendations:

- Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

- Souls of Black Folk by WEB DuBois

- to answer the Question DuBois raises at the end: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

- 1776 by David McCulloch

- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

- not history, but if you've only read Lord of the Rings on paper, you really should listen to the Audiobook.

Also lately I've been repeatedly listening to the songs from a musical about a certain bastard orphan son of a whore...

[1] https://m.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp

It's unfortunate you're being downvoted, because you are broadly correct. The US was the first country to achieve a sustained, structural food surplus nationally. By 1920 it was saving millions of Russians from starvation via its immense food surplus. Millions of Europeans fled their homes over decades to come to the US because of food scarcity and starvation back home. During most of the 19th century starvation was still a common problem across nearly all of continental Europe. All the way back to the late 18th century, the British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries that were raping and pillaging their way across the colonies couldn't believe the general prosperity that New Englanders were enjoying (such that they had any cause to be rebelling; see the book 1776 by McCullough). Until the last 40 years, the US had typically been far wealthier and with a far greater national food surplus than most of Europe. Even now, the US GDP per capita is typically 50-60% higher than the EU GDP per capita. The Irish, Germans and Italians that fled Europe to the US did so because of extraordinary poverty and famine. The standard of poor in the US today is greater than 10x higher than the floor on poverty in Europe, which you see in countries like Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc.

"Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants arriving during the 1840s and 1850s made up the second wave of European immigration, fleeing famine, religious persecution, and political conflicts."

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/european-immigrants-...

It's the modern aristocracy; this kind of behavior has existed since the beginning of humanity. And it likely won't ever end.

I found an interesting example of this reading through David McCullough's 1776[0]. One major weakness George Washington sought to exploit in the British military was the lack of talent and creativity among the British leadership.

Back then, British military officers were commissioned based on their wealth alone, not their talent. Washington leaned heavily into this throughout the revolution through his use of guerilla tactics and promoting officers, like Henry Knox, based on tactical aptitude. This gave way to successes like the Knox Expedition[1], many of which were consequential to winning the war.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(book)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_train_of_artillery

How can there be 71 comments and not one mention of G. K. Chesterton? Go out, right now, and check out The Everlasting Man and Orthodoxy from your local library.

I would also throw out there Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford, as something to inspire makers & engineers without being a technical book. If you like history, David McCullough's biography John Adams is a masterpiece (also see 1776 by the same author).

I can't think of anything else that hasn't already been mentioned.