Press

McNamara’s War on curated lists:

• Amazon Book Review, Editors’ Picks: Best History books of September [2025]
• Matt Seidel, “Big Indie Books of Fall 2025/ History Matters,” Publishers Weekly, August 22, 2025.
• “A Fall Preview for Readers of All Kinds,” Washington Post, August 30, 2025.

Reviews

• “Examining Robert McNamara’s Double Life,” Stanford Report, October 3, 2025.
• Michael Mandelbaum, “The Vietnam War in Retrospect,” The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, October 2025.
• Robert B. Rakove, “The Price of Loyalty,” Alta, Sept. 29, 2025. “An engaging and deeply insightful biography of the 20^th century’s most controversial secretary of defense….McNamara at War offers a timely reminder of the potent power wielded by ambition, psychology, and rapport—often at the expense of principle and humanity.”
• Julian E. Zelizer, “Robert McNamara Chose Loyalty to the President,” Foreign Policy, Sept. 26, 2025. “This book should be required reading for everyone currently working in silence in Washington.” Read here.
• Bob Ruggiero, “Robert McNamara and ‘His’ Vietnam War Reconsidered in New History,” Houston Press, Sept. 22, 2025.
• James Santel, “Robert McNamara Loved Efficiency. Then Came the Vietnam War.” New York Times Book Review, Sept. 20, 2025.
• Review: “McNamara at War: A New History,” Kirkus Reviews, Sept. 2, 2025.
• Gabriella Gage, “Off the Shelf,” Harvard Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2025, p. 44.
• Russell James, Review: McNamara at War: A New History,  Library Journal, July 18, 2025.

Commentary & Interviews

• “Understanding Robert McNamara,”Echoes of the Vietnam War Podcast, October 9, 2025.
• “Ep. 239: Inside McNamara at War: Philip and William Taubman on Vietnam and U.S. Power,” C-SPAN Booknotes+ Podcast, October 7, 2025.
• “Episode 172: Philip and William Taubman on McNamara at War,” Bookstack with Richard Aldous, October 5, 2025.
• Philip Taubman and William Taubman, “The War Hawk Who Wasn’t,” The Atlantic, Sept. 18, 2025. Link to article on The Atlantic (subscription required)
• “Philip Taubman & William Taubman: In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer,” Sept. 18, 2025.
• “Unpacking the Mind behind Vietnam: Dr. William Taubman on McNamara at War,” Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast, Sept. 16, 2025.
• “The Double Life of Robert McNamara: How America’s ‘Best and Brightest’ Led the Nation into Vietnam…,” Keen on American Podcast with Andrew Keen, September 5, 2025.
• Hemlock #31: McNamara’s Cold War: Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Taubman on Vietnam, the Domino Theory, Khrushchev…,” History of Philosophy Audio Archive, August 23, 2025.

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Those interested in similar materials related to Gorbachev: His Life and Times, can find the links here.