Why Simon Schama...

...is my favorite historian. From todays Froomkin:

British Web site The First Post reports: "George Bush's valedictory dinner at Downing Street last night was attended by a bevy of distinguished British historians, leading some to believe the president is looking to recruit a ghost writer for a book he is planning. Among those who joined him were Churchill's biographer Martin Gilbert, Niall Fergusson, David Cannadine, Andrew Roberts and Simon Schama. The latter is unlikely to receive a request to help him with the book - expected to promote his freedom agenda and also explain why he took America to war in Iraq -- given that he is on record as saying Bush is 'an absolute [expletive] catastrophe'. My emphasis added.

Nuff said.

For those plushyphiles unfamiliar with Schama's work, Amazon.com has quite a selection. My favorite is Citizens, Schama's hugely entertaining work on the French Revolution, released the year of the French Bicentennial.

For you Anglophiles who saw part or all of the BBC's series, "The History of Britain," Schama was the narrator as well as the author of an exhaustive three-book series to accompany the television production. And when I say "exhaustive," I mean it. He starts at 3500 B.C. and covers everything up to the modern day. Not to worry though, Schama's volumes read like fine novels. His flair for story telling would make most novelists cry with envy.