Rhetoric: The Modern Era: 1850 A.D. - Present
A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge Concise Histories) by William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips (Nonfiction/Survey history--Paleolithic Era-Present)
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos (Nonfiction/Survey--7000 B.C.-21st century)
The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston (Nonfiction/Legendary city/History of those who looked for it/Cortes through modern technology--1520s to 2017)
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric (Fiction, but.../History of the Bosnian people--1566-1915)
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne (Nonfiction--1706-1875)
Afghanistan by Louis Dupree (Nonfiction/Survey from time the area was given borders and the name--1709-1980)
And Yet They Persisted: How American Women Won the Right To Vote by Johanna Neuman (Nonfiction/Comprehensive suffrage history--1776-1965)
The Nineteenth Century: Europe by T. C. W. Blannimg (Nonfiction/Survey--1789-1914)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Novel/Columbia/Family/Six generations--early 1800s-mid 1900s)
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Anti-slavery/Fugitive Slave Laws--1850)
Among the Fallen by Virginia Frances Schwartz (Novel/England/Charles Dickens/Orphans/Fallen Women--c. 1850)
The World for a Shilling: How the Great Exhibition of 1851 Shaped a Nation by Michael Leapman (Nonfiction/World's Fair/England/Industrial Revolution--1851)
The Great Exhibition, 1851: A Sourcebook by Jonathon Shears (Nonfiction/World's Fair/England/Industrial Revolution--1851)
The Great Exhibition in Colour by Heritage Hunter and Andrew Chapman (Nonfiction/World's Fair/England/Industrial Revolution--1851)
In the Shadow of the Lamp by (Novel/Crimean War/Nursing with Florence Nightingale--1853-1856)
The Crimean War by Orlando Figes (Nonfiction/Crimean War/in-depth history--1853-1856)
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Helligman (Nonfiction/Biography--1853-1890)
Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Novel/Slavery/Maroon communities--1856)
The Opium Wars: Exploring the Addiction of Empires from Beginning to End by Adrian Ramos (Nonfiction/British Empire/China--1839-1842 & 1856-1860)
Phantastes by George MacDonald (Novel/Fantasy--pub. 1857)
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington (Southern United States--1858-1901)
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (Nonfiction/Science/Evolution--1859)
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (Novel/England/Mystery/Evolution & Theological debate--sometime between 1860 and 1900)
Labors Untold Story by Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais (Nonfiction - VERY pro-union/great for showing how socialism and communism gained ground in the U.S.--mid 1800s-1950s)
The Compassionate Warrior: Abd el-Kader of Algeria by Elsa Marston (Nonfiction - "George Washington of Algeria"--most pivotal year: 1860)
The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (Novel in verse/African slave trade/Asante people of West Africa--Ghana--1860)
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris (Nonfiction/Biography - Surgery/germ theory/England--1860s)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown (Nonfiction - U.S./westward expansion/fate of Native Americans--1860-1890)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (St. Petersburg, Russia--1860s)
A River Between Us by Richard Peck (Novel/Illinois/Racially mixed people/Race relations--1861)
Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen (Novel/Civil War/Minnesota boy who fights in almost every major battle--1861-1865)
Blood and Germs: The Civil War Battle Against Wounds and Disease by Gail Jarrow [Medical Fiascoes] (Nonfiction/Civil War/Medicine/Not for faint of stomach--1861-1865)
Annie, Between the States by L. M. Elliott (Novel/Virginia/Civil War/Divided Loyalties--1861-1865)
Unconditional Surrender: U. S. Grant and the Civil War by Albert Marrin (Nonfiction - Biography--1861-1865)
Virginia's General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Albert Marrin (Nonfiction - Biography--1861-1865)
Robert E. Lee: The man, the Soldier, the Myth by Brandon Marie Miller (Nonfiction/Biography/Civil War/Confederate general--1861-1865)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Novel/Civil War and Reconstruction/Georgia--1861-1877)
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang (Biography/Qing Dynasty/Boxer Rebellion/Also available in English-Chinese parallel text version--1861-1908)
Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China by Pearl S. Buck (Novel/Dowager Empress Cixi/Qing Dynasty--1861-1908)
