There’s a Book for That: America

As we ready ourselves for the festivities of July 4^th, Independence Day, The people of the United States of America are in the throes of declaring their values while grappling with many complex issues. For the occasion, we’ve selected contemporary and classic titles which showcase our country’s vast natural beauty and history alongside portraits of current communities and people’s lives here in America:

OUR TOWNS: A 100,000-MILE JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA by James Fallows, Deborah Fallows

For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

THE SOUL OF AMERICA: THE BATTLE FOR OUR BETTER ANGELS by Jon Meacham

We have been here before. In this timely and revealing book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. With clarity and purpose, Meacham explores contentious periods and how presidents and citizens came together to defeat the forces of anger, intolerance, and extremism.

FANTASYLAND: HOW AMERICA WENT HAYWIRE: A 500-YEAR HISTORY by Kurt Andersen

From a razor-sharp thinker, a new understanding of our post-truth world—the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P.T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots of every stripe…to Donald Trump.

SCARS OF INDEPENDENCE: AMERICA’S VIOLENT BIRTH by Holger Hoock

The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America’s founding, the Revolution was also a profoundly violent civil war—one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand. Vivid and authoritative, Scars of Independence offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary—an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.

TALES OF TWO AMERICAS: STORIES OF INEQUALITY IN A DIVIDED NATION by John Freeman

Thirty-four major contemporary writers—including Anthony Doerr, Ann Patchett, Roxane Gay, Edwidge Danticat, Rebecca Solnit, Joyce Carol Oates, Hector Tobar, and Karen Russell—examine life in a deeply divided America. Tales of Two Americas demonstrates how boundaries can break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches us all.

ONE SUMMER: AMERICA, 1927 by Bill Bryson

The summer of 1927 began with Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Babe Ruth was closing in on the home run record. In Newark, New Jersey, Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole for twelve days, and in Chicago, the gangster Al Capone was tightening his grip on bootlegging. The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was filmed, forever changing the motion picture industry. All this and much, much more transpired in the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things—and when the twentieth century truly became the American century. One Summertransforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S GREAT MIGRATION by Isabel Wilkerson

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA by Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns

America’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. In this evocative and lavishly illustrated narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite and the creation of the world’s first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recent additions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundred sites and 84 million acres.

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA by John Steinbeck

An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers. To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

FOR YOUNGER READERS

WORDS THAT BUILT A NATION: VOICES OF DEMOCRACY THAT HAVE SHAPED AMERICA’S HISTORY by Marilyn Miller, Ellen Scordato and Dan Tucker; Illustrated by Mary Kate Mcdevitt

Words that Built a Nation was hailed for bringing together the United States’ most important historical essays, speeches, and documents into one accessible collection for kids. This history lovers’ must-have has been revised, revamped, and expanded for the 21st century.

WE CAME TO AMERICA by Faith Ringgold

From the Native Americans who first called this land their home, to the millions of people who have flocked to its shores ever since, America is a country rich in diversity. Some of our ancestors were driven by dreams and hope. Vividly expressed in Faith Ringgold’s sumptuous colors and patterns, We Came to America is an ode to every American who came before us, and a tribute to each child who will carry its proud message of diversity into our nation’s future.

WE CAME TO AMERICA by Faith Ringgold

From the Native Americans who first called this land their home, to the millions of people who have flocked to its shores ever since, America is a country rich in diversity. Some of our ancestors were driven by dreams and hope. Vividly expressed in Faith Ringgold’s sumptuous colors and patterns, We Came to America is an ode to every American who came before us, and a tribute to each child who will carry its proud message of diversity into our nation’s future.

For more on these and other great books for dad, visit the collection: America