Changes

These books each cover a specific aspect or period of the 19th Century. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but it is designed to give you an overview of the entire century. Each of these books has an extremely wide scope and broad ambitions. They are also fairly conventional choices. When you fill a booklist with conventional safe picks, you leave off some of the good stuff. Trust us, we will get to the good stuff.

Still, if you read each of these books you will gain a solid initial grasp of 19th Century America. Are there unforgivable omissions? Yes, there are ridiculously important books that have been left off the list, but you have to start somewhere.

If you disagree with this list, please change it.