Popular North American Historical Books

Find historical books written by authors from North America for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (88)

1.

635 Tage im Eis: Die Shackleton-Expedition by Alfred Lansing DE

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Set in Antarctica Das Buch erzählt die Geschichte der gescheiterten Shackleton-Expedition von 1914, die als erste die Antarktis durchqueren sollte. Am Ende machten ihnen für die Jahreszeit unübliche Wetterbedingungen immer wieder einen Strich durch die Rechnung. Ihr Schiff wurde vom Packeis eingeschlossen und sie mussten auf dem Eis überwintern, und letzten Endes sogar das Schiff aufgeben und auf andere Weise versuchen, zurück in die Zivilisation und Hilfe zu finden. Das Buch erzählt unter Einbindung zahlreicher Tagebucheinträge vom harten Alltag der M&au... continue

2.

A Silent Fury : The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
Mine fire industrial disaster nonfiction: from the author of Signs Preceding The End of The World

3.

A Small Corner of Hell by Anna Politkovskaya EN

0 Ratings
Description:
Chechnya, a 6,000-square-mile corner of the northern Caucasus, has struggled under Russian domination for centuries. The region declared its independence in 1991, leading to a brutal war, Russian withdrawal, and subsequent "governance" by bandits and warlords. A series of apartment building attacks in Moscow in 1999, allegedly orchestrated by a rebel faction, reignited the war, which continues to rage today. Russia has gone to great lengths to keep journalists from reporting on the conflict; consequently, few people outside the region understand its scale and the atrocities—described by eyewit... continue

4.

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid EN

Rating: 4 (14 votes)
Description:
Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, this memoir is a brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua, by the author of "Annie John."

5.

Alexander the Great : Lessons from History's Undefeated General by Bill Yenne EN

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Description:
When the Oracle of Delphi told Alexander the Great that he was invincible, it was right. The son of the great King Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander was educated by Aristotle and commanded a wing of his father's army in the victory over the Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea—all when he was still just a teenager. By the time of his death at age 32, he had amassed an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River and included all of Persia and most of Egypt. He ruled as both the shah of Persia and as a pharaoh of Egypt by right of conquest, and he was also crowned ... continue

6.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
Intrigued by contemporary reports of a sensational murder trial in 1843 Canada, Atwood has drawn a compelling portrait of what might have been.

7.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery EN

Rating: 5 (50 votes)
Description:
An abridged version of the tale of Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, who comes to live on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

8.

Beloved by Toni Morrison EN

Rating: 4 (24 votes)
Description:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Sethe works at beating back the pas... continue

9.

Borderlands : The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume profoundly challenged, and continue to challenge, how we think about identity.Borderlands / La Frontera remaps our understanding of what a "border" is, presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them, but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new introduction by scholars Norma Cantú (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Aída Hurtado (Universit... continue

10.

Braiding Sweetgrass : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
Explains how developing a wider ecological consciousness can foster an increased understanding of both nature's generosity and the reciprocal relationship humans have with the natural world.