“what is a good book to read on the history of the usa?”
Summary of results
1491 is a good book about the history of the America (N & S) before Columbus and Europeans arrived:
I have a bachelors of science in history. Have you ever read Howard Zinn’s of peoples history of the United States? You should.
People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn
I'm learning about US history as a non-American, for no particular reason other than I found some books in a second hand store.
- "1776", by David McCullough - a combination of American Revolution history with telling of leadership in times when defeat seems inevitable.
- "Team of Rivals", by Doris Kearns Goodwin - just started, reading about the pre-Civil War politics.
https://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Exile-History-Passing-American...
An excellent book on this subject.
The American Spirit by David McCullough. This book treats us to the fascinating stories of doctors, artisans, and performers across the history of the United States and it`s truly inspiring.
P.S. But I also like his "1776" book - https://ivypanda.com/essays/book-report-on-1776-by-david-mcc... (a little review for those who are interested).
If you want to know more about this kind of topic, I am reading nice book about history of americas before europeans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
As an American, I highly recommend "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen.
And since you are reading 1776 then you might also like "John Adams" by David McCullough.
The US and World history series are great too
It's the middle distance of the 1800s that I'm very much into reading now. It's contemporary enough that you can understand it, relates a history that we still teach today, and provides a view into our country that's hard to achieve anywhere else.
Highly recommended recent reads:
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography
Looters of the Public Domain, S.A.D. Puter.
The Boston Tea Party and Memoir of George R.T. Hewes.
Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer.
As an American, it was the most enjoyable and interesting history book I ever read, was even laughing out loud at one point. Talks about the four major English cultures that planted the seeds of the United States. It's so cool to learn about these old cultures and how their values and folkways are still reflected in certain locales to this day.
It's not only an interesting history book, but it feels useful. I feel like I have a much stronger understanding and frame with which to look at modern American politics. You stop looking at things as Democrats vs Republicans and start looking at things as Puritans vs Borderers - these are the two prevailing English cultures of the four who founded the country.
Goes without saying that this Team A vs Team B is an oversimplification and there's nuance and it's complex, et cetera et cetera. But as a simplification, there's a lot more to learn and there's more depth in the Puritan vs Borderer frame than in the Democrat vs Republican frame. I've gained more respect and appreciation for these imposing cultures/factions who persist to this day.
Read history books, like a biography of Julius Caesar.
Read critical theory like the Communist Manifesto and read about the work of Foucault.
Read critical history books like Why Nations Fail and A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
Some philosophy like Aristotle's Politics, Kant's categorical imperative and Rawl's veil of ignorance are also helpful I think.
That’s basically what you get if you don’t properly teach history. Idk how it is in France, but in the US I’d advise people to read Howard Zinn’s “The People’s history of the United States” to undo government brainwashing even partially, for just US history. I’m not sure what I’d recommend for history of the world, I have not yet seen a text that’d fit the bill.
Well, for what it's worth, "Battle Cry of Freedom" is only the sixth volume in the Oxford History of the United States. The following volume, "The Republic for Which It Stands" by Richard White, covers the 30-year period following the war.
If you’re genuinely interested in the history, Jimmy Soni's new book, The Founders, is a great starting point.
If you are looking for a really good book about the history of water in America(especially dams), check out "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner.
Is there a good book about all of that?
I am reading "a peoples history of United States" by Howard zinn. It highlights US in a very negative light so with that caveat out of the way, it appears we are continuously ashamed of things we did just a century back. Always.
Maybe in a hundred years we will also talk about the current era as dark times (as long as we are the top dog or maybe number 2). But at that point we will have something else to be ashamed of (but that will not be talked of at that time).
If we spiral out of control or break up, then the story (in hindsight) will be even more amazing.
But then I look at other countries and apart from some good European socialism which is quite recent, there ain't much to be proud of, when you look at any country, of any era.
I'd encourage you to read the People's History of the United States.
Who's "we"? I don't think a single Black American would agree with your statement.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
On the Genealogy of Morality by Nietzsche
Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
A good introduction but there has been much work since this came out. See these more recent books by an historian that looks at things through the lens of two prominent North American nations:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44310208-lakota-america?...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3304956-the-comanche-emp...
