Where to Learn More | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Where to Learn More

The following list focuses on works written for readers of middle school or high school age. Books aimed at adult readers have been included when they are especially important in providing information or analysis that would otherwise be unavailable.

Books

Achenbach, Joel. The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Aikman, Lonnelle. We, the People: The Story of the United States Capitol. Washington, DC: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, 1991.

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Ammon, Harry. James Monroe: The Quest of National Identity. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

Anson, Bert. The Miami Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.

Appleby, Joyce O. Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2000.

Armento, Beverly J., Gary B. Nash, Christopher L. Salter, and Karen K. Wixson. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Berkin, Carol. A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution. New York: Harcourt, 2002.

Bernstein, R. B. The Constitution of the United States; with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2002.

Billington, Ray Allen, and Martin Ridge. Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1982.

Borneman, Walter R. 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Burns, James MacGregor, and Susan Dunn. George Washington. New York: Times Books, 2004.

Cerami, Charles A. Jefferson's Great Gamble: The Remarkable Story of Jefferson, Napoleon, and the Men behind the Louisiana Purchase. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2003.

Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

Clark, Christopher, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society. 2nd ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2000.

Commager, Henry Steele. The Great Constitution: A Book for Young Americans. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961.

Danbom, David B. Born in the Country: A History of Rural America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

DeVoto, Bernard, ed. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953. Reprint, 1997.

Dowd, Gregory Evans. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1992.

Dreisbach, Daniel L., Mark D. Hall, and Jeffry H. Morrison, eds. The Founders on God and Government. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2004.

Dunn, Susan. Jefferson's Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2004.

Farrand, Max, ed. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Rev. ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.

Feinberg, Barbara Silberdick. Articles of Confederation: The First Constitution of the United States. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2002.

Ferling, John E. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Ferling, John E. A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Ferling, John E. Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Ferris, Robert G., and James H. Charleton. The Signers of the Constitution. Flagstaff, AZ: Interpretive Publications, 1986. Reprint, 2001.

Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Freedman, Russell. In Defense of Liberty: The Story of America's Bill of Rights. New York: Holiday House, 2003.

Gilje, Paul A., ed. Wages of Independence: Capitalism in the Early American Republic. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1997.

Hawke, David F. Everyday Life in Early America. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

Hays, Wilma P., and R. Vernon Hays. Foods the Indians Gave Us. New York: I. Washburn, 1973.

Hibbert, Christopher. Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution through British Eyes. New York: Norton, 1990.

Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds. Religion in a Revolutionary Age. Charlottesville, VA: United States Capitol Historical Society, 1994.

Horsman, Reginald. The Frontier in the Formative Years, 1783–1815. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.

Horsman, Reginald. The New Republic: The United States of America, 1789–1815. New York: Longman, 2000.

Horton, James O., and Lois E. Horton, eds. A History of the African American eople: The History, Traditions, & Culture of African Americans. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.

Huff, Regan A. Eli Whitney: The Cotton Gin and American Manufacturing. New York: PowerPlus Books, 2004.

Hurt, R. Douglas. American Agriculture: A Brief History. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1994.

Irving, Washington. Astoria, or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1836. Multiple reprints.

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Jefferson, Thomas. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by H. A. Washington. Washington, DC: Taylor & Maury, 1853–1854. Multiple reprints.

Kennedy, Robert G. Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Ketcham, Ralph L. James Madison: A Biography. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

Lambert, Frank. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Marini, Stephen A. Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Mattern, David B. James Madison: Patriot, Politician, and President. New York: PowerPlus Books, 2005.

Mattern, David B., and Holly C. Shulman, eds. The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003.

McCullough, David G. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

McCullough, David G. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

McDougall, Walter A. Freedom Just around the Corner: A New American History, 1585–1828. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Middlekauff, Robert. Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Moore, Kay. If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution. New York: Scholastic, 1997.

Morris, Richard B. The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Morris, Richard B. Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985.

Murphy, Jim. A Young Patriot: The American Revolution As Experienced by One Boy. New York: Clarion Books, 1996.

Nash, Gary B., Julie R. Jeffrey, et al., eds. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 4th ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

Needleman, Jacob. The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders. New York: J. P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002.

Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Reprint, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.

O'Neill, Paul. The Frontiersmen. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1977.

Padover, Saul K. Jefferson. New York: Mentor Books, 1970.

Patrick, John J. The Young Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Randall, Willard S. Alexander Hamilton: A Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Raphael, Ray. People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence. New York: New Press, 2001.

Remini, Robert V. The Battle of New Orleans. New York: Viking, 1999.

Richards, Leonard L. Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

Risjord, Norman K. Jefferson's America, 1760–1815. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002.

Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. New York: William Morrow, 2004.

Rutland, Robert A., ed. James Madison and the American Nation, 1751–1836: An Encyclopedia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Simon, James F. What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Skeen, C. Edward. 1816: America Rising. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.

Smith, Jean Edward. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1996.

Stahr, Walter. John Jay: Founding Father. London: Hambledon and London, 2005.

Staib, Walter. City Tavern Cookbook: 200 Years of Classic Recipes from America's First Gourmet Restaurant. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1999.

Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997.

Thompson, Charles L. The Religious Foundations of America: A Study in National Origins. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1917.

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Vidal, Gore. Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

Wait, Eugene M. America and the War of 1812. Commack, NY: Kroshka Books, 1999.

Washburn, Wilcomb E., ed. Handbook of North American Indians: History of Indian-White Relations. Vol. 4. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988.