Cixi: A Wicked History by Sean Price (Biography/Dowager Empress Cixi/Qing Dynasty--1861-1908)
The Slopes of War: A Novel of Gettysburg by Norah Perez (Pennsylvania--1863)
Killer Angels by Michael Shara (Novel/Civil War/Gettysburg--1863)
Riot by Walter Dean Myers (Novel/New York Draft Riots/Racism--1863)
Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters by Sally M. Walker (Nonfiction/Ojibwa nation/Company K--1863-1864)
Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Stephen E. Ambrose (Nonfiction/Railroad History/American West--1863-1869)
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean (Nonfiction/SurveyChemistry/Periodic Table of Elements--I suggest 1864, concurrent with Mendeleev)
Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett (Nonfiction/Maritime history/Shipwreck/Auckland Island--1864)
Abraham Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings by Abraham Lincoln (Nonfiction/Primary source materials--1832-1865)
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (Novel/Shipwreck/Science driven--1865-1869)
Dragon's Gate by Lawrence Yep (Sierra Nevada Mountains/Transcontinental Railroad--1867)
Gandhi: Young Nation Builder by Kathleen Kudinski [Childhood of World Figures] (Nonfiction - India--1869-1948)
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Novel/Classic/Pulitzer Prize Winner/Florida--1870s)
The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 by Stephen Badsey [Essential Histories] (Nonfiction/Survey--1870-1871)
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough (Nonfiction--1870-1914)
The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman (Novel/England/Mystery/Orphans/Opium Trade--1872)
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1872)
Around the World in 80 Days - BBC Worldwide TV production with Michael Palin; 1989 recreation of Phileas Fogg's journey
The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief by Ben MacIntyre (Nonfiction/Famous for theft of Gainsborough's Duchess of Devanshire--1876)
What Momma Left Behind by Cindy K. Sproles (Novel/Appalachia/Epidemic/character driven--1877)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (London--late 1880s)
I am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Gillian Newland (Picture book based on true story - Ontario/Indigenous Residential School Systems--late 19th-late 20th centuries)
My Antonia by Willa Cather (Nebraska--1880-1910)
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy (Nonfiction/Arctic exploration--1881-1883)
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America by James Green (Nonfiction/Chicago/Labor riots--1886)
The Haymarket Affair: The History of the Riots in Chicago that Galvanized the Labor Movement by Charles River Editors (Nonfiction--1886-1887)
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco (Novel/London/Serial Killer/forensic medicine--1888)
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Nonfiction/London/Serial Killer--1888)
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (Colorado--1890s)
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (Novel/Pregnant out-of-wedlock/Insane Asylum/Boston & Ohio--1890)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (London/Congo--1890-1891)
The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller (Nonfiction/Massachusetts/Murder and trial--1892)
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Nonfiction/Chicago/World's Fair/Serial killer--1893)
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen R. Bown (Nonfiction/Biography/Polar Exploration--1897-1928)
World War I: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today by Richard J. Maybury (Nonfiction/Causes through fallout--1898-1935)
The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century by Charles River Editors (Nonfiction--1899-1901)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria--around 1900)
The History of the Modern World: From 1900 to the Present by Terry Burrows (Nonfiction - Good main spine--1900-2012)
Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity by Robert Cwiklik (THE book for making his science understandable--most pivotal scientific years--1900-1924)
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (Holland/Germany/Holocaust--early to mid 1900s)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (Play - New Hampshire--1901-1913)
The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902 by Gordon Thomas (Nonfiction/Volcanic eruption/Martinique--1902)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Novel/Social Commentary/Industrial slavery/Immigrant exploitation/Meat packing safety/Make sure your student's copy says "uncensored original edition" or "complete original edition--1904)
Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business and Won by Emily Arnold McCully (Nonfiction/Biography/Standard Oil Co./Rockefeller/Investigative journalism--1904)
What is the Panama Canal? by Janet B. Pascal (Panama--1904-1914)
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Novel/New York State/Female writer/Murder--1906)
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee (Novel/San Francisco/Chinese immigrants/Prejudice/Earthquake--1906)
The True Story of the Empress Dowager: An Insider's Account by Der Ling (Memoir/Empress Dowager Cixi/Lady-in-waiting/Qing Dynasty--1906-1908)
A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller (Novel/London/Artist/Women's Suffrage--1909
Audacity by Melanie Crowder (Biographical novel in verse/Equal rights & Safe working environments/Clara Lemlich--active 1903-1960, but best read for 1909-1910)
Wild Swans: Three Daughter's of China by Jung Chang (Biography/Three generations/Concubine/Cultural Revolution/Communism--1909-1978)
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz (Rural Pennsylvania/Baltimore/feminism--1911)
Ashes of Roses by M. J. Auch [Triangle Fire] (New York--1911)
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle (Nonfiction - New York--1911)
Race to the End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole by Ross D. E. MacPhee (Nonfiction/Polar Exploration--1911)
A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor (London/Flower sellers/Based on a true story--1912)
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (Nonfiction/WWI/Causes/First month--1910-1914)
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (Nonfiction/South Pole--1914-1915)
Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath (Novel/Armenian Genocide--1914-1915)
The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman (Nonfiction/Fabulous!--1914-1918)
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Europe/World War I--1914-1918)
The Red Baron by Manfred von Richthofen (Nonfiction/Memoir/"Red Baron"/Combat aviation/Perfect tandem read: Fighting the Flying Circus by Eddie Rickenbacker/World War I--1914-1918)
Lovely War by Julie Berry (Novel/WWI/WWII/Romance/Greek gods stirring the pot/Aphrodite narrates--1914-1918 & 1940-1945)
Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History by Robert D. Kaplan (Nonfiction/Survey--1914-2000)
The Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian (Novel/Armenian massacres--1915)
Annihilation: A Story of the Armenian Genocide by Michael Bosland (Novel/Armenian genocide/Armenians in Ottoman Empire/Eastern Anatolia--1915)
Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Nonfiction/Passenger liner/Naval disaster/World War I--1915)
Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan, 1915-1919: An Armenian Boy's Memoir of Survival by Aram Haykaz (Nonfiction - Memoir/Armenian massacres--1915-1919)
The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response by Peter Balakian (Nonfiction - Armenian massacres--1915-1923)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Florida--perhaps 1915-1935)
Fighting the Flying Circus by Eddie Rickenbacker (Nonfiction/Memoir/Combat aviation/Perfect tandem read: The Red Baron by Manfred von Richthofen/World War I--1917-1918)
Sergeant York and the Great War: His Own Life Story and War Diary by Alvin York (Nonfiction/Autobiography/World War I--1917-1919)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (Novel/Satire/Russian Revolution/Communism--1917-1945)
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Kolata (Nonfiction/Virology--1918)
A Beautiful Poison by Lydia King (Novel/Flu/Mystery--1918)
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (Novel/San Diego/Flu/WWI/Spiritualism--1918)
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry (Nonfiction - Science--1918)
Armistice 1918 by Bullitt Lowry (Nonfiction/End of World War I/Five armistices/Ceasefire--fall 1918)
The Pieces of Ourselves by Maggie Harcourt (Novel/Post-WWI/Teens/Bipolar--c. 1918)
The Kurds: A Divided Nation in Search of a State by Michael M. Gunter (Nonfiction/Survey--c. 1918-2018)
The Treaty of Versailles by Michael S. Neiberg (Nonfiction/World War I/Post-war treaty--1919)
M: Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati (Novel/historical fiction/Benito Mussolini/lengthy--best for those with a strong interest in the subject--1919-1945)
Strongmen: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy by Kenneth C. Davis (Nonfiction/Mussolini/Stalin/Hitler/Mao--1919-2003)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Long Island, New York--early 1920s)
Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler (Nonfiction/Autobiography--1925)
Ambedkar: India's Crusader for Human Rights by Kieron Moore and Sachin Nagar (Graphic Nonfiction/Biography/India/Untouchables/Crusade began in--1927)
