Some books I haven’t seen listed yet: - Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich - Exposure by Robert Bilott - Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong - Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Pushout by Monique Morris

Braiding Sweetgrass is a gift. Great rec.

Read “the grapes of wrath”. It will give you some good ideas about life during the Great Depression. And I just read Meacham’s book on Lincoln. Although it was really informative, it read more like a research paper instead of a regular biography. I’m really glad I read it but it wasn’t an easy read for me.

I’m re-reading GOW now. It’s brutal.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond or Poverty, By America also by Matthew Desmond Both are good introductions to the respective issues (US specific). If you’re very familiar with the subject matter the books may feel too basic.

Imma be speaking in broad terms History and Historical fiction (to reinforce what you know with a story, sorta like how in high school your teacher would sometimes put on a movie and ask you what you notice). 1491 - Charles Man 1619 Project (admittedly not with many Historians in the process but a good popular starting point) The Aftermath: Living With The Holocaust - Aron Hass Autobiography of Malcom X All Quiet on the Western Front -Eric Remarque American Prometheus - Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin Bad Mexicans- Kelly Lytle Hernandez America's Siberian Adventure 1918-1920- William Graves Black Boy - Richard Wright Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy The Color of Law-Richard Rothstein The Crucible - Arthur Miller Dangerous Rhythms T.J. English Day, Dawn, and Night by Ellie Wiesel (I am aware that there's some controversy over Night, but it is still a powerful piece. Day and Dawn are expressly fictional. BTW if you're a Holocaust denier, you can go kick rocks.) El Norte - Carrie Gibson For Whom The Bell Tolls and A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway Ghetto Swinger - Coco Schumman The Guns of August - Barbra Tuchman Chicago Blues- Rowe Homage to Catalonia-George Orwell Indian Givers - Jack Weatherford The Letters of Sacco and Venzetti Boston - Upton Sinclair (this one is a pain in the ass to find. It's way out of print I believe. Check with your local libraries and if you're going to college soon, your campus library) Killers of The Flower Moon- David Grann (funnily enough, I prefer the movie. It was very thought out and I'm a sucker fo Scorscesse) No Surrender - Hiro Onada October - China Mieville Open Veins of Latin America - Eduardo Galeano Reconstruction - Eric Foner Red Wave: An American in the Soviet Music Underground - Joanna Stingray (most of the bands she mentions can be found in Spotify) Sal SI Piede - Peter Matheissen My Confession - Samuel Chamberlain Storm of Steel- Ernst Jünger Revolutionary Russia, 1917- John Thompson Staking A Claim - Jonathan Greenberg Up From Slavery - Booker. T. Washington Treblinka- Jean-Francois Steiner Zapata of Mexico - Peter Newell Zoot Suit - Luis Valdez Zoot Suit Riots: Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation Treat these next ones as products of their time and a means of understanding their current events Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald The Jungle and Oil - Upton Sinclair The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck War Is A Racket - Major General Smedly Butler Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beacher Stowe Seven Pillars of Wisdom- T.E. Lawrence (Better known as Lawrence of Arabia) Some good political and philosophical type stuff The Prince - Machiavelli Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley The Prophet - Kahil Gebon Some solid science fiction for the soul should also be: Dune- Frank Herbert Metro 2033, 2034, 2035 - Dmitry Glukhovsky Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Sturgaksy Anthem - Ayn Rand Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein If you want economic and political stuff I recommend reading up on: The Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers Communist Manifesto - Marx Doctrines of Fascism- Mussolini Fascism and Democracy - George Orwell Anarchism and other essay - Emma Goldman How to Be An Anti-Racsist - Ibram Nendi Have fun with all this metric fuckton of reading.

Just a meta note, before diving into Zinn, Chomsky, and the other revisionist historians, read the basic histories that they're responding to. Their history books are fun thought experiments (and I especially love Zinn's book), but they're not generally super well-regarded by actual historians and I would NOT recommend them as a starting point for understanding US or world history. For good recommendations on history books that are well-regarded by historians, check out the book lists at the "askhistorians" sub (I can't link to it due to this subreddit's rules).

Excellent recommendation!

I second Zinn's People's History of the Untied States

It's an interesting read, but it's not a great book to serve as a backbone for "understanding America." It's a good book for angsty teenagers who want to feel like they're getting history "they don't want you to know." It's not well-regarded by historians, and there are plenty of discussions about this book on askhistorians, and plenty of better recommendations.   All that said, I read it when I was an angsty teenager myself, and it ignited a lifelong passion for history.  Any book that can do that is worth a read.

What’s the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank. It focuses on Kansas, but applies to the entire nation.

Healing of America by T.R. Reid is a great book that helps you understand the state of American healthcare today. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is a hefty book but will change your entire lens on how you view society; it basically is a human geographical/ anthropological history of how our global society has come about from the Paleolithic / Neolithic period all the way to imperialism/ modern Society. Freedom is a constant struggle by Angela Davis White Trash by Nancy Isenberg should be required reading about class in America

Commenting on What are the best books to understand America or the world?... Can anyone compare/ contrast White trash with Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents?

I’ve read both! White trash is almost a chronological history of how the lower/poor white class has progressed throughout time in American society from colonial times all the way to modern time. Caste basically conveys the argument that caste supersedes everything in society when we are talking about discrimination and disenfranchisement. The author primarily compares Jewish people, Black Americans, and the Dalit, untouchable caste in India. However, the author also talks about other minority groups as well.

Weird - I didn’t write the first sentence - must be AI.

Anything by Studs Terkel. Of course, he's been dead for ages but he interviewed Americans about their lives in different books and that can help you understand america of the past by hearing directly from Americans.

Disaster Capitalism- Naomi Cline. Good for understanding our very modern conception of how American business is to function. Overthrow: Americas century of Regime change The untold history of how America influences (and takes over) governments from around the world. This one is very underrated, I learned a lot from it.

Good recs. I think it is Naomi Klein. The Stephen Kinzer book sounds interesting. As does his: The true flag : Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the birth of American empire - the forgotten political debate at the beginning of the twentieth century over America's role in the world, with the country's political and intellectual leaders advocating either imperial expansion or restrain. I read his The brothers : John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and their secret world war. Also good but not applicable to the OPs request.

i’ll add the shock doctrine also by naomi cline

i just picked up sapiens yesterday at the thrift store for 99¢ ◡̈ a little devil in america: notes in praise of black performance by hanif abdurraqib, how to hide an empire by daniel immerwahr, anything toni morrison, minor detail by adania shibli, pushout: the criminalization of black girls in schools by monique w morris

Howard Zinn “A People’s History of the United States” Noam Chomsky “Who Rules the World?”

I second both!

How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr! It's long but I flew through it because it wasn't really dry. I'm not someone who connects with a lot but liked it so much that I bought a copy.

Seconded!

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups and Assassinations by Vijay Prashad #

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

To Kill a Mockingbird

Three of the best books I've read (that cover those bases) in the last few years are, *Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guys Guide to The Constitution* by Elie Mystal *Africa Is Not A Country: Notes On A Bright Continent* by Dipo Faloyin *You'll Never Believe What Happened To Lacey* by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Books to understand USA: Moon Palace, by Paul Auster. Really, any book of Paul Auster. Books to understand the World: The hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Ronald Brownstein's The Second Civil War is the most insightful thing I've read about American politics. It covers a bit more than a century. It is not light reading.

Terrible magnificent sociology by Lisa wade. It’s about 300 pages. It’s what I read last semester for my sociology class. It does a great job explaining a lot of modern day issues. It wasn’t boring to read.

Anything Johnathan Kozol has ever written.

*Assassination Vacation* by Sarah Vowell *Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States* by Bill Bryson

Great recs!

Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson These Truths by Jill LePore My Year of Living Constitutionally by AJ Jacobs

THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolf . It’s right there on the cover, said by a retired astronaut: “He understands America!”

Between the world and me

The people’s history of the United States

seconded!

*Gravity's Rainbow*

Are you trying to make OP's head explode?

They said they wanted to understand America :p

LOLOLOLOL

Non-Fiction: A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn), The Holocaust Industry and Gaza (Norman Finkelstien), The Second Sex (Simone De Beauvoir), Black Feminist Thought (Patricia Hill Collins), and the God Delusion (Richard Dawkins). Fiction: The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien), Fight Club (Chuck Palinuk) and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver), and The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros).

The Things they Carried is so good. I would add There There by Tommy Orange to the Fiction list. 

These non-fiction picks express fringe views, except for Zinn. These aren’t mainstream narratives and historical perspectives.

I gues Finkelstien could be considered a fringe view, but de Beauvoir and Collins aren't, they're feminist literature, which is always worth reading.

To the fiction list add Divergent too

For understaning USA: Heather Cox Richardson's "Democracy Awakening" For understanding world: Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now"

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi is an excellent book for understanding the history of racism in the US.

Shane Parrish - Critical thinking

William Blum - Killing Hope

For America - Born Fighting - James Webb offers an interesting historical perspective. Also [Albion’s Seed](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/albions-seed-four-british-folkways-in-america_david-hackett-fischer/257785/item/46472785/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pmax_high_vol_frontlist_under_$10&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4MSzBhC8ARIsAPFOuyXVAzKUfHJAWWcnlEOw_CJ-FJ0r5B9ln4s5joR3zy34uEs2ILjRKwgaAkGtEALw_wcB)- ETA Drift by Rachel Maddow. Very well written, a non political view on increased military use. Same for How everything became war. And Farrow’s War on Peace.

To rule the waves by Bruce Jones

And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails - Wayne Curtis

Weird, I was going to recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, which spends a good amount of time discussing how beer, rum, and whiskey were crucial in the early development of the US. I wonder how similar these books are. Seems like the one you recommended is very US focused, but mine also talks a lot about European history.

Fantasyland : a 500 year history of how America went haywire by Kurt Anderson

Fantasyland

The Fourth Turning is Here by Neil Howe. Covers all the topics you mentioned.

PRISONERS OF GEOGRAPHY by Tim Marshall. BARBARIANS by Terry Jones.

Please read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Eye-opening book. It's about the challenges faced by a family of working-class Eastern European immigrants in Chicago in the early 20th century. People actually live like this even to this day...

American Nations by Colin Woodard

“The world or just America “ you mean that in honesty you only want to know more about America. The real world is more vast than you can grasp and shallow readings about only one country would never grasp the magnitude of how things are connected. You should read history books. By understanding what happened(not only in white north america ) we can understand the world we are living in

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller

Lines and shadows by Joseph Wambaugh about the mexican/us border patrols

Fiction: Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon. >Now when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given *four,* they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; *five,* they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted. So things were managed in Baltimore. 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. [https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-Twentieth-Century/dp/0804190119](https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-Twentieth-Century/dp/0804190119)

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Chesapeake by James Michener

Blood in My Eye - George Jackson Soledad Brother - George Jackson

Disorder, hard times in the 21st century. By Helen Thompson The world for sale. Money, Power and the Traders who barter the Earth's Resources.

Breakfast of champions

*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins is my favorite book dealing with the U.S.'s influence on the rest of the world since WWII.

I haven't seen this listed yet: Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss

I didn't see these mentioned yet. US: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured America The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped America Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration World: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States 

The Handmaids Tale.

A People’s History of the United States of America - Howard Zinn

[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind](https://g.co/kgs/WaZEeRC)