Recommendations for a good US and world history book?

[John Salerno]

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book or two that covers a broad period of US history (preferably all the way from its founding to the present century) and a book that covers world history in a similar scope, or at least the last couple of centuries. Basically, a general summary of history, government, wars, etc., nothing that focuses too much on any one issue or conflict. Are there any books like this, outside of classroom textbooks?

 

Thanks.

Edited October 1, 2010 by John Salerno

[jackson33]

John S; So much of the History of the America's (N&S American Continents), are results of World History, somewhat related to coming out of the "Medieval" period, it would be impossible to pick out individual books. What is now the US was settled by many different cultures from around the World and virtually every European Culture.

 

 

 

A good outline to start with would be the following Wiki Timeline, with some seemingly unbiased explanation of hundreds of different issues. I didn't go through much of this, but suspect there are many references, naming books, authors/historians, where the information has come from. If there is a particular period, subject or event your interested in, I might be able to come up with some related books on that topic.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history

 

 

Generally speaking, I wouldn't totally rely on any Text Book, used in American Schools (k-12 to most Universities) and would question a good many current Historians evaluations of US History. One author and self taught Historian, that has a good grasp of the cultures in the 17-18th Century American Colonial Cultures is David McCullough, who wrote both "John Adams" and "1776" which were used in an HBO Documentary 2008 (still available).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McCullough

 

If your interested in what roll Religion played in the formation of the United States, David Barton an Evangelical Minister and political activist (founder of 'Wall Builders') and author in his own right, has some well backed up ideas (actually owns a great deal of historical documents) and worth a look at....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barton_(author)

 

Personally, I'm just getting into reading Historical Text Books (written in/near time of event) and finding some very interesting comparisons to what is being taught today or even in my time (1950's) to what had been written closer to the times events actually happened.

[John Salerno]

A good outline to start with would be the following Wiki Timeline, with some seemingly unbiased explanation of hundreds of different issues. I didn't go through much of this, but suspect there are many references, naming books, authors/historians, where the information has come from. If there is a particular period, subject or event your interested in, I might be able to come up with some related books on that topic.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history

 

 

Thanks, I'll look into some of that!

Edited October 3, 2010 by John Salerno

[Klaynos]

I was also going to suggest wp. Because of the shear breadth and scale of what you want.

[Pangloss]

A couple of the better AmHist books I've read over the last few years:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_%28book%29

 

Infamous Scribblers by Eric Burns was also good:

http://www.amazon.com/Infamous-Scribblers-Founding-Beginnings-Journalism/dp/B00127UJSI/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3

[CharonY]

For world history I enjoyed " After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405" from John Darwin. Here is a review.

Edited October 3, 2010 by CharonY