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By Ombrageux
#14331009
Just finished Land of Promise by Michael Lind. A decent meat-and-potatoes economic history of the U.S. stressing the role of federal government (infrastructure, protectionism, industrial policy).

It made me realize that while I've got a good idea of the general sweep, I really don't know the details, especially before FDR. And yet it's less than 250 years of history, so really I should know the ins and outs by heart if I've any pretention of thinking about where it's going.

So a question to you: Can you recommend any works of American history?
#14331129
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The Glorious Cause
The American Revolution, 1763-1789
Robert Middlekauff

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Empire of Liberty
A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
Gordon S. Wood

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What Hath God Wrought
The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Daniel Walker Howe

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Battle Cry of Freedom
The Civil War Era
James M. McPherson

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From Colony to Superpower
U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776
George C. Herring

The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative. They are the perfect guides for any student of American history.
http://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/o/oxford-history-of-the-united-states-ohus/
#14332464
Thanks TT. These look like an excellent start for me! Any good stuff on Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and Teddy Roosevelt?
#14450793
mises.org/Books/historyofmoney.pdf

A detailed history of money and banking looking at the people, institutions laws, policies, opinions, and actions of all involved from the revolution until after WWII. And it is wrapped in a critical economic analysis, so you get exposure to alternative ideology and methodology in a historiographical context.
#14450805
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All American presidents are commanders in chief by law. Few perform as such in practice. In Roosevelt’s Centurions, distinguished historian Joseph E. Persico reveals how, during World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt seized the levers of wartime power like no president since Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Declaring himself “Dr. Win-the-War,” FDR assumed the role of strategist in chief, and, though surrounded by star-studded generals and admirals, he made clear who was running the war. FDR was a hands-on war leader, involving himself in everything from choosing bomber targets to planning naval convoys to the design of landing craft. Persico explores whether his strategic decisions, including his insistence on the Axis powers’ unconditional surrender, helped end or may have prolonged the war.
http://www.amazon.com/Roosevelts-Centurions-Commanders-Victory-World/dp/1400064430


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Adapted by Newbery Honor recipient Susan Campbell Bartoletti from the bestselling book and companion to the documentary The Untold History of the United States by Academy Award–winning director Oliver Stone and renowned historian Peter Kuznick, this volume presents young readers with a powerful and provocative look at the past century of American imperialism. This is not the kind of history taught in schools or normally presented on television or in popular movies. This riveting young readers’ edition challenges prevailing orthodoxies to reveal the dark reality about the rise and fall of the American empire for curious, budding historians who are hungry for the truth. Based on the latest archival findings and recently declassified information, this book will come as a surprise to the vast majority of students and their teachers—and that’s precisely why this edition is such a crucial counterpoint to today’s history textbooks.
http://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-United-States-1898-1963/dp/1481421735
#14553259
Understanding history comes from reading things like the records of Quaker meetings. Search genealogical forums for first person accounts that are cited from family bibles and diaries. You can not understand history without understanding how individuals thought at the time.
#14553385
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The second volume of America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II) is as good as A.J.P. Taylor's English History 1914-1945 (Oxford, 1965), another excellent book on the first half of the 20th century. The author served as the Secretary of Education but this patriotic narrative of US history may be out of place in the university environment. A course book for AP World History titled "Traditions and Encounters" came under scrutiny recently because it touched on the issue of comfort women inaccurately and over a million students have learned about world history with this best selling book for the course.

While national test scores reveal that American students know startlingly little about their history, former U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett offers one of the most gripping and memorable versions of the American story in print. The two volumes of Bennett's New York Times bestselling epic, America: The Last Best Hope, cover Columbus's discovery of the New World in the fifteenth century to the fall of world communism in the twentieth. Now both volumes are available in a convenient and attractive slip case-complete with a bonus audio CD, "Remembering Ronald Reagan," featuring recollections and commentary by Jeane Kirkpatrick, Edwin Meese, and others. From heroism of the Revolution to the dire hours of the Civil War, from the progressive reforms of the early 1900s to the civil rights reforms of the 1960s, from the high drama of the Space Race to the gut-wrenching tension of the Cold War, Bennett slices through the cobwebs of time, memory, and prevailing cynicism to reinvigorate America with an informed patriotism.
http://www.amazon.com/America-Last-Best ... 1595551255
By Oberon
#14596682
Ombrageux wrote:Just finished Land of Promise by Michael Lind. A decent meat-and-potatoes economic history of the U.S. stressing the role of federal government (infrastructure, protectionism, industrial policy).

It made me realize that while I've got a good idea of the general sweep, I really don't know the details, especially before FDR. And yet it's less than 250 years of history, so really I should know the ins and outs by heart if I've any pretention of thinking about where it's going.

So a question to you: Can you recommend any works of American history?


You can start with a good collection of histories available on Google books and archive.org; many found there will be far better than the usual modern fare, as they give actual numbers and the like which makes it easier to get a sense of scale and order. Give me some time to go through my collection and I'll list the titles and authors for you. The fur trade is also a good place to start digging, too. They are free e-books, out of print for the most part, and they have views almost contemporary with the times themselves for an added bonus. Railroad history is another 'side' topic' worth digging into, one of my favorite areas of historical economic study. Once you start at the beginning, the rest makes far more sense re how things got to the way they are now.

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