RECOMMENDED READING FOR SEMESTER ONE

Non-fiction

Ambrose, Stephen, Undaunted Courage. (The Lewis and Clark Expedition)

Berkin, Carol, A Brilliant Solution. (Creating the Constitution)

Bobrick, Benson, Angel in the Whirlwind. (The American Revolution)

Borneman, Walter, The French and Indian War

Borneman, Walter, 1812, The war that Forged A Nation

Borneman, Walter, Polk, The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

Brands, H.W. Andrew Jackson

Buell, Thomas, The Warrior Generals (Civil War)

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Dee Brown.

Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln

Ellis, Joseph, Founding Brothers. ( The Revolutionary Generation)

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Joseph Ellis.

Ferling, John, A Leap in the Dark. (The struggle to create the American Republic.) Highly  

         recommended.

Fischer, David, Paul Revere’s Ride ( American Revolution)

Fischer, David, Washington's Crossing (American Revolution)

Fleming, Thomas, Duel. (Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr)

Goodwin, Delores Kearns, Team of Rivals (Lincoln)

Hofstadter Richard , The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It.

A Century of Dishonor. Helen Jackson

Langguth, A. J., Patriots. (American Revolution leaders)

Levy, Leonard W,Origins of the Bill of Rights. (Constitution)

The Federalist Papers. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay. (available online)

McCulloch, David, John Adams. (A great biography of our second President)

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

The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Robert Middlekauff

A More Perfect Union: The Making of the United States Constitution. William Peters

The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. David M Potter

The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Debates. Edited by Clinton Rossiter.

The Age of Jackson. Arthur Schlesinger.

Landscape Turned Red. Stephen Sears (Battle of Antietam)

Sears, Stephen, Gettysburg

Smith, Jean Edward, John Marshall

Tuchman, Barbara, The First Salute (American Revolution)

Frontier Thesis: The Frontier in American History. Frederick Jackson Turner

Weisberger, Bernard, America Afire. ( Revolutionary election of 1800)

Woodard, Jay, July 4th and the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
 

Novels:

 Colonial

• Great Smith by Edison Marshall (Captain John Smith and the colonization of America)
• Arundel followed by Rabble in Arms by Kenneth Roberts (American Revolution)
• The Hornet's Nest by Jimmy Carter (American Revolution)
• Into the Valley: The Settlers by Rosanne Bittner (Revolutionary War)
• Shadow Patriots, a Novel of the Revolution by Lucia St. Clair Robson (A story about George Washington's Culper Spy Ring and a woman spy known only as 355.)

 Nineteenth Century

• Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia by Jessica James (American Civil War)
• Angels Watching Over Me by Michael Phillips (The South in the 1850s)
• The Battle of Milroy Station by Robert Fowler (Civil War)
• Blood and Bitter Wind by Earl Murray (California gold rush)
• Bucking the Tiger; Raising Holy Hell by Bruce Olds (Western Frontier/Doc Holliday; American Civil War/John Brown)
• Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks (Abolitionist John Brown - Pre Civil War America).
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (American Civil War)
• Action at Aquila by Hervey Allen (American Civil War)
• Traveller by Richard Adams (American Civil War, told by Robert E. Lee's horse)
• Daughter of the Loom by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller (19th century Lowell, Massachusetts)
• To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark by Frances Hunter
• Freedom Land by Martin Marcus (Seminole War)
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (American Civil War and aftermath)
• At the Edge of Honor by Robert M. Macomber (Naval Civil War in Florida)
• Home to Trinity by Delia Parr (1830s Pennsylvania)
• Hope by Mary Ryan (Colorado gold rush)
• I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company by Brian Hall (Lewis and Clark Expedition)
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (American Civil War)
• Burr and Lincoln by Gore Vidal
• Oscar Wilde Discovers America by Louis Edwards (Oscar Wilde tours the United States)
• Property by Valerie Martin (slave rebellion)
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (American Civil War)
• Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson (The story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her life with the Comanches.)
• The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini (the Underground Railroad)
• Unholy Fire by Robert Mrazek (Civil War)
• Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, The Last Letter Home by Vilhelm Moberg (19th century, Swedish immigrants to USA)
• White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke (Civil War)

This is only a partial list. There are many other titles available. Confine your reading to the period before 1865.

Mr. J. Hamann

AP U.S. History