The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming (Nonfiction/Biography/Pilot/Controversial public figure/usually studied concurrent with his trans-Atlantic fight--1927)
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin (Nonfiction/Social Experiment/Export American culture--1927-1945)
The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica by Laurie Gwen Shapiro (Nonfiction/Biography/Jazz Age/Richard E. Byrd's Antarctic Exploration--1928)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (Eastern Europe--1930s)
Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blackman (Munich, Germany/fictional niece of Hitler/historical thriller--1930s)
Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein (Novel/Racism/America/Ethiopia--1930s)
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Nonfiction/Great Depression--1930s)
The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History by Ken Burns (Nonfiction/Great Depression/Companion to PBS series--1930s)
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz (Occupied Poland--1930s-early 1940s)
The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson (Nonfiction - Various locales--1931-1944)
Accused!: The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourtteenth Amendment by Larry Dane Brimner (Nonfiction/African American teens/Jim Crow era Alabama/Rape accusation--1931)
Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum (Nonfiction/Soviet Union/Ukraine/Forced agricultural collectivization/Starvation of Ukrainian people by Stalin--1931-1933)
Bonnis and Clyde: The Making of a Legend by Karen Blumenthal (Nonfiction/Crime spree--1932-1934)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr (Jewish refugees--1933)
FDR and the American Crisis by Albert Marrin (Nonfiction - Tenure as US President--1933-1945)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Alabama/Great Depression/Jim Crow Era--1933-1935)
Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule by Gordon Thomas and Greg Lewis (Nonfiction/WWII--1933-1945)
Parallel Journeys by Eleanor H. Ayer (Nonfiction - Jewish woman/German boy/war remembrances--1933-late 1940s)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (Classic/Mystery--1934)
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel by Kim Michele Richardson (Great Depression/Works Progress Administration/Kentucky/Appalachia--1935-1943)
Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman (Novel/Hitler's niece/Jewish reporter--mid 1930s)
Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali (Germany/Lebensborn--1936)
The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown (Nonfiction - Washington state/Berlin Olympics--1936)
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (Novel/fragility of American democracy/fascism/ dictatorship/political satire and realism--1936)
Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism by Marc Aronson (Nonfiction/Spanish Civil War--1936-1939)
A Short History of the Spanish Civil War by Julian Casanova [Bloomsbury Academic] (Nonfiction--1936-1939)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Oklahoma to California--late 1930s)
The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow (Berlin/based on a true story--late 1930s)
Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue by Kathryn J. Atwood (Nonfiction - Various locales--late 1930s-mid 1940s)
Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis by K. R. Gaddy (Nonfiction/WWII/Teenage nonconformists/Anti-Nazi/Anti-Hitler Youth--late 1930s-mid 1940s)
World War II: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today by Richard J. Maybury (Nonfiction - Various locales--late 1930s-Present)
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez (Novel/New London, TexasSegregation/School explosion--1937)
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (Nonfiction/Memoir/WWII/Netherlands/Sheltering Jews--1937--1945)
Going Solo by Roald Dahl (Nonfiction/Memoir - Africa--1938)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Novel/Great Depression/Oklahoma--1938)
Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow (Nonfiction/Orson Welles/Radio Drama--1938-39)
Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler's Army by Georg Rauch (Nonfiction/Memoir - Austria/Russia/labor camp--1938-1940s)
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit (Krakow, Poland--1939)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Novel/Nazi Germany--1939-1943)
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bernstein (Nonfiction - Poland/child prisoner--1939-1944)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (French Algeria--very early 1940s)
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Chesapeake Bay island--early 1940s)
Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose (Nonfiction - New Guinea--early to mid 1940s)
The Chosen by Chiam Potok (Brooklyn--1940s)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Cuba/ocean--1940s)
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (South Africa/early Apartheid--1940s)
A Song of Summer by Eva Ibbotson (Novel/WWII/Englishwoman in Nazi Austria--1940)
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (Battle of Dunkirk--1940)
Sabotage: The Mission to Destroy Hitler's Atomic Bomb by Neal Bascomb (Nonfiction - Vemork, Norway--1940)
Spitfire Pilot: A Personal Account of the Battle of Britain by D.M. Crook (Nonfiction/Memoir/RAF--1940)
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose (Nonfiction - Denmark/Resistance movement--1940-1945)
A Light in the Darkness by Albert Marrin (Nonfiction/WWII/Janusz Korczak/Holocaust orphans/Hitler--1940-1945)
A Thousand Sisters by Elizabeth Wein (Nonfiction/WWII/Soviet Union/Female pilots--1940-1945)
Lovely War by Julie Berry (Novel/WWI/WWII/Romance/Greek gods stirring the pot/Aphrodite narrates--1914-1918 & 1940-1945)
Devil Darling Spy by Matt Killeen (Novel/Espionage/WWII/Series book two--1940-1945)
Medal of Honor by Peter Collier (Nonfiction - Various locales/WWII to Present/Profiles of honorees--1940-Present)
Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (Actual event reimagined as a play - Meeting between German Heisenberg and Danish Bohr to discuss atomic bomb--1941)
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Lithuania/Siberia/Labor camps--1941)
Malaya and Singapore: 1941-42: The Fall of Britain's Empire in the East [Osprey Campaign series] by Mark Stille and Peter Dennis (Nonfiction/World War II/Pacific campaign--1941-1942)
The Fall of the Philippines: 1941-1942 by Clayton K.S. Chun (Nonfiction/World War II/Pacific Theater--1941-1942
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson (Nonfiction - Russia--1941-1944)
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides (Nonfiction/World War II/Philippines--1941-1945)
Night by Elie Wiesel (Nonfiction/Memoir - Transylvania/various concentration camps--1941-1945)
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (Nonfiction/World War II/Pacific island hopping campaign--1941-1945)
Unbroken: An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive (Young Adult Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand (Nonfiction/Berlin Olympics/WWII/Human endurance/Louis Zamperini/Life from 1917-2008, but mostly--1941-1945)
Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific by Mary Cronk Farrell (Nonfiction - Philippines--1941-post-war experiences)
The Coral Sea 1942: The First Carrier Battle by Mark Stille (Nonfiction/World War II/Pacific campaign/Naval warfare--1942)
Stay the Rising Sun: The True Story of USS Lexington, Her Valiant Crew, and Changing the Course of WWII by Phil Keith (Nonfiction/WWII/Naval warfare/Lady Lex/Coral Sea/Pacific theater
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (Germany--1942)
The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines (Novel/London/mystery--1942)
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (Novel/Letters between a devil in hell and his nephew on Earth/WWII--1942)
Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (Nonfiction/Los Alamos--1942)
Condition Red: Destroyer Action in the South Pacific by Frederick J. Bell (Nonfiction/Memoir/World War II/Solomon Islands--1942-1943)
The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians by Brian Garfield (Nonfiction/land-air-sea campaigns/Aleutian Islands--1942-1943)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles (New Hampshire--1942-1943)
Unbroken (Young Adult Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand (Nonfiction - various locations--1943)
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (Amsterdam/Dutch Resistance--1943)
Train by Danny M. Cohen (Berlin/thriller/minority Holocaust victims--1943)
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Inturbe (Based on true story--1943)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein (Novel/Occupied France--1943)
Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II by Bret Baier (Nonfiction/WWII/Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin/Formation of Allied powers--1943)
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth E. Wein (Novel/Ravensbruck concentration camp/Sequel to Code Name Verity--1943-1944)
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Novel/Italy/Allied occupation--1943-1947)
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin (California/prejudice/segregation in military--1944)
