Peoples History of the United States part 1: Historical Fiction
Explore the best historical fiction books in 'A People's History of the United States Part 1.' Discover captivating stories that reimagine America's past through diverse perspectives and untold narratives.
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The Glory Field
by Walter Dean Myers
Follows a family's two hundred forty-one year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.
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Chesapeake
by James A. Michener
In this classic novel, James A. Michener brings his grand epic tradition to bear on the four-hundred-year saga of America’s Eastern Shore, from its Native American roots to the modern age. In the early 1600s, young Edmund Steed is desperate to escape religious persecution in England. After joining Captain John Smith on a harrowing journey across the Atlantic, Steed makes a life for himself in the New World, establishing a remarkable dynasty that parallels the emergence of America. Through the extraordinary tale of one man’s dream, Michener tells intertwining stories of family and national heritage, introducing us along the way to Quakers, pirates, planters, slaves, abolitionists, and notorious politicians, all making their way through American history in the common pursuit of freedom. Praise for Chesapeake “Another of James Michener’s great mines of narrative, character and lore.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] marvelous panorama of history seen in the lives of symbolic people of the ages . . . an emotionally and intellectually appealing book.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Michener’s most ambitious work of fiction in theme and scope.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Magnificently written . . . one of those rare novels that are enthusiastically passed from friend to friend.”—Associated Press
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The Rising Shore
by Deborah Homsher
This novel tells the story of the Lost Colony through the voices of two pioneering women who sail from London to the wild American shore in 1587. This was the first English attempt to establish a settlement in the New World. It failed; the colonists vanished. THE RISING SHORE-ROANOKE brings to life the courageous women who joined this venture. FIC014000
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To the Ends of the Earth
by Frances Hunter
"History and fiction merge seamlessly in this thrilling historical novel based on one of America's greatest unsolved mysteries. Lewis and Clark's last journey is a classic story of honor, vengeance, and redemption."--P. [4] of cover.
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City of Dreams
by Beverly Swerling
A sweeping epic of two families—one Dutch, one English—from the time when New Amsterdam was a raw and rowdy settlement, to the triumph of the Revolution, when New York became a new nation’s city of dreams. In 1661, Lucas Turner, a barber surgeon, and his sister, Sally, an apothecary, stagger off a small wooden ship after eleven weeks at sea. Bound to each other by blood and necessity, they aim to make a fresh start in the rough and rowdy Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam; but soon lust, betrayal, and murder will make them mortal enemies. In their struggle to survive in the New World, Lucas and Sally make choices that will burden their descendants with a legacy of secrets and retribution, and create a heritage that sets cousin against cousin, physician against surgeon, and, ultimately, patriot against Tory. In what will be the greatest city in the New World, the fortunes of these two families are inextricably entwined by blood and fire in an unforgettable American saga of pride and ambition, love and hate, and the becoming of the dream that is New York City.
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Tallgrass
by Don Coldsmith
A fictionalized saga about the settling of Kansas, covering over 300 years from the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors to the blazing of the Santa Fe Trail, and bringing to life characters from the many different heritages that vied for control of the North American prairie.
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Major Washington
by Michael Kilian
Describing three pivotal years in the early life of America's first president, a historical novel tells the tale of a young man growing in love, passion, leadership, and military prowess
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The Interpreter
by Robert Moss
Conrad Weiser, an Indian agent during the French and Indian War, is sent to live among the Mohawks to learn their language and culture and leads German settlers to Pennsylvania, where they carve out a new life from the wilderness. By the author of The Firekeeper.
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Related Readings
by Elizabeth George Speare
In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
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Mayflower
by Nathaniel Philbrick
A history of the Pilgrim settlement of New England discusses such topics as the diseases of European origin suffered by the Wampanoag tribe, the relationship between the Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors, and the impact of King Philip's War.
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John Adams
by David McCullough
Profiles John Adams, an influential patriot during the American Revolution who became the nation's first vice president and second president.
