(Part 2) Best products from r/USHistory

I recommend ANYTHING the historian Richard W. Etulain writes about not just the lawmen of the American West, but anything about the West. His book, With Badges and Bullets: Lawmen and Outlaws in the Old West that he co-edited with Linda Riley is a great collection of essays about lawmen, outlaws, and gunslingers in the West. I highly recommend it.

EDIT: weird formatting error

Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative is a bit of an undertaking, but it's definitely worth it. Here's some more information about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/0679643702/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372947071&sr=1-1&keywords=the+civil+war+a+narrative

And even though it's not a book, Ken Burns' Civil War documentary is a great resource as well.

One of the best books I've read in recent years is Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West, by Hampton Sides. Carson was illiterate, but could speak multiple Indian languages. He fought Indians, but was also friendly with many. He was a real-life superhero of his time, surviving many battles and saving the lives of a number of people at great risk to himself. It would be hard to read this book and not find him heroic by most definitions of the word.

IMO, there are several old sets that are better than McPerson's books.

• Bruce Catton
  
• Douglas Southall Freeman
  
• Shelby Foote
  
  Also, if you're not afraid to raise the librarian's (or other schoolmarms') eyebrows, try The Real Lincoln. It's imperfect (like most books), but full of interesting, thought-provoking ideas.

When I teach LaFollette, I use David Thelan's bio. It's old, but I like it. Used copies are a few bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-M-Follette-Insurgent-Spirit/dp/0299106446

Try this book, it is quite good:

https://www.amazon.com/Lynching-New-South-Virginia-1880-1930/dp/0252063457

The '90s documentary series The Real West (the one Kenny Rogers hosted on A&E) devoted an episode to the GATOKC. It would serve as a good intro.

I just got a book called The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West, but haven't read it yet.

This page, an examination of the gunfight apparently designed for high school students, has a bibliography after the article. The only one of these books I've read is The Gunfighters, from the classic Time-Life series The Old West (a must read for any western aficionados -- check your local libraries).

Had to read a book on Thomas Jefferson for my U.S. class in university. I liked it overall, once I subtract the ill-feelings of needing to write a book report on it.

I cannot disagree more.....

The witch trials was a very important example of the rift that was starting to grown in America between merchant and agrian classes.

I recommend you read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Entertaining-Satan-Witchcraft-Culture-England/dp/0195174836

Now, I admit that at times people get a little too deep into it, but as an event it is very illuminating about early American culture.

This really depends on what aspects of the Civil War you are looking to learn about. If you're just looking for a general overview of the entire war it's hard to go wrong with James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. If you're looking for a shorter read I would recommend Bruce Catton's single volume history called The Civil War. These are common recommendations, but for good reason.

If you're interested in specific battles or topics, let me know and I may be able to recommend something.

Here's what got me started umpteen years ago ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Buck-Stops-Here-Alice-Provensen/dp/0147509467

You aren't wrong. Madison was a shitty president. He allowed the First Bank of the United States to lose its charter rather than negotiate with his political opponents to tone down it's tight money policies that were holding the nation back. It attempted to continue its policies as a large private bank and might have succeeded if it had had more resources in addition to the wealth of the individual who bought it.

The loss of the financial services of a central bank were keenly felt during the devastating war that he was tricked into fighting by the French and that was waged so poorly that only the mistakes of Great Britain and it's desire to move off of a war footing and start to pay off the debts incurred defeating Napoleon allowed the US to escape without humiliating diplomatic repercussions.

Theodore Roosevelt was a good president domestically (at least for whites) being responsible for important national parks and starting regulation of trusts, furthering regulation of railroads, and mediating an important coal miners strike.

The downside of his presidency was his racist foreign policy. He continued the repression of Philippine independence, believing Filipinos incapable of self-governance. He encouraged the imperial aims of the Japanese who he regarded as more advanced than other Asians to the point where they were almost honorary Aryans.

This included failing to honor America's defensive alliance with Korea after encouraging Japan to conquer them. His desire to counterbalance Chinese and Russian power in Asia aided the rise of Imperialist Japan which soon expanded past his vision of their proper place in the world order and eventually led to the War in the Pacific. For a critical view of Roosevelt's catastrophic Asian diplomacy see The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War (Though don't expect an evenhanded evaluation. It's best read as a counterpoise to traditional filiopietistic histories.)

I don't know if this is specifically the book they're talking about, but Lies My Teacher Told Me is similar.

Don't Know Much About History

Read this:

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-About-American-History/dp/0064408361

All of Ken Davis' books are tremendous. I particularly like the one about the Civil War, which I've read twice.