Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd Series

Between 1940 and 1953, Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels whose central character was named Lanny Budd. He was the son of an American arms manufacturer who moved in the confidence of world leaders, not simply witnessing events but often propelling them. The protagonist has been characterized as the antithesis of the "Ugly American", a sophisticated socialite who mingles easily with people from all cultures and socioeconomic classes.

The series covers in sequence much of the political history of the Western world, particularly Europe and America, in the first half of the twentieth century. Out of print and almost totally forgotten today (until these ebook releases), the novels were all bestsellers and were published in twenty-one countries. The third book in the series, Dragon's Teeth, won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943.

While Sinclair's socialist views and belief in seances are evident, his presentation of the history, events and key players is accurate, first rate and thorougly engrossing.

The Lanny Budd Series:

#01	WORLD'S END - Published 1940, 740 pages
	World War I and immediately after.

#02	BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - Published 1941, 859 pages
	From the Treaty of Versailles (1919) to the crash of 1929.

#03	DRAGON'S TEETH - Published 1942, 631 pages (Pulitzer Prize winner)
	1929 to 1934 - the Nazis' rise to power.

#04	WIDE IS THE GATE - Published 1943, 751 pages
	1934 to 1938 - the Nazi blood purge and the Spanish Civil War.

#05	PRESIDENTIAL AGENT - Published 1944, 655 pages
	1938 - the appeasement period.

#06	DRAGON HARVEST - Published 1945, 703 pages
	From Munich to the German occupation of Paris.

#07	A WORLD TO WIN - Published 1946, 627 pages
	Vichy - 1940 to 1942.

#08	PRESIDENTIAL MISSION - Published 1947, 645 pages
	1942 to 1943 - invasion of Africa and behind the scenes in wartime Germany.

#09	ONE CLEAR CALL - Published 1948, 629 pages
	1943 & 1944 - Sicily, Italy, France: D-Day to Roosevelt's re-election.

#10	O SHEPHERD, SPEAK! - Published 1949, 629 pages
	1944~46 - Battle of the Bulge, Yalta, Roosevelt's death, A-bomb, Nuremberg.

#11	THE RETURN OF LANNY BUDD - Published 1953, 555 pages
	The cold war