1301 Distance Learning Reading List

This is the main Book List.  These suggestions from the ACC Library are also eligible — all campuses can share through inter-library loan — as are those on the Pulitzer and Bancroft lists.

Check Google Books, where some books (not all) are available for free.  For those that aren’t, check ACC Library (free), read at the University of Texas Libraries (also free in-house) or Amazon (for cheap used copies).


Broad Themes
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America National Book Award
Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in America Beveridge Prize & Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Alexander Keyssar, Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
David Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations With Master Historians
John Avlon, Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations
Steven Mintz, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood
Scott Nelson, A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America’s Financial Disasters
Peter Andreas, Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America
H.W. Brands, Money Men: Democracy, Capitalism & the Hundred Year War Over the Dollar
Ann Fabian, Card Sharps, Dream Books, and Bucket Shops: Gambling in 19th-Century America
Peter Leeson, Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
Colin Woodard, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True & Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates & the Man Who Brought Them Down
Susan Strasser, Waste & Want: A Social History of Trash
John Murray, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History
Rob Boddice, The History of Emotions
Richard Crawford, America’s Musical Life: A History
Michael Lewis, ed., American Wilderness: A New History
Thomas Foster, ed. (multiple authors), Women in Early America
Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas
Burrows & Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898  PULITZER PRIZE
Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents & The Books They Wrote
Henry Louis Gates, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy & the Rise of Jim Crow


Occupational Themes
Politics, Business-Economics, Military-Diplomatic, Race, And Culture Are In The Broader Era Categories Below.  These Occupational Lists Dovetail Well With Those That Already Know Their Career Path Or Those Exploring A Particular Path.  Feel Free to Contact Me If You Have A Particular Major/Career Choice Not Listed Below And You’d Like Me To Find A Book For You (I’ll Have To Make The Book Choice, Though). That’s Not Always Easy For Early American History.

Architecture-Drafting / Construction / Engineering
Bill Addis, Building: 3,000 Years of Design, Engineering & Construction (Chapters 4-7) EVC Library
Roth & Roth-Clark, American Architecture: A History (2nd ed.) (Chapters 1-5)
Simon Winchester, Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Chaps 1-4)
David Meyer, Networked Machinists: High-Technology Industries In Antebellum America

Art
Jane Kamensky, A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley
Paul Nagel, George Caleb Bingham: Missouri’s Famed Painter & Forgotten Politician

Business
Benjamin Waterhouse, The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States (Ch. 1-5)

Culinary Arts & Nutrition
Trudy Eden, The Early American Table: Food & Society in the New World
Steckel & Rese, Backbone of History: Health & Nutrition in Western History
Thomas Standage, An Edible History of Humanity
Thomas Craughwell, Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulee: How a Founding Father & His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America

Education
Keith Erekson, Politics & the National History Curriculum: The Struggle Over Standards in Texas & the Nation (Check-Out Through w. TexShare Card @ UT Library Rather Than Purchasing)
Johann Neem, Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America

Environmental Science
Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History
Michael Lewis, ed., American Wilderness: A New History

Health Sciences
John Burnham, Health Care in America: A History
Kim Nielson, A Disability History of the United States
Steckel & Rese, Backbone of History: Health & Nutrition in Western History
James Wynbrandt, The Excruciating History of Dentistry
Thomas Apel, Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science & the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic
Wendy Moore, The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching & the Birth of Modern Medicine
Richard Hollingham, Blood & Guts: A History of Surgery
Roy Porter, A Cambridge History of Medicine
Jeanne Abrams, Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers & Mothers in Sickness and in Health
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based On Her Diary, 1785-1812 BANCROFT PRIZE
Stephen Oates, Woman of Valor: Clara Barton & the Civil War
Phoebe Yates Pember, A Southern Women’s Story Primary Source
Kristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue & Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer PULITZER PRIZE
Robert Baker, Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics From Colonial Times to the Bioethics Revolution
David Oshinsky, Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine & Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital
Stephen Fried, Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father

