Chris Wallace Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Chris Wallace is a is a history and nonfiction author best known as an award-winning journalist that has worked for the likes of Fox News and NBC among several other prestigious media houses. He was born to Mike Wallace a CBS “60 Minutes” reporter and Normal Kaphan in Chicago, Illinois. He was named Christopher since he was born on October 12 in 1947, which happened to be Columbus Day. When he was just a year old, his parents got a divorce and he was lucky enough that his mother remarried a few years later. His stepfather was the President of CBS News, Bill Leonard, which perhaps led to his passion for journalism and the news. As such, he was exposed to political journalism from a very early age when he was hired as Walter Cronkite’s assistant during the Republican National Convention in 1964. As a teen, he went to Hotchkiss School and upon graduation attended Harvard College. It was while he was in college that he got the opportunity to test his reporting skills when he worked for the student radio station “WHRB.” He was also involved in the student occupation of University Hall in 1969 and still remembers being detained and then using his one call privilege to sign off a report.

After working for the likes of NBC News and ABC where he won several awards including an Amy and a Peabody award, he moved to Fox News. He now anchors “Fox News Sunday” and in his position as an anchor, he has interviewed numerous American and international leaders. Wallace published his debut novel” Countdown 1945” in 2020. The novel is set in the 116 days starting from the time Harry Truman became the American president up to the time the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The novel tells the story of the B-29 flight crew, the Manhattan Project scientists, and a 10-year-old Japanese girl that survived the blast. Wallace got the idea of the novel’s structure from the novel “April 1865” by Jay Winik though he never knew how to start until he found himself in the Capitol hideaway in February 2019. It is at that moment treading on the ground that FDR walked on that he knew he had everything he needed to write his novel. Since it is a historical work written by a well-known news personality, it made huge waves and spent several weeks on the bestseller lists. However, the novel is also a reflection of the fealty to facts and rigor that have made Chris Wallace an outlier in the journalism world he lives in. He was struck by the decision-making processes of Harry Truman who owned all the decisions that emanated from his office. While the decision of whether to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was discussed by a committee that included physicists J Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and the president of Harvard, the ultimate decision was made by Truman.

“Countdown 1945” by Chris Wallace is a novel set in 1945, where the United States has been involved in a bloody war in the Pacific and Europe. But then the nation is stunned to learn that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was no more. The novel tells the intriguing events following the months, weeks, and days in the lead up to August 1945 when Harry Truman the new president gives the order to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Countdown 1945” transports the reader into the minds of elusive and iconic figures in history that were involved in the making and deployment of the atomic bomb. They all had their reasons right from Albert Einstein the legendary scientist that eventually rescinded his support for the bomb as a mistake. Others included Robert Oppenheimer the lead researcher on the project and the Soviet spies that were planted into his team and the viciously competitive pilots charged with dropping the bomb. Perhaps at its heart, the novel is about a rookie president who has to make a decision that might change world history. Truman’s journey during those four months are full of drama and shock. He learns of the existence of the most powerful bomb in history and then has to sift through conflicting advice given by Generals George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower. At the back of his mind are the consequences of the carnage sure to be wrought by unleashing a weapon with the power to kill millions. However, it is more than the story of the atomic bomb but also a remarkable account of the lives of regular Japanese and American civilians during a time of war.

Chris Wallace’s “Character: Profiles” is a novel that looks at the difficult choices that American presidents throughout history have been forced to make. Will the president take leadership or will he fall victim to popular opinion? Most of the time, American presidents made the bold decision to stand for what they believed to be right in a tremendous show of character. According to Wallace, this is what makes a leader of men. Wallace picks out more than twenty acts of courage showcased by American presidents including George W Bush and the Iraqi War, George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, Harry Truman, and the Berlin Airlift, Theodore Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese War. He looks at how the leaders came to make their decisions and how they were influenced by their former lives as civilians in making that decision. He looks at their influences, the forces that shaped their character, and who or what gave them the internal fortitude they had. Wallace humanizes the power brokers and tells of their personal histories. What results is a tremendously informative and involving look at the presidents who had to make tough choices for the nation in times of great uncertainty.

Chris Wallace’s “Heads: A Campus Novel” is a witty expose of the stupidities and conceits of contemporary life in university. A must-read for academics and students, it hits its targets with excellent precision as it mixes in elements of fascinating insights with slapstick comedy. It combines side-splitting humor, a love story, and satire into discussions on the purpose of education, evolution, the existence of God, and the meaning of life. The novel provides an entertaining combination of emotions and ideas set in St Jude’s University, which is a fictional but very realistic depiction of what life is at the university. The rise and fall of Murdo Pugh the odious Vice-Chancellor is written in an elated tone of irreverence. It tells of a university system that is nothing short of a tragicomedy, as Wallace informs as well as entertains readers with stories of how the pursuit of knowledge can be hindered by self-important administrative folly and business values.