Comments on Best American History Books - page 2
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Ainaz wrote: "hi everyone,I'm currently preparing for a North American Studies graduate program. But I haven't found a "comprehensive" book about the history of The United States. I'd be grateful if u could hel..."
I doubt you can do better than "The Oxford History of the United States" which will be in 12 volumes when finished in 2016. Check out the Wikipedia article on this one.
1 volume? I doubt you could do better than the 1-volume histories sometimes used in U.S. general survey classes in college (mine used America: A Narrative History, by the now late George Tindall, but I suspect there are a number). For series, the volumes of the Oxford that I have read have varied from "very good" to "excellent" (Battle Cry of Freedom being the best single-volume treatment of the Civil War era that I know of).
Cambridge doesn't seem to have a series on U.S. history (how odd). Penguin has one, but only 2 of 5 volumes (I think) have been published.
So which book do I pick on Eisenhower? I want to know not only what he did but who he was.
Eisenhower: Soldier and President by Stephen Ambrose gets a lot of praise, as does Geoffrey Perret's Eisenhower.There are several others out there, though.
Just hope they're what you were looking for.
Susanna, I read reviews for the first one and many say that it covers not just the events but his character too. I want to leave the book feeling I know him. Thank you, again !
Removed, and it sounds as if not for the first time: The Killer Angels, parked stubbornly at #82. Awesome historical fiction, but no no no, not nonfiction. Likewise, The Last Full Measure has fallen from spot #363.
America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction and I Am America (and So Can You!) both removed because... really? Do I need to explain? Did someone actually think either of these was an American History book after reading them?
I haven't been to this list for quite awhile, and it is gratifying to see how well it has developed; a very disparate selection, but thanks to Susannah and other librarians' careful administration, it hasn't shot out from within the parameters specified by the list maker...except in a couple of small instances. I took out #629, Atlas of World History. If we start interpreting American history as simply one small piece of the world's history, then the list becomes too diluted.I did not remove, but question, the presence of two others, and will let those with official authority decide their fate. #702 (as of now anyway), Maus II, is the first. I see it as primarily a Holocaust story. However, it does have a thread of storyline that takes place in the Catskill Mts. I did not remove it, but also did not vote for it. Sure looks iffy to me.
The other is #462 Uncle Tom's Cabin--but it includes a snippet of Solomon Northrup's Twelve Years a Slave, which is already listed separately. Uncle Tom's Cabin is of course fiction, so it is only the inclusion of the teaser at the end that gives it any vestige of appropriate placement.
On a positive note, I think I found about a dozen titles to add to my "to read" list. Very thoughtful additions by a number of Goodreads members. Thank you!
#502 Shiloh, by Shelby Foote, is a novel and has been removed from the list.
I think it's a happy irony that John Adams is on the top of this list, as he seemed to spend most of his life feeling he was in someone else's shadow (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.).
Removed several books as being historical fiction. I also changed the name of the list to Best Non-fiction American History to remind people that fiction DOES NOT belong on this list.
Also, authors spamming their own books, please note that I will leave them if they are strictly non-fiction, meaning historical fiction or fantasy, will be removed.
I removed The Guns of August because it's not American history; it literally only covers the month of August 1914, when only Europe was in the war. American didn't enter WWI until 1917.
The listopia creator has green-lighted non-celebrity bios, but voters should remember that it isn't history if it didn't happen 50+ years ago. I question both Clintons' biographies for that reason; did not touch Hillary's since the teaser mentions the 1950's, and since I didn't touch hers, I didn't touch his; but please bear in mind that history is not just a-thing-from-the-past. I seriously question, and will remove if not told otherwise, the 9/11 Bin Laden entry on page 4. Definitely not history; not yet. Having it there is like the camel's nose in the tent; next thing we know, we will have a US history and politics listopia instead of merely history.
Go ahead and remove it and any others that are too recent. I went through the list recently, but I was mostly looking for fiction that had snuck in.
