He retired as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital after a groundbreaking medical career of more than thirty-five years. He is the author of eight previous books including One Nation, America the Beautiful, and Gifted Hands. A former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, he is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country. He and his wife and co-author, Candy Carson, are the founders of the Carson Scholars Fund, which recognizes the achievements of deserving young people. They have three grown children and two grandchildren, and now live in Florida.

    platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program. . . . Rather than present a potpourri of combat yarns. . . McDonough has focused a seasoned storyteller's eye on the details, people, and incidents that best communicate a visceral feel of command under fire. . . . For the author's honesty and literary craftsmanship, Platoon Leader seems destined to be read for a long time by second lieutenants trying to prepare for the future, veterans trying to remember the past, and civilians trying to understand what the profession of arms is all about."-Army Times

    In the late 1940s, George F. Kennan—then a bright but, relatively obscure American diplomat—wrote the "long telegram" and the "X" article. These two documents laid out United States' strategy for "containing" the Soviet Union—a strategy which Kennan himself questioned in later years. Based on exclusive access to Kennan and his archives, this landmark history illuminates a life that both mirrored and shaped the century it spanned.Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Biography

    More than six million died there. In Eye-Deep in Hell, the author explores this unique and terrifying world—the rituals of battle, the habits of daily life, and the constant struggle of men to find meaning amid excruciating boredom and the specter of impending death.