A Brief Reading List: 25 Books for High School History Students
Following is a list of 25 works of historical literature that made an impression on me. It is not intended to be a scholarly bibliography.
Many entries, but not all, are novels, yet most have distinctive narrative qualities that flow like novels.
A few are collections of poetry that reflect historical themes. In other words, each of these works, whether fiction or non-fiction, tells a great story.
Most of these books should be available in any school library. Titles marked with an asterisk (*) are available on Project Gutenberg (a great free digital resource at https://www.gutenberg.org).
(Special thanks to N.I.O. for the inspiration to create this list.)
Many entries, but not all, are novels, yet most have distinctive narrative qualities that flow like novels.
A few are collections of poetry that reflect historical themes. In other words, each of these works, whether fiction or non-fiction, tells a great story.
Most of these books should be available in any school library. Titles marked with an asterisk (*) are available on Project Gutenberg (a great free digital resource at https://www.gutenberg.org).
(Special thanks to N.I.O. for the inspiration to create this list.)
Title - Author(s) - Topic
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - Lawrence, T. E. - British Colonialism and Arab Nationalism
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Brown, Dee - American Indians
The Yellow Wallpaper* - Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - Feminism
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck, John - The Great Depression
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee, Harper - Race Relations
The Souls of Black Folk* - DuBois, W.E.B. - African American Literature
The Red Badge of Courage* - Crane, Stephen - The Civil War
The Last of the Mohicans* - Cooper, James Fenimore - French and Indian War
The Guns of August - Tuchman, Barbara - World War I
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Gilded Age
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes - Hughes, Langston - Afrrican American Literature
Hiroshima - Hersey, John - World War II
The Virginian* - Wister, Owen - Settling the West
The Crucible - Miller, Arthur - Salem Witch Trials/McCarthyism
The Diary of a Young Girl - Frank, Anne - Nazi Occupation
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - African History
On the Beach - Shute, Nevil - Nuclear Annihilation
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway, Ernest - World War I
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Wolfe, Tom - The 1960s
The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History - Darnton, Robert - French History
1984 - Orwell, George - Dystopian Fiction
Brave New World - Huxley, Aldous - Dystopian Fiction
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution - Bailyn, Bernard - American Revolution
All the President's Men - Bernstein, Carl, and Bob Woodward - Watergate
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph - World War II
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - Lawrence, T. E. - British Colonialism and Arab Nationalism
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Brown, Dee - American Indians
The Yellow Wallpaper* - Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - Feminism
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck, John - The Great Depression
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee, Harper - Race Relations
The Souls of Black Folk* - DuBois, W.E.B. - African American Literature
The Red Badge of Courage* - Crane, Stephen - The Civil War
The Last of the Mohicans* - Cooper, James Fenimore - French and Indian War
The Guns of August - Tuchman, Barbara - World War I
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Gilded Age
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes - Hughes, Langston - Afrrican American Literature
Hiroshima - Hersey, John - World War II
The Virginian* - Wister, Owen - Settling the West
The Crucible - Miller, Arthur - Salem Witch Trials/McCarthyism
The Diary of a Young Girl - Frank, Anne - Nazi Occupation
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - African History
On the Beach - Shute, Nevil - Nuclear Annihilation
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway, Ernest - World War I
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Wolfe, Tom - The 1960s
The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History - Darnton, Robert - French History
1984 - Orwell, George - Dystopian Fiction
Brave New World - Huxley, Aldous - Dystopian Fiction
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution - Bailyn, Bernard - American Revolution
All the President's Men - Bernstein, Carl, and Bob Woodward - Watergate
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph - World War II