 | America Afire: Jefferson, Adams, and the Revolutionary Election of 1800 by Bernard A. Weisberger
Buy new: $19.76 / Used from: $0.22 Of the handful of books on the controversial Election of 1800, Weisberger's is the best.
|
 | American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $2.93 An excellent, one-volume life of Jefferson, though it does not deal with the Sally Hemings controversy.
|
 | Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy by Annette Gordon-Reed
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $6.34 Annette Gordon Reed reminds us that we cannot ignore Sally Hemings.
|
 | Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America by Thomas Fleming
Buy new: $15.73 / Used from: $1.05 Read all about one of the great and tragic events of the early days of the 19th Century.
|
 | Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
Buy new: $12.96 / Used from: $0.25 Ambrose's strength was WWII, but this is the best of the recent works on Lewis and Clark.
|
 | 1812: The War That Forged a Nation (P.S.) by Walter R. Borneman
Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $3.23 A solid, one-volume study of the "real" forgotten war.
|
 | What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) by Daniel Walker Howe
Buy new: $23.10 / Used from: $10.72 Pulitzer Prize winner, it covers 1815-1848 and everything in between. (See my review.)
|
 | In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.01 One of the best books I've ever read, it is a gripping tale. The reader also learns a good deal about whaling.
|
 | The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun by Merrill D. Peterson
Buy new: $25.76 / Used from: $5.99 Excellent study of the three great Senators of the first half of the 19th Century.
|
 | John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life by Paul C. Nagel
Buy new: $17.64 / Used from: $7.90 Excellent biography of a highly underrated man.
|
 | The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House by John F. Marszalek
Buy new: $17.91 / Used from: $8.36 An excellent, insightful book. The reader will learn of Washington life during Jackson's presidency.
|
 | The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini
Buy new: $35.00 / Used from: $48.30 The best biography of Andrew Jackson, H.W. Brands and Jon Meacham notwithstanding.
|
 | Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union by Robert V. Remini
Buy new: $14.93 / Used from: $6.00 Scholarly, highly readable work on the man who should have been President.
|
 | Daniel Webster: The Man And His Time by Remini V Robert
Buy new: $40.00 / Used from: $6.98 Another outstanding biography by Remini, the expert on the Jacksonian Age.
|
 | John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union: A Biography (Southern Biography) by John Niven
Buy new: $23.95 / Used from: $6.19 An interesting take on the "Cast-Iron Man."
|
 | 1831: Year of Eclipse by Louis P. Masur
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $3.75 What a magnificent study of a remarkable year.
|
 | Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress by Joseph Wheelan
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $4.44 I love this book! See why "Old Man Eloquent" was one of our greatest statesmen. (See my review).
|
 | Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $14.85 An intelligent, well-written, and unbiased biography of the Prophet of God.
|
 | The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War by Michael F. Holt
Buy used from: $15.99 This book can be dry in places, but one certainly will learn a great deal.
|
 | The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York by Matthew Goodman
Buy new: $19.76 / Used from: $0.01 Fascinating tale of a hoax put over by the New York Sun in 1835. The reader will learn about the newspaper business and New York City in 1835 in this enjoyable book.
|
 | Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick
Buy new: $11.18 / Used from: $2.48 Another fascinating tale by the excellent Mr. Philbrick, whose books all sparkle. This is about a forgotten exploration expedition got up by the U.S. government in the late 1830's.
|
 | Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman
Buy used from: $7.85 James K. Polk's main agenda was to spread slavery.
|
 | The Year of Decision 1846 by Bernard DeVoto
Buy new: $14.96 / Used from: $4.25 Superb work on the Mexican War and the Westward Movement.
|
 | Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
Buy new: $18.48 / Used from: $7.30 Compelling tale of the ill-fated Donner Party. (See my review.)
|
 | Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott by John S. D. Eisenhower
Buy new: $15.56 / Used from: $5.92 A solid biography of one of the greatest military minds the U.S. has ever produced.
|
 | So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 by John S. D. Eisenhower
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $14.00 The best study on the Mexican War.
|
 | The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $2.69 Another Pulitzer Prize winner, Ms. Applegate's book is what biography should be. Superb! (See my review).
|
 | American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $5.00 Morgan's book is scholarly yet easy to comprehend.
|
 | America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp
Buy new: $44.99 / Used from: $0.98 It's not hard to understand why the Civil War came after reading this excellent work.
|
 | To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown by Stephen B. Oates
Buy new: $24.04 / Used from: $6.94 Best Biography you will find on the abolitionist John Brown.
|
Listmania!
