Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Louise Mirrer, Ph.D., president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society:

American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 by Alan Taylor.

“This persuasively argued history tells a new and provocative story of a United States that came into being as a nation divided, much as it is today,” says Mirrer. “Key characters — from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay — emerge as adjuncts to the story of a fragile union, each leaving an indelible imprint on the reader, as they did on the country. The New-York Historical was pleased to award American Republics its 2022 Barbara and David Zalaznick American History Book Prize.”

Patriotic Pick is a monthly feature in partnership with the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Patriotic Picks is a monthly feature in partnership with the Washington Independent Review of Books.