Journalism / Communication
Christopher Daly, Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism Part 1
Jim Kuypers, Partisan Journalism: A History of Media Bias in the United States
James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

Law Enforcement / Criminal Justice

Wadman & Allison, To Protect & Serve: A History of Police in America
Lardner & Reppetto, NYPD: A City & Its Police (Chapters 1-9)
Bruce Chadwick, Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD
Bruce Hensler, Crucible of Fire: Nineteenth-Century Urban Fires & the Making of the Modern Fire Service

Psychology
Michael Wertheimer, A Brief History of Psychology
B.R. Hergenhahn, An Introduction to the History of Psychology


Historical Eras

Colonial & Native America
Beth Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People PULITZER PRIZE
Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the World Before Columbus
Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Columbus
Barry Levy, Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs
Jesuit Relations
(Online Text @ Creighton University) — Choose One Volume
Frederick Drimmer, ed. Captured By Indians: Fifteen Firsthand Accounts
Douglas Hunter, Half Moon: Henry Hudson & the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the World
Douglas Hunter, Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot & A Lost History of Discovery
Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community & War PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
Tom Feiling, The Island That Disappeared: The Lost History of the Mayflower’s Sister Ship & Its Rival Puritan Colony
Ernest Hebert, The Old American: A Novel NOVEL
Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans & the Remaking of Early America
Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colonists of Roanoke
Henri Joutel, Historical Journal of the Last Voyage That Monsieur La Salle Made In America (1712)
Catherine Brekus, Sarah Osborn’s World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America
Helen Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed By Jamestown
Edmund Morgan, American Slavery-American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
Edmund Morgan, Roger Williams: The Church & The State 
John M. Barry, Roger Williams & the Creation of the American Soul
John Demos, Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America
Jean Zimmerman, The Orphanmaster: A Novel of Early Manhattan NOVEL
Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War & the Origins of American Identity BANCROFT PRIZE
Jill Lepore, New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery & Conspiracy in 18th c. Manhattan PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Stacy Shiff, The Witches: Salem, 1692
Gary Nash, Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America
Michael McDonnell, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians & the Making of America
John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life & Legend of an American Pioneer
John Tanner, The Falcon: The Narrative of the Captivity & Adventures of John Tanner
Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America