Reading history always makes me feel better. For example the periods after the founding of the US or the period after the end of the US civil war. Turns out we've been doing stupid stuff for a long time. And yet I generally agree with the way we've progressed, even though there's still more to improve.
I would suggest reading some history books to round out stories like that.
Have a look at https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rog...
It is not history, but I remember having read it from cover to cover and gaining a historic insight in the process
Master of the Senate is just an incredible book. So well written and with such attention to background. I mean it starts with the founding of the US.
I'd recommend Morison's Two-Ocean War: https://www.amazon.com/Two-Ocean-War-History-United-States/d...
A lot of similar-ish underlying currents to American Midnight, a history book about America around WW1, & governmental-industrial interests aligned against the general welfare & individual liberty.
I've been reading a lot of history books. For me, reading history is like reading fiction but better. It still transports me to a different place. But the characters are more realistic. My suspension of disbelief never breaks. And I learn about things which really happened.
If you just want to dip your toe in reading history, the Cartoon Guide to the History of the Universe series is a reasonable place to start. I think it prioritizes entertainment over accuracy some, but it's pretty entertaining! https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-History-Universe-Volumes-1-7/...
Someone I know factchecked a different book, A Brief History of the Human Race, and said it did really well: https://acesounderglass.com/2017/04/18/epistemic-spot-check-...
I read A Brief History of the Human Race based on their recommendation and I can def recommend it also. So here's the link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Human-Race/dp/039332645...
After learning about the macro contours of history, I started reading more about specific things which seemed potentially interesting. I liked all of these, roughly in this order:
* Venice: https://www.amazon.com/Venice-History-Thomas-F-Madden/dp/014...
* Lincoln and contemporaries: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Rivals-Political-Abraham-Lincoln...
* The United Nations: https://www.amazon.com/United-Nations-History-Stanley-Meisle...
Reading history is a great way of getting a broader perspective.
Learning about history is underwhelming when you do it as a kid because when you're young, everything is new to you. You don't gain an appreciation for how interesting the past really was.
But as an adult, you have a well-developed model of how the world is supposed to be, so history becomes really interesting because you realize that lots of historical events actually violate your model. (Did you know that when Venice first heard about the USA, they didn't bother establishing diplomatic relations because they thought the experiment would not last? Turns out it was the Venetian state that soon disappeared! Sometimes it feels like I'm highlighting an interesting fact like that on practically every page. There's a lot that gets left out of popular narratives.)
If you're not American, I can see why you wouldn't understand the cultural context that the article, and my response above, presumes intimate knowledge of. If you're curious, you could read Zinn's A People's History of the United States which is a pretty good primer.
It is an interesting list. However, a better title would be "46 Books that changed America".
There are 34 instances of the word America/American in the article for 46 books and most of the authors on the list would be English speaking or American. As a result, this list provides a very American centric view of literature, history and experiences.
The Good War by Studs Terkel offers interesting perspectives on WW2, relies on interviews with citizens of America who lived through the times.
1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann are pretty good for pre and post Columbian Exchange history of the americas and the world
i am really interested in history and i have spent a lot of time looking for a good book on a certain topic or time period and sometimes not finding anything. it turns out that its really hard to find books that are completely objective, well researched and also written well. there is a scarcity of these kinds of books especially for modern history. and so the idea struck me that maybe i ought to write a short history book. but then i thought that that sounds like a pipe dream. anyway, for anyone who likes that kind of thing i would recommend the binladen book that was published recently. havent read it yet but i cant wait to. it turns out the invasion wasnt so misguided after all.
what are the best books/resources to read about the system?
> People need to read some history.
But they'll get distracted before getting around to it. Gore Vidal wasn't kidding when he used the words "United States of Amnesia" in his essays.
(Also, "our owners". Good stuff, tangy with aristocratic vinegar - acerbic, I believe the tasters call it.)
Do you read a lot about the history of science? Which books would you recommend?
Great book on its history: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520256170/the-san-francisco...
NYRB had the wonderful idea of taking the first and last few chapters of Henry Adams's history of the US 1801-1817, and printing them in a form you can slide into a windbreaker's pocket. Look for The Jeffersonian Transformation. For that matter NYRB's War and the Iliad is excellent brief reading, though I say less for Simone Weil's famous essay that for Rachel Bespaloff's "On the Iliad" and Herman Broch's "The Style of the Mythical Age".
