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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorHow to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
Daniel Immerwahr · 513 pages
The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865
Mark Peterson · 784 pages
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival
Peter Stark · 368 pages
In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advanced parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent. At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, two visionaries, President Thomas Jefferson and mil
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond · 592 pages
"In his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?" "As in Guns, G
Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
Eric Jay Dolin · 442 pages
In Fur, Fortune, and Empire, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old, when the rallying cry was "get the furs while they last." Beavers, sea otters, and buffalos were slaughtered, used for their precious pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats, coats, and sleigh blankets. To read Fur, Fortune, and Empire then is to understand how North America
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
William Cronon · 249 pages
In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-dis
A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn · 702 pages
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, *A People's History of the United States* is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers.
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
Jack Weatherford · 280 pages
"As entertaining as it is thoughtful....Few contemporary writers have Weatherford's talent for making the deep sweep of history seem vital and immediate."THE WASHINGTON POSTAfter 500 years, the world's huge debt to the wisdom of the Indians of the Americas has finally been explored in all its vivid drama by anthropologist Jack Weatherford. He traces the crucial contributions made by the Indians to
The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation, and World History, 1500–2000
John Tutino · 512 pages
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
Eric H. Cline · 264 pages
In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of jus
A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
Andrew Gordon · 400 pages
Introduction: Enduring Imprints of the Longer PastPART 1. CRISIS OF HE TOKUGAWA REGIME 1. The Tokugawa Polity UnificationThe Tokugawa Political SettlementsThe DaimyoThe Imperial InstitutionThe SamuraiVillagers and City-DwellersThe Margins of the Japanese and Japan2. Social and Economic Transformations The Seventeenth-Century BoomRiddles of Stagnation and Vitality3. The Intellectual World of Late T
Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899
Pierre Berton · 496 pages
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
David McCullough · 698 pages
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the most grandiose, dramatic, and sweeping adventures of all time. Spanning nearly half a century, from its beginnings by a France in pursuit of glory to its completion by the United States on the eve of World War I, it enlisted men, nations, and money on a scale never before seen. Apart from the great wars, it was the largest, costliest single effort ev
How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
Arthur Herman · 392 pages
"Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics - contributions that have forme
Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
Ian Morris
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
William K. Klingaman, Nicholas P. Klingaman · 345 pages
"As a result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, producing excessive rain, frost, and snowfall across much of the northeastern United States, Canada, and Europe in the summer of 1816. ... The Year Without Summer examines not only the climate change engendered by the eruption, but its effects on politics, the economy, the arts, and soci
After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405
John Darwin · 583 pages
Tamerlane was the last of the "world conquerors". His armies marauded from the shores of the Mediterranean to the frontier of China. Nomad horsemen from the steppes had been the terror of Europe and Asia for centuries, but with Tamerlane's death in 1405 an epoch of history came to an end. After Tamerlane takes a sweeping new look at our global past. John Darwin's account shows that the ascent of t
The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
Michael Wallis · 496 pages
An account of the 1846 Donner-Reed expedition reveals the true events surrounding the tragedy, profiling the adventurous characters who shaped the group and how various interpersonal factors led to their harrowing experiences. "In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most
Lewis & Clark
Stephen E. Ambrose, Sam Abell · 255 pages
"Interweaves choice entries from the explorers' journals with the author's own latter-day chronicle of how he and his family continue to discover the Trail today."--Jacket.
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
Joseph J. Ellis · 304 pages
From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation's founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. He c
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
Tom Standage · 323 pages
Throughout human history certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history during pivotal epochs -- from humankind's adoption of agriculture and the birth of cities to the advent of globalization. A history of the World in 6 Glasses presents an original, well
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
Niall Ferguson · 416 pages
In this book Niall Ferguson argues that the British Empire should be regarded not merely as vanished Victoriana but as the very cradle of modernity. Nearly all the key features of the twenty-first-century world can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth--economic globalization, the communicati
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
Gordon S. Wood · 778 pages
As part of the Oxford History of the United States series the author offers an account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As he reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life, in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hope