re: American history book recommendations

Was going to post Empire of the Summer Moon. I see that is already posted. Also agree on Devil in the White City.
I’ll add Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Really into ghost writers are we?

Young Men and Fire is great too. Account of Forestry Service Smoke Jumpers in 1949.

Young Men and Fire

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I didn't know that Jefferson twice attempted affairs with married women, including one who accused him of trying to force himself on her.

I didn't know that Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Jefferson's late wife Martha.

I didn't know that, while the two of them disliked each other before this, the deep bitterness that existed between Jefferson and Patrick Henry was the result of an "inquiry" that the Virginia House of Delegates did into Jefferson's conduct as Virginia governor.

I didn't know that Jefferson wanted to end slavery, but he feared a race war.

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Did the book cover James Callender? He was a journalist always digging up dirt on political figures of the time. Callender and Jefferson worked together to trash Hamilton in the press. He basically ended Hamilton's career by publishing an expose on how Hamilton slept with another man's wife and also had corrupt financial dealings. Hamilton wrote a public response admitting to the affair but denying that he had corrupt financial dealings. Hamilton claimed the woman's husband tried to blackmail him for money or else he would go public with the affair.

Jefferson promised Callender a government job, but never followed through on the promise. As a result, Callender began attacking Jefferson and wrote that Jefferson had children with Sally Hemming. Jefferson never publicly responded to the allegation (though today, through DNA, we know it's true).

Callender was later found floating in the river. The official story was that he was drunk and fell off a pier.

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Did the book cover James Callender?

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Yes, but I wouldn't say that there was a whole lot more about Callender than what you just posted.

But lots and lots of people repeatedly talked about the Jefferson-Hemings relationship during Jefferson's lifetime -- Callender was far from the only one.

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Lansing - Endurance, about Shackleton's ill-fated voyage.

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Great book, but not American history.

Brian Kilmead and Bill O’Reilly - haa

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Book on Jackson sounds interesting , thanks !

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It’s great

Kilmead is a good writer then? You enjoy his work? I’ve never read anything of his and I was kind of skeptical when I first heard that he had written some books, on history. You’ll have to pardon me but I had him pigeon-holed as a television hack only. What can you tell me about him?

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Isaac's Storm - a little slow at first, but Erik Larson's first book. A tale of the Galveston Hurricane...really shows how far we have advanced in certain things

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I read this a few months back… was on a hurricane kick for some reason…. Then went straight to Eric Jay Dolins Furious sky- a 500 year history of American hurricanes

What’s crazy is reading an entire book about the Galveston hurricane and then Dolin writes like 2 sentences about the same event almost as an afterthought