Top products from r/AmericanHistory

A pretty important one actually. So much in fact, the only way I can concisely tell you why is to recommend
the book George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade. Fascinating read about some of the unsung heroes of the Revolution.

https://www.amazon.com/George-Washingtons-Secret-Six-Revolution/dp/0143130609

American Colonies: The Settling of North America is, as the title indicates, strictly about the colonization of North America, but it's comprehensive, insightful, and highly detailed, dealing very strongly in the early years of colonization - how people lived, how their economies worked, relations with Native Americans good and bad, the politics of colonization, and much more. Even having read a number of other books on the topic, I learned a LOT from this. Recommended reading if you're interested in the subject.

Most of those I've read on South America have been focused on the pre-Colombian cultures of the continent and not as much on the colonization itself, so probably not what you're looking for.

Well this doesn't cover all of that, but if you want the thought process of the Founders when they went about writing the Constitution, The Federalist Papers is a good place to start. It is exactly what you asked for -
>the thoughts of what our Founders thought a government should be


I linked an edition which contains about 30 of the ones which are usually considered most influential.

For a basic book on general US history, I would recommend pretty much any AP United States History review book. I prefer the REA crash course book (http://www.amazon.com/U-S-History-Crash-Course-REA/dp/0738608130). It covers general history facts that you would learn in an APUSH course or US history 101. The only drawback is that these books tend to skip over a lot of things because of the general focus. It's great for this though, and I always refer to this book.

The records on these decisions are well-established and pretty uncontroversial. If you're looking for fringe accounts or "unconventional" interpretations, be careful - there's a good reason these accounts remain on the fringes, and it's not some conspiracy; they are unsubstantiated and poorly researched.

Having said that; this book is recent and spans the period you're looking at:
American Foreign Relations: A New Diplomatic History

Seeda_Boo is correct. The photo is extremely famous, along with other photos from the CRM. If you enjoy pictorial histories, I suggest reading Seeing through Race by Martin Berger. Below is a link to the book on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-through-Race-Reinterpretation-Photography/dp/0520268644

This book by Bill Bryson goes over a lot of Colonial American language, much of it informal sayings that have evolved over time. I read it a long time ago, but I remember being interesting. I would look to get it from a library because I don't think it's exactly what you're looking for, but it may provide you with some of what you are looking for.

A favorite of mine is The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds. Features the stellar Eastman School of Music Wind Ensemble conducted by Frederick Fennell. Includes bugle calls and descriptive narratives. Outstanding performances. I use a few bars of their Gary Owen as my ringtone.

Just go with this one: http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-America-Alexis-Tocqueville/dp/0226805360

It's a good and cheap version.

There's a great book called Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. It really delves into the motivations of our founding fathers and isn't afraid to talk about their many flaws and failures.

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Characters-What-Founders-Different/dp/0143112082

When I went through OCS years ago we studied American history strictly from a book titled "American Military History". Link

http://www.amazon.com/Empires-War-Struggle-America-1754-1763/dp/1553650964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324495570&sr=1-1

My favorite George Washington quote, found in this book, is "Shift that fat ass Harry. But slowly, or you'll swamp the damned boat."

This is what he said to General Henry "Ox" Knox as they prepared to cross the Delaware. It just makes him more of an "everyman" than any other quote I've heard.

Sound advice for everyone.

The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory https://www.amazon.com/dp/0814731279/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NAEIDbVEXM4G3

The video is a little long. You can browse the full transcription here.

The book associated with her talk is here and for a longer discussion on it see here. Frank Csongos reviewed it here and Andrew C. McCarthy responded to negative criticism of the work at length here.

There is so much wrong with this article it'd take a book to explain it.

But wait, one journalist/author who served on the same WWII aircraft carrier as former president George Bush, and who has researched Pearl Harbor for decades, did write a book to explain it.

That author not only dug up key evidence from the federal government via Freedom of Information Act requests, but he also personally interviewed WWII cryptographers who said the US did break the Japanese Navy's code (something the US gov't said was not done until after Pearl Harbor).

Needless to say, there's more to this story than this article, which has a NSA historian as its key source.

> "Japan was provoked into attacking America at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into the war." -- Oliver Lyttleton, British Minister of Production, 1944.