As a European, after reading "1491" and "1493" by Charles C. Mann last year, I agree: I learned a lot from that book. I didn't realize there was such a treasure trove of world history there, and so many intricate links between these societies in the early history of American colonization.
| There isn't such a vast history to pull from there, how can you justify an analogous nationalistic identity/moral character for it without such a big story?
Well, exactly - that explains a lot of the current political/cultural fragmentation of the U.S. population. Although you can definitely argue that though it is a "short" story in comparison, the founding of the U.S. as a revolution to gain independence from the British Crown to found a state by the people, for the people, with its own constitution and Bill of Rights is a "big" story nonetheless.
As to your other questions - good questions - one could write a whole book (or several) addressing them.
I highly recommend The Path Between the Seas, about the building of the Panama Canal - https://www.amazon.com/Path-Between-Seas-Creation-1870-1914/...
I didn't realize how important that project was to the strengthening of the federal government, government stimulus, public health, American industry exports, etc. It also showed how sophisticated things like investing and lobbying were 130 years ago - I thought those were newer concepts.
I'd love to read a great book about that chicken or egg problem and what role the US leadership and populace has played in forming or altering it.
History books can also very confidently say something wrong within the first paragraph.
When I graduated from high school they were throwing out history books. I picked up 3 consecutive editions of a US History Book from my favorite teacher. One said the US won the Spanish-American War, another said Spain won it, and the third said Cuba won it.
Probably better to get a fuller view of history from The Dawn of Everything https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeveryt...
I havent opened it yet but the book American Midnight came highly highly recommended, which covers this time period & this event.
A power hungry intolerant federal government mandating War-fervor & jingoism, suppressing all outside voices (largely liberal & progressive), clamping down on how people think & what they say. passing the Sedition Act & charging many under these wartime powers, before it's repeal.
This book supposedly makes quite the case for this being one of thr darkest times in America. Excited scared/sad to start reading it.
We read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in our high school economics class as an aside. Then again, I went to a high school where the government civics class started with reading the Mayflower Compact, The Social Contract, Wealth of Nations, and several excerpts from other sources which inspired the American Founding Fathers before spending the second half of the semester reading and discussing the Constitution line by line.
May I suggest reading actual history books? The stories in them can be very good. See "Empire of the Summer Moon" by Gwynne.
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...
Why anyone hasn't made this into a miniseries is baffling. It's quite an epic. Not only that, it really happened. No worries about canon. No worries about sequels and prequels, because there is no beginning or end to historical stories. The stories are fractal, in that there's no end to going into a particular aspect in depth.
There are plenty of others.
Hopefully on topic: a good English language book on the CIA origin story is “The Devil’s Chessboard” that was a fascinating read. While most of my reading is technical and science fiction, I also really enjoy reading history. It is difficult to understand the world ‘in real time’ but looking back into history more things make sense.
In a democracy, it is important to really understand history, what we got right and what we got wrong. If we want a better world, we need to learn from history.
> look no further than US state-approved high-school history textbooks.
Care to practice what you preach? Which textbooks, specifically? How are they ahistorical?
Do you have any idea about the US's methods? You may want to pick up a history book to see how insidious the American methods are.
"Monetary History of the United States" by Milton Friedman
https://www.amazon.com/Monetary-History-United-States-1867-1...
Unfortunately, it's a bit of a tough slog, it's not written for the popular press. But it's worth it if you're really interested in understanding what's really going on.
This reads like the History Channel's version of "military history" where it is 80% WWII with a little US Civil War thrown in during off hours. If all you talk about is the last few decades of US military history, all you will ever get is a myopic view of how one culture/country relates to a handful of its institutions.
Can you suggest a good overview book on this subject?
The US war with those states features in this book about the founding of the US navy. Interesting read. "Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy" - https://www.amazon.com/Six-Frigates-Epic-History-Founding/dp...
Hit up YouTube for some college history lectures~Native American history, colonial history, post-colonial/US revolutionary War, World War history, European history, Africa/asia, it’s a lot. Check out Stephen Kotkin. He’s got an epic Lex Fridman interview.
WWII seems to rhyme most these days. Also the fall of the Roman Empire-specifically how death threats and assassinations deteriorated the Roman senate.
