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Butler's Lives of the Saints is a classic, 12 volumes in length. Librivox has a condensed audiobook version.

Check out <em>The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness</em> by Peter Dale. There's enough in the samples to determine whether it's relevant.

I really enjoyed ‘Nietzsche on Morality’ by Brian Leiter. It was incredibly refreshing to have someone collate and make sense of his moral ‘theory’. I found that it was really difficult to make sense of any one of Nietzsche’s work in isolation, they all sort of lean on each other to make a comprehensible (depends who you ask) ‘theory’. Therefore a first time read without any third party guide is really confusing and esoteric. Leiter’s book made the comprehension process a lot easier by putting all the relevant parts together and translating Nietzsche’s position into plain English.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Nietzsche-Morality-Brian-Leiter/dp/0415856809

Conservatism is defined by its opposition to progressivism in the same way that Protestantism is defined by its opposition to Catholicism. If you were a Catholic wishing to understand Protestant thought, the correct approach would of course to be to read a critique of Catholicism. Similarly, the approach to understanding conservatism is to read a conservative critique of progressivism.

To that end, I would recommend Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism by the influential American Philosopher James Burnham.

If you're interested in the origins of the hyperpartisanship present in today's America, check out It's Even Worse Than It Looks

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465096204/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_09BxFbG20GBYG

I haven't read that one, but I can also recommend Deng Xioping: Chronicle of an Empire for an insider account on how politics worked during his time.

It sounds like your looking for a survey type book as an introduction to the subject. I'd recommend this book by Critchlow. It will at least give you an overview.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Political-History-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0199340056/

Keep in mind that the American executive branch did not begin with so much power. The early story of the US will be based more in the individual states and their representatives. The later rise and preeminence of the president is a story which only really takes off in the late 19th and early 20th century.

I'm not aware of any books in the same category as The Molecule of More. Instead, I'll focus on this part:

>Want to understand why we behave and love the way we do- the role of dopamine in creativity etc.

The obvious recommendation here is neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky's Behave. Sapolsky is lovable, charming, and funny. Primatologist Frans de Waal (author of the excellent Mama's Last Hug) reviewed Sapolsky's book for Science Magazine and had this to say:

>Sapolsky places what makes us special in the wider context of humans as animals with brains that are fundamentally similar to those of other species. It is the first book that does so comprehensively enough to qualify as a guide to human behavior to be adopted as a textbook in courses not just in neuroscience but in the social and behavioral sciences in general.

Academics rarely praise books they review to this extent. So I'd definitely recommend that you check it out.