A non-fiction classic, The Best and the Brightest is included on the Bookmark 2007 reading list as a tribute to the late David Halberstam, who was among the greatest journalists of his generation. After beginning his writing career as a newspaperman, eventually covering Vietnam for The New York Times, Halberstam went on to write more than 20 books, many of them top bestsellers. The Best and the Brightest is probably Halbertam’s most important book, and surely his best-known—and it is also the most germane to our present moment. “The Iliad of the American Empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul,” as The Boston Globe put it, The Best and the Brightest is the riveting, horrifying account of how America’s leaders dragged the nation into quagmire in Vietnam. The book’s relevance now is obvious—and it brings valuable historical perspective to contemporary debates about Iraq, the American empire, and the American soul.