Book Recommendations
Support the show and get some excellent books to add to your bookshelf.
It’s a win-win for everyone.
Check back often as we continually update our bookshelf.
These affiliate links give us a small commission at no cost to you.
Pre-Revolution
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner
Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots by Thomas S. Kidd
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff
As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution by Richard Archer
Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789: A Documentary History of the American Revolution by Jack P. Greene (editor)
Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty by Jon Kukla
The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution by Edmund S. Morgan and Helen M. Morgan
Boston’s Massacre by Eric Hinderaker
First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory by Mitch Kachun
John Adams by David McCullough
John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger
Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America by Benjamin L. Carp
The Boston Tea Party by Benjamin Woods Labaree
The Revolution
American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution by Walter R. Borneman
Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Spirit of Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told by Participants by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris (editors)
Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution by William Hazelgrove
1776 by David McCullough
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin
The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army by Paul Lockhart
Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution by David A. Clary
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey
Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General by Marc Leepson
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H. W. Brands
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance by Frank W. Brecher
Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution by John A. Nagy
Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady
Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey
The Early Republic
An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781-1783 by William M. Fowler Jr.
Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle by Leonard L. Richards
Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution by Richard Beeman
James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation by Jeff Broadwater
The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America’s Liberties by Carol Berkin
Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers by Jerald A. Combs
The Deadlocked Election of 1800: Jefferson, Buurr, and the Union in the Balance by James Roger Sharp
The New Republic: The United States of America 1789-1815 by Reginald Horsman
America’s First Crisis: The War of 1812 by Robert P. Watson
Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence by A. J. Langguth
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
Wolf by the Ears: The Missouri Crisis, 1819-1821 by John R. Van Atta
Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants by H. W. Brands
Western Expansion
Ingenious Machinists: Two Inventive Lives from the American Industrial Revolution by Anthony J. Connors
The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America by Peter J. Kastor
Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Ella E. Clark and Margot Edmonds
The Blood of Heroes: The 13-day Struggle for the Alamo--and the Sacrifice That Forged a Nation by James Donovan
Lincoln’s Pathfinder: John C. Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856 by John Bicknell
The Oregon Trail: An American Saga by David Dary
The California Gold Rush: The Stampede that Changed the World by Mark A. Eifler
Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
Zachary Taylor by John S. D. Eisenhower
A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 Invasion of Mexico by Amy S. Greenburg
The Road to Civil War
Grant by Ron Chernow
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant