Ap us history

Summer Assignment 2016-2017

Mr. Heffernan

Northern Highlands Regional High School

Welcome to AP US History. The course is a college-level course that will require extensive knowledge and understanding of US History. It is imperative to have a strong foundation as a class for our return in September.



ASSIGNMENT
Please read American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard.

In American Nations, Woodard presents a complicated and bold thesis about American history. Take note of the lense through which Woodard examines the history of the United States. As you read, familiarize yourself with the prominent arguments, recurring themes, and the methodologies Woodard uses to prove his thesis/argument for American Nations.

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  Read the introduction carefully, it is here that Woodard establishes his purpose and argument.
  
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  In the early sections pay attention to the role that the physical environment plays in the shaping/forming of cultural identity.
  
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  Throughout the book, particularly in the later chapters, consider the way past events contribute to a historical continuity, particularly in culture.
  
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  Consider how cultural orientation can shape the way events unfold.
  
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  Consider how the past shapes the present.
  

We will discuss the book in the first week of class.

The AP US History course has a large course curriculum load that can often feel overwhelming. American Nations deals with a number of the important themes within the College Board’s Curriculum including Identity; Peopling; Politics and Power; Environment and Geography; and Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture through his examination of American history. This goal of the assignment is to get students into the mindset of the course by reading a text that challenges established historical belief systems, as well as by displaying the construction of a complicated historical argument, which are essential skills in the AP United States History course. By focusing on Woodard’s salient arguments in the text, we will be able to use the book as a discussion point throughout the school year.

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  New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America – Colin Calloway
  
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  The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop – Edmund Morgan
  
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  Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War – Nathaniel Philbrick
  
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  The Wordy Shipmates – Sarah Vowell
  
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  Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America – Eric Dolin
  
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  A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World - Tony Horwitz
  

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  The Federalist Papers
  
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  The Autobiography of Ben Franklin – Ben Franklin
  
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  The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789 – Edmund Morgan
  
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  Lafayette in the Somewhat United States – Sarah Vowell
  

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  ^{Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right – Stephan Anderson}
  
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  ^{The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America – Paul Johnson}
  
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  Walden – Henry David Thoreau
  
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  12 Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
  
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  Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism,
  

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  Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War – Tony Horwitz
  
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  Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War – Tony Horwitz
  
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  Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era – James McPherson
  
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  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin
  
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  1861: The Civil War Awakening – Adam Goodheart
  
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  This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War – Drew Gilpin Faust
  

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  Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 – Eric Foner
  

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  American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900 - H.W. Brands
  
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  The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years’ War Over the American Dollar – H.W. Brands
  
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  Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered the World and Threatened Civilzation as We Know It – H.W. Brands
  
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  The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America - Erik Larson
  
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  The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age
  
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  Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President –
  

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  Sea of Glory: America’s Voyagd of Discovery, the US Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 – Nathaniel Philbrick
  
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  Unfamiliar Fishes –Sarah Vowell
  

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  The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century – Scott Miller
  

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  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – Dee Brown
  
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  The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of Little Big Horn – Nathaniel Philbrick
  
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  Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis – Timothy Egan
  
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  Empire of the Summer Moon: Quannah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History – S.C. Gwynne
  

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  The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America – Timothy Egan
  
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  Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-loving New York Richard Zacks
  
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  The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism – Doris Kearns Goodwin
  

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  Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement & the New
  

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  Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States – Eleanor Flexner
  
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  The Feminine Mystique – Betty Friedan
  
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  Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement – Leila J. Rupp
  
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  The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls- Joan Jacobs Brumberg
  

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  The First World War – John Keegan
  
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  Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson
  

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  Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age – Kevin Boyle
  
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  Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City – Nelson Johnson
  
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  Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition – Daniel Okrent
  
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  New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America – Nathan Miller
  
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  The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson
  
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  The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York – Deborah Blum
  
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  One Summer: 1927 – Bill Bryson
  

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  The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl – Timothy Egan
  
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  Freedom from Fear: The American People in the Depression and War, 1929-1945- David Kennedy
  
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  The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics – Daniel James Brown
  
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  The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope – Jonathan Alter
  

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  War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War – John Dower
  
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  In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin – Erik Larson
  
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  Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War – William Manchester
  
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  Unbroken: World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption – Laura Hillenbrand
  
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  Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II – Mitchell Zuckoff
  
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  Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship – Jon Meacham
  
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  No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt – The Home Front in World War II – Doris Kearns Goodwin
  

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  Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age – Kevin Boyle
  
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  Coming of Age in Mississippi – Anne Moody
  
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  Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America – Beryl Satter
  
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  Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcolm X
  
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  Strength to Love – Martin Luther King
  
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  Black Power: The Politics of Liberation – Kwame Ture & Charles Hamilton
  
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  [Science] The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
  
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  Stories of Scottsboro – James Goodman
  
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  Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution – David Carter
  

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  Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties – Peter Biskind
  
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  The Cold War – John Lewis Gaddis
  
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  Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State – Gary Wills
  
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  Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour – David Bianculli
  
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  Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety – Eric Schlosser
  

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  A Rumor of War – Philip Caputo
  
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  Dispatches – Michael Herr
  
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  If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home – Tim O’Brien
  
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  Armies of the Night – Norman Mailer
  
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  Slouching Towards Bethlehem – Joan Didion
  
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  Nixonland: America’s Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon, 1965-1972 – Rick Perlstein
  

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  All the President’s Men – Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
  
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  Time of Illusion: An Historical and Reflective Account of the Nixon Era – Jonathan Schell
  

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  102 Minutes: the Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside The Twin Towers – Jim
  

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  The Forever War – Dexter Filkins
  
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  The Good Soldiers – David Finkel
  
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  Thank You for Your Service – David Finkel
  
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  War – Sebastian Junger
  
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  Jarhead – Anthony Swofford
  
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  The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 – Lawrence Wright
  
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  The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America – George Packer
  
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  The Post American World: Release 2.0 – Fareed Zakaria
  
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  It’s Even Worse than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism – Thomas E. Mann
  

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  Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand
  
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  Bob Dylan in America – Sean Wilentz
  
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  Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century – John Kasson
  
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  The Education of Henry Adams – Henry Adams
  
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  The Metaphysical Club: The Story of Ideas in America – Louis Menand
  

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  Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt – H.W. Brands
  
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  The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
  
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  Theodore Rex – Edmund Morris
  
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  Colonel Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
  
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  Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times – H.W. Brands
  
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  The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr- H.W. Brands
  
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  The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace – H.W. Brands
  
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  Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith
  
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  The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power – Robert Caro
  
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  Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power- Jon Meacham
  
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  Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow
  
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  Reagan: The Life – H.W. Brands
  
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  Truman – David McCullough
  
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  Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty – John M. Barry
  
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  An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 – Robert Dallek
  
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  Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America – Douglas Brinkley
  
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  First Family: Abigail and John Adams – Joseph Ellis
  
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  John Adams – David McCullough
  
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  Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
  
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  Hamilton – Ron Chernow
  
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  The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 – Joseph Ellis
  

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  American Dreams: The United States Since 1945 – H.W. Brands
  
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  The Story of American Freedom – Eric Foner
  
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  A Pocket History of the United States – Allan Nevins, Henry Steele Commager
  
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  A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
  
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  Thinking the Twentieth Century - Tony Judt
  
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  The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History – Gordon S. Wood
  
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  Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
  
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  Out of Our Past: The Forces the Shaped Modern America – Carl Degler
  

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  The Johnstown Flood – David McCollough
  
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  Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America – Eric Jay Dolin
  
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  In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (the true story of Moby Dick) – Nathaniel Philbrick
  
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  The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space
  
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  A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide – Samantha Power
  
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  The Victorian Internet – Tom Standage
  
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  American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation – Jon Meacham
  
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  Travels with Charley in Search of America – John Steinbeck
  

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  The Crucible- Arthur Miller
  
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  Thin Red Line – James Jones
  
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  Looking Backward – Edward Bellamy
  
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  The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer
  
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  The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers
  
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  Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis
  
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  The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemmingway
  
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  The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
  
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  Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
  
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  Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
  
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  The Long March – William Styron
  
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  Confessions of Nat Turner – William Styron
  
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  Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo
  
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  Mother Night – Kurt Vonnegut
  
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  Cannery Road – John Steinbeck
  
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  East of Eden – John Steinbeck
  
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  Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck