Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About®) (106 page)

Kitman, Marvin.
George Washington’s Expense Account.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. A funny and revealing book that gives a line-by-line examination of the account the commander submitted to Congress after the war.

Langguth, A. J.
Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. A vividly readable history of the Revolution and the personalities behind it.

Levin, Phyllis Lee.
Abigail Adams: A Biography.
New York: St. Martin’s, 1987. A thorough biography of one of America’s most intriguing personalities. (See also McCullough,
John Adams.
)

Maier, Pauline.
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.
New York: Knopf, 1997. An excellent account of the “real story” of the creation of the Declaration by the Second Continental Congress.

McCullough, David.
John Adams.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Pulitzer Prize–winning assessment of one of the chief architects of the Revolution, the second president, and the founding member of an American dynasty.

Meacham, Jon.
American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.
New York: Random House, 2006. Excellent overview of the spiritual beliefs of key Founders and their struggle for a secular republic.

Nash, Gary B.
The Urban Crucible: Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. The role of the working class in the quest for independence.

Norton, Mary Beth.
Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Explores a vastly overlooked segment of American history, the role of women during the War for Independence.

Paine, Thomas.
Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings.
New York: Meridian, 1984. (Many other editions of Paine’s writings are available.)

Peterson, Marshall D., ed.
The Portable Thomas Jefferson.
New York: Viking, 1975.

Quarles, Benjamin.
The Negro in the American Revolution.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961. An important and overlooked chapter in American history.

Rossiter, Clinton.
The First American Revolution.
New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1956. This paperback standard contains part 1 of Rossiter’s book
Seedtime of the Republic.

———, ed.
The Federalist Papers: Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
New York: Mentor, 1961. A definitive collection of the essays that argued for ratification of the Constitution.

Smith, Jean Edward.
John Marshall: Definer of a Nation.
New York: Henry Holt, 1996. Definitive biography of the most influential chief justice in American history.

Tuchman, Barbara W.
The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution.
New York: Knopf, 1988. The two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner examines key points in the American Revolution, focusing on the intervention of France and the Netherlands and the war’s decisive campaign culminating in the victory at Yorktown.

Wilkins, Roger.
Jefferson’s Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism.
Boston: Beacon, 2001. Examines the choice faced by those fighting for freedom who kept slaves.

Wills, Garry.
Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978. An in-depth examination of the composition of the Declaration.

Zall, Paul M., ed.
The Wit and Wisdom of the Founding Fathers.
Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco, 1996. Quotations and aphorisms showing the lighter side—usually not seen—of Washington, Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson.

CHAPTER 3. GROWTH OF A NATION

Adams, Henry.
History of the U.S.A. During the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, 1801–1805.
New York: Library of America, 1986.

———.
History of the U.S.A. During the Administration of James Madison, 1809–1817.
New York: Library of America, 1986.

Adler, Mortimer J.
We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution.
New York: Macmillan, 1987. A readable primer on constitutional rights.

Alderman, Ellen.
In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action.
New York: Morrow, 1991. An excellent discussion for the legal layperson of the dilemmas posed by the Bill of Rights when conflicting “rights” bump into each other, with fascinating examples drawn from actual cases.

Amar, Akhil Reed.
America’s Constitution: A Biography.
New York: Random House, 2005. A lively and readable history of the Constitution from its beginnings.

Ambrose, Stephen.
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. An exciting account of one of the great adventures in American history, the expedition through uncharted America following the Louisiana Purchase.

Bergon, Frank, ed.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark.
New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.

Boorstin, Daniel J.
The Americans: The National Experience.
New York: Random House, 1965. A sequel to
The Colonial Experience
, carrying the American story from the Revolution to the Civil War.

Brodie, Fawn.
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History.
New York: Norton, 1974. The controversial “psychobiography” that restarted the issue of Jefferson’s relationship with his slave Sally Hemings.

Chernow, Ron.
Alexander Hamilton.
New York: Penguin, 2004. Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of the controversial first secretary of the treasury.

Daniels, Jonathan.
Ordeal of Ambition: Jefferson, Hamilton and Burr.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970. The stormy relationship of three men at the center of American politics at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Davis, William C.
Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis.
New York: Harper-
Collins, 1998. A daunting 800-page account of one of the most mythologized events in American history, the siege of the Alamo in Texas’s war for independence from Mexico.

Ehle, John.
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1988. Excellent popular history of the Cherokee nation’s deadly forced march after being ousted from their tribal lands.

Fleming, Thomas.
Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America.
New York: Basic Books, 1999. Fascinating retelling of the fateful duel and the extraordinary intersection of personality and politics at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Gordon-Reed, Annette.
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997. Arguing in scholarly and lawyerly fashion, the author dispassionately presents the evidence for both sides of the case, which weighs in favor of the likelihood of the notorious relationship.

———.
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.
New York: Norton, 2008. The eminent scholar looks at the family of Thomas Jefferson’s supposed lover, down to 1826.

Gutman, Herbert G.
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom.
New York: Random House, 1976. An important scholarly work.

Hendrickson, Robert A.
The Rise and Fall of Alexander Hamilton.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981. An abridgment of the author’s
Hamilton I
and
Hamilton II.

Jahoda, Gloria.
The Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removal, 1813–1855.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.

Ketcham, Ralph, ed.
The Anti-Federalist Paper and the Constitutional Convention Debates.
New York: Mentor, 1986. (Other editions are available.) The text of essays published in opposition to the Constitution. (See also Rossiter,
The Federalist Papers.
)

Kitman, Marvin.
The Making of the President, 1789.
New York: Harper and Row, 1989. Amusing look at the first presidential “campaign.”

Larkin, Jack.
The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790–1840.
New York: HarperCollins, 1988. One in a series of books looking at the daily lives of Americans.

Lavender, David.
The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent.
New York: Harper and Row, 1989. An exciting narrative account of the epic expedition undertaken after the Louisiana Purchase.

Lester, Julius.
To Be a Slave.
New York: Dial, 1968. An excellent book aimed at young adults, recapturing the life of a slave.

Levy, Leonard W.
Original Intent and the Framers’ Constitution.
New York: Macmillan, 1988. Rejecting the arguments of both right and left, this is an insightful reconstruction of what the framers had in mind—and why they didn’t think it mattered what they thought.

Malone, Dumas.
Jefferson and His Times
(6 vols.). Boston: Little, Brown, 1948–1981. This is the standard scholarly biography of Jefferson, but many alternative views of Jefferson now exist.

Meacham, Jon.
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.
New York: Random House, 2008. Pulitzer Prize–winning account of one of the most influential presidents in U.S. history.

Morris, Richard.
Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985. Examines the impact of these three men on the writing and ratification of the Constitution.

———.
The Forging of the Union: 1781–1789.
New York: Harper and Row, 1987. A basic recounting of the creation of the Constitution.

Padover, Saul K.
Jefferson.
New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1942. A sound one-volume biography, now somewhat dated by new discoveries.

Rogin, Michael P.
Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Destruction of the American Indian.
New York: Knopf, 1975. An unsparing look at Jackson’s record in matters pertaining to the Indians.