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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153 Items found Print
Active Filters: Trade Paperback
1066: The Year of the Conquest
by David Howarth
from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$16.00
11 Days in December
by Stanley Weintraub
from New American Library
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies
1st edition from William Morrow & Company
for Adult
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
1491
by Charles C. Mann
2nd ed. from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$19.00
1776
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.99
1861: The Civil War Awakening
by Adam Goodheart
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
5 Cities That Ruled the World
by Douglas Wilson
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$13.50
Age of Religious Wars
by Richard S. Dunn
2nd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
from Penguin Random House
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
America's Longest War
by George C. Herring
2nd edition from McGraw-Hill
for 11th-Adult
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Civil War
by John Keegan
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.95
American Passage
by Vincent J. Cannato
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
by Gordon S. Wood
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798-1939
by Albert Hourani
2007 Printing from Cambridge University
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Arguing about Slavery
by William Lee Miller
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$17.95
Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
by Charles G. Finney
from Bethany House
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose, Foreword by Tom Hanks
25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$19.99
Barricades and Borders
Short Oxford History of the Modern World
by Robert Gildea
3rd edition from Oxford University
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Battle Cry of Freedom
Oxford History of the United States
by James M. McPherson
from Oxford University
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$28.99
Between the Lines
by Tom and Delphine Frazier
from Regent Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Birth of the Modern
by Paul Johnson
from HarperCollins
Social Commentary for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Timothy Snyder
from Basic Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Boys of Summer
by Roger Kahn
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Boys' Crusade
by Paul Fussell
from Modern Library
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
By the Sword
by Richard Cohen
from Modern Library
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War
by Max Hastings
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by Andrew Roberts
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Citizen Soldiers
by Stephen Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$21.99
Civil War: 1850-1895
American History by Era Volume 5
by Auriana Ojeda, book editor
from Greenhaven Press
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: A History
by Harry Hansen, Introduction by Richard S. Wheeler, Foreword by Gary Gallagher
from New American Library
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
by Shelby Foote
1st Vintage Books Ed from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$88.00
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)
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)
Columbus and Cortez, Conquerors for Christ
by John Eidsmoe
from New Leaf Press
Biography for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Comrades
by Stephen E. Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
Conversations with Myself
by Nelson Mandela, foreword by Barack Obama
from Picador
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Coolidge
by Amity Shlaes
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Crime Encyclopedia
by Marie J. MacNee
1st edition
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Crusades
by Hilaire Belloc
1992 Printing from Tan Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Czech Reader
by Jan Bazant, Nina Bazantova, and Frances Starn, editors
from Duke University Press
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
D-Day: June 6, 1944
by Stephen E. Ambrose
from Touchstone
for 9th-Adult
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
Daily Life in Johnson's London
by Richard B. Schwartz
1st edition
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Daughter of Auschwitz
by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant
from Hanover Square Press
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Death Valley & the Amargosa
by Richard E. Lingenfelter
from University of California Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Debunking Howard Zinn
by Mary Grabar
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
$16.00
Defining Moment
by Jonathan Alter
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Devil in Massachusetts
by Marion L. Starkey
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Discoverers
by Daniel J. Boorstin
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$26.00
Earth is Weeping
by Peter Cozzens
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Eighteenth Century Europe
by Isser Woloch
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Eighty Days
by Matthew Goodman
from Ballantine Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Einstein's Cosmos
by Michio Kaku
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.60 (1 in stock)
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)
Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
by David Bushnell & Neill Macaulay
from Oxford University
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Empire Rising
by Thomas Kelly
from Picador
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
England's Glorious Revolution 1688-1689
by Steven C. A. Pincus
from Bedford Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
FDR
by Jean Edward Smith
from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley & Ron Powers
from Bantam Books
for 11th-Adult
in WWII: Pacific Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2P)
Flyboys
by James Bradley
2nd edition from Back Bay Books
for 10th grade-adult
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
Forever Free
by Eric Foner, illustrations edited with commentary by Joshua Brown
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Founding Brothers
by Joseph J. Ellis
from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Franklin and Winston
by Jon Meacham
from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Galileo's Daughter
by Dava Sobel
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Gandhi and India
by Gianni Sofri, translated by Janet Sethre Paxia
from Interlink Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Ghost Map
by Steven Johnson
from Riverhead Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Girl in the Picture
by Denise Chong
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Vietnam War (1957-1975) (Location: HISA-20VIE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Glorious Cause
The Oxford History of the United States
by Robert Middlekauff
Revised from Oxford University
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
God's Battalions
by Rodney Stark
Reprint from HarperOne
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$17.99
Great Bridge
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$20.00
Great Crash: 1929
by John Kenneth Galbraith
from Mariner Books
for 10th-Adult
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$13.59
Guns, Germs, and Steel
by Jared Diamond
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Higher Call
by Adam Makos with Larry Alexander
from Dutton Caliber
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$22.00 $11.00 (1 in stock)
History of the American People
by Paul Johnson
from HarperCollins
for 11th-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
$22.99 $14.00 (1 in stock)
History of the Twentieth Century
by Martin Gilbert
Reprint from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$23.99
History of the World in 6 Glasses
by Tom Standage
from Bloomsbury Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.99
Home: A Short History of an Idea
by Witold Rybczynski
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Houses & Homes (Location: HISMC-HH)
$16.00
Honor in the Dust
by Gregg Jones
from New American Library
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
How the West Won
by Rodney Stark
from Intercollegiate Studies Institute
for 12th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.00
Hubbell Trading Post
by Erica Cottam
from University of Oklahoma Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
In the Name of the Father
by Francois Furstenberg
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Invention of Nature
by Andrea Wulf
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Island at the Center of the World
by Russell Shorto
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Japan 1941
by Eri Hotta
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Jarhead
by Anthony Swofford
from Scribner
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jerusalem: The Biography
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
John Adams
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.70
John Adams
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00
Junior Officer's Reading Club
by Patrick Hennessey
from Riverhead Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Kingdom Strange
by James Horn
from Basic Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.50 (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 Volume 1
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$27.04
Lafayette Flying Corps Volume 2
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$23.66
Left to Tell
by Immaculée Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin
from Hay House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Lies My Teacher Told Me
by James W. Loewen
2nd edition from Touchstone
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Man Who Would Not Be Washington
by Jonathan Horn
from Scribner
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (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)
Memoirs of the Second World War
by Winston S. Churchill, abridged by Denis Kelly
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$25.99
Monuments Men
by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter
from Center Street
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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