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. (85)

21.

Faith Among Shadows by Malcolm Leal EN

0 Ratings
Country: North America / Cuba flag Cuba
Description:
Lying face down on the muddy jungle floor, with the taste of his own blood in his mouth, all Malcolm Leal could do was call upon the God of his great-grandmother. Florencia Martinez Hernandez raised Malcolm as her own son in a small fishing village on the northern coast of Cuba. Teaching Malcolm wisdom gleaned from the worn pages of her century-old Bible, Florencia spoke of a temple "promised to all people" and that there were men on earth who "walked with God." Most importantly, she taught him to rely on "her" God for everything. While on assignment for the Cuban Special Forces in the dense r... continue

22.

For Rouenna by Sigrid Nunez EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
In this haunting novel, a friendship springs up between a writer and a retired army nurse who seeks her out decades after their childhood in the same housing project. "For Rouenna" is an unforgettable work about truth, memory, and unexpected heroism by one of the most gifted writers of her generation.

23.

Freedom's Mirror : Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution by Ada Ferrer EN

0 Ratings
Country: North America / Cuba flag Cuba
Description:
During the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, arguably the most radical revolution of the modern world, slaves and former slaves succeeded in ending slavery and establishing an independent state. Yet on the Spanish island of Cuba barely fifty miles distant, the events in Haiti helped usher in the antithesis of revolutionary emancipation. When Cuban planters and authorities saw the devastation of the neighboring colony, they rushed to fill the void left in the world market for sugar, to buttress the institutions of slavery and colonial rule, and to prevent "another Haiti" from happening in their ... continue

24.

From Time Immemorial : The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine by Joan Peters EN

Rating: 3 (2 votes)
Description:
This book is a study of the basic reasons for the Arab-Jewish feud and supports the author's thesis that the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs who had lived in what became Israel in 1948 is not the reason for the conflict which has now been going on for years.

25.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford EN

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote corner of the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age—by the author featured in Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan. The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Gengh... continue

26.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond EN

0 Ratings
Description:
This book answers the most obvious, the most important, yet the most difficult question about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography and biography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians

27.

Havana Year Zero by Karla Suarez EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: North America / Cuba flag Cuba
Description:
It was as if we’d reached the minimum critical point of a mathematical curve. Imagine a parabola. Zero point down, at the bottom of an abyss. That’s how low we sank. The year is 1993. Cuba is at the height of the Special Period, a widespread economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. For Julia, a mathematics lecturer who hates teaching, Havana is at Year Zero: the lowest possible point, going nowhere. Desperate to seize control of her life, Julia teams up with her colleague and former lover, Euclid, to seek out a document that proves the telephone was invented... continue

28.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Yolanda Garcia is taking a trip to the Dominican Republic to revisit the country where she was born, and which her family was forced to flee for New York when she was a child. As they try to immerse themselves in the American way of life, Yolande and her three sisters will always see things through Dominican eyes.

29.

How the Word Is Passed : A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, III EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith's revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving... continue

30.

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
_____________________________ * A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK FOR 2023 * 'A shimmering slice of Trinidadian gothic . . . Sumptuous, brilliantly written' THE TIMES 'An astonishing novel – linguistically gorgeous, narratively propulsive and psychologically profound' BERNARDINE EVARISTO 'Deeply impressive . . . Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page' HILARY MANTEL 'The biggest, most frightening, beautiful and alive novel I've read in as long as I can remember' EVIE WYLD _____________________________ A 2023 highlight for: Financial Times * Guardian * Evening Standard * Daily... continue