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__ American History Book Club __

**Non-Fiction is denoted with** *

** Post Civil War Reconstruction and Industrialization **

Focus: Students will investigate America after the Civil War through the changes in industry, urbanization, and mass immigration. This literary movement also manifested the rise of realism in American literature and the responses to a drastic changing society.

Books listed: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - Chicago meat packing industry, early 1900s Oil! by Upton Sinclair (I have this book to loan out if library does not) Maggie Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane - NYC tenements As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - family's struggle to get their mother properly buried Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow - 1900-1910 A Sweatshop During Industrial Revolution by Adam Woog* Beloved by Toni Morrison - slavery Black Boy by Richard Wright* - autobiography, early 1900s  Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire The Unresolved by T.K. Welsh - Slocum steamboat fire  Booth's Daughter by Raymond Wemmlinger - 19th century NYC  The Unvanquished by William Faulkner - Southern colonel becomes involved in the family's struggle to maintain the old order Lost by Jaqueline Davies - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

=The Way West = The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan - 1866, pioneers  The Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger - Battle of Little Bighorn & other adventures  One Thousand White Women : The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus - 1854, white "brides" sent west  Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake - Lieutenant John Dunbar, the only soldier at an army outpost deep in Indian territory, who befriends the local Comanche tribe and learns their ways from the beautiful Comanche woman whose life he saved.  Gabriel's Story by David Durham - 1870s, African-American cowboy  Westward the Women : An Anthology of Western Stories by Women*  Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee : An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Blizzard's Children by David Laskin* - 1888 blizzard known as the children's blizzard <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman - 1876, Sioux <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Grass Dancer by Susan Power - Dakota Indians

** Early American Wars (Revolutionary, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War) ** Focus: Students will examine life during early American wars through causes, battle, and effects. This group will focus more on the military aspect of war and learn how early American battles were conducted.

Books Listed: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Revolutionary War Era ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson - slavery before American Revolution <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson - yellow fever epidemic <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> An American Plague by Jim Murphy* - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">yellow fever epidemic

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** War of 1812 **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Civil War ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson* - John Wilkes Booth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Ambrose Bierce's Civil War * - My Enemy, My Brother by Joseph Persico* - Battle of Gettysburg <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Embattled Courage by Gerald Linderman* - experience of combat <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes - Quantrell's raiders <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara - Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - Battle of Gettysburg Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles - enemy collaboration <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead - destruction of war Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier - deserter's journey home Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - soldier's combat experience March by Geraldine Brooks - effects on family The March by E. L. Doctorow - Sherman's march to the sea Shiloh by Shelby Foote - Battle of Shiloh Andersonville by McKinley Kantor - infamous prison camp for Union soldiers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - slavery

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Spanish American War ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> U.S.A. by John Dos Passos - portrait of America from war to Great Depression

** Modern Warfare (World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq War) **

Focus: Students will examine the dynamics of modern warfare through causes, battles, and effects of 20th century military conflicts. Once again, this group will focus more on the military aspects of war and learn how modern American battles were conducted.

Books Listed:

**World War I** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque - 5 German students are drafted <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos - soldiers' aimlessness and boredom <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo - anti-war <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson - Montana & unexpected problems related to the war

**World War II** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Deliver Us From Evil by Daniel Reed - dozen desperate Nazi POWs from nearby Camp Trinidad The Last Mission by Harry Mazer - night missions & getting shot down <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Heroes by Robert Cormier - face blown away by a grenade Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - satire <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes - 1 German and 1 American paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers - D-Day invasion Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut - allied bombing of Dresden, Germany <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut - American spy is tried in Israel as a Nazi war criminal Mila 18 by Leon Uris - Warsaw ghetto <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka - Japanese Americans & internment camps <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Stalin Front by Gert Ledig - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Your Eyes in Stars by M. E. Kerr - friendship in the years preceding World War II <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> I Had Seen Castles by Cynthia Rylant - memories of the horrors of war that changed life forever <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury - Japanese-American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac - Navajo men are recruited to send coded messages in their native tongue <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Flyboys by James Bradley* - 9 Navy and Marine aviators shot down off the Japanese-held island of Chichi Jima in February 1945 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose* - a dventures, misadventures, triumphs & tragedies of a single U.S. Army infantry company <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley* - Battle of Iwo Jima <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Hiroshima by John Hersey* - dropping of an atomic bomb 1945, from the viewpoint of the people who lived through it <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Under a War-torn Sky by L.M. Elliott - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">plane is shot down Henry, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Sequel - A Troubled Peace - Henry returns to France, where he is shocked to see the ravages of war

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Korean War ** The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon - Cold War assassin <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Good Man by Edward Jae-Suk Lee - No Gun Ri massacre of Korean civilians The Bridges at Toko-ri by James Michener <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> I Am the Clay by Chaim Potok -

**Vietnam War** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic* - from a patriotic soldier, to his severe battlefield injury, to anti-Vietnam War activist <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo* - emotional devastation of war <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip* - spy for the Viet Cong, and her return to her country <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> If I Die in the Combat Zone by by Tim O'Brien* - the ambiguities of a war gone wrong Sympathy for the Devil by Kent Anderson - Green Berets Lost In War by Nancy Antle - memories of a nurse in Vietnam Travelers by Larry Bograd Amaryllis by Craig Crist-Evans Fatal Light by Richard Currey <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Novel Without a Name by Thu Huong Duong - North Vietnamese soldier, idealism becomes lost Sonny's War by Valerie Hobbs Search and Destroy by Dean Hughes Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers - African-Americans in Vietnam Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien - desertion Fields of Fire by James Webb - Marines experience the contrast of danger & ultimate test of survival <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty by Ellen Emerson White - siege **of**// Khe Sanh, 1967-1968

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Persian Gulf War ** - 1991 Hometown by Marsha Qualey - draft resistance Gulf by Robert Westall Summer 1990 by Firyal Alshalabi <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Linger by M. E. Kerr Peace is a 4 Letter word by Janet Nichols

**Iraq War** - 2003 Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan - graphic novel

** The 1920s and the Great Depression **

Focus: Students will relive the rise and fall of American prosperity by reading different perspectives of individuals living through the Roarin' Twenties and the Great Depression. If is important to make a comparison of the major lifestyle differences in such a short period of time.

