2003 was a brilliant year for Peter Agre, professor of biological chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He won the Nobel prize for chemistry for his discovery of water channels in cell membranes. Agre enjoys histories and biographies: his latest read is David Halberstam鈥檚 The Best and the Brightest (Random House, 1972), about the White House during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. 鈥淒espite formidable talent,鈥� Agre says, 鈥渢heir advisers got it wrong, causing the 10-year debacle in Vietnam. This brings new perspective to the Bush government in Iraq.鈥�
鈥淓xhilarating and depressing鈥� is Agre鈥檚 verdict on Roland Huntford鈥檚 Nansen (Duckworth, 1997), a biography of 鈥淣orway鈥檚 greatest explorer and statesman鈥�, Fridtjof Nansen. Though extremely courageous, Agre says, Nansen was dreadful to his family.
Matthew Josephson鈥檚 The Robber Barons (Harcourt, 1934), about capitalists Jay Gould, J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and their contemporaries, 鈥渕akes the current Enron executives look like minor-league crooks鈥�, says Agre.
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