I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Britton-Jackson (Nonfiction/Memoir - Hungary--1944)
The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery by Rick Beyer (Nonfiction/World War II--1944)
Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephen Talty (Nonfiction - Europe--1944)
Paper Hearts by Meg Wiviott (Auschwitz/based on true story/not bowing to adversity--1944)
Soldier X by Don L. Wulffson (Germany/Eastern Front/boy soldiers--1944)
Two Suns in the Sky by Miriam Bat-Ami (Oswego, New York/Only US refugee camp/Prejudice--1944)
German Submarine U-1105 "Black Panther": The Naval Archaeology of a U-Boat by Aaron Stephan Hamilton (Nonfiction/Maritime warfare/World War II--1944-1945)
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II by Adam Makos (Novel/Biographical fiction/Germany/World War II--1944-1945)
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis (Novel/WWII/African American Battalion of the Women's Army Corps--1944-1945)
Dark December: The Full Account of the Battle of the Bulge by Robert E. Merriam (Nonfiction/World War II--1944-1945)
Hitler's Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator by Bill O'Reilly (Nonfiction - Germany--1945)
Flags of our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima by James Bradley (Nonfiction - WWII/Pacific theatre/Iwo Jima--1945)
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides (Nonfiction/Philippines/Bataan Death March--1945)
Hiroshima by John Hersey (Nonfiction - Japan/Atomic bomb--1945)
Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger (Nonfiction/Bedouin/Travel memoir/Outstanding--1945-1950)
In Hitler's Shadow: Post-War Germany & the Girls of the BDM by Tim Heath (Nonfiction/Bund Deutscher Mädel--League of German Girls--mid-1940s-1950s)
The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men by Eric Lichtblau (Germany/U.S.--mid 1940s-1960s)
After the War by Carol Matas (young Buchenwald orphans find way to Palestine--late 1940s)
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Play - New York/Boston--late 1940s)
The Stolen Ones by Vanessa Curtis (Novel/Jewish & Christian sweethearts/post-WWII--late 1940s or 50s)
The Bomb by Theodore Taylor (Marshall Islands/Nuclear testing--1946)
Evita: The Real Lives of Eva Perón by Nicholas Fraser (Nonfiction/Biography/Argentina/First Lady--1946-1952)
Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Perón by John Barnes (Nonfiction/Biography/Argentina/First Lady--1946-1952)
Bombs over Bikini: The World's First Nuclear Disaster by Connie Goldsmith (Nonfiction - Marshall Islands/Nuclear testing--1946-1958)
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl (Nonfiction/Science/Human Migration/South Pacific--1947)
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (Novel/Palm Beach/Post-WWII/Explores, racism, sexism, and class--1947)
A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury (India/Partition--1947)
Alas Babylon by Pat Frank (Post nuclear war/Soviet-U.S.--1950s)
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (Nonfiction/Coming of age/Holden Caulfield--1950s)
The Broken Word by Adam Foulds (Epic Poem/British Empire/Kenya/Mau Mau Uprising--1950s)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Novel/Cuba--1950)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Novel/Marooned on an island/Teenagers/Human nature--1950)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Play/Salem Witch Trials/parable about McCarthyism--1688-1692 and 1950-1954)
The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy by James Cross Giblin (Nonfiction/Biography/Senate anti-communist movement--1950-1957)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Stalin/Soviet Union/Gulags--1951)
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (Novel/World War II/Post-War Allied Occupation/Art and war/Set from c. 1939-1952/Suggest reading--1952)
The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue by Michael J. Tougias (Cape Cod/Coast Guard--1952)
Reckless: Pride of the Marines by Andrew Geer (Nonfiction/Korean War/Animal heroes/Marines--1952-1960)
3001 Arabian Days: Growing Up in an American Oil Camp in Saudi Arabia by Rick Snedeker (Nonfiction/Memoir--1953-1962)
The Angel of Dien Bien Phu: The Lone French Woman at the Decisive Battle for Vietnam by Genevieve Galard (Nonfiction/Memoir/French Indochina/Vietnam--1954)
Four-Minute Mile by Roger Bannister (Nonfiction/Autobiography/Running--1954)
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb (Nonfiction/Running--1954)
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (Novel/Fantasy/First of trilogy--pub. 1954)
Ernest Hemingway: A Writer's Life by Catherine Reef (Nonfiction/Biography/Author, journalist/Won Lit Nobel in--1954)
Fatherland: A Family History by Nina Bunjevac (Nonfiction/Graphic memoir/Yugoslavia/early Serbian~Croatian conflict/most relevant years--1954-1977)
