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The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed
W.W. Norton & Co., 2008
Jefferson's amous
This book is well written and very interesting. Thomas Jefferson's attachment to Sally Hemings is now well known and this is a well interesting and information book.
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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Candlewick, 2006
Accolade for Good Omens
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is a fictional story about the end of the world which, according to one Agnes Nutter, Witch, is next Saturday, but the Antichrist has been misplaced. In order to stop the end of the world from happening, an unlikely team ...
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Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin (Non-Classics), 2007
The best Hollywood scriptwriters couldn't improve on this story
A real page turner--how does a religious group band with a group of entrepreneurs and enter a world they have very little information on? Think Star Trek on steroids--only this story really happened!
This isn't the usual historical story--the drama of being near ...
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The Wordy Shipmates
Sarah Vowell
Riverhead Hardcover, 2008
Puritans made interesting. Not impossible as one might think.
Sarah Vowell is a GenX Barbara Tuchman, revivifying people long turned to worm food.
I recommend getting the book on CD in addition to or instead of the book because you get to hear Sarah's smart-and-sexy lisp and the voices of a host of talented actors bring John ...
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Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
Patrick J. Buchanan
Crown, 2008
Tough Questions. Few Answers.
They say war makes strange bed-fellows but WWII had some of the strangest. Buchanan has tackled a thorny subject- and once you start asking the sort of questions he asks, it's hard to stop. Could someone tell me why Russia was allowed to invade Poland and Germany was ...
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We the People: The Story of Our Constitution
Lynne Cheney
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2008
Something I've Needed For A Long Time!
This is a great book for teaching social studies. I teach ESOL students in middle school (English to speakers of other languages) and find that teaching the story of the development of the constitution can be confusing and boring. I've even had confusion over it and ...
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America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who ...
Kenneth C. Davis
Collins, 2008
America Hidden History
America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation
This is a very interesting book and sure opens up a lot of what really went on in our early history. Not all was as well as we were told in ...
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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves
M.T. Anderson
Candlewick, 2008
Astonishingly Good
Reading the first book was like opening Russian nesting dolls. Each revelation leads to yet another amazing revelation. I read the first book without any knowledge of what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised by this irresistable story. The mystery of Octavian ...
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The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
Piers Brendon
Knopf, 2008
Empires inevitably fall; but leave legacies
The message of Piers Brendon's magnificent history of the British Empire is that its fall was inevitable and that that is the fate of all other empires, past and future. Because empires are founded on brutality and illegitimacy, says Brendon, their fault lines in the ...
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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Walter Isaacson
Simon & Schuster, 2004
A Great Behind the Scenes
It was a pleasure to read a true perspective of this founding father. This book made him more human than history has made him in the past. The author did a fantastic job in trying to explain why he was the way he was and painted a vivid description of the life and ...
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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Candlewick, 2008
one of the best novels I've read in the past year--YA or otherwise
I LOVED this book. However, it is most certainly not for everyone. This is a challenging read. The language is difficult and even antiquated in parts, but 1) I make it a habit to read with a dictionary nearby so this didn't faze me, and 2) even when I wasn't in the ...
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Revolutionary War On Wednesday (Magic Tree House 22, paper)
Mary Pope Osborne
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2000
Great Book! Ignore the Bad Reviews if you just want your kids to enjoy reading and be read to!!!!
COME ON PEOPLE! First of all this book and the entire series is meant for KIDS NOT ADULTS so go with the flow. Imagine you are a boy or girl who is 5 or 6 and is just starting to enjoy stories and reading. You will love it! The whole point of a book is to have ...
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Chains
Laurie Halse Anderson
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2008
A portrait of a young woman struggling through a social structure that practically guarantees her failure
When I first read the synopsis of Laurie Halse Anderson's new novel, I was initially put off. After all, this book --- which focuses on the treatment of slaves by Patriots and Loyalists during the American Revolution --- seemed to cover much of the same historical and ...
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Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence
John Ferling
Oxford University Press, USA, 2007
Good Book
I really enjoy reading this book. I learned a lot about our country history. I agree with the author we were lucky to win the war. I found that I could not use the Table of content to go to the chapters. I've used that before to go to chapters in other books for ...
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John Adams
David McCullough
Simon & Schuster, 2001
Outstanding Read
This is the type of book that destroys the belief that history is mostly boring. McCullough has a gift for making history real. Best book of any type I've read in a while.
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