Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth. This is the true story about Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the largest failed manhunt in US History. It is a weird tale of a young man who basically lied all his life about everything. He depended on friends to live and led a mixed up life of drugs and sex. When the gravy train ended, he snapped and killed 4 people including Gianni Versace.
Hollywood’s Spies by Laura Rosensweig. The untold story of how the Jewish community organized surveillance of Nazi sympathizers in Los Angeles during the 1930’s. This effort was funded by the movie studio heads in Hollywood and other concerned citizens.
The Marshall Plan by Benn Steil. A comprehensive look at how the Marshall Plan came to be created and conceived. Initially conceived as a multi-year plan with a large budget, it was gradually whittled down to an annual appropriation by Congress. It took nearly a near of negotiation and information gathering to come up with the Marshall Plan. Russia and it’s allies were offered an opportunity to receive money from the US but they declined. This is a very important book on how the US helped Western Europe recover from World War 2.
A Nation Wholly Free – The Elimination of National Debt in the Age of Jackson by Carl Lane. This is a history of how during a brief period from 1835 to 1837, the US government had no debt. In this book, the quest for eliminating the debt is the primary motivator for many policy decisions made by Andrew Jackson during his 2 terms as president. In that quest, Andrew Jackson vetoed many proposals for government spending to help eliminate the federal debt. Unfortunately, for the country the economy slumped into a recession just as the debt was paid off and borrowing resumed.
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