best American history book you read in 2007?

So, perhaps this is taking a page from other groups, but how you would rate your overall 2007 American history reading experiences, and which would be the best?

Morning Bfertig!

This is going to take some thought. I've read some great books this year. Everything from Blasingame's autobiography -- Dakota Cowboy -- to Robert DeArment's story about family-man and sociopath John Larn: Bravo on the Brazos.

In addition, I would have to say that 1491 was an important book. Not so much because it was a good read, but because it has the potential of changing American attitudes towards the past. Or at least we can hope so.

You didn't list your choice.

New to this group. My pick for best of 2007 is easy:

Shelby Foote's masterful The Civil War: A Narrative

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan and Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas.

Off the top of my head, Washington's Crossing and Failure is Impossible top the list. The Island at the Center of the World is up there, too.

I forgot to post mine: Team of Rivals

As long as we are not limited to books published in 2007. I read River of Doubt (Candace Millard) this year, and would nominate it.

For books published this year, here are a couple: The Day of Battle (Rick Atkinson) and The Great Upheaval: America and the birth of the Modern World (Jay Winik).

My best for 2007 would be An Enormous Crime by Hendon. Deals with the never ending Vietnam POW issue and the extent of the United States' lack of follow-up after the war. Issue is presented in a straight forward manner without the sensational stories about POWs being eliminated by CIA headhunters.

I agree wtih The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan and River of Doubt. But my favorite was Bunion Derby. I am fascinated by the parts of American history that are unknown to me, and this details one of those--the first national footrace that took place in 1928. No one I've asked has ever heard of it, yet the story is incredible and important.

Cool. I think this thread can definitely be open to books published anytime, provided they were read (at least somewhat) in 2007. I read River of Doubt and thought it was enjoyable, and full of adventure (talk about self-confidence!) but the story was fairly straightforward.

I received The Great Upheaval: American and the birth of the modern world for my birthday and it looks great, but I haven't started it yet. Hopefully I'll get to that in '08. I think its a neat idea to look at the interconnectedness, rather than taking any one country's revolution in isolation. What did you think?

Hi, new to this group.

Without a doubt my favourite(s) for 2007 were the Army of the Potomac trilogy by Bruce Catton & The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam.

bfertig

The Great Upheaval was definitely an eye opener for me. I know a fair amount (for an average Joe without a degree in history) about the American Revolution. However, my knoweldge of the French Revolution is limited to what I can remember from AP European history in high school nearly 30 years ago. Catherine the Great is buried even deeper in the recesses of my mind. So I learned a lot from Winik's book. The tragic outcomes in France and Russia make the achievement of the US founding fathers all the greater.

Confession. I only purchased The Great Upheaval because I found Winik's earlier book April 1865 such an enthralling and fascinating work, especially for the lay reader.

Team of Rivals was really good. I also agree with those River of Doubt fans, though I think I read it in 2006. I liked it so much that I assigned it to my AP U.S. history class as part of their summer reading. I also liked Blood and Thunder and Mayflower. An interesting book that was published a few years ago that I just got around to reading was Blood Done Sign My Name. Ditto for City on Fire which was a terrific book about the Texas City explosion.

My company uses River of Doubt in its executive training program as an example of exemplary leadership.

The best that I read was Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. It took me forever to get to it, but once I started I kicked myself for not beginning it sooner.

I thought Blood and Thunder was a rip-roaring good time. But the book I really loved this year has been Jefferson's Pillow. The author, Roger Wilkins, who holds a law degree, shared a Pulitzer Prize, is a leader of the NAACP, and teaches at George Mason University, deconstructs Jefferson's slave-holding from the point of view of a black man. All the white authors who opine on how to understand Jefferson's behavior just don't measure up, in my opinion, to the informed analysis of a national black leader who is a descendant of slaves.

I've got three that I really liked that I read in 2007. The first is Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren, the second is A People's Army by Fred Anderson, and the last is The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik.

Glad you mentioned the Oren book - I thought it was great! And so full of fun "little known history" items.

Leviathan by Eric Jay Dolin - amazing history of American Whaling

I thought Team of Rivals was excellent. I kept thinking that here was Lincoln with little formal education and he showed greater ability and knowledge than his cabinet full of college degrees. I particularly liked his humbling of Salmon Chase. I don't think that Chase ever really did realize that he was outclassed. I do think it was a credit to Seward that when he came in he thought he was going to run the show but he quickly recognized Lincoln's ability and became a strong supporter, Stanton did a similar turn around.
The Impending Crisis by David Potter was the best American history volume I read in 2007. He showed great command of the subject matter and also contributed excellent analysis of the people and events. I find that it is analysis that separates the good from the excellent and here Potter was head and shoulders above anyone else I have read writing about this era. He would point out the alternatives to significant situations and then show why things turned out as they did. He was also very good at pointing out the mistakes made by different individuals as they tried to influence events. Prior to this book I felt The Coming Fury and Allan Nevins' volumes were the best explanations of secession but Potter's book was much better.

