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

• Fredrik Logevall, “The Fog of McNamara: An Anatomy of Failure in Vietnam,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2026 (published on Dec. 16, 2025).
• Francis P. Sempa, “‘McNamara at War: A New History’ by Philip Taubman and William Taubman,” Asian Review of Books, 16 January 2026.
• “The Architect of a Calculated Tragedy: Robert McNamara and the lethal seduction of technocratic virtue,” Sri Lanka Guardian, December 20, 2025.
• Robert Wihtol, “Bookshelf: War Lessons from Robert McNamara,” The Strategist (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), 9 Dec. 2025.
• Mark Piesing, “Did Robert McNamara know Vietnam was unwinnable?” The Spectator, Nov. 24, 2025.
• Errol Morris, “How I learned to stop worrying and love Robert S. McNamara (if not the Vietnam War),” Airmail, Issue no. 326, October 11, 2025. (Mr. Morris is the Academy Award-winning director of The Fog of War.)
• “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, and Podcasts

• “Event coverage: Hoover Institution,” C-SPAN Book TV, January 25, 2026.
• “Interview: McNamara at War: A Dialogue with William Taubman,” Converging Dialogues, January 22, 2026.
• “Interview: Robert McNamara: Life of the Week,” BBC History Extra, January 20, 2026
• “Interview: McNamara at War,” American Warrior Radio, December 29, 2025.
• “Interview: Robert McNamara Thought Enough Data Could Win Any War. Instead, It Led America to the Vietnam Quagmire ,” History Unplugged, November 4, 2025. 
• “Interview: Philip & William Taubman,” The VVA Veteran “Dispatches”, November 3, 2025.
• “Interview: Philip Taubman and William Taubman: McNamara at War,” Commonwealth Club of California Podcast, November 3, 2025.
• “Interview: A new look at the tortured life of Robert McNamara ,” KPCW Mountain Money, October 27, 2025.
• “Conversations: Re-evaluating Robert McNamara, w/ Philip and William Taubman,” History Shorts, October 20, 2025.
• “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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