Revolutionary America & Early Republic
Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804  PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
Gary Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy & the Struggle to Create America
Christopher Hibbert, Redcoats & Rebels (From the British Perspective)
Mark Puls, Sam Adams: Father of the American Revolution
Edmund Morgan, ed., Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings From Benjamin Franklin
Laurent Dubois & John D. Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804
David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride
H.W. Brands, The First American: The Life & Times of Benjamin Franklin
Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life & Opinions of Jane Franklin (Benjamin’s Sister)
Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution & the Battle Over American History
Alfred Young, The Shoemaker & the Tea Party
T.H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People
Eric Foner, Tom Paine & Revolutionary America
The Diary of Matthew Patten 
PRIMARY SOURCE
Alex Myers, Revolutionary NOVEL compliment w. some historical research on Deborah Sampson
Thomas Slaughter, Independence: The Tangled Roots of the American Revolution
Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
William Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became a Nation, May 1-July 4, 1776
David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History
David Hacket Fisher, Washington’s Crossing PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
Peter Henriques, First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington
Jon Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
Douglas Shores, Kazimierz Pulaski: General of Two Nations
Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of Power
Sam Willis, The Struggle for Sea Power: A Naval History of the American Revolution
Evan Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
Mary Beth Norton, Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women: 1750-1800
Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat U.S.
Russell Shorto, Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives On the Edge of the American Revolution
Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776
Carol Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence
T.H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution & Its People
Alexander Rose, Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring
John Flexner, The Traitor & the Spy: Benedict Arnold & John André
Nathaniel Philbrick, Valient Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold & the Fate of the American Revolution
Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
Christopher & James Lincoln Collier, Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787
Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
Brion McClanahan, How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America
Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton
R.B. Bernstein, Thomas Jefferson
Peter Onuf & Annette Gordon-Reed, Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson & the Empire of the Imagination
Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie, America’s First Daughter: A Novel NOVEL
John Ferling, John Adams: A Life
Lynne Withey, Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams
Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: A Life BANCROFT PRIZE
Joseph Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington
Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation PULITZER PRIZE
Lindsay Chervinsky, Washington’s Cabinet: George Washington & the Creation of an American Institution
William Hogeland, Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army & the Invasion That Opened the West
Denise Spellberg, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam & the Founders
Gore Vidal, Burr NOVEL
Paul Collins, Duel With the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take On America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery
Nancy Isenberg, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr
Renee Romano & Nancy Potter, eds., Historians On Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past 
Leonard Levy, Jefferson & Civil Liberties: the Dark Side
Joseph Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
Annette Gordon-Reed, Jefferson & Sally Hemings: An American Controversy PULITZER PRIZE
Andrew Burnstein, Democracy’s Muse: How Thomas Jefferson Became an FDR Liberal, a Reagan Republican, and a Tea Party Fanatic, All the While Being Dead
Collin Calloway, The Victory With No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army
Larry Tise, The American Counterrevolution: A Retreat from Liberty, 1783-1800
John Fea, Was America Founded As a Christian Nation? An Introduction
Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers & the Origins of Gun Control in America
William Hogeland, Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests & Crackdowns Made Us a Nation
William Hogeland, The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton & the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty
Ardis Fisher, Murder or Suicide? The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis
Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson & the Opening of the American West
Donald Jackson, Thomas Jefferson & the Stony [Rocky] Mountains: Exploring the West from Monticello
Julie Fenster, Jefferson’s America: The President, The Purchase, & the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation
Michael Kitzer, Tripoli: The United States’ First War On Terror
Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World
James Haley, The Shores of Tripoli: Lieutenant Putnam & the Barbary Pirates NOVEL
Jay Feldman, When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder and the New Madrid Earthquakes
Anthony Pitch, The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814
David Sehat, The Jefferson Rule: How Are Founders Became Infallible & Our Politics Inflexible
Steven Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry & the Transformation of the American Social Order

Jacksonian America & Market Revolution
Marylynn Salmon, Women & the Law of Property in Early America
Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House PULITZER PRIZE
Steve Inskeep, Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab
Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Matthew Goodman, The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
Jill Lepore, A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States
Carol Sheriff, The Artificial River: The Erie Canal & the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862
Jack Kelly, Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal
Alan Taylor, William Cooper’s Town: Power & Persuasion on the Early American Frontier PULITZER PRIZE
Herbert Asbury, Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
Kevin Kinney, The American Irish: A History

Texas & Western Expansion
Andrés Tijerina, Tejano Empire: Life on the South Texas Ranchos
Simon Winchester, The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
Randolph Campbell, Sam Houston & the American Southwest
Greg Cantrell, Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas
Stephen Harrigan, The Gates of the Alamo NOVEL
William Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives & Fortunes of Crockett, Bowie & Travis
Scott Zesch, Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier
Donald Jackson, ed., Blackhawk: An Autobiography
David Roberts, A Newer World: Kit Carson, John C. Fremont & the Claiming of the American West
H.W. Brands, The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush & the New American Dream
J.S. Holliday, Rush for Riches: Gold Fever & the Making of California
Elliot West, The Contested Plains: Indians, Gold-seekers & the Rush to Colorado
Walter Borneman, Rival Rails: the Race to Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad
Richard White, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals & the Making of America PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago & the Great West BANCROFT PRIZE & PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker & the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in History
James Haley, Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874-75
Ari Kelman, A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek BANCROFT PRIZE
Peter Cozzens, The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
Paulette Jiles, News of the World: A Novel NOVEL
T.J. Stiles, Custer’s Trials: A Life On the Frontier Of a New America PULITZER PRIZE
Russell Cobb, The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion & Lies In America’s Weirdest State
David Roberts, Once They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo & the Apache Wars
Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire BANCROFT PRIZE
Pekka Hämäläinen, Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power

