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AH

American History

Holds histories of the United States: the founders, presidents, the Civil War, politics, law, cities and society.

128 books on American History, 8 of them tier 1, recommended by 48 people including Mohnish Pabrai and Patrick Collison.

128 books · 57 experts

Start here

  1. The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin, 1791
  2. Cadillac DesertMarc Reisner, 1986
  3. Nature's MetropolisWilliam Cronon, 1991
  4. Casino: Love and Honor in Las VegasNicholas Pileggi, 1995
  5. Easy Riders, Raging BullsPeter Biskind, 1998

The best books on American History 128

Benjamin Franklin · 1791
Franklin's self-improvement system; the origin of thrift and deferred reward
“Buffett has recommended Franklin's autobiography many times across interviews and letters, citing Franklin's self-improvement program, his frugality, and his approach to reputation as early influences. It is one of the few non-finance books he returns to in public recommendations.”Warren Buffett
Marc Reisner · 1986
The canonical account of western water politics and who ended up owning it.
William Cronon · 1991
Chicago, grain elevators and futures: how a commodity market got invented.
Nicholas Pileggi · 1995
The skim era and the Teamsters pension-fund financing of Las Vegas.
Peter Biskind · 1998
How the 1970s directors' era gave way to the blockbuster system.
Robert A. Caro · 2002
Caro on Johnson's mastery of an institution's levers and incentives
“Caro's LBJ series is the companion to The Power Broker: it dissects how legislative power is built, traded, and wielded. Andreessen has recommended Caro's work broadly as the best available study of how large institutions actually function versus how they claim to function.”Marc Andreessen
Ron Chernow · 2004
Chernow on the man who built American public credit and its bank
Frederick Lewis Allen · 1931
Recommended byThe Barefoot Investor
Carl Van Doren · 1938
The standard mid-century Franklin biography; Munger's model of a working life
Recommended byCharlie Munger
Frederick Lewis Allen · 1952
How American life and incomes changed between 1900 and 1950
Catherine Drinker Bowen · 1966
The constitutional convention as a long and contested negotiation
Recommended byJim Collins
Edmund Morris · 1979
Roosevelt before the presidency; the central figure of trust-busting
Kenneth T. Jackson · 1985
Suburbanization of the United States; the standard history.
Donald Worster · 1985
Water control as the basis of power in the arid American West.
David McCullough · 1992
Pulitzer-winning presidential biography; the postwar American decisions
Recommended byMorgan Housel
Walter Isaacson · 2003
Isaacson's Franklin: printer, investor and builder of durable institutions
“…books I've recommended, highlighted to death, or forced on friends.”Andrew Wilkinson
Doris Kearns Goodwin · 2003
Lincoln's cabinet of opponents; a study in managing rivals
“Among the best historical books I've ever read" — Lincoln's cabinet as a master class in leadership through disagreement.”Stewart Butterfield
David Nasaw · 2012
Joseph Kennedy: film, liquor, market operations and the first SEC chairmanship
Kim Phillips-Fein · 2017
New York's 1975 near-default and who bondholders can actually discipline.
Richard Rothstein · 2017
How federal housing policy engineered segregation.
Marcia Chatelain · 2020
Pulitzer-winning history of McDonald's franchising in Black America.
T3 Hoax
Stephen Fay, Lewis Chester, Magnus Linklater · 1972
The Clifford Irving forged autobiography, reported as it happened.
Charles R. Morris · 1980
Contemporary anatomy of the same fiscal crisis, written from the numbers.
David P. Demarest · 1992
Documentary history of the strike, assembled from contemporary sources.
Gordon S. Wood · 2004
Franklin's reinvention from imperial gentleman into American businessman
“if you haven't read much about Ben Franklin, that's what I would suggest”Joel Greenblatt
Recommended byJoel Greenblatt
Jessica Gordon Nembhard · 2014
African American co-operative economics, a history largely written out.
Nathan Bomey · 2016
The largest Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, reported from inside the case.
Henry S. Randall, J. B. Lippincott, Company · 1858
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Booker T. Washington · 1900
Recommended byRyan Holiday
Alexis de Tocqueville · 1945
Recommended byPatrick Collison
Whittaker Chambers · 1952
Recommended byMarc Andreessen
Irving Stone · 1956
Narrative of the American West's mining and railroad fortunes
Recommended byCharlie Munger
Bruce Catton, James M. McPherson · 1971
Recommended byTim O’Reilly
Anthony J. Badger · 1989
Recommended byPaul Graham
William Strauss, Neil Howe · 1991
David Herbert Donald · 1995
A. Scott Berg · 1998
Recommended byMarc Andreessen
Rich Cohen · 1998
Recommended byRyan Holiday
Brooks D. Simpson · 2000
Recommended byRyan Holiday
David McCullough · 2001
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
William Langewiesche · 2002
Recommended byDiana Kimball
“One of his four favorite Larson titles, on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a killer in its shadow.”Sahil Bloom
James Grant · 2005
Open Library unreachable during build; title listed on grantspub.com books page
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Peter L. Bernstein · 2005
Open Library unreachable during build; every openlibrary.org query failed with connection errors
Jeffrey Toobin · 2007
Recommended byGary Vaynerchuk
Rick Perlstein · 2008
Recommended byPatrick Collison
Michael Gross · 2009
Money and power inside the Metropolitan Museum.
Colin Woodard · 2011
Recommended byJack Dorsey
James Grant · 2011
Open Library unreachable during build; title listed on grantspub.com books page
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin · 2013
Recommended byBrad FeldTim Cook
Bill Bryson · 2013
Recommended byAndrew Wilkinson
Bryan Burrough · 2015
Recommended byMarc Andreessen
Michael Beschloss · 2018
Recommended byBill Gates
Daniel Immerwahr, María Luisa Rodriguez Tapia, María Luisa Rodriguez Tapia · 2019
David M. Rubenstein · 2019
Conversations with leading historians.
Robert D. Putnam · 2020
Recommended byAndrew Wilkinson
David M. Rubenstein · 2021
Subtitled Dialogues on a Dream.
David M. Rubenstein · 2024
Open Library records the title as Highest Calling; on the American presidency.
T4 1776
David McCullough
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Adrienne M. Harrison
Open Library returns no work record for this title and author.
Recommended byShane Parrish
Rem Koolhaas
Recommended byMatt Mullenweg
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Scott Beekman
Recommended byEric Weinstein

Experts 57

The people who wrote this page's books, and the people who recommend them.

Authors 9

David M. Rubensteinwrote 3 books here
JG
James Grantwrote 2 books here
Frederick Lewis Allenwrote 2 books hereWalter Isaacsonwrote 2 books here
PL
Peter L. Bernsteinwrote 1 book here
Ron Chernowwrote 1 book hereVaclav Smilwrote 1 book here
CR
Charles R. Morriswrote 1 book here
Benjamin Franklinwrote 1 book here

Recommenders 48

MP
Mohnish Pabrairecommends 31 books here
Patrick Collisonrecommends 19 books hereMarc Andreessenrecommends 8 books hereRyan Holidayrecommends 8 books hereJamie Dimonrecommends 8 books herePaul Grahamrecommends 7 books hereBill Gatesrecommends 7 books here
AW
Andrew Wilkinsonrecommends 6 books here
BS
Balaji S. Srinivasanrecommends 6 books here
SB
Sophie Bakalarrecommends 5 books here
JC
Jim Collinsrecommends 4 books here
MH
Morgan Houselrecommends 4 books here
Show all 48
See all 57 in the Experts tab →

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