Check It Out: The political machine
It doesn't take a lot of effort to find a book that espouses any kind of political ideology you're looking for, or even a few you're not. And with the piles upon piles of right-wing, left-wing and crazycakes-wing tomes being realizes every month, it can be difficult to find the real deal.
Earlier this year, NPR asked a few correspondents what their favorite political classics were, with responses varying from Machiavelli's The Prince to Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.
Britain's The Independent announced the Ten Best Political Books in July, a comprehensive list of mostly U.K.-related topics -- except that Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope topped the list. (I happened to find that one a complete bore, but OK.)
And when I posed the quesiton to my friends on Twitter, GregRuby responded with T.H. White's Making of a President series, "anything by Germond and Witcover," and All the President's Men.
So I went to our own political powerhouse, politics editor David Nitkin, and asked him what his favorites were.
"Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse is an all-time favorite -- got me hooked on political journalism. There's also a whole series called "The Making of the President" -- by Theodore White," he said. "What's the Matter with Kansas was pretty good, and influential."
He also listed David McCullough's biographies of Truman and Adams, along with Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, which "is on everyone's list." he said.
Finally, he suggested Robert Caro. "[Former Sun editor] Bill Marimow made me read The Power Broker, about Robert Moses, who remade the NYC landscape with bridges and tunnels," Nitkin said. "It's a masterwork."
And I'm going to add my own bit of fun: The United States Constituion: A Graphic Adaptation, by Jonathan Hennessey.
