Books on U.S. History

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Planet of Slums is a non-fiction book published in 2006 by American author and urban theorist Mike Davis. It chronicles the spread of poverty in cities around the world at a time when more than a billion people live in what the United Nations (UN) classifies as "slums."SummaryIn 1950, only 86 cities around the world had populations of one million people or more. When Davis wrote this book in 2005, he predicted that by 2015... Read Planet of Slums Summary

Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma (2004) is a history of Pocahontas’s role in the early stages of English colonialism in the Americas. Its author, Camilla Townsend, is a Professor of History at Rutgers University who has earned multiple awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, for her work. This guide refers to the 2005 Hill and Wang paperback edition.In Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend reconstructs a biography of Pocahontas, a figure so wrapped up in legends... Read Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma Summary

Portnoy’s Complaint is a 1969 novel by American author Philip Roth. The novel is presented as a continuous monologue in which the protagonist Alex Portnoy speaks to his therapist about his difficult relationship with his family, his country, and sex. The novel’s explicit and comedic depiction of sex caused controversy on release though Portnoy’s Complaint was later heralded as one of the greatest English language novels of the 20th century. The novel was adapted into... Read Portnoy's Complaint Summary

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Praying for Sheetrock is a book of literary nonfiction by writer Melissa Fay Greene. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1991. A group of experts convened by New York University’s journalism department also included the book on its list of the best journalism of the 20th century. The book’s author, Greene, is a native of Georgia. She has published six nonfiction books and has written for many publications, including The... Read Praying for Sheetrock Summary

Atticus Lish’s novel Preparation for the Next Life tells the stories of Skinner, an Iraq war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Zou Lei, an undocumented immigrant from Central Asia, and how their unlikely love changes them both forever. Preparation for the Next Life explores the challenges that undocumented immigrants and war veterans face in the United States as well as the complexities of cross-cultural relationships. The novel has been highly praised by critics... Read Preparation For The Next Life Summary

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Profiles in Courage articulates and argues for the significance of the idea of "political courage" in American political history. Through four parts, the author, President John F. Kennedy argues that the preeminent value of a senator is "political courage," which he defines from drawing from the lives of eight former American senators.The first of these Senators is John Quincy Adams, the son of President John Adams. Considering an embargo against Britain over its aggression on... Read Profiles in Courage Summary

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Written by Diane Glancy in 1996, Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears follows a group of Cherokee people as they are forced to relocate to “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma in 1838 and 1839. The novel is told from varying perspectives of members of the Cherokee Nation as well as soldiers, reverends, and disembodied voices. These shifting perspectives create a fragmented yet nuanced narrative as Glancy weaves together multiple viewpoints and utilizes... Read Pushing the Bear Summary

Race and Reunion by David W. Blight was published in 2001. It is about the history of American Civil War memory, specifically focusing on the 50-year period (1865-1915) after the war’s conclusion. It centers the competing themes of racial equality and sectional reunion. The book won numerous awards, including the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Merle Curti Award, the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the James A. Rawley Prize. Another work by this... Read Race and Reunion Summary

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Published in 1999 by historian and professor Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie is a work of biographical nonfiction about the life of civil rights leader Robert F. Williams. A controversial figure within the movement, Williams is best remembered for his advocation of armed self-defense in the struggle for Black liberation. In Radio Free Dixie, Tyson charts Williams’s rise to prominence against the sociopolitical and cultural influences that guided the evolution of the civil rights... Read Radio Free Dixie Summary

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Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky evaluates the rise of income inequality in the US over the last 40 years. It argues that the main consequence of neoliberalism, which has increased since the 1970s, is a dramatic concentration of wealth and power to the elite—at the expense of the lower and middle classes. Chomsky observes how rapid financialization since the... Read Requiem for the American Dream Summary