The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkereson (Nonfiction/Memoir/Mission Outreach/New York City--late 1950s-1960s)
No Greater Love by Mother Teresa (Nonfiction - India--1950s-1990s)
Wolf by Wolf: One Girl's Mission to Win a Race and Kill Hitler by Ryan Graudin (What if the Axis had won World War II?--1956)
A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls Lanier (Nonfiction/Autobiography/Little Rock Nine/Racism/School integration--1957)
The Fountains of Silence: A Novel by Ruta Sepetys (Historical fiction/Dictatorship/Francisco Franco/Photography--1957)
Black Like Me by Robert Bonazzi, John Griffin (southern United States--1959)
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (Novel/Racism/School integration--1959)
The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb (Nonfiction/War criminals/WWII/Holocaust/Adolf Eichmann/Captured--1960)
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks (Novel/North Carolina--1961)
Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle Under Castro by Eduardo F. Calcines (Nonfiction/Biography/Cuba/Bay of Pigs)
The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill by Greg Mitchell (Berlin--1962)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (Nonfiction/Environmental science/Pesticides--1962)
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte's (Harlem, New York--mid 1960s)
Peace Child by Don Richardson (Dutch New Guinea, Indonesia--1960s -1970s)
Living on the Devil's Doorstep by Floyd McClung (Holland/Afghanistan--(1960s-1970s)
Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers (Nonfiction/Espionage/Prisoner exchange--1964)
Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan (Novel/Los Angeles/High school/war, feminism, riots, etc./Recommend for older students only--1965)
The Vietnam War: How the United States Became Involved by Mitch Yamasaki, Ph.D. (Nonfiction/Primary sources/Answers how and why questions-really excellent--1965-1973)
America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger by Albert Marrin (Nonfiction/Best narrative account/Intimate and honest--1965-1973)
The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History by DK Smithsonian (Nonfiction/Vietnam War--1965-1975)
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (Nonfiction/Racism/Reconstruction through Trump--1965-present)
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (Novel/Vietnam War/African American/Young GI--1967)
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat (Nonfiction/Memoir - Ramallah/Six Day War and aftermath--1967-1970)
1968 by Michael T. Kaufman (Nonfiction/Survey/Political violence/Student movements--1968)
Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo by Jack Cheevers (1968)
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz (Novel/Chicano barrio/Racism/Vietnam War--1969)
The Crouching Beast: A United States Army Lieutenant's Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969 by Frank Boccia (Nonfiction/Vietnam War--1969)
The Wave by Todd Strasser (Novel/Based on actual event/Disturbing classroom experiment that illustrated the ease with which group think creates followers/Classroom exercise designed to show why citizens follow tyrants--1969)
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings by Jay Barbree, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton (Nonfiction/Space Race/Apollo program--1969-1972)
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (Nonfiction/Space Race/Apollo program--1969-1972)
Moments of Truth: A Photographer's Experience of Kent State 1970 by Howard Ruffner (Nonfiction/Vietnam War Protest/Kent State Shootings--1970)
Wild World by Peter S. Rush (Novel/Vietnam War Protest/Kent State Shootings--1970)
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Nonfiction - The Pentagon Papers--1971)
The Horse God Built: The Untold Story of Secretariat, the World's Greatest Racehorse by Lawrence Scanlon (Nonfiction/Triple Crown winner--1973)
Secretariat's Meadow by Kate Chenery Tweedy (Nonfiction/The Meadows/Race horse stable--1973)
River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam and Cambodia by Jon Swain (Nonfiction/Khmer Rouge--1975)
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung (Nonfiction - Cambodia/Khmer Rouge Killing Fields--late 1970s)
The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton (Japan/North Korea--late 1970s)
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston (Nonfiction - Science--1976)
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Nonfiction/Graphic autobiography/Iranian Revolution--1976-1994)
Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina (Novel/New York City/blackout/Son of Sam--1977)
