Jeffrey Toobin

Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J. Anthony Lukas (1985)
An extraordinary portrait of three families (black, white working class, yuppie) caught up in the Boston busing crisis of the 1970s. Lukas wins the toughest exacta in book writing: a hypnotizing, meticulously reported account of his protagonists combined with a compelling take on the big issues at the heart of the story — race and class.

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam (1969)
Still the ultimate Washington book: how the bona fide geniuses around Presidents Kennedy and Johnson dragged us into Vietnam. Unsparing, unforgettable portraits of all the major players, especially Robert McNamara. Best scene, in which McNamara gets a briefing on body counts: “It is not a particularly happy chapter in his life; he did not serve himself nor the country well; he was, there is no kinder or gentler word for it, a fool.”

Walter Lippman and the American Century by Ronald Steel (1980)
A biography of the columnist who wielded a degree of influence that is almost inconceivable in today’s fractured media universe. Bonus points: Lippman’s colorful love life.