History · Similar reads

Books like A People's History of the United States

The best books like A People's History of the United States are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Between the World and Me. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn is about american history, class conflict, social movements. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.

  1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

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    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

    Yuval Noah Harari · History

    Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

    Both dig into power.

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  2. Guns, Germs, and Steel
    Guns, Germs, and Steel

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    Guns, Germs, and Steel

    Jared Diamond · Science

    Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?

    A kindred history read.

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  3. Between the World and Me
    Between the World and Me

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    Between the World and Me

    Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir

    Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.

    Both dig into resistance.

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  1. American Nations
    American Nations

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    American Nations

    Colin Woodard · History

    American Nations is Colin Woodard's argument that North America is not a single nation but a continent of 11 distinct regional cultures, each founded by different waves of settlers with different values, institutions, and political philosophies, and that understanding those foundational cultures is more useful for explaining American political conflict than the standard red-state/blue-state framing.

    Both dig into american history.

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  2. Americana
    Americana

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    Americana

    Bhu Srinivasan · History

    Americana is Bhu Srinivasan's attempt to tell the history of American capitalism through its defining industries and the entrepreneurs who built them.

    Both dig into american history.

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  3. Annals of Imperial Rome
    Annals of Imperial Rome

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    Annals of Imperial Rome

    Tacitus · History

    Tacitus wrote the Annals in the early second century CE as a history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the death of Nero — the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, covering roughly 14 to 68 CE.

    Both dig into power.

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  4. Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King
    Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King

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    Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King

    Lloyd Bradley · History

    Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture is the definitive popular history of Jamaican music from the late 1940s through the 1990s, tracing the full arc from mento and ska through rocksteady, reggae, dancehall, and ragga.

    Both dig into resistance.

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  5. History of the Peloponnesian War
    History of the Peloponnesian War

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    History of the Peloponnesian War

    Thucydides · History

    Thucydides' account of the twenty-seven-year conflict between Athens and Sparta stands as the founding document of political realism and the first work of history that treats evidence and causation as problems to be solved rather than stories to be told.

    Both dig into power.

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  6. Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
    Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

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    Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

    Erik Larson · History

    Isaac's Storm reconstructs the deadliest natural disaster in American history: the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, killing somewhere between six and twelve thousand people in a single day.

    Both dig into american history.

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  7. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

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    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

    Timothy Snyder · History

    On Tyranny is Timothy Snyder's brief handbook drawn from the history of twentieth-century authoritarianism.

    Both dig into resistance.

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  8. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
    Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

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    Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

    Ibram X. Kendi · History

    Stamped from the Beginning is Ibram X.

    Both dig into american history.

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  9. The Big Change
    The Big Change

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    The Big Change

    Frederick Lewis Allen · History

    The Big Change is Frederick Lewis Allen's account of how the United States was transformed between 1900 and 1950, covering the shifts in technology, economics, social life, and values that remade American society in half a century.

    Both dig into american history.

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Books like A People's History of the United States: quick answers

What are the best books like A People's History of the United States?

The best books like A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, American Nations by Colin Woodard, Americana by Bhu Srinivasan, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with A People's History of the United States, such as american history, class conflict, social movements.

What should I read after A People's History of the United States?

A natural next read after A People's History of the United States is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Both dig into power. Other strong choices are Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, American Nations by Colin Woodard.

What books are similar to A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn?

A People's History of the United States centers on american history, class conflict, social movements. Books with a similar feel include Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, American Nations by Colin Woodard, Americana by Bhu Srinivasan, Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.

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