An eclectic list of author favorites.
Activism / Volunteerism
By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers by Susan Ellis and Katherine Campbell (publishing detail)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (publishing detail)
 Democracy and Freedom
The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky, and Ron Dermer (publishing detail)
Does American Democracy Still Work? by Alan Wolfe (publishing detail)
A balanced and reasoned consideration of this question, chosen from among the many contemporary books on a similar theme.
Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent by Henry Steele Commager (publishing detail)
Economics
Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman (publishing detail)
Free to Choose by Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman (publishing detail)
The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money by John Keynes (publishing detail)
Discusses the theoretical foundation for the policy of deficit financing during a depression, and critically examines several formulations of classical economics.
Kansas History
The Autobiography of William Allen White by William Allen White (publishing detail)
Born and raised in El Dorado, Kansas, White was a renowned small-town journalist with national reach, known in his heyday as the “The Voice of Middle America.â€
Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000 by H. Craig Miner (publishing detail)
Other
The Bondswoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts and edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (publishing detail)
A personal history of a black woman during the period of the U.S. Civil War, based on a collection of her papers.
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia by Janet Wallach (publishing detail)
Piecing Together Our Separate Lives by Kenneth M. and Mary Ellen McCaffree (publishing detail)
For availability, contact the author.
U.S. Colonial History
1776 by David McCullough (publishing detail)
The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood (publishing detail)
The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay (publishing detail)
Originally published anonymously under pseudonyms, written to the American public to argue the case for a federal government during the controversial state-by-state ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Read especially papers I-X, XV, XXXI, XLVII, LI, LXVIII, LXX, LXIX and LXXL.
John Adams by David McCullough (publishing detail)
A biography of the second president of the United States – a book about politics, war and social issues, and the private and personal life of one of America’s most important and fascinating citizens during the early years of our nation.
Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution by Richard Beeman (publishing detail)
Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen (publishing detail)
Describes and analyzes the give and take and compromises among diverse colonial leaders in the summer of 1787 ending in the “miracle†that is the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. History – Other
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (publishing detail)
The American Revolution: A History by Wood, Gordon S. Wood
April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik (publishing detail)
Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made by Jim Newton (publishing detail)
A biography detailing the life and influences of Chief Justice Earl Warren on contemporary life in the U.S. during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin (publishing detail)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (publishing detail)
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard (publishing detail)
Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission by Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton (publishing detail)
Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family by Catherine Drinker Bowen (publishing detail)
Social Philosophy
The Book of Job, translation and introduction by Stephen Mitchell (publishing detail)
Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo by Plato, and edited by Benjamin Jowett (publishing detail)
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (publishing detail)
Washington State History & Political History
Government and Politics in the Evergreen State edited by David Nice (publishing detail)
Washington: A History of the Evergreen State by Mary W. Avery (publishing detail)
Washington’s Audacious State Capitol and its Builders by Norman J. Johnston (publishing detail)
A history of a spectacular state capitol, complete with photographs, architectural sketches and narrative of the creation of the capitol campus.
Washington Comes of Age: The State in the National Experience edited by David H. Stratton (publishing detail)
RECOMMENDED READING – ALPHABETICAL BY AUTHOR
Avery, Mary W., Washington: A History of the Evergreen State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1956.
Beeman, Richard, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. New York: Random House, 2009.
Bowen, Catherine Drinker, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1966.
Bowen, Catherine Drinker, Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1944.
Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962.
Chernow, Ron, Alexander Hamilton. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004.
Commager, Henry Steele, Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954.
Crafts, Hannah, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Bondswoman’s Narrative. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 2002.
Ellis, Susan J. and Campbell, Katherine H., By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers. Philadelphia: Energize, Inc., 2005.
Friedman, Milton and Friedman, Rose D., Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Friedman, Milton and Friedman, Rose D., Free to Choose. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; Jay, John, The Federalist Papers. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1987 (first published in 1788).
Johnston, Norman J., Washington’s Audacious State Capitol and its Builders. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.
Kean, Thomas H. and Hamilton, Lee H., Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 2006.
Keynes, John Maynard, The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935.
McCaffree, Kenneth M. and McCaffree, Mary Ellen, Piecing Together Our Separate Lives. Seattle, 2001. For availability, contact the author.
McCullough, David, 1776. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
McCullough, David, John Adams. New York: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Millard, Candice, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey. New York: Doubleday, 2005.
Miner, H. Craig, Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
Mitchell, Stephen, The Book of Job, translation and introduction by Stephen Mitchell. New York: HarperCollins, Inc., 1987.
Newton, Jim, Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made. New York: Riverhead Books, a member of the Penguin Group, Inc., 2006.
Nice, David C., Pierce, John C., and Sheldon, Charles H., eds., Government and Politics in the Evergreen State. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1992.
Plato, and Jowett, Benjamin, ed., Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1988.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, The Social Contract. London: The Penguin Group, Limited, 1968.
Sharansky, Natan and Dermer, Ron, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. New York: Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2004.
Stratton, David H., ed., Washington Comes of Age: The State in the National Experience. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1992.
Wallach, Janet, Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia. New York: Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1999.
White, William Allen, The Autobiography of William Allen White. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946.
Winik, Jay, April 1865: The Month That Saved America. New York: Harper Collins, 2001.
Wolfe, Alan, Does American Democracy Still Work? New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Wood, Gordon S., The American Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library Chronicles, 2002.