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Books suggested by the
Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.


The Center for the Book was established in the Library of Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries. It has developed the following "Read More About It!" reading lists for the American Memory collections to open up the world of books to people of all ages. The Center for the Book invites you to visit your local library or bookstore: they will be happy to help you "Read More About It!"

Note: The collections are alphabetized by the first important keyword (capitalized) in the title.


AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES:
Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907

Of general interest:

Duster, Alfreda M., ed. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.

Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans. 7th ed., N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Harlan, Louis R. Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1972.

McFeely, William S. Frederick Douglass. N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 1991.

Especially for younger readers:

Hamilton, Virginia. Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom. N.Y.: Knopf, 1993.

Klots, Steve. Ida Wells-Barnett. N.Y.: Chelsea House, 1994.

Medeavis, Angela Shelf. This Far to Freedom: A History of African Americans. N.Y.: Atheneum, 1993.

Meltzer, Milton, ed. Frederick Douglass: In His Own Words. N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, 1995.


Top of Page | More About African-American Perspectives

ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN for a Modern America:
Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1933-1955

Of general interest:

Goldberger, Paul. On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Postmodern Age. N.Y.: Times Books, 1983.

McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. N.Y.: Alfred A Knopf, 1995.

Poppeliers, John C., et. al. What Style Is It? A Guide to American Architecture. Washington, D.C: The Preservation Press, 1983.

Stern, Robert A.M. Pride of Place: Building the American Dream. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986.

Especially for younger readers:

Glenn, Patricia Brown. Discover America's Favorite Architects. N.Y.: John S. Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Morris, Ann. Houses and Homes. N.Y.: Mulberry Books, 1992.

Wilkinson, Philip. Building. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Architecture and Interior Design

Selected CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHS from the Library of Congress, 1861-1865

Of general interest:

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Meredith, Roy. Mathew Brady's Portrait of an Era. N.Y.: W. W. Norton, 1982.

Peterson, Merrill D. Lincoln in American Memory. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels. N.Y.: David McKay Co., 1974.

Ward, Geoffrey C. The Civil War: An Illustrated History.N.Y.: Knopf, 1990.

Especially for younger readers:

Freedman, Russell. Lincoln: A Photobiography. N.Y.: Clarion, 1987.

Meredith, Roy. Mr. Lincoln's Camera Man: Mathew B. Brady. N.Y.: Dover, 1974.

Robertson, James I.,Jr. Civil War! America Becomes a Nation. An Illustrated History for Young Readers. N.Y.: Knopf, 1996.

Sullivan, George. Mathew Brady: His Life and Photographs. N.Y.: Cobblehill Books, 1994.


Top of Page | More About Selected Civil War Photographs

The Evolution of the CONSERVATION MOVEMENT, 1850-1920

Of general interest:

Goetzmann, William H., and Kay Sloan. Looking Far North: The Harriman Expedition to Alaska. N.Y.: Viking, 1982.

Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. 3rd ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1982.

Oelschlaeger, Max, ed. The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

Wilkins, Thurman. John Muir: Apostle of Nature. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.

Especially for younger readers:

Anderson, Peter. Gifford Pinchot: American Forester. N.Y.: Watts, 1995.

George, Jean Craighead. There's an Owl in the Shower. N.Y.: Harper-Collins, 1995.

Lucas, Eileen. Naturalists, Conservationists, and Environmentalists. N.Y.: Facts on File, 1994.


Top of Page | More About Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

Documents from the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS and Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789

Of general interest:

Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Decision at Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Random House, 1986.

Kammen, Michael. A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American History. Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.

Quinn, Arthur. A New World: An Epic of Colonial America From the Founding of America to the Fall of Quebec. Faber and Faber, 1994.

Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978.

Especially for younger readers:

Bober, Natalie S. Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution. N.Y.: Atheneum, 1995.

Fritz, Jean. The Great Little Madison. N.Y.: G.P. Putnam and Sons, 1989.

Meltzer, Milton. Thomas Jefferson: the Revolutionary Aristocrat. N.Y.: Franklin Watts, 1991.


Top of Page | More About Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention

America's First Look into the Camera:
DAGUERREOTYPE Portraits and Views, 1842-1862

Of general interest:

Rinhart, Floyd. The American Daguerreotype. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1981.

Rudisill, Richard. Mirror Image: The Influence of the Daguerrotype on American Society. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971.

