The Golden Age, if nothing else, presents an interesting look at the past and all its imperfections. Vidal would argue that it is these imperfections that textbooks leave out to the detriment of our own knowledge of history, and that is partially his reason for writing this series. His intertwining of fact and fiction may bring the issues to life, but it also creates new ones about the ability of fiction to teach us about the past. These problems may become clearer when the novel is supplemented with other texts outlining this same time period.

1. The Good War: An Oral History by Studs Terkel is a book filled with stories of World War II from a diverse group of people: from people still in the U.S. to those sent overseas, from the lowest soldier to some of the highest powers.

Most of the stories focus...