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
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
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