Book Recommendations

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Pre-Revolution

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots by Thomas S. Kidd

The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 by Robert Middlekauff

As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution by Richard Archer

Colonies to Nation, 1763–1789: A Documentary History of the American Revolution by Jack P. Greene (editor)

Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty by Jon Kukla

The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution by Edmund S. Morgan and Helen M. Morgan

Boston’s Massacre by Eric Hinderaker

First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory by Mitch Kachun

John Adams by David McCullough

John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger

Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America by Benjamin L. Carp

The Boston Tea Party by Benjamin Woods Labaree

American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution by Walter R. Borneman

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Spirit of Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told by Participants by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris (editors)

Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution by William Hazelgrove

1776 by David McCullough

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin

The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army by Paul Lockhart

Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution by David A. Clary

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General by Marc Leepson

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H. W. Brands

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance by Frank W. Brecher

Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution by John A. Nagy

Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey

An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781–1783 by William M. Fowler Jr.

Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle by Leonard L. Richards

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution by Richard Beeman

James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation by Jeff Broadwater

The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America’s Liberties by Carol Berkin

Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers by Jerald A. Combs

The Deadlocked Election of 1800: Jefferson, Buurr, and the Union in the Balance by James Roger Sharp

The New Republic: The United States of America 1789–1815 by Reginald Horsman

America’s First Crisis: The War of 1812 by Robert P. Watson

Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence by A. J. Langguth

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H. W. Brands

Wolf by the Ears: The Missouri Crisis, 1819–1821 by John R. Van Atta

Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants by H. W. Brands

A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Arnold A. Rogow

Ingenious Machinists: Two Inventive Lives from the American Industrial Revolution by Anthony J. Connors

The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America by Peter J. Kastor

Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Ella E. Clark and Margot Edmonds

The Blood of Heroes: The 13-day Struggle for the Alamo--and the Sacrifice That Forged a Nation by James Donovan

Lincoln’s Pathfinder: John C. Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856 by John Bicknell

Jessie Benton Frémont: Missouri's Trailblazer by Ilene Stone and Suzanna M. Grenz

The Oregon Trail: An American Saga by David Dary

The California Gold Rush: The Stampede that Changed the World by Mark A. Eifler

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick

Zachary Taylor by John S. D. Eisenhower

A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 Invasion of Mexico by Amy S. Greenburg

Manifest Destinies: America’s Westward Expansion and the Road to the Civil War by Steven E. Woodworth

The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War by Peter Guardino

Kearny’s March: The Epic Creation of the American West, 1846–1847 by Winston Groom

Remembering the Forgotten War: The Enduring Legacies of the U.S./Mexican War by Michael Van Wagenen

Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Stephen Ambrose

Rival Rails: The Race to Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad by Walter Borneman

Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express by Christopher Corbett

Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads by Dee Brown

The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West by Ryan Dearinger

Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life by Robert Utley

Sam Bass by Wayne Gard

Butch Cassidy, My Brother by Lula Betenson and Dora Flack

Grant by Ron Chernow

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant

Mutiny on the Amistad The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones

The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Oddysey of Slavery and Freedom by Marcus Rediker

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Life & Times of Frederick Douglass, and My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

The Lives of Frederick Douglass by Robert S. Levine

America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union by Fergus M. Bordewich

The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848–1861 by David M. Potter

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life by Lori D. Ginzberg

The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women’s Rights and Abolition by Gerda Lerner

Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement by Sally G. McMillen

The Road to Disunion, Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854–1861 by William W. Freehling

Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War by Rachel A. Shelden

The Shattering of the Union: America in the 1850s by Erc H. Walther

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave by David Fiske, Clifford W. Brown and Rachel Seligman

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame

Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein

Eyewitness to the Civil War: The Complete History from Secession to Reconstruction by Stephen G. Hyslop and Neil Kagan

Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War by David Detzer

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson

Secession Winter: When the Union Fell Apart by Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney, and Elizabeth R. Varon

Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee by Michael Korda

The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It edited by Brooks D. Simpson, Stephen W. Sears, and Aaron Sheehan-Deans

The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Lived It edited by Stephen W. Sears

McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse by Edward H. Bonekeeper

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life by James Lee McDonough

Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary by Walter Stahr

Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles by Brian K. Burton

Shenandoah 1862 : Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign by Peter Cozzens

The Civil War in Mississippi: Major Campaigns and Battles by Michael B. Bullard

War on the Waters, The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861–1865 by James M. McPherson

The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River by Barbara Brooks Tomblin

From Cedar Mountain to Antietam by Edward J. Stackpole

Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo

The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union by James M. McPherson

Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson

Women on the Civil War Battlefront by Richard H. Hall

The Cavalryman of The Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart by Jeffry D. Wert

Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign That Broke the Confederacy by Donald L. Miller

The Chancellorsville Campaign: The Nation’s High Water Mark by James K. Bryant

Gettysburg by Stephen Sears

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America by Douglas R. Egerton

This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga by Peter Cozzens

The Chickamauga Campaign, A Mad Irregular Battle: From the Crossing of the Tennessee River through the Second Day, August 22–September 19, 1863 by David A. Powell

Clara Barton, Professional Angel by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Battalions by Steven Davis

The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2: 1860–1865 by Abraham Lincoln

Mobile Bay and the Mobile Campaign: The Last Great Battles of the Civil War by Chester G. Hearn

Lincoln and Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment edited by Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard

Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April–June 1865 by Noah Andre Trudeau

April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik

The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes

Right Or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth by John Wilkes Booth

The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy by Thomas Goodrich

A. Lincoln, His Last 24 hours by Waldo Emerson Reck

Andrew Johnson’s Civil War and Reconstruction by Paul H. Bergeron

Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 by Eric Foner

An Absolute Massacre: The New Orleans Race Riot of July 30, 1866 by James G. Hollandsworth

Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy by David O. Stewart

The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H. W. Brands

Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen by Philip Dray

The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America’s Most Progressive Era by Douglas R. Egerton

After Lincoln: How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace by A. J. Langguth

By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 by Michael Fitzgibbon Holt

The Battle of Liberty Place: The Overthrow of Carpet-Bag Rule in New Orleans, September 14, 1874 by Stuart Omer Landry

General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier by Jeffry D. Wert

38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End Scott W. Berg

The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West by Peter Cozzens

Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life by Kingsley M. Bray

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

Standing Bear is a Person: The True Story of a Native American’s Quest for Justice by Stephen Dando-Collins

1877: Year of Violence by Robert V. Bruce

America in the Gilded Age: From The Death Of Lincoln To The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt, by Sean Dennis Cashman

Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen

The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger

Streets, Railroads, and The Great Strikes of 1877 by David O. Stowell

Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin

The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War by Peter Hart

My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War by Andrew Carroll

The American Army and the First World War by David Woodward

America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience by Robert H. Zieger

Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War 1 by John S. D. Eisenhower

The First World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert

Thunder and Flames: Americans in the Crucible of Combat, 1917–1918 by Edward G. Lengel

One Man’s War: The Diary of a Leatherneck by Corporal J. E. Rendinell and George Pattullo

Foch in Command: The Forging of a First World War General by Elizabeth Greenhalgh

The Kaiser and His Court: The Diaries, Note Books and Letters of Admiral Georg Alexander Von Muller Chief of the Naval Cabinet, 1914–1918 by Walter Gorlitz

Doughboy’s Diary by Chester Earl Baker

The Adventures of an American Doughboy by William Brown

Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and Hitler: Germany’s Generals and the Rise of the Nazis by Alexander Clifford

Pandora’s Box: A History of the First World War by Jörn Leonhard

A Maverick American by Maury Maverick

Amiens 1918 by James McWilliams and R. James Steel

The Defeat of Imperial Germany 1917–1918 by Rod Paschall