Biography: The Corridors of Power (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

by H.W. Brands, A. Scott Berg (Narrator), Jim Newton

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.A. Scott Berg is the author of numerous biographies including Max Editor of Genius, for which he received the National Book Award, and Lindbergh, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. He is currently working on a biography of Woodrow Wilson.

H. W. Brands is a professor of history at Texas A&M University. Among his many acclaimed books are T. The Last Romantic and the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Biography finalist Traitor to His The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Jim Newton is the editor of the Los Angeles Times' editorial pages. He shared in the Pulitzer prizes awarded to the Los Angeles Times for coverage of the 1992 riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He is the author of Justice for Earl Warren and the Nation He Made.

Ronald C. White, Jr. is the author of three books on Abraham Lincoln, most recently A. A Biography. White earned his Ph.D. at Princeton and has lectured on Lincoln at hundreds of universities and organizations, as well as at Gettysburg and the White House.

Audible Audio

Published August 25, 2009

About the author

H.W. Brands is an acclaimed American historian and author of over thirty books on U.S. history, including Pulitzer Prize finalists The First American and Traitor to His Class. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD. Originally trained in mathematics, Brands turned to history as a way to pursue his passion for writing. His biographical works on figures like Franklin, Jackson, Grant, and both Roosevelts have earned critical and popular praise for their readability and depth. Raised in Oregon and educated at Stanford, Reed College, and Portland State, he began his teaching career in high schools before entering academia. He later taught at Texas A&M and Vanderbilt before returning to UT Austin. Brands challenges conventional reverence for the Founding Fathers, advocating for a more progressive and evolving view of American democracy. In addition to academic works, his commentary has featured in major documentaries. His books, published internationally and translated into multiple languages, examine U.S. political, economic, and cultural development with compelling narrative force. Beyond academia, he is a public intellectual contributing to national conversations on history and governance.