The sinking of the Lusitania wasn't the proximal cause for the U.S. entering WWI. It was almost two years between the sinking… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I don't really have a bucket list, but if I did, one entry would be to dust off my college Russian and… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I was a promiscuous reader. I loved Nancy Drew books and Tom Swift - never the Hardy Boys - but I also… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“There began to appear before my romantic eyes...a vast and complicated network of espionage, terror, sadism and hate, from which no one,… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
If I'd been living in Berlin in 1933-34, could I possibly have foreseen the Holocaust and all the corollary horrors of World… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
It's essentially taught in high school and college survey courses as an item on a timeline: 'The Lusitania was sunk; the U.S.… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
In Washington, we had a grieving President Wilson, very, very much a lonely, grieving man. He had lost his wife of many… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“she suppressed a revolt led by the board’s executive secretary that had caused open warfare between factions of elegantly coiffed and dressed… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Every time I sit down to reread 'War and Peace' - I've read it three times - I feel as though I've… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I found a book facing out that I'd always meant to read: William Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.'… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I do think hubris played a role here as well, the belief that the Lusitania was too big and too fast to… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“He came from plebeian roots and had failed to distinguish himself in any way, not in war, not in work, not in… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I've heard from the movie marketplace that James Cameron did such a killer job with 'Titanic' that it's almost impossible to do anything better. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
As a rule, I am very skeptical of tying books to anniversaries. I don't think readers care. I also feel that it just about… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“look as if they had been plucked from the Palace of Versailles or a Jacobean mansion—that you were aboard a ship being propelled far… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
That's what I love about history - nuance. I don't believe in unalloyed heroes. Everyone's got warts, and everyone's got a surprise side. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“Holmes was charming and gracious, but something about him made Belknap uneasy. He could not have defined it. Indeed, for the next several decades… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
. . . why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“At present," he said, "I am responsible for conveying my associates to a place called Chicago. I understand it is somewhere in the hinterland.” — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I knew from an online search that the Wisconsin State Historical Society, on the vast University of Wisconsin campus, held the papers of Sigrid… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the regime would fall, but as the days passed he… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I envy other writers who claim to have a backlog of books they'd like to write. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Trying to find ideas is the hardest part of my job. You'd think it would be the most fun. Just sitting around reading whatever… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“Her blind endorsement of Hitler’s regime first faded to a kind of sympathetic skepticism, but as summer approached,” — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
