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History and Current Events November 2025 |
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| We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill LeporeHarvard University historian Jill Lepore's sweeping and accessible history surveys the creation and evolution of the United States Constitution, spotlighting key amendments that continue to shape the country. It's "urgent" (Kirkus Reviews) and "essential" (Library Journal) reading. Try this next: The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story by Kermit Roosevelt III. |
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| History Matters by David McCullough; foreword by Jon Meacham, edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael HillIn this posthumous collection of 20 essays and speeches (some previously unpublished), Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough offers freewheeling and impassioned reflections on the importance of learning about history to better understand the present. Try this next: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin. |
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Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
by Michael Luo
New Yorker executive editor Michael Luo's intimate and richly detailed history chronicles Chinese immigration and exclusion in America from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Further reading: Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang; America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee.
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Focus on: Native American Heritage Month
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| The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned BlackhawkWinner of the National Book Award, Western Shoshone Yale historian Ned Blackhawk's incisive and richly detailed study explores how Indigenous Americans were instrumental to the evolution of United States history. Try this next: Indigenous Continent: The Epic Conquest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen. |
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| On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dodds PennockCaroline Dodds Pennock's thought-provoking revisionist history explores how Indigenous Americans who willingly traveled or were forcibly transported to Europe during the Age of Discovery impacted the politics and culture of their colonizers. Try this next: African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele. |
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| Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuValHistorian Kathleen DuVal's sweeping and scholarly Pulitzer Prize winner offers a corrective to Eurocentric narratives about Indigenous Americans by spotlighting one thousand years of Native autonomy, governance, and resistance. For fans of: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk. |
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| By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca NagleIn this "valuable corrective to our national ignorance" (Kirkus Reviews), Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle surveys the history of Indigenous removal and resistance in the United States, culminating in the landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision that upheld tribal sovereignty for the Muscogee Nation in eastern Oklahoma. Further reading: Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab by Steve Inskeep. |
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| The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight... by Megan Kate NelsonHistorian Megan Kate Nelson's well-researched Pulitzer Prize finalist explores how the lesser-known battles in the New Mexico Territory during the American Civil War spurred the displacement of the Apache and Diné and includes profiles of nine people involved in the conflict, including Apache chief Mangas Coloradas. Further reading: When the Wolf Came: The Civil War and the Indian Territory by Mary Jane Warde. |
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