American History Classics

Historian Samuel Eliot Morison said we ought to read history because it will help us behave better. I read that in a speech by historian David McCullough which was included in a collection of his work entitled History Matters. The great advantage that history has in the field of self-improvement is that when it is well-told it is terrific entertainment. What is listed here will be, I hope, a balance between what was important and influential and what is now significant and trail-breaking.