Go to a library, ask the staff this question. They will help you more than we can.
The only advice I'll offer is start local. Focus on your State or Region first.
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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Great advice, thanks!
Saw this yesterday, and America being so huge, even if young, I had no idea how to answer.
But yeah, everywhere has a rich local history. I'm outside of Pensacola, FL, oldest European settlement. (OK, St. Augustine has been constantly inhabited. We got wiped off the map for a few years by a hurricane.)
It's the City of Five Flags. In order of our rulers: Spain, France, England, Confederacy, United States.
We've hosted conquistadors and pirates, serial killers from Judy Buenoano to Ted Bundy, and modern villains like Matt Gaetz.
See what I mean!
""The People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn is excellent, and literally changed my life.
Textbooks.
It’s not in any sort of order but if you like podcasts, there’s one I like called The Dollop. It’s two comedians, one does a researched deep dive into American history and then he writes a narrative for his friend and then they riff and make jokes which helps keep it entertaining. They cover big topics and people like presidents and also lesser known stories. It’s all over the place in terms of timeline but I think it does a good job of doing a deeper dive on topics that just get glossed over but you can also see the similar thought patterns between people hundreds of years ago and today that lead to the same stupid ideas and decisions.
Seconding "A people history of the united states" by howard zinn. It should be THE high school history curriculum in the u.s.
It's very poor scholarship. Challenging the dominant narrative of nationalist mythology is important, but not in a way that disregards history.
I’ve also heard this. Do you have any recommendations for a similar book that’s more historically accurate?
Unfortunately, I don't know many general histories of the US in, uh, general. Modern academia has left behind most of the stuff we think of kids being taught by moldy school textbooks, but those selfsame textbooks are often resistant to academic consensus (thanks, Texas) that has been around since the 1970s.
There's a Cambridge History of America and the World that's an excellent starter, but it's several volumes long and, uh, in the true spirit of academic literature, horrifically fucking expensive. ~~I hear there are places on the Fediverse which give good advice about the high seas for such matters though~~
Yeah I like history but it needs a good writer to make it interesting. It can be very dry. I also am far more interested in movements and politics of ordinary people then the “great men” of history, so this book sounded appealing but I am hoping somewhere out there exists another that is more scholarly.
Disregards history? Care to elaborate?
If you get an interest in the Civil War, Sherman's memoirs are excellent.
Hamilton the musical. And what the other commenters are saying.
To the downvoter: I get it, musicals aren’t serious. But go watch it, preferably on stage. It’s an amazing telling of the origins of the US, the Founding Fathers - not just Alexander Hamilton. If you are looking for serious, it’s got plenty of years and dry facts intermingled.