American History

This compilation of titles is recommended by an amalgum of an avid student of American history and benefactor of The Williamsburg Foundation, the Nation Builders [Colonial Willamsberg's (CW) Lead Researchers & Interpreters], Staff of CW's expert Bookstor, CW's American Indian Project and other CW Interpreters - along with some extensions by our readings.

Native American Nations Related to Colonial America

see Native American Culture and Legacy

Eastern Woodlands Tribes

Powhatan Confederacy

• Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend, The American Portrait Series

Monican

• Monacan Millennium: A Collaborative Archaeology and History of a Virginia Indian People, Preston

Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)

• The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse, Johnson

Lenape (Delaware)

• Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England, O’Brien

Wampanoag

• This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, Silverman

Pequot and Mohegan

• The Pequot War, Cave

Huron (Wyandot)

• Huron-Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle, Sioui

Southeastern Tribes

Cherokee

• The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, Perdue, Penguin Library of American Indian History,

• Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835; Perdue, Indians of the Southeast Series

Creek (Muscogee)

• Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World, Ethridge

Choctaw

• Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818–1918; Kidwell

Chickasaw

• Chickasaw: Unconquered and Unconquerable, Barbour et al.

Yamasee

• The Yamasee Indians: From Florida to South Carolina, Bossy

Plains and Midwest Tribes

Shawnee

• The Shawnees and the War for America, Calloway, Penguin Library of American Indian Histor

Miami

• The Miami Indians, Anson, The Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 103

Illinois Confederation

• The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France, The Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 211

Northern Tribes

Abenaki

• The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People, Calloway, The Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 197

Micmac (Mi’kmaq)

• Living Treaties: Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations, Battiste

Algonquin

• Algonquin (American Indians), Barns

Other Tribes Relevant to Colonial America

Susquehannock

• The Susquehannock, Susquahanna River Basin Commission

Catawba

• The Catawba Nation: Treasures in History, Blumer, American Heritage Series

Natchez

• The Natchez Indians: A History to 1735, James F. Barnett Jr.

Colonial America

• Before 1776: Life in the American Colonies, Professor Robert J. Allison (Suffolk University), The Great Courses

Jamestown

• 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy, Horne

• A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, Horn

• Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation, Price

• Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America, Woolly

• Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend, The American Portraits Series

Philadelphia

• First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory, Gary B. Nash, Early American Studies

• William Penn And the Quaker Legacy, Moretta

• The Revolution Is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765-1776; Ryerson

Williamsburg

Yorktown

Revolutionary America

Founding Documents

• We Hold These Truths...: And Other Words that Made America, Aron

• The Founders' Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It, Arnn

• Give Me Liberty: A History of America's Exceptional Idea, Brookheiser

The Federalist Papers

• The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison

• Libertys Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote The Federalist, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World, Meyerson

• The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates, Ketcham

The Continental Congress & The Constituation Convention

• Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776, Beeman

• The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison; James Madison, Larson

• Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, Maier

• The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, Stewart

• Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, Maier

The Declaration of Independence

• Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Allen

• American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, Maier

The Constitution

• America's Constitution: A Biography, Ahmar

• Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, Beeman

• Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787; Collier, Et Al

• The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution, McClanahan

• The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions, Wexler

The Bill of Rights

• The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties, Berkin

• James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights (Pivotal Moments in American History), Labunski

Founding Fathers

• Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Ellis

• America’s Founding Fathers, Professor Allen C. Guelzo (Gettysburg College), The Great Courses

• The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, Rosen

• Madison and Jefferson, Burnstien & Eisenberg

• Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations, Chaffin

• The Virginia Dynasty: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation, Cheney

• Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder, Collins

• Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights, and The Election that Saved a Nation, DeRose

• Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--and What It Means for Americans Today, Dilorenzo

• American Dialogue: The Founders and Us, Ellis

• The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789, Ellis

• Apostles of Revolution: Jefferson, Paine, Monroe, and the Struggle Against the Old Order in America and Europe; Ferling

• Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence, Kiernan

• Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers, Kowalski

• Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership, Larson

• Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, Philbrick, The American Revolution Series

• First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, Ricks

• The Founding Fortunes: How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited from America's Revolution, Shachtman

• Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War, Standiford

• Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Wood

• Seven Virginians: The Men Who Shaped Our Republic, Boles

• Founding Feuds: The Rivalries, Clashes, and Conflicts That Forged a Nation, Aron

• The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams, Maier

John Adams

• John Adams, McCullough

Sam Adams

• The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Schiff

• Samuel Adams: A Life, Stoll

Ben Franklin

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Ben Franklin

• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Isaacson

Alexander Hamilton

• Alexander Hamilton, Chernow

John Hancock

• John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot, Unger

Patrick Henry

• A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, Mayer, Grove Great Lives

• Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation, Giles Unger

• For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry's Final Political Battle, Rogasta

• Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, Kidd

John Jay

• John Jay: Founding Father, Stahr

Thomas Jefferson

• Jefferson's Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello, Burnstein

• Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's: Three Men, Five Great Wines, and the Evening That Changed America, Cerami

• American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Ellis

• Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Gordon-Reed

• Thomas Jefferson-Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America, Gutzman

• Framing a Legend: Exposing the Distorted History of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Holochak

• Jefferson and the Press: Crucible of Liberty, Knudson

• Thomas Jefferson: America's Paradoxical Patriot, Mapp

• Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Meacham

• Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness, Thomas Jefferson (Author), Eric Petersen (Editor), Modern Library Classics

• Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty, Boles

Richard Henry Lee

• The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family, Nagel

James Madison

• James Madison, Brookhiser

• James Madison: A Life Reconsidered, Cheney

• The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President; Feldman

• Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America, Stewart

• James Madison: America's First Politician, Cost

George Mason

• George Mason: Forgotten Founder, Broadwater

James Monroe

• The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, Giles Unger

• James Monroe: A Life, McGrath

Gouverneur Morris

• Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution, Brookhiser

Robert Morris

• Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution, Charles Rappleye 

Thomas Paine

• Common Sense, Thomas Paine

• Rights of Man, Thomas Paine

• Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom, Fruchtman

Roger Sherman

• Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic, Hall

George Washinton

• The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon, Ferling

• The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789, Larson

• His Excellency: George Washington, Ellis

• Washington's Revolution: The Making of America's First Leader, Middlekauf

• Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father, Stark

• Washington: A Life, Chernow

• Washington: The Indispensable Man, Flexner

• Setting all the captives free : capture, adjustment, and recollection in Allegheny county, Kenneth

• The Toast to General Washington, Francis Hopkinson (music)

Noah Webster

• The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, Kendall

John Wilkes

• John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty, Cash

Geroge Wythe III

• American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe, Brown

• Jefferson's Second Father, Baily

Founding Mothers

• First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role, Abrams

• Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Roberts

• Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence, Berkin

• Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, Kerber, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture & the UNC Press

• America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines (P.S.) , Collins

• Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance, Coffin

Abigale Adams

• Abigail Adams: A Life, Holton

• Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters, Jacobs

• Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage, Gelles

Dolly Madison

• The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, Dolly Madison and Mattern

Mercy Otis Warren

• The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation, Stuart

Martha Washington

• Martha Washington: An American Life, Brady

Other Key Revolutionary Figures

Joseph Warren

• Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero, Di Spigna

Robert Carter III

• The First Emancipator: Slavery, Religion, and the Quiet Revolution of Robert Carter, Levy

Revolutionary America

• 1776, McCullough

• 1775: A Good Year for Revolution, Phillips

• Liberty! The American Revolution {film/series}, PBS

• From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, Maier

• The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America, Breen

• The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 1), Atkinson

• The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 2), Atkinson

• Rebels and Democrats (The Era of the American Revolution), Douglass, UNC Press

• American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic,  Ellis

• Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, Ellis

• Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, Ferling

• The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown, Fleming

• Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution, Goldstone

• The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, Horne

• Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828, McDougall

• 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, Norton

• Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, Ferling

• Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, Rakove

• The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America, Smith

• Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution, Williams

• The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States, Wood

• Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, Wood

• The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood

• Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, Raphael

• After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture, Ellis

Speeches & Writings

• The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate Vol. 1 1764-1772, various, Library of America: The American Revolution Collection, LOA # 265

• The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate Vol. 2 1773-1776, Various, Library of America: The American Revolution Collection, LOA #266

• The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, various, Library of America: The American Revolution Collection

• The Founding of America (Great Speeches in History), Maltz, UNC Press

Freedom of the Press

• Indelible Ink: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press, Kluger

Freedom of Speech

• Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech, Solomon

Spies

• George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution, Kilmeade

• The Fox and the Hound The Birth of American Spying, Markle

The Seven Years War

• Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution, Preston, Pivotal Moments in American History

• Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, Anderson

Revolutionary War

• George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution, Leckie

Philosophy, Faith and Religious Freedom

• Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty, Wadman

• he Portable Enlightenment Reader, Krmnick, Viking Portable Library

• The Faiths of Our Fathers: What America's Founders Really Believed, Mapp

• The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Edition: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth; Thomas Jefferson

• Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America's Creed (Jeffersonian America), Regosta

• Thomas Jeffersons Quran, Denise Spellberg

• From Jamestown to Jefferson: The Evolution of Religious Freedom in Virginia, Rasor

• America In Crimson Red: The Baptist History Of America, Beller

Health, Sickness and Medicine

• The Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny, Williams

Other Nations Roles During the American Revolution

• The American Revolution, a global war, Dupay

England

King George III

• The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III, Roberts

Native American Nations

• The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, Callaway

• The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, Callaway,  Studies in North American Indian History

• The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, Taylor

• A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815, Dowd, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 109

• American Indian Treaties: The History of a Political Anomaly, Prucha

Mohawk

Joseph Brant / Thayendanegea

• Joseph Brant: Mohawk Chief, Bolton, North American Indians of Achievement

Oneida

• Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution, Glatthaar

Seneca

Cornplanter (Gaënsgwë’díyo)

Cherokee

• Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Ellis

Dragging Canoe

France

• The American Revolution and the French Alliance, Stinchcombe

Marquis de Lafayette

• Hero of two worlds: the Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, Duncan

Caron de Beaumarchais

• Beaumarchais and the American Revolution, Morton

Spain

• Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift, Chávez

Bernardo de Gálvez

• Bernardo de Gálvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolution, Saravia

Civil War America

• The Civil War: A file by Ken Burns,Burns

• The Civil War: A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Shelbee Foote

• The Civil War: A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelbee Foote

• The Civil War: A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox, Shelbee Foote

• The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War, Shaara

• A New History of the American South, Professor Edward L. Ayers (University of Richmond), The Great Courses

American History - Overview

• The Growth of the American Republic, Morrison