Shaw, Renata, comp. A Century of Photographs 1846-1946. Selected from the Collections of the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1980.

Wood, John, ed. America and the Daguerreotype. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991.

Especially for younger readers:

Lowe, Jacques. Looking at Photographs: People. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.

Sandler, Martin W. Inventors: A Library of Congress Book. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1996.


Top of Page | More About Daguerreotypes, 1842-1862

Touring Turn-of-the-Century America:
Photographs from the DETROIT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1880-1920

Of general interest:

The American Heritage History of the Confident Years. N.Y.: American Heritage, 1973.

Cashman, Sean Dennis. America in the Gilded Age. 2nd ed. N.Y.: New York University Press, 1988.

Green, Constance McLaughlin. The Rise of Urban America. N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1967.

Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. N.Y.: Holt, 1955.

Wiebe, Robert H. The Search for Order, 1877-1920. N.Y.:Hill & Wang, 1967.

Especially for younger readers:

Ballard, Robert D. Exploring the Titanic. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1988.

Freedman, Russell. The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. N.Y.: Holiday House, 1991.

Fritz, Jean. Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt! N.Y.: Putnam, 1991.

Kalman, Esther. Tchaikovsky Discovers America. N.Y.: Orchard, 1995.

Provensen, Alice. My Fellow Americans: A Family Album. San Diego: Browndeer Press, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company

Color Photographs from the FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION and the Office of War Information, 1938-1944

Of general interest:

Fleischhauer, Carl and Beverly W. Brannan. Documenting America, 1935-1943. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Stott, William. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Stryker, Roy Emerson and Nancy Wood. In This Proud Land: America 1935-1943 as Seen in the FSA Photographs. N.Y.: Galahad Books, 1973.

Terkel, Studs. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. N.Y.: Pantheon Books, 1986.

Especially for younger readers:

Krull, Kathleen. V is for Victory: America Remembers World War II. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl. N.Y.: Crown Publishers, 1992.

Stein, R. Conrad. The Great Depression. N.Y.: Children's Press, 1993.

Turner, Robyn. Dorthea Lange. Boston.: Little, Brown & Company, 1994.


Top of Page | More About Color Photographs of the Farm Security Administration, 1938-1944

American LIFE HISTORIES:
Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

Of general interest:

Banks, Ann, ed. First-Person America. N.Y.: Knopf, 1980.

Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience. N.Y.: Random House, 1965.

Federal Writers' Project. These Are Our Lives. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939.

Leech, Margaret. In the Days of McKinley. N.Y.: Harper, 1959.

Mangione, Jerre. The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943. Boston: Little Brown, 1972.

Rae, Noel, ed. Witnessing America: The Library of Congress Book of Firsthand Accounts of Life in America, 1600-1900. N.Y.: Penguin, 1996.

Especially for younger readers:

Greenberg, Judith E. and Helen Carey McKeever. A Pioneer Woman's Memoir. N.Y.: Watts, 1995.

Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1995.

Sandler, Martin W. Pioneers: A Library of Congress Book. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1994.

Shelby, Anne. Homeplace. N.Y.: Orchard, 1995.

Top of Page | More About American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project

Early MOTION PICTURES:
Inside an American Factory - The Westinghouse Works, 1904

Of general interest:

Licht, Walter. Industrializing America: The Nineteenth Century. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Nelson, Daniel. Managers and Workers: Origins of the Twentieth-Century Factory System in the United States, 1880-1920. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.

Prout, Henry G. A Life of George Westinghouse. N.Y.: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1921. Reprinted by Arno Press, 1972.

Trachtenberg, Alan. The Incorporation of America: Culture & Society in the Gilded Age. N.Y.: Hill and Wang, 1982.

Especially for younger readers:

Colman, Penny. Strike: The Bitter Struggle of American Workers from Colonial Times to the Present. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1995.

Levinson, Nancy Smiler. Thomas Alva Edison: Great Inventor. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1996.

Ravage, Barbara. George Westinghouse: A Genius for Invention. Austin: Raintree-Steck-Vaughn, 1997.

Sandler, Martin W. Immigrants. A Library of Congress Book. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Early Motion Pictures: Inside an American Factory

Early MOTION PICTURES:
New York - The Life of a City, 1898-1906

Of general interest:

Baldwin, Neil. Edison: Inventing the Century. N.Y.: Hyperion, 1995.

Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. N.Y.: Random House, 1975.

Kasson, John F. Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. N.Y.: Hill & Wang, 1978.

Niver, Kemp R. Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1985.

Robinson, David. From Peep Show to Palace: The Birth of American Film. N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1996.

Especially for younger readers:

Adler, David A. Thomas Alva Edison: Great Inventor. N.Y.: Holiday House, 1990.

Lawlor, Veronica, ed. I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project. N.Y.: Viking, 1995.

Sandler, Martin W. Immigrants: A Library of Congress Book. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Early Motion Pictures: New York - The Life of a City, 1898-1906

Early MOTION PICTURES:
President McKinley and the Buffalo World's Fair

Of general interest:

Leech, Margaret. In the Days of McKinley. N.Y.: Harper, 1959.

Musser, Charles. The Emergence of Film: The American Screen to 1907. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Rydell, Robert W. All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Especially for younger readers:

Hakim, Joy. An Age of Extremes. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Smith, Carter, ed. Presidents of a World Power: A Sourcebook on the U.S. Presidency. American Albums from the Library of Congress. Brookfield, Conn.: The Millbrook Press, 1993.


Top of Page | More About Early Motion Pictures: President McKinley and the Buffalo World's Fair, 1901

Early MOTION PICTURES:
San Francisco Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire

Of general interest:

Bronson, William. The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986.

Hansen, Gladys C. and Emmet Condon. San Francisco: Cameron and Co., 1989

Lewis, Oscar. San Francico: Mission to Metropolis. 2nd. ed. San Diego, Calif.: Howell-North Book, 1980.

Especially for younger readers:

Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Earthquake! A Story of Old San Francisco. N.Y.: Viking, 1993.

Levine, Ellen. If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1992.

Movies. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1996.


Top of Page | More About Early Motion Pictures: San Francisco Before and After the Earthquake, 1897-1916

Creative Americans:
PORTRAITS BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 1932-1964

Of general interest:

Byrd, Rudolph P., ed. Generations in Black and White: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993.

Kellner, Bruce. Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.

Lewis, David L. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. N.Y.: Viking, 1994.

Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930. N.Y.: Pantheon Books, 1995.

Especially for younger readers:

Butterfield, Moira and Susan Peach. Photography. London: Usborne Publishing, 1991.

Hakim, Joy. War, Peace, and All That Jazz. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Lowe, Jacques. Looking at Photographs: People. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.


Top of Page | More About Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten

By Popular Demand:
PORTRAITS OF THE PRESIDENTS AND FIRST LADIES, 1789-Present

Of general interest:

Couch, Ernie, comp. Presidential Trivia. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1996.
Dalleck, Robert. Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents. N.Y.: Hyperion, 1996.

Hyland, Pat. Presidential Libraries and Museums: An Illustrated Guide. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1995..

Klapthor, Margaret Brown. The First Ladies. 8th ed. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 1995.

Mayo, Edith P., ed. The Smithsonian Book of First Ladies. N.Y.: Henry Holt, 1996.

McDonald, Forrest. The American Presidency: An Intellectual History. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1994.

Sayler, James, comp. Presidents of the United States: Their Written Measure. A Bibliography. Washington: Library of Congress, 1996.

Wilson, Robert A., ed. Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush. N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

For younger readers:

Barnes, Peter W. and Cheryl Barnes. Woodrow, the White House Mouse. Alexandria, Va.: Vacation Spot Publishing, 1995.

Clinton, Susan. First Ladies. Chicago: Children's Press, 1994.

Pascoe, Elaine. First Facts about the Presidents. Woodbridge, Conn.: Blackbirch Press, 1996.

Quiri, Patricia Ryon. The White House. N.Y.: Franklin Watts, 1996.

Spies, Karen Bornemann. Our Presidency. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1994.


Top of Page | More About Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies

American Leaders Speak:
RECORDINGS FROM WORLD WAR I AND THE 1920 ELECTION, 1918-1920

Of general interest:

Collier, Peter and David Horowitz. The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty. N.Y.: Holt, 1976.

Ferrell, Robert H. Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917-1921. N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1985.

Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1980.

McCoy, Donald R. Calvin Coolidge. N.Y.: Macmillan, 1967.

Ravitch, Diane. The American Reader: Words That Moved a Nation. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1990.

Suriano, Gregory R., ed. Great American Speeches. N.Y.: Gramercy Books, 1993.

