Adumbration

Here are three histories that may be worth tracking down if you have an interest in this sort of thing.

"Roosevelt's Secret War" - Some interesting tidbits from an engaging history/biography dealing with FDR and WW2 espionage, by Joseph E Persico (Amazon has it here).    This was all before the systematization of espionage in this country, although the British had been at it for many years previously.  Prior presidents took little interest in the subject;  FDR wanted to be at the top of the intelligence landscape and established agents and organizations reporting directly to him, overlapping in their scope of responsibility.  The established military intelligence groups, Army and Navy, had little in the way of spies and were more technologically oriented.  J Edgar Hoover was making a name for himself even then, trying to track down spies.

"The Tycoons" (Amazon's links), the tale of transition of the US from predominantly agrarian into a world class productive economy (in all senses).  The tale focuses on the stories of Andrew Carnegie (steel), Jay Gould (railroads), John D. Rockefeller (oil), and J. P. Morgan (finance), but puts their actions in the context of the people and ideas surrounding mechanization, interchangeable parts, the rise of department stores, and the vast improvement in standard of living even as incomes were falling (prices were falling more rapidly).    Were these perfect men?  Of course not, but by and large their works were fair - they just saw more clearly what might be possible and made it happen.

"Shattered Sword" (Amazon) a somewhat revisionist history of the battle of Midway (yes, Japan still loses).  The interesting parts of this story arise from the authors' research into original Japanese sources to better understand why they went in to battle at this time and place, tracing the defeat back to fundamental strategic errors and doctrinal limitations that set them on a path with insufficient forces and no back-up to a complex plan that was breaking down even before they left port.  Add this to interesting analysis of the ship operations based on detailed plans and interviews, and one appreciates much better why they weren't able to put out fires as well as the Americans, or provide effective air cover for the series of attacks coming (somewhat randomly, many of which were completely ineffectual individually) from all points of the compass throughout the day of June 4, 1942.  Of course tactical decisions played a role, but strategy and mindset drove their doom.