American history possible reads. In no particular order.
Nonfiction
Vision: a Memoir of Blindness and Justice, by
David S. Tatel
352 pages • first pub 2024. Nonfiction. Memoir. Includes reflections on more recent US historical events.
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. 339 pages. Published 2011.
- the non-fiction book about President Garfield’s assassination.
Despite the subject, I really enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. It’s very well told. I would sum it up this way: Hubris impedes humanity’s progress, especially the hubris of men seeking power and men who are medical doctors. Still applicable today!
Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America
By Robert B. Reich
461 pages. first pub 2025
nonfiction economics memoir politics
I usually appreciate Reich’s point of view on policy issues, and even more than that, his sincerity on those issues, so I appreciated this book going into it. This memoir adds his personal history, which informs those policy stances. The world is better off because we have Robert Reich in it, and I am better off having read his memoir.
First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, by Thomas E. Ricks. 416 pages. Published 2020.
An interesting overview of the first four US presidents' relationship to classical (Greek, Roman) thought, and how that relationship contributed to the formation of the Constitution. You'd think it would be a stodgy, slow read, but I found it quite engaging and easy to read. At the end, Ricks put a 10-point list of “what to do now”.
Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild 320 pages • first pub 2020. Biography
The book starts out with a public violation of the Comstock Act, a law originally passed in the 1870s which outlawed the dissemination of contraception or information about contraception.
As our (bad) luck would have it, the Comstock Act is rearing its ugly head in 2024. Pay close attention. The powers that seek to control and oppress are strong.
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
284 pages • first pub 2023. The main text is 190 pages; the footnotes take up about 40% of the book.
The premise of this book is that poverty in the US is intentional, caused by policies that most of us approve of; most of us benefit from the existence of poverty. It is, for sure, an uncomfortable thesis.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann. 316 pages • first pub 2017.
An excellent telling of a huge sad injustice in our country. Recommend you read this book. I am told it is much better than the movie.
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
464 pages (main text is about 400 pages) • first pub 1990. Pulitzer Prize winner in 1991 in the History category.
This is a historical treatise, meaning that the author examines a primary source, the diary of a midwife in what would become the state of Maine, in the late 1700s-early 1800s. Thatcher Ulrich, the historian, is able to take the terse diary entries and weave them into an interesting history of the time. The historian maintains the variable spellings of the original text, which makes for slower reading, but at least I didn’t have to try to read 18th century handwriting. That said, it’s a dense history. Not for everyone.
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America
By Heather Cox Richardson
304 pages • first pub 2023
Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor
By Steven Greenhouse
416 pages • first pub 2019
This book gives a really good overview about unions and labor in the US. Not a comprehensive history, but selections from throughout our history, and delving deep enough to get a decent understanding.
Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, by Dahlia Lithwick. Published 2022. 284 pages (text). With endnotes 369 pages. Heartrending accounts of lawyers battling against the cruelties brought to us by the Trump presidency during and after that man and his cronies’ time in the highest office of the land. What was most fascinating to me was how the author involved her son in some of the events.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, 592 pages • first pub 2016.
A few adjectives for this book: all-encompassing, challenging, necessary, damning, and in the end, hopeful. The author makes his excellent and difficult point repeatedly, but repetition is necessary, because his thesis upends just about every way I have had of thinking about the role of racist ideas in our history. The book examines major figures who spoke and acted on racial justice, diving in to where each famous figure exhibits antiracist and racist thinking. It’s mind-blowing to read about how W.E.B. Du Bois was antiracist at this point, but incorporated racist ideas at another point.
March: (volumes 1, 2 and 3), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, art by Nate Powell. Graphic books. Volume one is 121 pages. Published 2013, 2015...
An Alternative History of Pittsburgh by Ed Simon, 176 pages. Published 2021.
I highly recommend this thoughtful book. The author traveled during 2017-2020 to various places and interviews with fascinating people, to examine the effects slavery in the US still has on our society. The author takes us to New Orleans, Louisiana; Monticello Plantation – Jefferson’s estate in Virginia; The Whitney Plantation, a museum in Louisiana; Angola Prison. Louisiana; Blandford Cemetery, Virginia; Galveston Island, Texas; New York City; Goree Island, Senegal; and an interview of his grandfather and his grandmother.
