American history books
recommended by historians
Last updated: September 19, 2024
“American history,” President John Kennedy said, “is always alive, always growing, always unfinished.” So is our section on American history books, as we explore themes from U.S. presidents and the country's institutional structures to different periods in the country's history.
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1
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
by David McCullough -
2
Wilderness At Dawn: The Settling of the North American Continent
by Ted Morgan -
3
The Story of American Freedom
by Eric Foner -
4
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
by Drew Gilpin Faust -
5
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
by Hampton Sides
The best books on American History, recommended by Brent Glass
The best books on American History, recommended by Brent Glass
Which are the best books on American history? Brent Glass, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the world’s largest museum devoted to telling the story of America, chooses five standout books in a crowded field.
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1
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
by David Blight -
2
The Fiery Trial
by Eric Foner -
3
Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South
by Stephanie McCurry -
4
Absalom, Absalom
by William Faulkner -
5
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S Grant and Elizabeth Samet (editor), Mark Bramhall (narrator)
The best books on The American Civil War, recommended by Drew Gilpin Faust
The best books on The American Civil War, recommended by Drew Gilpin Faust
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” wrote William Faulkner. Here, Drew Gilpin Faust, a leading historian of the American Civil War and former President of Harvard, recommends the best books to read about the conflict between North and South that tore the United States apart from 1861 till 1865 – and beyond.
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1
Black Reconstruction in America
by W E B Du Bois -
2
Exodus: Religion, Race and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America
by Eddie S Glaude Jr -
3
Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression
by Robin D G Kelley -
4
Hands on the Freedom of the Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC
Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod, and others (eds.) -
5
Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present
by Nell Irvin Painter
African American History Books, recommended by Imani Perry
African American History Books, recommended by Imani Perry
Princeton Professor Imani Perry—a prolific scholar of African American Studies whose biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Looking For Lorraine, won the 2019 PEN Biography Prize—recommends five books she considers essential to an understanding of the history of black life in America.
The Best Vietnam War Books, recommended by Karl Marlantes
In 1968 Karl Marlantes was a 22-year old Rhodes scholar and did not have to go to Vietnam. He nonetheless joined the US Marine Corps, ending up with multiple medals but also lifelong PTSD. In this interview, he recommends the best Vietnam War books, exploring its moral ambiguities, the warrior mentality and the humanity of ‘the enemy.’
The best books on Native American history, recommended by Jennifer Graber
That US expansion was predicated on the violent dispossession of Native people is a key aspect of American history that is finally getting the attention it deserves among historians. Here Jennifer Graber, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, highlights books by Native scholars and writers that focus on their experience.
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1
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
by Russell Shorto -
2
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
by Jill Lepore -
3
Slavery in New York
by Ira Berlin & Leslie Harris (editors) -
4
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
by George Chauncey -
5
New York and Los Angeles
by David Halle (editor)
The best books on New York History, recommended by Louise Mirrer
The best books on New York History, recommended by Louise Mirrer
Like several of the great cities of the world, New York’s openness to people born elsewhere and relative tolerance lay at the foundation of its success, though darker episodes in the city’s 400-year history also need attention. Historian Louise Mirrer, President of the New-York Historical Society, recommends books that are essential to understanding the essence of the Big Apple.
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1
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
by Alan Brinkley -
2
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
by William Leuchtenburg -
3
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
by David M. Kennedy -
4
It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis -
5
Eleanor Roosevelt: The Defining Years: Volume Two 1933-1938
by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The best books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, recommended by Cynthia Koch
The best books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, recommended by Cynthia Koch
Historians consistently rank FDR, the 32nd and longest-serving president of the United States, as among America’s greatest. Here, Cynthia Koch, Director of History Programing for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation, talks us through his life and explains how, in many ways, his guile was key to his success.
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1
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement
by Barbara Ransby -
2
God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights
by Charles Marsh -
3
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
by David J. Garrow -
4
The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle
by Clayborne Carson, Darlene Clark Hine, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill & Vincent Harding -
5
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and assisted by Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne (narrator)
The best books on The Civil Rights Era, recommended by Lerone Martin
The best books on The Civil Rights Era, recommended by Lerone Martin
The struggle for Black freedom in America has been going on since the first enslaved Africans were brought to the continent, but it was the civil rights era of 1954 to 1968 that finally resulted in a raft of legislation that gave equal citizenship to Black people in the United States. Here, Professor Lerone Martin of Stanford University recommends the best books to understand the American civil rights movement, with a focus on some of the individuals who were key to its success.
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1
US Navy: A Concise History
by Craig L. Symonds -
2
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy
by Ian W. Toll -
3
Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery
by Nathaniel Philbrick -
4
The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War
by Samuel Eliot Morison -
5
Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy
by Trent Hone
The best books on American Naval History, recommended by John Kroger
The best books on American Naval History, recommended by John Kroger
The story of the American navy is deeply intertwined with that of the nation, says John Kroger—former Chief Learning Officer to the US Navy—although we don’t always afford naval history the attention it deserves. Here he selects five of the best books about American naval history and predicts a renewed focus on Pacific naval defenses in the coming decades.
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1
American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
by Edmund S Morgan -
2
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
by Ira Berlin -
3
Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps
by Amy Murrell Taylor -
4
The Souls of Black Folk
by W E B Du Bois -
5
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
by C. Vann Woodward
Best Books on the History of the American South, recommended by Edward Ayers
Best Books on the History of the American South, recommended by Edward Ayers
To understand the America of today, you must understand the American South of the past, says historian Edward Ayers, Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus at the University of Richmond. Here, he recommends five books to get started with, and also explains what his own books were aiming to contribute to the field of Southern history.