Hi, I’m looking for books that revolve around US history (I’m not really looking for a specific period, anytime frame will do!). Whether it’s historical fiction which actually depicts life accurately, or non-fiction; I’m manly looking for books that are engaging and not boring to read.
I am not looking for a book which summarizes American history or a book that looks over every aspect of American history from start to finish; but rather I’m looking for a book which is focused on specific time periods.
I would appreciate any suggestion!
Thanks in advance!
by Royal_Camel_Caravan
13 Comments
I read it as a biography but also learned a lot of history (specifically pre- and post-Revolutionary America) from the Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley.
It’s an analysis of her life through her poetry, which drew from the Ancient Classics as well as contemporary events like Boston shipwrecks and Bloody Sunday. I found it engaging and I hope you might too but it’s written in a somewhat academic language. If you have a library that has it I’d recommend giving it a try.
Master Slave Husband Wife – Ilyan Woo, Destiny of the Republic – Candice Millard, The River of Doubt – Candice Millard (this one is more about the Amazon, but there is some US history in there)
The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn.
About the US taking over Hawai’i.
I just bought *A People’s History of the United States* by Howard Zinn after reading positive recommendations on this site. I haven’t read it yet but it looks like an intriguing take on American history that goes beyond dry textbooks.
Mary Chesnut’s Civil War Diary
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriett Tubman
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (historical fiction)
The Great Gatsby
Age of Innocence
Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith.
The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette
Eleanor and Hick by Susan Quinn
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
**Two Years Before the Mast** by Richard Henry Dana – Life aboard a merchant ship in the early 1800s working off California (still owned by Spain).
**The Indifferent Stars Above** by Daniel James Brown – Donner Party
**Team of Rivals** by Doris Kearns Goodwin – Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet during the civil war
**The Radium Girls** by Kate Moore – Women working in hazardous factory conditions in the early 1900s
**Dispatches** by Michael Herr – Journalist covering the Vietnam war
Here are some basic books about the Native American experience with colonization through being put into reservations/boarding schools. It is essential we look at the bad parts of US in order to really understand our country
Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen
Black Elk Speaks by John Gneisenau Neihardt
Burry My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools by Mary Annette Pember
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
I have a ton of other recommendations on all sorts of other aspects of US history as well if you have any topics you are interested in.
Gore Vidal’s Narratives of Empire series – Burr, Lincoln, 1876, Hollywood, Washington DC, etc
Empire Of The Summer Moon by SC Ggynne, it’s about the Texas Rangers and their fight with the Comanche in settling the frontier. Runner up for the Pulitzer, so good.
Better day coming – Adam Fairclough
The End of the Myth by Greg Grandin
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan
Try **The Boys In The Boat** – it’s a book about the crew team in the 1936 Olympics that beat the Germans. At first glance it seems like a boring sports book, but it’s actually a snapshot of life in America during the great depression. The person the book is based around, Joe, has to navigate college and work during the depression and the dust bowl, and find jobs that shaped American history like working on building the Grand Coulee Dam. It’s split between the story in America and the rise of Hitler in Germany but it also displays how passe America was of the troubles in Europe.
Check out Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and the graphic novel trilogy March by John Lewis.