The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit by Elias Canetti (Nonfiction/Morocco--1978)
Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) by Eric Haney (Nonfiction - Beirut/Iran/other locales--begins in 1978)
After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam by Lesley Hazleton (Nonfiction/Islamic history/The split occurred in the 630s, but useful as a first read before any study of the Middle East)
Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America by David Wise (Nonfiction/Espionage/Soviet Union--1979-2001)
Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai (Novel/Vietnam War/Texas/Family/Refugees--1981)
Children of the River by Linda Crew (Cambodian refugee in U.S.--1980s)
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (United States/various--late 1980s or early 1990s)
1984 by George Orwell (Fictional country of Oceania--1984)
The Boy from the Wild by Peter Meyer (Nonfiction/Memoir/Growing up on game reserve in South Africa--1984-2000)
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham (Nonfiction/Science/Nuclear power/Soviet Union--1986)
One Day at a Time: Diaries from a Palestinian Camp by Suzy Wighton (Nonfiction/Refugee camps/Nurse/Journal--1986-1988)
Children of the Siege by Pauline Cutting (Nonfiction/Memoir/Doctor in Palestinian refugee camps--1986-1988)
On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin by Marie Colvin (Nonfiction/Fearless, driven Sunday Times war correspondent/Collected Works--1987-2012)
The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited by Louisa Lim (Nonfiction/China/Student uprising--1989)
Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, & Ameziane (Nonfiction/China/Student uprising--1989)
Who Will Shout If Not Us?: Student Activists and the Tiananmen Square Protest, China, 1989 by Ann Kerns [Civil Rights Struggles Around the World] (Nonfiction/China/Student uprising--1989)
I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached (Nonfiction/Memoir - Graphic Novel/Lebanon--1990)
The Insanity of God by Nik Ripkin (Somalia/other mission fields--1990s)
Navy Seal Training Class 144: My BUD/s Journal by Stephen Templin (Nonfiction - California--early 1990s)
I am a SEALTeam Six: Memoirs of an American Soldier by Howard E. Wasdin (Nonfiction/Memoir - Mogadishu, Somalia, Africa--1993)
The Making of a Navy SEAL: My Story of Surviving the Toughest Challenge and Training the Best by Brandon Webb (Nonfiction - Various locales--1993-2006)
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan (India--late 1900s?)
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye (Palestinian Immigrant/St. Louis--late 1900s)
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Zimbabwe--late 1900s)
War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love by Rebecca Frankel (Nonfiction - History of dogs in warfare/Civil War to Present)
The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland (Nonfiction/Biography/Sierra Leone/Warcrime victim/Amputee--1998-2008)
Navy Seal Dogs: My Tale of Training Canines for Combat by Mike Ritland (Nonfiction - Various locales--2000s)
Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson (Nonfiction/Memoir - Iraq/US Army/Post 9/11 enlistment--early 2000s)
A Place of Remembrance: Official Book of the National September 11 Memorial by Allison Blais, et al. (Nonfiction--11 September 2001)
Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson (Nonfiction/Memoir/Iraq--2003-2004)
How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana (Nonfiction/Congo/Massacres/Refugees--2004-2017)
Fly Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar (Nonfiction/Memoir/Pilot/Women in combat/Shot down, advocacy began--2009)
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming (Nonfiction/Syrian boat refugees/Maritime disaster--2011)
The Unwanted by Don Brown (Nonfiction/Syrian Refugees--2011-present)
1000 Lashes Because I Say What I Think by Raif Badawi (Nonfiction/Essays/Saudi Arabian blogger/Political prisoner--2012)
Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time by Tanya Lee Stone (Nonfiction/Global girls' education/Expands upon documentary of same name--2013)
Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History by Karen Blumenthal (Nonfiction/Biography/Critically acclaimed as the most even-handed biography of an often polarizing woman/Suggest reading in--2016)
You Don't Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine by Yeva Skalietska (Nonfiction/Journal memoir/Russian invasion of Ukraine/Refugees/Ukraine/Ireland--2022)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Dystopian/Futuristic/Los Angeles, California--2053)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Futuristic London--2540)