Books Listed:

**1920s** The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - social classes, love story Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan - Native Americans and oil Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle - rum smuggling <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Jazz by Toni Morrison - Black urban life during the Jazz Age <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Amelia Earhart by Blythe Randolph*

**Great Depression** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - during the Depression migrant fruit pickers in California Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - misfits Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - circus life Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse - hardships of farm living during the dust bowl years Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Hitch by Jeanette Ingold - Civilian Conservation Corps

** Changes in Society Between 1950s - 1970s **

Focus: Students will analyze the social changes in revolutionary America between the 1950s and 1970s. The development of the Beatnik and Hippie movements represented new literary movements focused on sex, drugs, rock n roll, and protest.

Books Listed:

**1950s** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown* - life in New York City's Harlem <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> On the Road by Jack Kerouac - cross-country bohemian odyssey One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey - social commentary on the regimentation of life <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - inhumanity of man to man through a futuristic culture Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - adolescence - 1st "young adult" novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute - after nuclear war Plenty Porter by Brandon Noonan - child in the 1950s Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam* - space exploration, memoir <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov - moral disintegration <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">China Boy by Gus Lee - assimilation and loss of culture

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** 1960s ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson*- hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X* -story of leader of the Black Revolution of the 1960s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton - conflicting values of adolescent society The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon - civil rights movement <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe* - Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters Riders on the Storm by John Densmore* - Jim Morrison & the Doors Unafraid of the Dark by Rosemary Bray* - growing up poor in Chicago of the 1960s Little Miss Strange by Joanna Rose - family dynamics of the 1960s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey - allegory of

**1970s** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Miss American Pie by Margaret Sartor* - 1970s crafted from diaries, notebooks, and letters Little Miss Strange by Joanna Rose - family life of the 1970s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Honky by Dalton Conley*- growing up white in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Mama's Girl by Veronica Chambers * - overachiever in an underprivileged family in New York <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Nothing Pink by Mark Hardy

** Human Rights and Social Issues (Concerns literature directed towards struggles of any minority group including women, Native Americans, and homosexuals) **

Focus: Students will learn about the struggles experienced by different minority groups in America throughout the 20th Century. Through these struggles, students will draw conclusions about oppression and acceptance through many different perspectives of authors.

Books Listed:

**African Americans** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry - (play) - tensions in a black middle-class family in Chicago <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Color Purple by Alice Walker - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks - 1920s, minority boy in a Kansas community <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Hip Hop Generation by Bakari Kitwana* - A study of African-Americans born between 1965 and 1984 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner - murder of a white man in the South <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - narrator traces his life from college & into Harlem where he becomes invisible <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Devil on My Heels by Joyce McDonald - 1957, acts of racism against the African American orange pickers Joseph by Sheila Moses - homelessness Caucasia by Danzy Sanna - interracial marriage <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Black and White by Paul Volponi - experience the justice system differently <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - beauty and racism <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Dreaming in Color: Living in Black and White * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Known World by Edward P. Jones - slavery <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Fire from the Rock by Sharon Draper - 1957, civil rights <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Price of a Child by Lorene Cary - slavery - bondage & liberty

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** LGBT ** Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan Deliver Us from Evie by M.E. Kerr Far from Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters Wide Awake by David Levithan

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> ** Women ** Dust on the Tracks by Zora Neale Hurston I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Color Purple by Alice Walker Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flag Bean Trees by King Solver A Secret Life of Bees by Sue Mon Kidd The Awakening by Kate Chopin

**Native Americans** I Am Apache by Tanya Landman When the Legend Dies by Hal Borland Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie Ceremony by Leslie Silko Garden in the Dunes by Leslie Silko Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac House Made by Dawn by N. Scott Momaday A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris Last Child by Michael Spooner Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown*

** The Tech Age- Visions of the Future **

Focus: Students will follow different trends and thoughts of notable authors that have hypothesized the impacts of technology on American culture and the dramatic changes for the future.

Books Listed: 2001: Space Odyssey by Arthur Clarke - artificial intelligence <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - future fascist state The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - dystopian view of future Oryx and Crate by Margaret Atwood - genetic engineering <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - satire in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshiped The Children of Men by P.D. James - a world with no children & no future The Road by Cormac McCarthy - journey through an utterly world destroyed world <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> A Canticle for Leibiwitz by Walter Miller - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">years after a nuclear war, hope for humanity's rebirth from the ashes The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn - bar coding humans Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - satirical commentary on modern man <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut - computers solve all your problems, machines give you everything you need <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Anthem by Ayn Rand - individual in the midst of a paralyzing collective humanity House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer - genetic engineering <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank - nuclear holocaust <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Shade's Children by Garth Nix - no child shall live a day past his 14th birthday Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - future soldiers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Feed by M.T. Anderson - transmitters implanted in their heads Streams of Babel by Carol Plum- Ucci - bio-terrorism <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Cell: a Novel by Stephen King - fears of technological warfare and terrorism <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The Giver by Lois Lowry <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">- world with no poverty, crime, unemployment, or sickness; at what cost?