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The Unredeemed Captive
by John Demos
Nominated for the National Book Award and winner of the Francis Parkman Prize. The setting for this haunting and encyclopedically researched work of history is colonial Massachusetts, where English Puritans first endeavoured to "civilize" a "savage" native populace. There, in February 1704, a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, abducting a Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams was eventually released, his daughter horrified the family by staying with her captors and marrying a Mohawk husband. Out of this incident, The Bancroft Prize-winning historian John Devos has constructed a gripping narrative that opens a window into North America where English, French, and Native Americans faced one another across gilfs of culture and belief, and sometimes crossed over.
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A Mercy
by Toni Morrison
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In "one of Morrison's most haunting works" (New York Times) the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter—a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment. In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
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Calico Bush
by Rachel Field
In 1743, thirteen-year-old Marguerite Ledoux travels to Maine as the indentured servant of a family that regards her as little better than the Indians that threaten them, but her strength, quick thinking and courage surprise them all.
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Roots-Thirtieth Anniversary Edition
by Perseus
One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, "Roots" opened up the minds of Americans to one of the darkest and most painful parts of its past. This anniversary edition reminds the generation that originally read it that there are issues that still need to be discussed.
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The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
Tells the tale of Natty Bumppo, a frontier scout, and a Mohican warrior who escort two sisters through the wilderness to Fort William Henry during the French and Indian War.
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The Winthrop Woman
by Anya Seton
A biographical novel of Elizabeth Winthrop, a courageous woman who defied Puritan conventions and beliefs.
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Meet Felicity
by Valerie Tripp
Felicity falls in love with a beautiful horse named Penny. When she discovers that Penny's owner is cruel, she is determined to find a way to save her.
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Inventing a Nation
by Gore Vidal
One of the master stylists of American literature, Gore Vidal now provides us with his uniquely irreverent take on America's founding fathers, bringing them to life at key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. “Pure Vidal. . . . Inventing a Nation is his edgy tribute to the way we were before the fall.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “[Vidal offers] details that enliven and . . . reflections on the past that point sharply to today.” —Richard Eder, New York Times “An engaging [and] . . . unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all.”—Edmund S. Morgan, New York Review of Books “[Vidal's] quick wit flickers over the canonical tale of our republic's founding, turning it into a dark and deliciously nuanced comedy of men, manners, and ideas.”—Amanda Heller, Boston Sunday Globe “This entertaining and enlightening reappraisal of the Founders is a must for buffs of American civilization and its discontents.”—Booklist “Gore Vidal . . . still understands American history backwards and forwards as few writers ever have.”—David Kipen, National Public Radio
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Back in Time with Benjamin Franklin
by Dan Gutman
Qwerty's Anytime Anywhere Machine snatches Benjamin Franklin from July 4, 1776--the very day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Qwerty and Joe know they have to get Ben back in time for the historic signing.
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The Sherwood Ring
by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Peggy Grahame moves to New York State to live with Uncle Enos, and meets several ghosts, who relate to her the history of her uncle's ancestral home.
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The Winter of Red Snow
by Kristiana Gregory
Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British.
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Shadow Patriots
by Lucia St. Clair Robson
In July of 1776, the American colonies are ablaze with passion as the people of the new nation choose between their king and an uncertain future. Kate Darby, a once timid Quaker joins her brother as a spy for the patriots.
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Blindspot
by Jane Kamensky
Stewart Jameson, a Scottish portrait painter fleeing his debtors in Edinburgh, has washed up on the British Empire's far shores—in the city of Boston, lately seized with the spirit of liberty. Eager to begin anew, he advertises for an apprentice, but the lad who comes knocking is no lad at all. Fanny Easton is a fallen woman from Boston's most prominent family who has disguised herself as a boy to become Jameson's defiant and seductive apprentice. Written with wit and exuberance by accomplished historians, Blindspot is an affectionate send-up of the best of eighteenth-century fiction. It celebrates the art of the Enlightenment and the passion of the American Revolution by telling stories of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.