Frances FitzGerald

Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War

Frances FitzGerald

• 2000 LATimes–Current Interest winner
• 2001 Pulitzer–History finalist
• 2000 NBCC–Nonfiction finalist
• Score: 22.5

Way Out There in the Blue is a major work of history by the Pulitzer Prize­winning author of Fire in the Lake. Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the twentieth century.

Reagan’s presidency and the man himself have always been difficult to fathom. His influence was enormous, and the few powerful ideas he espoused remain with us still—yet he seemed nothing more than a charming,…

Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam

Frances FitzGerald

• 1973 NBA–Current Interest winner
• 1973 Pulitzer–Nonfiction winner
• Score: 20.23

This landmark work, based on Frances FitzGerald’s own research and travels, takes us inside Vietnam—into the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages and the corrupt crowded cities, into the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks—and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. With a clarity and authority unrivaled by any book before it or since, Fire in the Lake shows how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.