Reddit mentions of Money, Banking, and the Financial System (2nd Edition)

Intermediate econ if you're up for it:

http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-N-Gregory-Mankiw/dp/1464182892

http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-Policy-Practice-Pearson-Economics/dp/0321436334

http://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Microeconomics-Modern-Approach-Ninth/dp/0393123960

http://www.amazon.com/Money-Banking-Financial-System-2nd/dp/0132994917

EDIT: For intro econ, you can just get started with the books by Krugman and Wells. I'm sure we all love Krugman here yea?

As far as history goes, just FYI, Zinn's People's History has a very poor reputation among (even left leaning) academic historians. You can ask about it at /r/askhistorians if you want to know more. You can also check their excellent book list, organized by region and topic.

EDIT: For an overview of US history, The Oxford History of the US series is an excellent primer.

I know less about sociology, but I think a good intro would be Khan's Privilege in that it touches on a contemporary sociological issue in a lay friendly manner but also goes into some theoretical foundations in the tradition of Bourdieu.