For younger readers:

Clare, John D., ed. First World War. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1995.

Jantzen, Steven L. Hooray for Peace, Hurrah for War: The United States During World War I. N.Y.: Facts on File, 1991.

Leavell, J. Perry. Woodrow Wilson. N.Y.: Chelsea House, 1987.


Top of Page | More About Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election

The American VARIETY STAGE:
Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920

Of general interest:

Henderson, Amy and Dwight Blocker Bower. Red, Hot & Blue: A Smithsonian Salute to the American Musical. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.

Lynes, Russell. The Lively Audience: A Social History of the Visual and Performing Arts in America, 1890-1950. N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1985.

Silverman, Kenneth. Houdini! The Career of Ehrich Weiss: American Self-Liberator, Europe's Eclipsing Sensation, World's Handcuff King & Prison Breaker. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1996.

Snyder, Robert W. The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Especially for younger readers:

Ardley, Neil. Music. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Gish, Lillian, and Selma G. Lanes. An Actor's Life for Me! N.Y.: Viking, 1987.

Hakim, Joy. Reconstruction and Reform. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Venezia, Mike. George Gershwin. Chicago: Children's Press, 1994.


Top of Page | More About American Variety Stage

VOTES FOR WOMEN:
Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921

Of general interest:

Flexner, Eleanor and Ellen Fitzpatrick. Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Graham, Sara Hunter. Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Hays, Elinor Rice. Those Extraordinary Blackwells: The Story of a Journey to a Better World. N Y.: Harcourt Brace, & World, 1967.

Especially for younger readers:

Ashby, Ruth and Deborah Gore Ohrn, eds. Herstory: Women Who Changed the World. N.Y.: Viking, 1995.

Fritz, Jean. You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? N.Y.: Putnam's, 1995.

McCully, Emily Arnold. The Ballot Box Battle. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.


Top of Page | More About Votes for Women

The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of WALT WHITMAN NOTEBOOKS, 1847-1860s

Of general interest:

Broderick, John C. "The Greatest Whitman Collector and the Greatest Whitman Collection," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 27 (April 1970): 109-128.

Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1980.

Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Walt Whitman: Complete Poetry and Collected Prose. N.Y.: The Library of America, 1982.

Especially for younger readers:

Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain: America's Humorist, Dreamer, Prophet--A Biography. N.Y.: Scholastic, 1995.

Reef, Catherine. Walt Whitman. N.Y.: Clarion, 1995.

Toynton, Evelyn. Growing Up in America: 1830 to 1860. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Walt Whitman Notebooks

WASHINGTON As It Was:
Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959

Of general interest:

Collins, Kathleen. Washingtoniana Photographs: Collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Washington, D. C.: Library of Congress, 1989.

Lewis, David L. District of Columbia: A Bicentennial History. N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Co., 1976.

Miller, Fredric M., and Howard Gillette, Jr. Washington Seen: A Photographic History, 1875-1965. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Scott, Pamela and Antoinette Lee. Buildings of the District of Columbia. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Especially for younger readers:

Brill, Marlene Targ. Building the Capital City. N.Y.: Children's Press, 1996.

Fradin, Dennis Brindell. From Sea to Shining Sea: Washington, D.C. Chicago: Childen's Press, 1992.

Reynolds, Patrick M. A Cartoon History of the District of Columbia. Willow Street, Pa.: The Red Rose Studio, 1995.


Top of Page | More About Washington as It Was

Around the World in the 1890s:
Photographs from the WORLD'S TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION, 1894-1896

Of general interest:

Bourne, Russell. Americans on the Move: A History of Waterways, Railways, and Highways. Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing, 1995.

Hales, Peter B. William H. Jackson and the Transformation of the American Landscape. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.

Jackson, William Henry. Time Exposure: The Autobiography of William Henry Jackson. N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1940.

Especially for younger readers:

Blumberg, Rhonda. Full Steam Ahead: The Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1996.

Madgwick, Wendy. Citymaze! A Collection of Amazing City Mazes. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1994.

Sandler, Martin W. Inventors. A Library of Congress Book. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1996.

Top of Page | More About Around the World in the 1890s
American Memory Learning Educator

Library of Congress URL: http://www.loc.gov/

Questions about American Memory? NDLP Reference Librarian: ndlpedu@loc.gov

Read More About It! URL: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/cntrbook.html

Feb-14-97