David Halberstam Books in Order
22 books are credited to David Halberstam, published between 1965 and 2009; 2 of them appeared after David Halberstam's death in 2007. The first book is The Making Of A Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era (1965) and the newest is The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever (2009). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 22
- Published
- 1965–2009
- Pages on record
- 8,877 in 20 of 22 books
- Reading time
- 148–222 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 8,877 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 20 of 22 titles with a page count on record.
David Halberstam (1934-2007) was an American journalist and historian who wrote on the Vietnam War, politics, the civil rights movement, business, media, American culture, the Korean War and, later, sport. His 22 catalogued books open with The Making Of A Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era (1965) and include The Best and the Brightest (1969), The Powers That Be (1979), The Breaks of the Game (1981) and Summer of '49 (1989). Halberstam won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and died in a car crash in 2007 while researching a book. The last title, The Glory Game, appeared in 2009.
How many David Halberstam books are there?
David Halberstam has 22 books, released between 1965 and 2009. 2 of them were published after David Halberstam's death in 2007.
David Halberstam Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 22 David Halberstam books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1The Making Of A Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era1965 · 193 pages · confirmed 1/419651931/4
- 2One Very Hot Day1967 · 216 pages · confirmed 1/419672161/4
- 3The Best and the Brightest1969 · 688 pages · confirmed 1/419696881/4
- 4The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy1969 · 212 pages · confirmed 1/419692121/4
- 5Ho1971 · 128 pages · confirmed 1/419711281/4
- 6The Powers That Be1979 · 771 pages · confirmed 1/419797711/4
- 7The Breaks of the Game1981 · 467 pages · confirmed 1/419814671/4
- 8The Amateurs1985 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/419852241/4
- 9The Reckoning1986 · 786 pages · confirmed 1/419867861/4
- 10Summer of '491989 · 384 pages · confirmed 1/419893841/4
- 11The Next Century1991 · confirmed 1/41991–1/4
- 12The Fifties1993 · 800 pages · confirmed 1/419938001/4
- 13October 19641994 · 380 pages · confirmed 1/419943801/4
- 14The Children1998 · 783 pages · confirmed 1/419987831/4
- 15Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made1999 · 432 pages · confirmed 1/419994321/4
- 16War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals2001 · 560 pages · confirmed 1/420015601/4
- 17Firehouse2002 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/420022081/4
- 18The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship2003 · 217 pages · confirmed 1/420032171/4
- 19The Education of a Coach2005 · 277 pages · confirmed 1/420052771/4
- 20The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War2007 · 719 pages · confirmed 1/420077191/4
- 21Everything They Had: Sports Writing from David Halberstam2008 · 432 pages · confirmed 1/420084321/4
- 22The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever2009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
David Halberstam books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Standalone books
22 books22 David Halberstam titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read David Halberstam books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 22 David Halberstam books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with David Halberstam
Start with The Making Of A Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era (1965), the earliest published title.
What is the newest David Halberstam book?
The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever (2009) is the newest David Halberstam book released so far.
Is there a new David Halberstam book coming?
No next David Halberstam book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Awards David Halberstam has won
Wikidata records 2 awards for David Halberstam. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.
- Norman Mailer Prize2009Won
- American Book Awards1988Won
David Halberstam at a glance
- Died
- David Halberstam died in 2007, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to David Halberstam are still being published after David Halberstam's death in 2007; the newest appeared in 2009.
- Release pace
- David Halberstam books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
- Length
- 8,877 pages across the 20 of 22 books with a recorded length, a median of 408 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most David Halberstam books, 7 of 22, were published in the 2000s.
What the David Halberstam books are about
20 of the 22 David Halberstam books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: biography is tagged on 6 of 20. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Biography 6 of 20 books
- History 6 of 20 books
- Politics and government 5 of 20 books
- Foreign relations 3 of 20 books
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 3 of 20 books
- Basketball 2 of 20 books
- Boston red sox (baseball team) 2 of 20 books
- Histoire 2 of 20 books
- New york yankees (baseball team) 2 of 20 books
- Nonfiction 2 of 20 books
- United States 2 of 20 books