About this item
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War is New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkins award-winning nonfiction account of an ordinary man who wielded the most dangerous weapon: the truth.. "Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) . A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winnerA National Book Award finalistA Bulletin of the Center for Childrens Books Blue Ribbon bookA Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature finalistSelected for the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List. In 1964, Daniel Ellsberg was a U.S. government analyst, helping to plan a war in Vietnam. It was the height of the Cold War, and the government would do anything to stop the spread of communism -- with or without the consent of the American people.. As the fighting in Vietnam escalated, Ellsberg turned against the war. He had access a top-secret government report known as the Pentagon Papers, and he knew it could blow the lid off of years of government lies. But did he have the right to expose decades of presidential secrets? And what would happen to him if he did it?. A lively book that interrogates the meanings of patriotism, freedom, and integrity, the National Book Award finalist Most Dangerous further establishes Steve Sheinkin -- author of Newbery Honor book Bomb as a leader in childrens nonfiction.. This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.. "Gripping." -- New York Times Book Review"A master of fast-paced histories...[this] is Sheinkins most compelling one yet. " -- Washington Post. Also by Steve Sheinkin:. Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the Worlds Most Dangerous WeaponThe Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & TreacheryUndefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football TeamThe Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil RightsWhich Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didnt Tell You About Westward ExpansionKing George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didnt Tell You About the American RevolutionTwo Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didnt Tell You About the Civil WarBorn to Fly: The First Womens Air Race Across America
About the Author
From: I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and my family lived in Mississippi and Colorado before moving back to New York and settling in the suburbs north of New York City. As a kid my favorite books were action stories and outdoor adventures: sea stories, searches for buried treasure, sharks eating people ... that kind of thing. Probably my all-time favorite was a book called Mutiny on the Bounty, a novel based on the true story of a famous mutiny aboard a British ship in the late 1700s. I went to Syracuse University and studied communications and international relations. The highlight of those years was a summer I spent in Central America, where I worked on a documentary on the streets of Nicaragua. After college I moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for an environmental group called the National Audubon Society. Then, when my brother Ari graduated from college a few years later, we decided to move to Austin, Texas, and make movies together. We lived like paupers in a house with a hole in the floor where bugs crawled in. We wrote some screenplays, and in 1995 made our own feature film, a comedy called A More Perfect Union (filing pictured below) , about four young guys who decide to secede from the Union and declare their rented house to be an independent nation. We were sure it was going to be a huge hit; actually we ended up deep in debt. After that I moved to Brooklyn and decided to find some way to make a living as a writer. I wrote short stories, screenplays, and worked on a comic called The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey. In 2006, after literally hundreds of rejections, my first Rabbi Harvey graphic novel was finally published. Meanwhile, I started working for an educational publishing company, just for the money. We'd hire people to write history textbooks, and they'd send in their writing, and it was my job to check facts and make little edits to clarify the text. Once in a while I was given the chance to write little pieces of textbooks, like one-page biographies or skills lessons. "Understanding Bar Graphs" was one of my early works. The editors noticed that my writing was pretty good. They started giving me less editing to do, and more writing. Gradually, I began writing chapters for textbooks, and that turned into my full-time job. All the while, I kept working on my own writing projects.In 2008 I wrote my last textbook. I walked away, and shall never return. My first non-textbook history book was King George: What Was His Problem? - full of all the stories about the American Revolution that I was never allowed to put into textbooks. But looking back, I actually feel pretty lucky to have spent all those years writing textbooks. It forced me to write every day, which is great practice. And I collected hundreds of stories that I can't wait to tell.These days, I live with my wife, Rachel, and our two young kids in Saratoga Springs, New York. We're right down the road from the Saratoga National Historica