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff. 2021. 336 pages.
I am the least likely person to read a book about comedians. However, the author of this book kept me interested. The last few chapters were especially relevant. The text of the book is far less than 336 pages. At the end of the chapters there are many photos, followed by notes and an index.
Eleanor by David Michaelis, © 2020.
536 pages of text; including footnotes, index: 698 pages.
A biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, an amazing person. While she grew up in a rich family, it was by no means a happy childhood. She ended up being a spokesperson and activist for peace, human rights, civil rights, and dignity. This book tells her story in an engaging way.
The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP , by Alex Tresniowski. © 2021. 335 pages.
This book is written as a thriller, interweaving the story of the murder of a young girl and the story of Ida B. Wells. A black man becomes the prime suspect in the murder, putting him at risk of being lynched. The book’s focus is partly on how the detective on the case “roped” in the murderer with a complex scheme. The book also tells the story of Ida B. Wells in her actions against lynching of Blacks, extra-judicial murders often accomplished by hanging the victim – the rope. And there are numerous accountings of lynchings, including ones that occurred in Northern states. We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that racism only occurs in the southern United States. The book includes a conversation which I find it hard to forgive Susan B. Anthony for. Perhaps it is good to be reminded that our national heroes are/were not perfect. I read it for a book discussion in an Anti-Racist facebook group. Well worth the read.
Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. © 2020. 272 pages.
Glaude offers us an overview of Baldwin’s evolving outlook on humanity, and Glaude’s own deep insights. I recommend this book.
Read for TOS book club. An astonishing, enlightening, horrifying tale well told. At 622 pages, it is not a quick read. But the tales are so well written, the reading of this book flows easily. It reveals much that I did not know about the history of our country. For the parts that I was already aware of, the way the author tells the stories makes them come alive, in ways that we can feel deeply. I highly recommend this book.
(Personally I think “The Warmth of Other Suns” is a better read than “Caste” but maybe that’s just me.)
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. 496 pages. © 2020.
A powerful book. It begins with a metaphor. And then another metaphor, followed by a third metaphor. The most workable one for me is the “old house” metaphor. “With an old house, the work is never done, and you don’t expect it to be. America is an old house. … The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protect from the consequences of inaction.” I think the book would be stronger with just one metaphor at the start.
These Truths: A History of the United States, by Jill Lepore. © 2018. 955 pages.
I first started reading this in late 2018. It took me 2 years to finish, but finish I did! This book is 900+ pages. It was not until I got near the end that I found out that fully 35% of the book is footnotes and bibliography!
The main points I took from this book are:
a) White supremacy screwed our nation up from the beginning and even though it officially ended, the effects are with us still.
b) It’s the fault of greedy folks and competent lobbyists that we didn’t get universal health care in the 20th century.
c) As I suspected, income inequality is a huge threat to democracy.
d) political polling is bad for us. The internet has made our inequality worse.
The Line Becomes a River, by Francisco Cantu. © 2018. 256 pages. The author served as a border guard from 2008 to 2012. He left to get an advanced degree. While working on his degree, he encountered an undocumented man who had lived in the US for most of his life. The man returned from US to Mexico to attend to his dying mother. When he tried to reenter the US, he was detained for unlawful entry into the US. The author works to help the undocumented man.
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| Einstein watches fireworks, 2014. |
Children/YA lit
Pink and Say By Patricia Polacco. 1994. Picture book (children’s lit).
Angel of Greenwood
By Randi Pink
296 pages • first pub 2021
fiction historical Y.A. lit
I thought this book was excellent. It was proposed for the 9th grade curriculum at a local school district, but rejected by the ultra-conservative school board there. About the Tulsa OK massacre.
Fiction
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich 455 pages • first pub 2020.
(Pulitzer prize winner) Love the characters and the occasional magical realism of this book. It also taught me about a piece of US history I did not know.
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. © 2016. 320 pages.
A historical novel, following two parallel stories of a family through history – one branch in “Gold Coast” (Ghana), Africa, the other branch in America. Each chapter is a vignette from a generation. In Homegoing, the stories of each generation are well-told.
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