The definitive book on the Great Depression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929
First of all, native-land.ca lets you see whose land you are on, as well as view tribal websites, when available (it includes groups that have vanished, eg the Hopewells). The one thing I should note about it is that in places like Oklahoma, where land was often promised, it offers no easy way of distinguishing between tribes who historically inhabited the land and those who were promised land there.
I'd also recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. It's a great book on how textbooks distort history and also busts a ton of myths. Also An Indigenous People's History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
If your local library doesn't have them/you want to buy them, here are some buying options:
Better World Books (donates books too!):
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/an-indigenou...
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/lies-my-teac...
Bookshop.org (independent bookstores)
https://bookshop.org/p/books/an-indigenous-peoples-history-o...
https://bookshop.org/p/books/lies-my-teacher-told-me-everyth...
Direct from publishers:
https://www.beacon.org/An-Indigenous-Peoples-History-of-the-...
What geo? If you want a historical US perspective there is a book titled American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures by Colin Woodward.
Spoiler alert - many areas of the US have political leanings shaped by the people that originally settled there (and by settled I mean mostly Europeans ousting the original people that were there).
Top 2 so far:
* Washington: A life by Ron Chernow
* The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won by Victor Davis Hanson
The Washington book is a very detailed by clear overview of his life. Easy to follow (even for complex situations) and very week written.
The WW2 book is amazing. Compares the countries fighting in around 20 different areas (technology, leadership, geography, aircraft) and says who is better and why.
Also very good:
* FDR by Jean Edward Smith
* Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro
* The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King
* The years of Lyndon Johnson 2 – Means of Ascent by Robert Caro
* Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan
* Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe
* How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley
* Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager
* The years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert Caro
* The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
* Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
* An Economist walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk by Allison Schrager
* The Devil’s Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood by Julie Salamon
* Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton
Terrific book, would really recommend everyone to read it to understand how a lot of cities came to look the way they do in America.
There is a good book that goes into some of the history and context around the river and how we got to this point.
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
By: John M. Barry
No, I don't remember the names of my text books. They were usually something like "American History I."
Some easy examples are being taught things like Betsy Ross creating the first flag or Paul Revere's ride, but in general most of it said the founding fathers were great men who could basically do no wrong, except slavery which was a necessary evil. Not flawed politicians mostly looking out for themselves first, which is more of what they were
2023 has been a good year with regard to reading. This has been year of History, Memoirs and Mythology. Some books I liked and would recommend are:
1) Nothing To Fear - This book is about the Great Depression in the USA and how president JFK took steps to bring the economy back.
2) Digital Minimalism - This is one book I would like to revisit every two years. About digital distractions and how to minimize it.
3) The Odyssey By Emily Wilson- This was a surprising easy read with author's notes on the backdrop. Helps you understand Greek mythology and some unraveling of human emotions. Pretty deep. Highly recommend.
4) Long Walk to Freedom - Autobiography of Nelson Mandela plus a good history of events in South Africa during his time.
5) Lies My Teacher Told me - This is about lies that usually are represented in US high school history and the author debunks some myths. This is also a USA history primer, but all the tones associated are negative.
6) India After Gandhi - Sneak peak into some Indian History and political environment after Independence, events leading to formation of states etc.
7) Lend Me Your ears: Great Speeches in History - This is a great collection of speeches grouped by events. Highly recommend. Nice way to learn some history through speeches.
Right, I would like to stick my head in the sand and not understand people who influenced modern history as well. Or maybe you would like to read about anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism of which there are plenty of books, get your fill. Most direct criticisms are poorly written and sprinkled with conspiratiorial delusions, such as A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind by Stephen Mitford Goodson if you truly want a recommendation, which certainly attempts to go for the jugular but not well at all.
I'm not a US hater at all and agree with everything you've listed ... And a lot of thievery, broken treaties, and cheating too.
How that makes you feel about the US — or about thievery's morality and place in history — is an exercise left to the reader. But I think that's a fair read of the history.
Thanks for the different perspective.
> It has basically created the blueprint of how we live today.
The same case can be made for the american revolution, which was earlier, and which legacy is longer lasting.
But yeah, point taken. Any book recommendations on the topic?
USA was heavy on governmental involvement whole its history - both for good and bad purposes.
> especially when it has the collective memory of a goldfish
Any book or podcast recommendations for a long-view historical surmisement?