Weidner, Daniel W. Creating the Constitution: The People and Events That Formed the Nation. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2002.

Wilkinson, Charles F. American Indians, Time, and the Law: Native Societies in a Modern Constitutional Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.

Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. arden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978. Reprint, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Wood, Gordon S. American Revolution: A History. New York: Random House, 2003.

Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. Reprint, 1998.

Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present. Rev ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Web Sites

African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas. University of Virginia. http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slave ry/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America." The New York Historical Society. http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition. org (accessed on July 29, 2005).

American Presidents. http://www.americanpresident.org/histor y/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"American Revolution." The History Place. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstate s/revolution (accessed on July 27, 2005).

"The American Revolution: Lighting Freedom's Flame." National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/revwar (accessed on July 27, 2005). "Articles of Confederation." The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/artco nf.htm (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Battle of Fallen Timbers. http://www.fallentimbersbattlefield.com (accessed on August 8, 2005).

"Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids." U.S. Government Printing Office. http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/documents /articles/ (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Carpenters' Hall. http://www.carpentershall.org (accessed on July 27, 2005).

"Comparing the Articles and the Constitution." The U.S. Constitution Online. http://www.usconstitution.net/constcona rt.html (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Eli Whitney Museum. http://www.eliwhitney.org/main.htm (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"Experience the Life: Religion." Colonial Williamsburg. http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/re ligion/religionhdr.cfm (accessed on August 9, 2005).

"Farming in the 13 American Colonies." Social Studies for Kids. http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/art icles/ushistory/13coloniesfarm.htm (accessed on August 6, 2005).

The Federalist Papers. University of Oklahoma Law School. http://www.law. ou.edu/hist/federalist/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750–1820." American Memory: Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icu html/fawsp/fawsp.html (accessed on August 9, 2005).

"First Invasion: The War of 1812." The History Channel. http://www.historychannel.com/1812/ (accessed on August 2, 2005).

George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estates and Gardens. http://www. mountvernon.org/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.hsp.org (accessed on August 9, 2005).

"A History of American Agriculture." Agriculture in the Classroom. http://www.agclassroom.org/teacher/hist ory/ (accessed on August 6, 2005).

"History of the United States Mint." U.S. Department of Treasury. http://usmint.gov/about_the_mint/mint_h istory/ (accessed on July 30, 2005).

Hurt, R. Douglas. "Agriculture." Encyclopedia of North American Indians. http://college.hmco.com/history/readers comp/naind/html/na_000500_agriculture.h tm (accessed on August 6, 2005).

Independence Hall Association. ushistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Independence Hall Association. "First Bank of the United States." ushistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/tour/tour_1ban k.htm (accessed on July 30, 2005).

"Independence National Historical Park." U.S. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm (accessed on July 29, 2005).

"Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail." U.S. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/lecl/ (accessed on August 8, 2005).

Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. http://www.lewisandclark.org (accessed on August 8, 2005).

"Liberty! The American Revolution." Public Broadcasting Service. http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/ (accessed on July 27, 2005).

Library of Congress." The American Revolution and Its Era." American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/arm html/armhome.html (accessed on September 12, 2005).

Library of Congress. "Fill Up the Canvas ... Rivers of Words: Exploring with Lewis and Clark." American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/le wisandclark/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

Library of Congress. "George Washington's First Inauguration." "I Do Solemnly Swear": Presidential Inaugurations. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pi00 1.html (accessed on July 30, 2005).

Library of Congress. "Star-Spangled Banner." American Memory. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/t rm065.html (accessed on August 2, 2005).

"Louisiana History." Louisiana Department of Economic Development. http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/profiles /history.htm (accessed on August 8, 2005).

Monticello, the Home of Thomas Jefferson. http://www.monticello.org/ (accessed on August 8, 2005).

Mount Vernon Ladies Association. George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens. http://www.mountvernon.org (accessed on August 9, 2005).

National Constitution Center. http://www.constitutioncenter.org (accessed on July 29, 2005).

National First Ladies' Library. http://www.firstladies.org/Bibliography /index.htm (accessed on September 12, 2005).

New Advent: Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org (accessed on August 9, 2005).

"New York State History." The History Department at the University at Albany. http://nystatehistory.org/ (accessed on August 8, 2005).

"Our Documents." U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.ourdocuments.gov (accessed on July 29, 2005).

"Our Party: Our History." The Democratic Party. http://www.democrats.org/a/party/histor y.html (accessed on August 1, 2005).

"The Pioneers, Origin, and Organization of the AME Church." The African Methodist Episcopal Church. http://www.amecnet.org/history.htm (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"Postal History." United States Postal Service. http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/ (accessed on July 29, 2005).

"Presbyterian 101: Presbyterian Church History." Presbyterian Church (USA). http://www.pcusa.org/101/101-history.ht m (accessed on August 9, 2005).

Public Broadcasting Service. A Midwife's Tale. American Experience. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/in dex/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic." Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/ (accessed on August 9, 2005).

"Shays' Rebellion." Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society (Pennsylvania). http://www.sjchs-history.org (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Supreme Court of the United States. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ (accessed on September 12, 2005).

"Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive." University of Virginia Library. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson / (accessed on August 2, 2005).

U.S. Courts. http://www.uscourts.gov (accessed on July 30, 2005).

U.S. Government Printing Office "The Constitution of the United States of America." Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids. http://bensguide. gpo.gov/9-12/documents/constitution/ind ex.html (accessed on July 29, 2005).

Whitten, Chris. Founding Fathers Info. http://www.foundingfathers.info (accessed on July 29, 2005).