12 Books You Should Read To Celebrate America 250

How well do you know American history? The dramatic battles, the great debates, and the brilliant, determined men who forged this nation? Whether you’re a history aficionado or not, America’s 250th birthday is close at hand, and there’s no better way to celebrate that anniversary than by learning about the history of the country you love so much.

This list could easily encompass 50 books, especially if I included works on all of American history, so I narrowed my recommendations down to 12 entries across three eras: the Revolution, the Antebellum period, and the Civil War. These three eras capture the founding, the expansion, and the ultimate test of the American nation. If you call yourself a patriot, you need to have a robust knowledge of these critical eras.

So, if it’s been a while since you cracked open a book about your favorite country, here’s The Federalist’s official guide to the books you should read to properly celebrate America 250.

The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff

There are a lot of books on the American Revolution. That there are a lot of Civil War books might be the only bigger understatement in the field of American history. So, you’ve got a lot to choose from, and there are a lot of classics out there.

For my money, The Glorious Cause provides the quintessential overview of the founding period, from the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 to the beginning of George Washington’s presidency in 1789. It does a great job chronicling the major events of the era, including all the dramatic episodes you know and love: the Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, the signing of the Declaration, the Battle of Saratoga, and the Siege of Yorktown. If you only have time to read one book on the American Revolution or need a bit of a refresher, this is the one to grab.

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

We often think of the founders as larger-than-life characters, almost mythic in their virtue and genius. In some ways, we’re right. They were the intellectual titans of their time, and in general they carried themselves with a sense of dignity and honor that seems foreign in today’s society. But they were also human, and they were susceptible to the same human failings that we are.

In Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis doesn’t shy away from the rivalries, disputes, and contentious debates among the founders that both helped and hindered the formation of the United States. But he also doesn’t ignore the bonds that this extraordinary generation of Americans shared and which allowed them to create a coherent republic out of 13 separate colonies.

In the book, Ellis explores how the young nation dealt with some of the biggest issues that faced it during its formative years through the relationships between the founders. The ultimately deadly Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton feud, Benjamin Franklin’s campaign against slavery, and the friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are all featured. This book helps peel back the mystique around the founders without giving in to the full-on revisionism that is in vogue today.

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

There are a lot of biographies of the founders that I could have chosen for this spot. One of Ben Franklin, George Washington, or Alexander Hamilton could have easily fit. But it seemed fitting to place Jefferson, whose legacy is perhaps the most scrutinized of all the Founding Fathers in our modern era, on this list since he’s the primary author of the Declaration of Independence (never forget the other contributors, though).

And he does make such a fascinating subject for a biography. Jon Meacham does a masterful job of capturing the man that was Jefferson, in all of his brilliance, shrewdness, and passion. Jefferson was a true prodigy, and not just about natural rights and politics. If you’ve ever been to Monticello, his home outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, you know that his interests were boundless and his knowledge was vast. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power captures all the facets of Jefferson and should be considered one of the greatest biographies ever written about an American.

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

I have a bit of a bias since George Washington is my favorite Founding Father, so I chose this book on Washington and one of the most famous episodes of the American Revolution: his crossing of the Delaware in December 1776. That year had not been a great year for Washington or his army. The Continental Army had suffered major defeats at the hands of the British in New York, barely escaped Long Island and complete destruction due to a lucky fog, and had retreated across northern New Jersey. Morale was low, and there were serious doubts whether the Revolution would survive another year.

Knowing that the fate of the Revolution hung by a thread, Washington planned an audacious move. Under the cover of darkness and a major storm that brought sleet and snow, Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware and captured hundreds of Hessians garrisoned at Trenton. This incredible feat, coupled with actions in the following days, reversed the Americans’ fortunes in the war.

On the battlefield, Washington has a mixed record as a general. But he shined in his ability to keep the Continental Army together and keep the hope for the Revolution alive. The story of Washington’s Crossing is one of endurance, daring, and perseverance against seemingly insurmountable odds, and David Hackett Fischer does a fantastic job presenting it in an engaging way.

The Collected Works of the Founders

Once you finish this list, you’re going to count up all the titles and then leave a comment calling me an idiot for having “12 Books” in the headline but listing 13 entries in the article. I assure you, this is not a typo or a mistake, simply because it’s impossible to fully capture the breadth and depth of the founders’ thought in a single book.

The best way to engage with the ideas espoused by the founders is to read them in the founders’ own words. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, The Federalist Papers, Common Sense, and so forth should be required reading for all Americans, but there are so many other great writings from the founding generation. There are several quite good collections, but I would also encourage you to do some more research on some of the more obscure or forgotten founders (may I suggest George Mason?) and read their contributions to the political discussions of that era.

Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood

There’s quite a bit of debate on whether America has experienced a golden age, or multiple golden ages. Some say the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. Others the 1950s under Dwight Eisenhower. Most would count the Gilded Age (I mean, it’s literally the name) from the 1870s to the late 1890s. The left argues that such an era never existed, that the presence of inequality or want in any form anywhere renders America an indelibly stained project, rotten to the core.

By most metrics, the period covered by Empire of Liberty must be counted as America’s first and greatest golden age. The era covered by the book, 1789-1815, represents the closest we got to the founders’ republican vision for this country.

The energy and vitality of the new republic, along with its chaotic moments, are covered in rich detail by Gordon Wood. It was a tumultuous time as we transitioned from rebellious colonies to young republic, and the nation saw its fair share of strife and controversies in those early years. Even the founders differed on what exactly they wanted for the new republic, and those conflicts are covered in-depth in this riveting book.

But it was also a time filled with opportunity and promise, and by the end of the War of 1812, the American people looked toward the future with optimism, proud of their young and energetic nation that was just beginning its inexorable rise. Though I could recommend most of Wood’s other books about the founding and early republic, Empire of Liberty remains an essential work for understanding this often overlooked period of our republic’s history.

Heirs of the Founders by H.W. Brands

Stuck between the founding generation and the generation that experienced the Civil War, the leaders of the early Antebellum period are often skimmed over or even overlooked entirely in modern tellings of American history. But the generation between the founders and the Civil War had a critical role to play in preserving (and sometimes tweaking) the founders’ vision for America and guiding it down the road toward secession.

The four titans of this era include one chief executive and three legislators: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. H.W. Brands’ Heirs of the Founders focuses on the interplay among Calhoun, Webster, and Clay and how this triumvirate of legislative masters shaped American politics in the Antebellum era. Brands does a fantastic job showing how these men were indebted to and inspired by the founding generation, as well as explaining how they set the stage for the political battles of the mid-19th century and the Civil War.

Though perhaps not as titanic as the generations that came before or after, these leaders left an enduring mark on the nation and deserve more recognition for their contributions to the republic.

The Pioneers by David McCullough

Stories of America’s expansion to the West stand as one of the most popular genres in our literary canon. Stories of the frontier became bestsellers almost as soon as America became a country. Accounts of wagon trains trundling across the Great Plains to Oregon or to the gold rush in California are well-worn tales to most Americans, but we often overlook the great push from the Appalachians to the Mississippi that represented the young nation’s first expression of Manifest Destiny and its first step toward taming the continent.

That’s why I chose The Pioneers by David McCullough rather than one of the many, many great books about the expansion into the far West later in the 19th century. By taking a more concentrated look and focusing mostly on the settlement of Marietta, Ohio, McCullough captures the wider American expansion westward in the wake of the Revolution. The smaller scale of the book also allows readers to learn about the real people who ventured into the vast wilderness of America’s interior and carved out the beginnings of civilization there.

The Road to Disunion by William Freehling

Ok, I’m cheating on this one because it’s two volumes, but it still counts as one full work.

This might be the most thorough and engaging account of why the South seceded and why it seceded when it did. Freehling does an excellent job explaining the Southern psyche in the first half of the 19th century and laying out the foundational events — the debates over gradual emancipation in the early republic, the Gag Rule in Congress, the Nat Turner Rebellion, the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, downturns in the world cotton market, and so forth — that culminate in South Carolina’s exit from the union in 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861.

And Freehling lays all this information out in such a way that, though you may not sympathize with Southerners’ reasoning for secession, you understand it and acknowledge that the reasoning makes sense at the time from the Southerners’ perspective. It also covers pivotal figures in the debates over slavery and secession who are almost entirely forgotten today, like James Henry Hammond and William Lowndes Yancey.

William Freehling achieves this sweeping, engrossing two-volume work with astute analysis and a surprising amount of wit: I found myself laughing more times than I thought I would while reading about South Carolina aristocrats, Kentucky compromisers, and Northern abolitionists. But ultimately Freehling frames this period for what it was: a tragic spiral of ambition and conflicting interests that ultimately ended with a war that almost tore the nation apart.

Volume I covers the growing controversies over slavery from the Declaration of Independence to the mid-1850s, while Volume II picks up with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and chronicles the secession crisis, ending with the formation of the Confederacy.

