Books on U.S. History

... Read The Magic Barrel Summary

... Read The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post Summary

... Read The Making of Asian America Summary

Recognized for its depth of research into history’s most powerful device of war, historian Richard Rhodes’ The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1987) documents the development of the atomic bomb in the 1930s and 1940s, from its conception to its deployment as part of an atrocity committed by the United States against Japan. Rhodes provides extensive background on the personal histories and scientific achievements of the group of international scientists who collectively brought the atomic... Read The Making of the Atomic Bomb Summary

... Read The Man of the Crowd Summary

... Read The Mauritanian (Guantánamo Diary) Summary

... Read The Message Summary

... Read The Middle Ground Summary

The Minutemen and their World is a history of 18th-century Concord, a Massachusetts town located approximately twenty miles west of Boston. The town is famous for the Transcendentalist writers who produced their works there, but it is perhaps even more famous as the site of the first battle of the American Revolution, when the famed “shot heard round the world” was fired at the town’s North Bridge (xvi). The book’s author, Robert A. Gross, describes... Read The Minutemen and Their World Summary

Carter Godwin Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro is a social critique that addresses the inherent structural and institutional racism represented by the United States education system. Originally written and published in 1933, this study guide refers to a republication of the text from 2010 by IAP (Las Vegas, Nevada). The book traces Woodson’s arguments regarding how the United States education system reproduces White supremacy and fails to educate Black students; this failure, Woodson contends... Read The Mis-Education of the Negro Summary

... Read The Mother Tongue Summary

The Name of War, by Harvard historian Jill Lepore, tells the story of King Philip’s War, the first major battle between American colonists and Native Americans, and its aftermath in historical commentary. It is a conflict the settlers barely win on the ground, but one in which they prevail decisively on the battlefield of the written word. Published in 1998, The Name of War gathers multiple awards, including the Bancroft Prize.After decades of peace between... Read The Name of War Summary

The Night of the Iguana, a play by Tennessee Williams, debuted on Broadway in 1961 and went on to run for a respectable 316 performances. It was also nominated for the Best Play Tony Award and marked Williams’s fourth New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award win for Best American Play. The play was first adapted from some elements of a short story by the same title, which Williams published in 1948 as part of a... Read The Night of the Iguana Summary

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In The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, author Jeffrey Toobin begins the Prologue near the end of the story with the funeral of Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 2005. This is a nonfiction book about the transformation of the Supreme Court from liberal to conservative over a period of roughly 35 years, and the transformation was complete upon the death of Rehnquist. Toobin, an American lawyer and legal analyst, published The... Read The Nine Summary

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The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Treachery, written by Steven Sheinkin and published in 2010, is a biography for young readers about one of America's notable war heroes who was also her most famous traitor—Benedict Arnold. How this startling reversal came about is traced in the book, which is rigorously researched yet presented in the manner of an adventure novel. Sheinkin confronts the moral ambiguities that lie at the heart... Read The Notorious Benedict Arnold Summary

... Read The Office of Historical Corrections Summary

... Read The Only Plane in the Sky Summary

... Read The Organ Thieves Summary