Staff Picks: 7 American History Books that Broadened My Perspective

July 4th is this weekend and for many Americans it’s an excellent opportunity to fire up the grill and maybe set off a few fireworks. This year, if you’re also interested in digging into a book or two that can offer some new insights and perspectives into various chapters in US history, we’ve pulled together a small selection of highly readable works that do just that.

From a landmark oral history collection to a deep dive into pre-columbian indiginous American cultures, here are seven history books that will hopefully give readers a new understanding into the many counters of the American experience.

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The Hemingses of Monticello

By Anette Gordon-Reed

With The Hemingses of Monticello, celebrated scholar and MacArthur fellow Annette Gordon-Reed explores the story of the enslaved Hemmings family and its entwined history with the Jefferson family of Monticello. In this award-winning book, Gordon-Reed critically examines the historical record around the Hemingses across three generations to give new perspective on figures like Sally Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson, and their children. The relationship between Jefferson and Hemming has been the subject of some controversy over the years, and Gorden-Reed does an outstanding job explaining what we know (and what we don’t know) about their lives based on the available evidence. If you have any sort of interest in the revolutionary period and the founding fathers, this book offers a perspective not often found in any other work.

Working

By Studs Terkel

If you’re interested in a look at the lives of ordinary people, you can’t go wrong with this absolute classic from Studs Terkel. In Working—originally published in 1974— the famed Chicago radio host and oral historian allows ordinary working people from the 1960s and ‘70s to explain their jobs. It’s a captivating read that offers all sorts of insights into how paper boys, steel workers, flight attendants, athletes, and tons of other folks spent their days five decades ago. If you’re more interested in the American experience during World War II, Terkel’s The Good War is another classic read.

1491

By Charles C. Mann

For those interested in the history of what is now the United States (as well as the rest of North and South America) before and immediately after the arrival of Europeans, 1491 by Charles Mann is an absolutely fascinating book. This work compiles and examines the latest research on what the Americas were like prior to European encroachment and reexamines many of the myths that have persisted about the economies, cultures, and lives of indigenous American people. 1491 is a truly eye-opening read that will leave you eager to learn more about the world of pre-Columbian America.

The Woman's Hour

By Elaine Weiss

Women’s suffrage and the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1919 remains one of the pinnacle moments in the history of American democracy. In The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, author Elaine F. Weiss traces the history of the movement that led to the 19th amendment and how the decades-long fight for suffrage all came down to one vote in the Tennessee legislature. If you’ve ever been curious about the politics of women’s suffrage in America, Weiss’ book is as captivating a read as you’ll find.

Battle Cry of Freedom

By James M. McPherson

Battle Cry of Freedom is often regarded as the best overview of the military and political events of the Civil War for those interested in learning more about this critical period of American History. Apart from the masterful narrative retelling of the major events of the war, McPherson’s popular volume illustrates how the illusive notion of freedom proved fundamental to Americans on all sides of the divide. For many readers, Battle Cry has served as a launching pad into the deep and varied bibliography of the whole Civil War era (it certainly did for me).

The Warmth of Other Suns

By Isabella Wilkerson

In The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the great migration, a period where millions of Black Americans relocated from the segregated South to the cities of the North and West. The way this book is structured makes it an excellent choice for readers who usually read fiction but are interested in learning a bit more about this era of American history. Wilkerson profiles three people who experienced the migration first hand, recollected through interviews and exhaustive research. She tells their specific stories as a way to illustrate the stories of millions of others. It’s a truly epic history book that reads like a novel with fascinating characters and captivating stories. Wilkerson’s follow up book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, has also also been widely celebrated.

They Called Us Enemy

By George Takei

This graphic novel memoir by George Takei recounts the Star Trek actor’s experience as a child in a Japanese internment camp in California during World War II. This highly personal perspective on one of the darkest chapters in modern American History recounts how President Roosevelt and the federal government criminalized US citizens with Japanese ancestry in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In telling his story, Takai relates how the experience shaped his worldview and how these events continue to reverberate through American culture to the present.