PTB Episodes 1 - 10 Suggested Reading List
PTB 1 - Andrew Jackson Read about the Trail of Tears and screw Jackson. John Ehle wrote a good book about the Cherokee experience, and Gloria Jahoda has a more general history. There are books about the Choctaw and Chickasaw. J. Leitch Wright, Jr. wrote about my grandmother's tribe in Creeks and Seminoles. Also In a Barren Land by Paula Mitchell Marks is a good one on Indian dispossession.
PTB 2 - American Labor Unions Tons to choose here, but maybe The Battle of Blair Mountain by Robert Shogan is a solid place to start.
PTB 3 - Hollywood Blacklist It is Hollywood after all, so watch the movie Trumbo and Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos. Not perfect, but fun. For a book, Glenn Frankel's High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic is one entre to the subject.
PTB 4 - U.S. Grant Read Grant's autobiography. It is fabulously honest. Ron Chernow's biography is the latest of many, but I swear read the man's own words.
PTB 5 - Pilgrims and Puritans Sarah Vowell is always a fun read, so you might check out The Wordy Shipmates. I don't even mention it in the podcast, but King Philip's War is a big thing in the history of this time and place, and you might want to read The Name of War by Jill Lapore.
PTB 6 - Most Corrupt State There are so many people mentioned, but the classic T. Harry Williams biography of Huey Long is always good. There are also multiple books about Ma and Pa Ferguson, both Texas governors. The most recent is the well-researched In the Governor's Shadow by Carol O'Keefe Wilson.
PTB 7 - Spanish-American War There are tons of very good books on Teddy Roosevelt, but for his early years, try I Rose Like a Rocket by Paul Grondahl. The Philippine War by Brian Linn is detailed.
PTB 8 - Americans and Animals Lots of very good sciency books, I'm sure. Reading about the tribes and their beliefs is easy, but I'm going to do the obvious and suggest Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. It really and truly started something. I need to reread it myself. It's been a long time.
PTB 9 - Party of Lincoln My Ass Where to start with this one? This episode covers such a giant time frame, but if you've never read it, C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow is a phenomenal place to start with some of it. It was written in 1955, but MLK himself called it "The Bible of the Civil Rights Movement."
PTB 10 - News Bias media types love to write about themselves, so there are shelves filled with great books about these topics. Blue & Gray in Black & White by Brayton Harris has good Civil War coverage, and some of William Cobbett's pamphlets are reproduced and interpreted in Peter Porcupine in America by David Wilson. But search out the stuff on Greeley, Bennett, Hearst, Pulitzer, Paley, Sulzberger, you name it.
PTB 2 - American Labor Unions Tons to choose here, but maybe The Battle of Blair Mountain by Robert Shogan is a solid place to start.
PTB 3 - Hollywood Blacklist It is Hollywood after all, so watch the movie Trumbo and Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos. Not perfect, but fun. For a book, Glenn Frankel's High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic is one entre to the subject.
PTB 4 - U.S. Grant Read Grant's autobiography. It is fabulously honest. Ron Chernow's biography is the latest of many, but I swear read the man's own words.
PTB 5 - Pilgrims and Puritans Sarah Vowell is always a fun read, so you might check out The Wordy Shipmates. I don't even mention it in the podcast, but King Philip's War is a big thing in the history of this time and place, and you might want to read The Name of War by Jill Lapore.
PTB 6 - Most Corrupt State There are so many people mentioned, but the classic T. Harry Williams biography of Huey Long is always good. There are also multiple books about Ma and Pa Ferguson, both Texas governors. The most recent is the well-researched In the Governor's Shadow by Carol O'Keefe Wilson.
PTB 7 - Spanish-American War There are tons of very good books on Teddy Roosevelt, but for his early years, try I Rose Like a Rocket by Paul Grondahl. The Philippine War by Brian Linn is detailed.
PTB 8 - Americans and Animals Lots of very good sciency books, I'm sure. Reading about the tribes and their beliefs is easy, but I'm going to do the obvious and suggest Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. It really and truly started something. I need to reread it myself. It's been a long time.
PTB 9 - Party of Lincoln My Ass Where to start with this one? This episode covers such a giant time frame, but if you've never read it, C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow is a phenomenal place to start with some of it. It was written in 1955, but MLK himself called it "The Bible of the Civil Rights Movement."
PTB 10 - News Bias media types love to write about themselves, so there are shelves filled with great books about these topics. Blue & Gray in Black & White by Brayton Harris has good Civil War coverage, and some of William Cobbett's pamphlets are reproduced and interpreted in Peter Porcupine in America by David Wilson. But search out the stuff on Greeley, Bennett, Hearst, Pulitzer, Paley, Sulzberger, you name it.