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
The Revolution
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
The Early Republic
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
Western Expansion
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
The Road to Civil War
The Civil War
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
Reconstruction
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