Browse By Course

• American History
  • African American History
  • America in the 19th Century
  • America in the 20th Century
  • Civil War & Reconstruction
  • Colonial Period
  • Contemporary America
  • Gender History
  • U.S. Foreign Relations
  • U.S. History Survey
• European History
• World History

Contemporary America

1. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950

   Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore

   “Remarkable . . . an eye-opening book [on] the freedom struggle that changed the South, the nation, and the world.” —Washington PostMore

2. Everybody Says Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement in Songs and Pictures

   Pete Seeger, Bob Reiser, Jesse Jackson

   “Filled with beautiful music, glorious lyrics, and the soul of one of the most important historical and social revolutions of our history.” —Judy CollinsMore

3. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign

   Michael K. Honey

   The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.More

4. The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War

   Frederick Downs, Jr.

   “The best damned book from the point of view of the infantrymen who fought there.”—Army TimesMore

5. The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics

   Richard Davenport-Hines

   A startling account of the history of drug abuse, this book forces us to reconsider many of our views on a controversial issue.More

6. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World

   J. R. McNeill

   "Refreshingly unpolemical and at times even witty, McNeill's book brims with carefully sifted statistics and brilliant details."—Washington Post Book WorldMore

7. One World Divisible: A Global History Since 1945

   David Reynolds

   "A magisterial account of our time by a distinguished historian."—Walter LaFeber, prize-winning author of The ClashMore

8. Intervention!: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, 1913-1917

   John S. D. Eisenhower

   Powerful and compelling. . . . Eisenhower is not only an accomplished military historian, he's also a storyteller in the tradition of Bruce Caton and Shelby Foote."—Steve Neal, Chicago Sun-TimesMore

9. 21st Century Capitalism

   Robert L. Heilbroner

   "It is my hope that some grasp of what the twenty-first century holds in store for capitalism may enable us to avoid at least some of the pain we might otherwise have to endure," writes the eminent economist Robert Heilbroner in this important book on the world's economic future.More