The Shelves

19th Century Books

A tight 19th century shortlist - built for quick decisions, not endless scrolling.

Last refreshed 2026-02-27. We keep tuning this list as new titles land and reader interest shifts.

1. The Words That Made Us
Akhil Reed Amar
The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
2. Midnight on the Potomac
Scott Ellsworth
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
3. Hymns of the Republic
S.C. Gwynne
Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War
4. Three Roads to Gettysburg
Tim McGrath
Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation
5. The Undiscovered Country
Paul Andrew Hutton
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
6. The Great Dissenter
Peter S. Canellos
The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero
7. Myth America
Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer
Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past
8. Killing Lincoln
Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
9. The Broken Heart of America
Walter Johnson
The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
10. Don't Know Much About® History [30th Anniversary Edition]
Kenneth C. Davis
Don't Know Much About® History [30th Anniversary Edition]: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned
11. The Transcendentalists and Their World
Robert A. Gross
A History pick for readers exploring The Transcendentalists and Their World.
12. John Quincy Adams
Randall Woods, Randall B. Woods
John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People
13. Astoria
Peter Stark
Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier
14. Barons of the Sea
Steven Ujifusa
Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship
15. The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic
Manisha Sinha
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
16. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Jon Meacham
A History pick for readers exploring Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.
17. Follow Me to Hell
Tom Clavin
Follow Me to Hell: McNelly's Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice
18. The Indifferent Stars Above
Daniel James Brown
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party
19. The Second Founding
Eric Foner
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
20. The Immortal Irishman
Timothy Egan
The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
21. The Alcoholic Republic
William J. Rorabaugh
The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition
22. James Monroe
Tim McGrath
James Monroe: A Life
23. This Hallowed Ground
Bruce Catton
This Hallowed Ground: A History of the Civil War
24. The Utopian Alternative
Carl J. Guarneri
The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America

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history biography and memoir social science business and economics

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20th Century Books
Core shelf picks for 20th century readers.