History for Adults

This isn't some sketchy R-rated section for those 18 and over. The heading merely indicates that these aren't titles of a specifically "educational" nature, in the sense that they'd fit well into a K-8 curriculum. That said, you probably don't want your kiddos reading Intellectuals by Paul Johnson.

We believe it's important for parents to know at least as much history as their children, especially during a child's formative years, and especially especially if you're teaching him or her at home. This isn't just so you can answer questions more easily—how can we impart a sense of the trajectory of the human story to our kids if we have a truncated or incomplete view ourselves?

A lot of the books here aren't "comprehensive" in the sense that they span continents and epochs. Many of them are, but the point isn't to give you the whole picture, but to fill in gaps and make connections. Plus, history is just plain interesting, and while it's still beneficial, reading about the Chinese dynasties or the first overland railroad is as fun as it is instructive.

These aren't primarily "literary" histories. Many excellent writers are represented, but most of them are first and foremost professional historians, and they approach their subjects as academics and scholars rather than artists. Sadly, the two have grown increasingly apart since the days of men like Hakluyt and the Venerable Bede.

Have fun browsing our collection. Its construction has been less intentional on our part than that of many other categories, but we haven't chosen anything that looks boring, weighted too heavily against (at the least) a fairly conservative worldview, or treats topics best unconsidered. While we specifically designate "adults" as the prime beneficiaries of this section, many high school students would be just as comfortable and have just as much fun here. If you think learning shouldn't be fun, we could surely find you some really dreary titles if you ask nicely.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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67 Items found Print
Active Filters: 9th grade (Ages 14-15)
1066: The Year of the Conquest
by David Howarth
from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$16.00 $8.00 (1 in stock)
African Kingdoms
Great Ages of Man
by Basil Davidson
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Enlightenment
Great Ages of Man
by Peter Gay
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Exploration
Great Ages of Man
by John R. Hale
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Faith
Great Ages of Man
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Kings
Great Ages of Man
by Charles Blitzer
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Progress
by S. C. Burchell
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Album of Memories
by Tom Brokaw
from Random House
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient America
Great Ages of Man
by Jonathan Norton Leonard
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Ancient China
Great Ages of Man
by Edward H. Schafer
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Ancient Egypt
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Barbarian Europe
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Byzantium
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance
by John R. Hale
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Classical Greece
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Colonial Period: 1607-1750
American History by Era Volume 2
by Brenda Stalcup (editor)
from Greenhaven Press
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Cradle of Civilization
by Samuel Noah Kramer
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Early Islam
Great Ages of Man
by Desmond Stewart
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Early Japan
Great Ages of Man
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Egyptian Religion
by Sir Wallis Budge
from G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.
for 9th-12th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
1st edition from Open Court Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Gilded Age: A History in Documents
by Janette Thomas Greenwood
from Oxford University
for 9th-12th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Grant Moves South
by Bruce Catton
from Back Bay Books
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Heyday
by Ben Wilson
from Weidenfeld & Nicolson
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Historic India
Great Ages of Man
by Lucille Schulberg
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
History of Britain 2
History of Britain Trilogy #2
by Simon Schama
from BBC Books
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
History of Britain 3
History of Britain Trilogy #3
by Simon Schama
from BBC Books
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
History of the English-Speaking Peoples Volume 1
by Winston S. Churchill
from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 7th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Imperial Rome
Great Ages of Man
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
James Fenimore Cooper, the American Scott
by George Dekker
from Routledge
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Labor's Untold Story
by Herbert M. Morais, Richard O. Boyer
3rd edition from United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of Amer
for 9th-Adult
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Lafayette Flying Corps
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Lafayette Flying Corps Volume 1
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$24.00
Lafayette Flying Corps Volume 2
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$21.00
Legacy of John Calvin
The Calvin 500 Series
by David W. Hall
from P&R Publishing
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Lexington Goes Down
by A. A. Hoehling
from Prentice Hall
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life in Medieval Times
by Marjorie Rowling
Reissue from Perigee Books
for 8th-12th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Mayflower
by Nathaniel Philbrick
from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Mirror of War: The Washington Star Reports the Civil War
by John W. Stepp, I. William Hill
from Prentice Hall
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$21.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Mummy
by Ernest A. Wallis Budge
New edition from Senate
for 8th-12th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Nothing Like It in the World
by Stephen E. Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Our Mountain Hermitage
by Anne Roller Issler
from Stanford University Press
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Oxford Illustrated History of Britain
by Kenneth O. Morgan, editor
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Reformation
Great Ages of Man
by Edith Simon
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Renaissance
by John R. Hale
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Revolutionary Period: 1750-1783
American History by Era Volume 3
by Bruce Thompson (Book Editor)
from Greenhaven Press
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$13.00 (1 in stock)
Rise of Russia
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Rising Sun Volume 1
by John Toland
from Random House
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Six Days
by Jeremy Bowen
from Pocket Books
History for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Soul of the Sword
by Robert O'Connell
from Free Press
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Speakers of the House
by Judith Bentley
from Franklin Watts
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Team of Rivals
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
from Simon and Schuster
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
The Gate
by John Van Der Zee
from Touchstone
for 8th-12th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
They Met at Gettysburg
by Edward J. Stackpole
from Bonanza Books
for 6th-10th grade
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Touched By Fire
by William C. Davis, ed.
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Twentieth Century
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Undaunted Courage
by Stephen Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$20.00 $11.00 (1 in stock)
Vietnam and America
by Marvin Gettleman, Jane Franklin, Marilyn B. Young, H. Bruce Franklin
2nd edition from Hickory Grove Press
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Voyage of the Challenger
by Eric Linklater
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
War Chief Joseph
by Helen Addison Howard & Dan L. McGrath
from Bison Books
for 7th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
When in the Course of Human Events
by Charles Adams
from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Worst Hard Time
by Timothy Egan
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (2 in stock)