Slavery & Civil War Era
Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First 2 Centuries of Slavery in No. America BANCROFT PRIZE
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
David Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
Deborah Gray White, Ar’n’t I A Woman?
Octavia Butler, Kindred NOVEL
Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Mac Griswold, The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island
Gene Smith, The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812
Patrick Breen, The Land Shall Be Deluged In Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt
Catherine Clinton, Devil’s Lane: Sex & Race in the Early South
Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World Slaves Made BANCROFT PRIZE
Winthrop Jordan, The White Man’s Burden
Sue Monk Kidd, Invention of Wings NOVEL About Grimke Sisters
Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water NOVEL (Austin Author)
Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition
Howard Jones, Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt & Its Impact on American Abolition, Law & Diplomacy
Kathleen Grissom, The Kitchen House NOVEL
Kate Larson, Bound for Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, American Hero
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad NOVEL
Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
Joanne Freeman, The Field of Blood: Violence In Congress & the Road to Civil War
Merrill Peterson, John Brown: The Legend Revisited
Dwight Pitcaithley, The U.S. Constitution & Secession: A Documentary Anthology of Slavery & White Supremacy
Karsonya Wise Whitehead, ed., Notes From a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis
Andres & Juanita Tijerina, In the Shadow of the Dome: Slave Life in Austin Texas, Upcoming
Timothy Egan, The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became An American Hero
Robin Oliveira, My Name Is Mary Sutter NOVEL
Joanne Freeman, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress & the Road to Civil War
Cokie Roberts, Capital Dames: The Civil War & the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
Christopher Dickey, Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South
Edward Ayers, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 BANCROFT PRIZE
James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era Large, Readable Synthesis of C.W.
James McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam
James McPherson, The War That Forged the Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters
James McPherson, Abraham Lincoln & the 2nd American Revolution
James McPherson, Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis As Commander & Chief
S.C. Gwynne, Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion & Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
Shelby Foote, Shiloh: A Novel NOVEL
Shelby Foote, Stars in the Course: The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863
Michael Shaara, Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War NOVEL
Gabor S. Boritt, ed. Lincoln: The War President
Don Doyle, The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War
Daniel Crofts, Lincoln & the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment & the Struggle to Save the Union
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln & American Slavery PULITZER PRIZE & BANCROFT PRIZE
Joshua Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Karen Abbott, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
Vicki Adams Tongate, ed., Another Year in Texas: The Civil War Diary of Lucy Pier Stevens
Charles Royster, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson & the Americans BANCROFT PRIZE
Russell Duncan, ed. Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Massachusetts 54th Black Regiment)
Sam Watkins, Company Aytch, or a Sideshow to the Big Show (Free @ Project Gutenberg)
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs (Free @ Project Gutenberg)
Ron Chernow, Grant
Mary Chestnutt’s Civil War Diary (C. Vann Woodward, ed.) PULITZER PRIZE
William Davis, Look Away: A History of the Confederate States of America
S.C. Gwynne, Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion & Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
Nora Titone, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
S.C. Gwynne, Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War
Brian Jordan, Marching Home: Union Veterans & Their Unending Civil War
T.J. Stiles, Jesse James: The Last Rebel of the Civil War
Thomas Connelly, The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee & His Image in Society
Merrill Peterson, Lincoln in Memory
Chris Tomlinson (Forward by LaDainian Tomlinson), Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name — One White, One Black
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy & the Rise of Jim Crow
Bruce Levine, The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War & the Social Revolution That Transformed the South