Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History, Vol. I)

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · 456 pages

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What hap

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

David Treuer · 512 pages

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.

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

Colin Woodard · 371 pages

The author describes eleven rival regional "nations" in the United States (Yankeedom, New Netherland, the Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, the Deep South, New France, El Norte, the Left Coast, the Far West, and First Nation), and how these deep roots continue to influence our politics today.

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Charles C. Mann · 631 pages

From the author of 1491 -- the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas -- a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher C

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Ned Blackhawk · 596 pages

Congo: The Epic History of a People

David Van Reybrouck · 656 pages

Van Reybrouck reviews some of the most dramatic episodes in Congolese history -- from the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley to the tragic regime of King Leopold II; from global indignation to Belgian colonialism; from the struggle for independence to Mobutu's brutal rule; and from the world famous Rumble in the Jungle to the civil war over natural

The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence

Martin Meredith · 752 pages

Presents a narrative of the last fifty years of African history, analyzing the factors which account for the political chaos, financial troubles, and civil wars which prevail in many African countries today.

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

Fred Anderson · 880 pages

In this engrossing narrative of the great military conflagration of the mid-eighteenth century, Fred Anderson transports us into the maelstrom of international rivalries. With the Seven Years' War, Great Britain decisively eliminated French power north of the Caribbean -- and in the process destroyed an American diplomatic system in which Native Americans had long played a central, balancing role

The Washing of the Spears: A History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation Under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879

Donald R. Morris · 655 pages

It's brilliant book and one of only a few surrounding the rise & fall of Shaka Zulu

Europe and the People Without History

Eric R. Wolf · 503 pages

The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

William Dalrymple · 560 pages

On a dark evening in November 1862, a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. There are no lamentations or panegyrics, for the British Commissioner in charge has insisted, 'No vesting will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Mughals rests.' This Mughal is Bahadur Shah Zafar II, one of the most tolerant and likeable of his remarkable dynasty who found himself leader of a violent and

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

Lawrence James · 704 pages

The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation, and World History, 1500–2000

John Tutino · 512 pages

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum · 231 pages

"The stark immediacy of what happened in 1692 has obscured the complex web of human passion which had been growing for more than a generation before building toward the climactic witch trials. Salem Possessed explores the lives of the men and women who helped spin that web adn who in the end found themselves entangled in it."--Page 4 of cover.

American Colonies: The Settling of North America

Alan Taylor · 535 pages

"In American Colonies, historian Alan Taylor challenges the traditional Anglocentric focus of colonial history by exploring the many cultural influences that gave birth to America. The result is a superlative history of the prerevolutionary era in North America that is unprecedented in its scope and sure to become a landmark."--BOOK JACKET.

Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

Silvia Federici · 285 pages

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz · 320 pages

Guiding Modern Girls

Kristine Alexander · 297 pages

Across the British Empire and the world, the 1920s and 1930s were a time of unprecedented social and cultural change. Girls and young women were at the heart of many of these shifts, which included the aftermath of the First World War, the enfranchisement of women, and the rise of the flapper or “Modern Girl.” Out of this milieu, the Girl Guide movement emerged as a response to popular concerns ab

The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865

Mark Peterson · 784 pages

A Queer History of the United States

Michael Bronski · 287 pages

"A Queer History of the United States is groundbreaking and accessible. It looks at how American culture has shaped the LGBT, or queer, experience, while simultaneously arguing that LGBT people not only shaped but were pivotal in creating our country. Using numerous primary documents and literature, as well as social histories, Bronski's book takes the reader through the centuries--from Columbus'

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game & the Race for Empire in Central Asia

Karl Ernest Meyer, Shareen Blair Brysac · 647 pages

"The world's oldest established imperial rivalry had its start during the Napoleonic age when British agents came upon the tracks of Russian rivals in snowbound Tibet, and then again in mythic Bokhara, deep in Central Asia. Was the Tsar planning to invade India, or even worse, was Russia bent on global dominion? To foil these real or imagined schemes, the British twice invaded Afghanistan, and in

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor

David S. Landes · 650 pages

David S. Landes tells the long, fascinating story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cultures lead to - or retard - economic and military success and material achievement. Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early thro

Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference

Dipesh Chakrabarty · 318 pages

First published in 2000, Dipesh Chakrabarty's influential Provincializing Europe addresses the mythical figure of Europe that is often taken to be the original site of modernity in many histories of capitalist transition in non-Western countries. This imaginary Europe, Dipesh Chakrabarty argues, is built into the social sciences. The very idea of historicizing carries with it some peculiarly Europ