Didn't read too much American history in 2007, but I did enjoy The Destruction of the Bison which explored the penetration of Europeans into the ecology and the economy of the American West through the lens of the bison; broadening the story beyond those stark pictures of mounds of bison carcases rotting in the sun.

I think the only 2007 history book I read last year was The Last Three Miles, a good micro-history of the heated political battles around the construction of the Pulaski Skyway.

I too enjoyed Team of Rivals but my favorite history book this year was Rum: A social and sociable history of the real spirit of 1776 by Ian Willliams. Entertaining as well as edifying.

My favorite history book for 2007 was Flags of our Fathers which I thought was just absolutely tremondous.

Just came across this interesting thread and I intend to read some of the books mentioned that I have not read. Each year I pick a best book read that year and in 2007 the book I picked was a history book:

4370. The Day of Battle The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 Volume Two of the Liberation Trilogy, by Rick Atkinson (read 11 Oct 2007) (Book of the Year)

Re #23, Flags of Our Fathers was my Book of the Year for the year 2000. If anybody would like to see my "Book of the Year" for evey year since 1944 I can very simply furnish such a list to you.

>24 Schmerguls: That's a cool idea. I would like to see your list.

Vic33, here it is:

158. Blessed Are the Meek A Novel about St. Francis of Assisi, by Zofia Kossak (read 10 Aug 1944) (Book of the Year)
198. Golden Fleece: The Story of Franz Joseph & Elizabeth of Austria, by Bertita Harding (read 24 June 1945) (Book of the Year)
234. The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith, by Bruce Marshall (read 2 Feb 1946) (Book of the Year) (re-read 8 Apr 2010)
324. Kristin Lavransdatter The Bridal Wreath The Mistress of Husaby The Cross, by Sigrid Undset (read 24 Apr 1947) (Book of the Year)
340. Look Homeward, Angel A Story of the Buried Life, by Thomas Wolfe (read 7 Jun 1948) (Book of the Year)
364. U. S. A. 1. The 42nd Parallel 2. Nineteen Nineteen 3. The Big Money, by John Dos Passos (read 17 Aug 1949) (Book of the Year)
374. Point Counter Point, by Aldous Huxley (read 12 Jul 1950) (Book of the Year)
391. In the Midst of Life Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, by Ambrose Bierce (read 23 Apr 1951) (Book of the Year)
449. The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene (read 11 Nov 1952) (Book of the Year)
461. The Ox-Bow Incident, by Walter Von Tilburg Clark (read 24 Mar 1953) (Book of the Year)
464. The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II, by Herman Wouk (read 31 Jan 1954) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Fiction prize for 1952)
471. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene (read 30 Jan 1955) (Book of the Year)
495. Independent People: An Epic, by Halldor Laxness translated from the Icelandic by J. A. Thompson (read 29 Apr 1956) (Book of the Year)
528. I Pomessi Sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni (5 Dec 1957) (Book of the Year)
555. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (read 21 Sep 1958) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer fiction prize for 1947)
576. The Personal History of David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (read 14 June 1959) (Book of the Year)
620. Advise and Consent, by Allen Drury (read 9 June 1960) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Fiction prize 1960)
676. The Great Crisis in American Catholic History 1895-1900, by Thomas T. McAvoy, C.S.C. (read 30 Sep 1961) (Book of the Year) (John Gilmary Shea prize for 1957)
697. The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman (read 31 May 1962) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Nonfiction prize in 1963)
723. The Thibaults, by Roger Martin Du Gard translated by Stuart Gilbert (read 7 Feb 1963) (Book of the Year)
778. The Price of Glory Verdun 1916, by Alistair Horne (read 7 Sep 1964) (Book of the Year)
807. In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff (read 8 June 1965) (Book of the Year)
858. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences, by Truman Capote (read 5 June 1966) (Book of the Year)
895. The Heart of Midlothian, by Sir Walter Scott (read 25 Mar 1967) (Book of the Year)
988. The Thirty Years War, by C. V. Wedgwood (read 21 Dec 1968) (Book of the Year)
995. Asquith: Portrait of a Man and an Era, by Roy Jenkins (read 22 Jan 1969) (Book of the Year)
1085. The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton (read 9 Oct 1970) (Book of the Year)
1123. Admirals in Collision, by Richard Hough (read 1 Aug 1971) (Book of the Year)
1202. The Green Flag: The Turbulent History of the Irish National Movement, by Robert Kee (read 14 Dec 1972) (Book of the Year)
1224. Power to Dissolve Lawyers and Marriages in the Courts of the Roman Curia, by John T. Noonan, Jr. (read 16 Jun 1973) (Book of the Year)
1297. The Parnell Tragedy, by Jules Abels (read 22 Oct 1974) (Book of the Year)
1345. Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian, by John Clive (read 6 July 1975) (Book of the Year) (National Book Award history prize for 1974)
1392. The Impending Crisis 1848-1861, by David M. Potter Completed by Don E. Fehrenbacher (read 15 May 1976) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer History prize in 1977)
1466. Roots, by Alex Haley (read 28 Oct 1977) (Book of the Year)
1487. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, by Alistair Horne (read 9 June 1978) (Book of the Year)
