10 great book suggestions for your coronavirus self-quarantine

March 18, 2020

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With much of the nation spending a lot more time at home for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19, you and your family may have a little more reading time on your hands in the coming weeks. If you love little-known stories from U.S. history, you can't go wrong with Glenn's book Miracles and Massacres, and its follow-up Dreamers and Deceivers.

Since Glenn's audience is full of history buffs and nonfiction nerds like myself, I thought I'd share a list of ten of my favorite nonfiction books in case you're looking for a good read during this coronavirus hiatus.

For this list, I limited selections to subjects involving U.S. history and culture. I'm partial to U.S. presidential history, so my entire list could easily be dominated by presidents, but I tried to include somewhat of a historical mix in hopes you might find something that piques your interest. Feel free to tweet us (@glennbeck) your favorite nonfiction books too, using the hashtag #GBnonfiction.

Here are ten of my nonfiction favorites…

10. Wilson by A. Scott Berg

Amazon

If you've been listening to Glenn for almost any length of time, you're familiar with his marked loathing for America's 28th president. I'm no fan of Wilson either, but this well-researched book is worth your time as a primer on the roots of progressivism. It will help you understand Glenn's animosity toward Wilson in glorious detail.

9. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

Amazon

There are many biographies of the man behind the world's largest entertainment empire, but this one may be the most in-depth. Walt Disney liked to say, "it was all started by a mouse," but there was a ton of hard work and heartbreak before Mickey. Gabler leaves no stone unturned in his quest to paint a complete portrait of Walt – a complicated creative genius and visionary.

8. The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Amazon

One thing that every U.S. president from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush had in common was friendship with evangelist Billy Graham. This book deftly explores the positives and the perils of Graham's half-century of proximity to such power. The presidents who were closest to Graham may surprise you.

7. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Amazon

There are also a lot of books about Steve Jobs, but Isaacson had the best access to Jobs at the end of Jobs' life. Jobs hand-picked Isaacson to write his biography. It was almost like Jobs was trying to assert the same control-freakiness over his own life story that he applied to Apple's iconic products, although he had no editorial control over the book and apparently never read any of it. Ultimately, despite the special access and potential temptation to go easy on his subject, Isaacson delivers the Steve Jobs story warts and all (and there are a lot of warts).

6. The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine by Michael MacCambridge

Amazon

This is kind of an outlier on this list because it involves a plethora of things – sports, journalism, advertising, ambition, ego and much more – told through the lens of the history of Sports Illustrated magazine. MacCambridge takes you on a journey through a bygone era of smoke-filled rooms and chattering typewriters when magazines were a big deal. Expertly told and relentlessly entertaining.

5. The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Amazon

This one surprised me because its subtitle – Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism – made me skeptical that it was too much of a scattered premise. I was wrong. It totally works. It's an engrossing story about the close friendship between Roosevelt and Taft (who was so much more than the unfair stuck-in-a-bathtub-fat-president label he's been dealt) which politics nearly destroyed. Intertwined with the Roosevelt/Taft narrative are the stories of America's first celebrity journalists, including Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens. Another apt subtitle could've been The Birth of Left-wing Media.

4. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Amazon

This is a bone-chilling true story about a serial killer during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. But it's also a riveting story about the men who designed and built the fairground (a sort of late-1800s EPCOT), which included amazing architectural feats that would still be wowing visitors today if fire hadn't destroyed them. Larson's intertwined narratives weave a compelling tale about a crucial turning point in U.S. history that marked the end of America's innocence.

3. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

This is the only autobiography on the list (autobiographies probably deserve their own list sometime), but it merits inclusion because Washington's life story is one of the most phenomenal success stories in American history. It's criminal that this isn't required reading in every U.S. school, but the unfortunate reality is that Booker T. Washington's words and worldview clash hard with the modern Leftist agenda. In case you have a healthy skepticism of autobiographies as history, a good companion book is the Washington biography Up From History by Robert J. Norrell.

2. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson

You know you're reading a great book when you already know the ending, but it's a thrilling ride anyway. That's Manhunt. Swanson puts you in the saddle with the Union cavalry and detectives in their desperate, white-knuckle search through the Virginia countryside for fugitive John Wilkes Booth in the days after he murdered President Lincoln. If you think you already know the story of Lincoln's assassination, trust me, there's a whole lot more. Manhunt is awesome reading.

1. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Amazon

If you were expecting something a bit more obscure for the number one slot, sorry. I know Unbroken was a gargantuan bestseller a few years ago. But it was a gargantuan bestseller for a reason: it's that good. Much of Unbroken reads like a novel – in the best sense. It's the harrowing, adventurous true story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini and his brutal experience as an American POW at the hands of the Japanese during World War II. It's the kind of book that is so exquisitely written, it makes aspiring writers want to throw in the towel. It is heart-pounding, gut-wrenching, and meticulously researched. Don't even think about watching the movie instead – the movie barely even scratches the surface of this truly remarkable story of courage, perseverance, and redemption.

Happy self-quarantine reading! And don't forget, the only place to catch all of Glenn's Covid-19-related episodes anytime on demand is by subscribing at BlazeTV.com.

Nathan Nipper is a writer for Mercury Radio Arts. As a politically conservative soccer enthusiast, he is a member of one of the most oppressed minority groups in the United States. He lives in North Texas with his wife, daughter, and two sons.

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Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.