Recommended Reading
Mr. Tomecko recommends the following American History books for students in AP United States History. (Scroll down for the Honors American History recommended reading list.) Books with a * may be read as a bonus-point opportunity. If interested in reading one of these books, email Mr. Tomecko for further instructions.
AP United States History
General American History
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
*The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot
To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian by Stephen Ambrose
What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been ed. by Robert Cowley
Colonial Era (to 1763)
*1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
*1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles Mann
*A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz
*American Colonies: The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor
*A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America by James Horn
*Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
*The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter Borneman
*The War that Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson
Revolutionary Era (1763 to 1800)
*46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point for Independence by Scott Liell
*1776 by David McCullough
*The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon Wood
*A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence by Ray Raphael
*The Birth of the Republic, 1763—89 by Edmund Morgan
*Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin
*American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph Ellis
*A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution by Carol Berkin
*Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
*Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War by Les Standiford
Early Republic (1789 to 1820s)
*His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis
Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington by Peter Henriques
*First in Peace: How George Washington Set the Course for America by Conor Cruise O'Brien
*John Adams by David McCullough
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
*1812: The War that Forged a Nation by Walter Borneman
Age of Jackson, Manifest Destiny, & the Antebellum (1820s to 1860)
*Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands
*Slavery and the Making of America by James Oliver and Lois Horton
*American Slavery, 1619—1877 by Peter Kolchin
*Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 by Edward Dolnick
*At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union by Robert Remini
*Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz
Civil War & Reconstruction (1860 to 1877)
*The Civil War: A Concise History by Louis Masur
*Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief by Geoffrey Perret
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson
*A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner
Gilded Age & the Turn of the Century (1865 to 1920)
*The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
The President is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies
the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth by Matthew Algeo
*Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America by Eric Rauchway
*The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller
*TR: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands
*Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists by Jean Baker
*A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot by Mary Walton
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
World War I to World War II (1917 to 1945)
*Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax by Joseph Persico
*Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's by Frederick Lewis Allen
*Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz
*The Crucial Era: The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 by Gerald Nash
*Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth Rose
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Postwar America (1945 to 1965)
*Citizen Soldier: A Life of Harry S. Truman by Aida D. Donald
Truman by David McCullough
*The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction by Robert J. McMahon
*Teenagers: An American History by Grace Palladino
*The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena by Thomas Borstelmann
*The Struggle for Black Equality by Harvard Sitkoff
Modern America (1965 to present)
Ronald Reagan: An American Life by Ronald Reagan
When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
*The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot
To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian by Stephen Ambrose
What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been ed. by Robert Cowley
Colonial Era (to 1763)
*1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
*1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles Mann
*A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz
*American Colonies: The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor
*A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America by James Horn
*Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
*The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter Borneman
*The War that Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson
Revolutionary Era (1763 to 1800)
*46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point for Independence by Scott Liell
*1776 by David McCullough
*The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon Wood
*A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence by Ray Raphael
*The Birth of the Republic, 1763—89 by Edmund Morgan
*Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin
*American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph Ellis
*A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution by Carol Berkin
*Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
*Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War by Les Standiford
Early Republic (1789 to 1820s)
*His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis
Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington by Peter Henriques
*First in Peace: How George Washington Set the Course for America by Conor Cruise O'Brien
*John Adams by David McCullough
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
*1812: The War that Forged a Nation by Walter Borneman
Age of Jackson, Manifest Destiny, & the Antebellum (1820s to 1860)
*Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands
*Slavery and the Making of America by James Oliver and Lois Horton
*American Slavery, 1619—1877 by Peter Kolchin
*Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 by Edward Dolnick
*At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union by Robert Remini
*Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz
Civil War & Reconstruction (1860 to 1877)
*The Civil War: A Concise History by Louis Masur
*Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief by Geoffrey Perret
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson
*A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner
Gilded Age & the Turn of the Century (1865 to 1920)
*The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
The President is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies
the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth by Matthew Algeo
*Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America by Eric Rauchway
*The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller
*TR: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands
*Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists by Jean Baker
*A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot by Mary Walton
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
World War I to World War II (1917 to 1945)
*Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax by Joseph Persico
*Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's by Frederick Lewis Allen
*Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz
*The Crucial Era: The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 by Gerald Nash
*Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth Rose
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Postwar America (1945 to 1965)
*Citizen Soldier: A Life of Harry S. Truman by Aida D. Donald
Truman by David McCullough
*The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction by Robert J. McMahon
*Teenagers: An American History by Grace Palladino
*The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena by Thomas Borstelmann
*The Struggle for Black Equality by Harvard Sitkoff
Modern America (1965 to present)
Ronald Reagan: An American Life by Ronald Reagan
When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan
HONORS AMERICAN HISTORY
General History
An Industrial Nation
*The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller
An Emerging World Power
*Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists by Jean Baker
Contrasting Decades
World War II and the Early Cold War
*Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation into War by Steven Gillon
*Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
What Ifs? of American History: "The Cuban Missile Crisis, Second Holocaust" by Robert L. O'Connell (opens as PDF)
Turbulent Times
*Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals
*Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick
Modern America
An Industrial Nation
*The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller
An Emerging World Power
*Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists by Jean Baker
Contrasting Decades
World War II and the Early Cold War
*Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation into War by Steven Gillon
*Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
What Ifs? of American History: "The Cuban Missile Crisis, Second Holocaust" by Robert L. O'Connell (opens as PDF)
Turbulent Times
*Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals
*Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick
Modern America