There have been a lot of firsts in US government lately, and when people talk about "making history", some people get this confused with history that already exists. So in 40+years, the Obama presidency, the first to feature a Black man in the Oval Office, will really be history; but history-in-the-making is not the same as actual history, and I have removed his memoir from #130:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
Bill Clinton's "roller coaster ride" of his "1992 presidential campaign" will not be history for 26 more years. Gone:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Also too recent:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Any presidential memoir that focuses primarily on the presidency and campaign for same should be about the Johnson (LBJ) admin or an earlier one. That means no Nixon presidential material (cripes, I may have to remove my own entry!), no Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Bush, or Obama. A biography that features, in large measure, things that occurred prior to 1967 is fair game, so for example, a memoir that focuses largely on the pre-1967 political life of someone that later becomes a president is a fair entry.
Removed, bio of Obama presidential campaign, Game Change:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Removed from #26, All the President's Men; the Watergate scandal occurred in the 70's.
Living History, too recent, Hillary Clinton memoir from p.2:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Reagan bios, coming down:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
More Obama, Dreams of My Father:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
9/11 Commission Report
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Iraq War 2002:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
#149 Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo is historical fiction
Michele wrote: "#149 Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo is historical fiction"Removed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Why is there nothing about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement?
Barbara wrote: "Why is there nothing about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement?"Taylor Branch's civil rights book is #39.
The idea is you add the books you think should be on the list (author spam not included).
Gulliver's Travels = not nonfiction, not American, not history!
Where on the list did you see it? (Makes it a lot easier to remove.)
Lobstergirl wrote: "I removed The Guns of August because it's not American history; it literally only covers the month of August 1914, when only Europe was in the war. American didn't enter WWI until 1917."Cindy wrote: "Also, authors spamming their own books, please note that I will leave them if they are strictly non-fiction, meaning historical fiction or fantasy, will be removed."
In order to understand America's role in WWI, it is necessary to learn about the war previous to America's entry into it. Removing this is REALLY nitpicking.
Colleen wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "I removed The Guns of August because it's not American history; it literally only covers the month of August 1914, when only Europe was in the war. American didn't ..."I'm with Lob here. There are many, many things relevant to American history, but they don't belong on this list if they are not actually US history. I love that book, but there are lots of other lists where it can and should be.
Yeah, that's not really "American history." (Great book, though.)
Gulliver's Travels is # 639 (as of 5:10 p. m. CDT 8/31/18).
Vicki wrote: "Gulliver's Travels is # 639 (as of 5:10 p. m. CDT 8/31/18)."Gulliver's Travels removed.
Sally wrote: "Monet's Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden At Givernyremoved as not American History."
What in the world gets into people?
The heck if I know.
Men to Match My Mountains - Irving StoneDown the Great Unknown - John Wesley Powell
Nothing Like it in the World - Ambrose
Sword Of Lincoln
Lincoln's Gamble
April 1865 - Jay Winik
Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates- Brian Kilmeade
African Founders - David Hackett Fischer
Guns of August - Tuchman? Really?
Donna wrote: "Sally wrote: "Monet's Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden At Givernyremoved as not American History."
What in the world gets into people?"
It's a puzzlement.
I'm of two minds with regard to And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. It's a great book--sitting on my own bookshelf, in fact--but it was written in the 1980s, during the AIDS crisis, not 50 years after, and it still hasn't been 50 years, so even a looser, cheaterish definition cannot apply. So it should come down, maybe? The problem is that 22 people have already voted for it. What do others think?
Donna wrote: "I'm of two minds with regard to And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. It's a great book--sitting on my own bookshelf, in fact--but it was written in the 1980..."I'm fine with removing it. The rules certainly allow for that.
Lobstergirl wrote: "Donna wrote: "I'm of two minds with regard to And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. It's a great book--sitting on my own bookshelf, in fact--but it was writt..."And there it is! Going, going, gone. Removed for genre issues: And the Band Played On
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I'm currently preparing for a North American Studies graduate program. But I haven't found a "comprehensive" book about the history of The United States. I'd be grateful if u could help me.
p.s: right now I'm reading Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States.