Publication year 1995
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Family, Memory
Tags Grief & Death, Race & Racism, Education, Education, US History, American Literature, Arts & Culture, Classic Fiction
Books on U.S. History
Explore national history with this collection of study guides for fiction and non-fiction texts covering events, key figures, and viewpoints that have shaped the United States over the centuries. A sampling of topics within this collection includes the Puritans, Indigenous peoples, the successes and failures of the country's founders, U.S. presidents, war, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and more.
The Words Under the Words
The Wordy Shipmates
The Worst Hard Time
The Wright Brothers
They Called Us Enemy
The Yellow House
They Were Her Property
Thirteen Days
This Is Your Mind on Plants
This Morning I Pray for My Enemies
This Republic of Suffering
Through My Eyes
Titan
Tituba of Salem Village
To Be a Slave
To Have And Have Not
To 'Joy My Freedom
Toliver's Secret
Too Much and Never Enough
To Rescue the American Spirit
Publication year 1995
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Family, Memory
Tags Grief & Death, Race & Racism, Education, Education, US History, American Literature, Arts & Culture, Classic Fiction
Publication year 2008
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes The Past, Colonialism
Tags US History, Religion & Spirituality, Politics & Government, American Literature, World History, Humor
Essayist and commentator Sarah Vowell published her historical and social commentary The Wordy Shipmates in 2008. A humorous but seriously critical examination of the Puritan emigrants that traveled with the flagship Arbella from England to Massachusetts in 1630, the book revisits leading Puritan figures and the colonial events and ideologies they created while trying to establish the “city upon a hill” that defined their Christian mission in, what was to them, a New World.Though colonial... Read The Wordy Shipmates Summary
Publication year 2005
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Environment
Tags US History, Science & Nature, American Literature, World History, Action & Adventure
The Worst Hard Time, written by New York Times journalist Timothy Egan, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2006) and the Washington State Book Award (2006). Egan chronicles the history of the Dust Bowl from the late 1800s to 1939, unfolding the tragedy of errors that led to the environmental and economic disasters of the 1930s. Readers experience historical events through stories of survivors: farmers, cowboys, ranchers, merchants, investors and professionals. Egan chooses survivors... Read The Worst Hard Time Summary
Publication year 2015
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Family, Education, Politics & Government
Tags US History, Technology, World History, Science & Nature, Technology, Biography
Publication year 2019
Genre Graphic Novel/Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race
Tags US History, Japanese Literature, Asian Literature, Social Justice, World War II, Military & War, World History, Biography
They Called Us Enemy is a 2019 graphic memoir written by author, actor, and activist George Takei and illustrated by Harmony Becker. The story chronicles Takei’s childhood experience in the Japanese concentration camps created by the United States during World War II. Takei frames the narrative with a modern-day talk delivered at the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country during the war and issued Executive Order 9066, which empowered the US... Read They Called Us Enemy Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Memory
Tags Race & Racism, US History, Social Class, World History, Biography
The Yellow House is a nonfiction memoir published in 2019 by the American author Sarah M. Broom. In a narrative centered around her childhood home, “The Yellow House,” Broom chronicles the history of New Orleans through three generations of her family. The Yellow House won the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for best debut book.Plot SummaryIn 1961, Broom's mother, Ivory Mae, becomes a widow at the... Read The Yellow House Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Politics & Government, Femininity
Tags Race & Racism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, US History, American Civil War, American Literature, Gender & Feminism, World History
Publication year 1968
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Tags Politics & Government, Russian Literature, US History, Military & War, World History, Biography
Thirteen Days is Robert Kennedy’s personal account of the Cuban missile crisis.As the Attorney General of the United States and President’s Kennedy’s brother and most trusted confidant, Robert Kennedy played a significant role in that critical period. The first-person narrative is organized into titled sections, rather than chapters, and proceeds chronologically, describing the meetings, conversations, developments, and decisions that shaped the American response to the crisis.The chronicle begins on the morning of Tuesday, October 16... Read Thirteen Days Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Environment, Indigenous Identity, Colonialism, Politics & Government
Tags Science & Nature, Psychology, Health, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Agriculture, Anthropology, Business & Economics, European History, US History, Politics & Government, World History, Journalism, Religion & Spirituality, Psychology, Food
Publication year 2015
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Hate & Anger, Forgiveness
Tags Lyric Poem, Race & Racism, US History, American Literature
Publication year 2008
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Good & Evil
Tags US History, American Civil War, Military & War, Grief & Death, World History
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War is a nonfiction book published in 2008 by Drew Gilpin Faust, an American historian and the first woman to serve as president of Harvard University. A finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, This Republic of Suffering details how mass death affected the lives of survivors during and after the Civil War. Other works by Drew Gilpin Faust include Mothers of... Read This Republic of Suffering Summary
Publication year 1999
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Fear, Hate & Anger, Equality, Justice, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies
Tags Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, US History, Trauma & Abuse, Race & Racism, Bullying, Black Lives Matter, Education
Through My Eyes is the autobiography of Ruby Bridges. In 1960, Bridges became the first African American child to integrate an elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana following a court mandate for the state to desegregate its public school system. Louisiana trailed segregation effort in neighboring states, such as the nine Black high school students known as the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.Bridges’s autobiography, published in... Read Through My Eyes Summary
Publication year 1998
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Fame, Family, Fathers, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality, Economics
Tags US History, Business & Economics, Finance, Leadership, World History, Biography
Publication year 1964
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Social Class, Race, Community, Truth & Lies, Perseverance
Tags Historical Fiction, US History, Science Fiction, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, Realistic Fiction, World History
Publication year 1968
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Equality, Nation
Tags US History, Race & Racism, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, World History, Classic Fiction, Biography
To Be a Slave is a nonfiction children’s book written by Julius Lester and published in 1968. In 1969, the book was named a John Newbery Honor Book in recognition of its important contribution to children’s literature.The book focuses on the history of enslavement in the United States. Julius Lester compiled slave narratives and wrote his own historical commentary to accompany them. Lester was writing in the context of the civil rights movement of the... Read To Be a Slave Summary
Publication year 1937
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Masculinity, Social Class, Economics
Tags Classic Fiction, American Literature, Social Class, Disability, Poverty, Great Depression, US History, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History
Ernest Hemingway’s best-selling yet poorly reviewed 1937 novel, To Have and Have Not, reflects his growing disillusionment with the world following his experiences in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Written in piecemeal format during his travels, the novel was originally published as two separate short stories and a novella, and this disjointed formation is apparent in the continuity of the plot. Featuring Hemingway’s classic minimalism, the novel offers both the story of Harry Morgan... Read To Have And Have Not Summary
Publication year 1997
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags US History
Published in 1997, Tera W. Hunter’s To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War is a history of working-class African-American women’s lives in Atlanta, Georgia, from Emancipation to World War I. The text examines the interplay between the racial repression African-American women faced during this time and the resistance they enacted as they sought to exercise their freedom as laborers. The book is winner of several awards, including: the... Read To 'Joy My Freedom Summary
Publication year 1976
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Gender Identity, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Daughters & Sons, Family, War
Tags Children`s Literature, Education, Education, US History, World History, Historical Fiction, American Revolution, Action & Adventure
Publication year 2020
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Family, Conflict, Fame
Tags Politics & Government, Psychology, US History, World History, Psychology, Biography
Publication year 2025
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Perseverance, The Past, Family, Politics & Government, War
Tags Biography, Politics & Government, US History