If you get no other book on this list, make it The Road to Disunion. I guarantee that it will fundamentally change the way you understand the Antebellum South and the Civil War. I give this book my unreserved praise any chance that I get.

The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote

I’m cheating even more this time. This one’s three volumes. But even passing Civil War enthusiasts are almost certainly familiar with the work of Shelby Foote in some sense, whether from his appearance on Ken Burns seminal documentary The Civil War or from Foote’s own magisterial work on the subject. The Civil War: A Narrative almost reads like a work of fiction, and Foote certainly draws on his background as a novelist to transform what could be a commendable yet dry recitation of facts into a sweeping story that captures all the valor, tragedy, and pathos of the War Between the States from 1861 to 1865.

If you’ve never encountered Foote’s work before, he definitely has Southern sympathies (not that I, as a Southerner, am complaining), but his work stands on its own as both a towering feat of scholarship and a colossal achievement in American literature. Foote is a master storyteller in the Southern tradition, and though there may be other books that equal it as a comprehensive account of the war, there’s certainly no work that exceeds it.

For Cause and Comrades by James McPherson

Most modern depictions of the Civil War will tell you that the average Confederate soldier was a sadistic, irredeemable racist who fought to keep blacks in bondage, while the average Union soldier was an idealist crusader who fought to fulfill the founders’ ideals of equality and freedom.

As with most history, the truth is a bit more complicated than the caricatures we’re often presented in the media. James McPherson pored over thousands of letters and diaries written by Union and Confederate soldiers who fought on the frontlines (in fact, he specifically sought out accounts by men who served in “fighting brigades” that saw the most intense combat of the war) to get a complete picture of why men fought.

It turns out that their motivations were strikingly familiar. They fought for their homes and families. They fought for their ideals and the idea that they were the true inheritors of the founders’ vision. They fought for the friends they had made in the army and became a true “band of brothers.” Most Union soldiers didn’t fight to end slavery at the war’s outset, but McPherson shows how their mindset changed as the war dragged on. Rather than to keep slaves in chains, the Confederate soldier almost always fought for hearth and home, determined to never let people he saw as invaders set foot on his native soil.

If you want to see the Civil War from the eyes of the men who really fought it, For Cause and Comrades delivers a moving and scholarly account of the conflict.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

This is the only work of fiction on this list, but I’m counting it because it’s a dramatization of real American history. Though it does make some tweaks here and there for the sake of narrative, the book sticks very close to the actual history and is generally well regarded among Civil War enthusiasts for its accuracy.

The Killer Angels looks at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3 1863, primarily from the perspectives of its major players: Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Lewis Armistead, and Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine.

It perfectly captures the human drama surrounding arguably the most important battle in American history. The characters are all fleshed-out and well-written — not caricatures or mouthpieces — the dialogue is superb (though almost all fictional, it’s totally believable), and the pacing is brisk yet utterly engrossing. This is easily the breeziest read on this list, mostly due to Michael Shaara’s excellent writing style. I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the Civil War or Gettysburg as a gripping and at many times moving narrative of that momentous battle.

This book was also adapted into one of the greatest war movies ever made, 1993’s Gettysburg. You should check that out as well for great performances by Sam Elliott, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen, and Tom Berenger, as well as some of the best battle scenes ever put on film.

A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton

If there’s a Mount Rushmore of Civil War historians, three of the spots are occupied by Shelby Foote, James McPherson, and Bruce Catton (fourth slot is reader’s choice, though I’d personally go with Douglas Southall Freeman).

A Stillness at Appomattox is technically the last book in a trilogy, but this one can be read on its own. It chronicles the last year of the war from the perspective of the Army of the Potomac, from the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Of course, it focuses on the actions and strategies of the two main adversaries in the Eastern Theater at that point, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, but it also draws on the writings of ordinary soldiers to craft a comprehensive picture of this last stretch of the conflict.

The whole book is great, but it’s the last section on the surrender that really shines. Catton provides a genuinely moving and emotional account of the event that began our nation’s healing from the most destructive conflict thus far in its history. It has inspired countless Civil War enthusiasts since its publication in 1953, and the power of its prose will no doubt continue to inspire more in the future. It remains one of the definitive accounts of the late war for a very good reason.

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Hayden Daniel is a staff editor at The Federalist. He previously worked as an editor at The Daily Wire and as deputy editor/opinion editor at The Daily Caller. He received his B.A. in European History from Washington and Lee University with minors in Philosophy and Classics. Follow him on Twitter at @HaydenWDaniel

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