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Nov 30, 2021 · The Ten Best History Books of 2021. Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how the U.S. got to where it is today
- Meilan Solly
Jun 27, 2006 · Explore the rich tapestry of America's past with these influential books on American history. Discover the narratives and insights that rank at the top of reading lists from esteemed publications and history blogs.
- 1491. By Charles C. Mann. This must-read blend of history and science contends that the common understanding of life in the Americas before the arrival of European explorers is almost completely wrong.
- The Island at the Center of the World. By Russell Shorto. With wit and style, Shorto documents life in 17th-century New Netherland, and its capital, New Amsterdam, revealing the Dutch colony’s influence on the American character.
- Washington's Crossing. By David Hackett Fischer. Memorialized in Emanuel Leutze’s iconic—but historically inaccurate—painting, the December 1776 assault on Hessian troops stationed in Trenton, New Jersey was a crucial victory for George Washington and the Continental Army following a string of devastating defeats in New York.
- Founding Brothers. By Joseph J. Ellis. As Ellis makes clear, the decades that followed the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention were anything but tranquil.
- Meilan Solly
- River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard. Where does the Nile, the world’s longest river, begin?
- The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland. When Jonathan Freedland was 19 years old, he attended a London showing of Shoah, Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 Holocaust documentary.
- The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri K. Greenidge. On the surface, Sarah and Angelina Grimke had little in common with their brother Henry.
- The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier by April White. When Blanche Molineux arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on November 16, 1902, she had a singular goal in mind: securing a divorce from her husband, Roland.
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In this “Oprah’s Book Club” pick, Isabel Wilkerson presents a compelling argument for shifting the language used to describe how black Americans are treated by their country.
- The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer. When the Nazis bombed Bari, a Mediterranean port city central to the Allied war effort, on December 2, 1943, hundreds of sailors sustained horrific injuries.
- Uncrowned Queen: The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudors. Though she never officially held the title of queen, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, fulfilled the role in all but name, orchestrating the Tudor family’s rise to power and overseeing the machinations of government upon her son Henry VII’s ascension.
- You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington. Accounts of George Washington’s life tend to lionize the Founding Father, depicting him as a “marble Adonis … rather than as a flawed, but still impressive, human being,” according to Karin Wulf of Smithsonian magazine.
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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The "American History" category encompasses a broad range of books that delve into the events, figures, and forces that have shaped the United States from its pre-colonial days to the present.