1520. The Tichborne Claimant: A Victorian Mystery, by Douglas Woodruff (read 11 June 1979) (Book of the Year)
1593. The Great Mutiny, by James Dugan (read 28 Oct 1980) (Book of the Year)
1637. The Killer Angels A Novel, by Michael Shaara (read 29 May 1981) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Fiction prize in 1975)
1749. The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century, by Steven Runciman (read 7 Nov 1982) (Book of the Year)
1770. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, by David McCullough (read 21 Mar 1983) (Book of the Year) (National Book Award history prize for 1978) (Parkman Prize for 1978)
1852. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics, by Don E. Fehrenbacher (read 15 May 1984) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer History prize in 1979)
1956. France Under the Republic:The Development of Modern France (1870-1939), by D. W. Brogan (read 15 Nov 1985) (Book of the Year)
1990. The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus, by Jean-Denis Bredin translated from the French by Jeffrey Mehlman (read 19 Mar 1986) (Book of the Year)
2103. The Age of Jackson, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (read 15 Oct 1987) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer History prize in 1946)
2154. Chronicle of Youth: The War Diary 1913-1917, by Vera Brittain (read 14 Jul 1988) (Book of the Year)
2215. Alive, by Piers Paul Read (read 10 Jun 1989) (Book of the Year)
2283. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes (read 13 May 1990) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Nonfiction prize in 1988) (National Book Award nonfiction prize in 1987) (National Book Critics Circle nonfiction award for 1987)
2377. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918 by A.J.P. Taylor (read 13 April 1991) (Book of the Year)
2460. Dreadnought Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War, by Robert K. Massie (read 7 Sep 1992) (Book of the Year)
2539. The Bishop's Boys A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, by Tom D. Crouch (read 5 Oct 1993) (Book of the Year)
2689. Crossing the Threshold of Hope, by His Holiness John Paul II translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee and Martha McPhee (read 26 Dec 1994) (Book of the Year)
2782. A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, by Geoffrey C. Ward (read 12 Sep 1995) (Book of the Year) (National Book Critics Circle biography award for 1989) (Parkman Prize for 1990)
2826. Lincoln in American Memory, by Merrill D. Peterson (read 31 Jan 1996) (Book of the Year)
3042. Back to the Front: An Accidental Historian Walks the Trenches of World War I, by Stephen O'Shea (read 21 Dec 1997) (Book of the Year)
3123. The Death Penalty: An Historical and Theological Survey, by James J. Megivern (read 28 Oct 1998) (Book of the Year)
3180. We Were Soldiers Once...And Young Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, U.S.A. (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway (read 4 May 1999) (Book of the Year)
3358. Flags of Our Fathers, by James Bradley with Ron Powers (read 1 Oct 2000) (Book of the Year)
3417. With the Old Breed At Peleliu and Okinawa, by E. B. Sledge (read 9 Mar 2001) (Book of the Year)
3583. The Years of Lyndon Johnson Master of the Senate, by Robert A. Caro (read 27 May 2002) (Book of the Year) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 2003) (National Book Award nonfiction prize for 2002)
3708. Endurance Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing (read 1 Mar 2003) (Book of the Year)
3863. Castles of Steel Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, by Robert K. Massie (read 4 Mar 2004) (Book of the Year)
4068. Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour Armistice Day 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax, by Joseph E. Persico (read 5 Sep 2005) (Book of the Year)
4252. A World at Arms A Global History of World War II, by Gerhard L. Weinberg (read 31 Dec 2006) (Book of the Year)
4370. The Day of Battle The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 Volume Two of the Liberation Trilogy, by Rick Atkinson (read 11 Oct 2007) (Book of the Year)
4403. America's Constitution A Biography, by Akhil Reed Amar (read 17 Jan 2008) (Book of the Year)
4603. FDR, by Jean Edward Smith (read 8 Aug 2009) (Book of the Year) (Parkman Prize for 2008)
4677. Game Change Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (read 25 Feb 2010) (Book of the Year)
4864. Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., by John C. Jeffries, Jr. (read 27 Sep 2011) (Book of the Year)
4911. Destiny of the Republic A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard (read 29 Mar 2012) (Book of the Year)

Fun to have this thread revived, especially since I just joined this group. Unfortunately, I can't answer the original question, since I only started charting my reading in 2008. Here are my one or two favorite U.S. history books (including at least one memoir), per reading year, beginning in 2008:

2008
Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage by Noah Andre Trudeau
John Paul Jones: Father of the American Navy by Valentine Thomson

2009
Satchel: the Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye
Visions of Jazz: the First Century by Gary Giddins (Jazz is an international art form, of course, but so much of it's early development, especially, is American that I consider this an appropriate entry for this list.)

2010
Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression by Robert Gregory
Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage by Joseph Persico

2011
Twenty Thousand Roads: the Ballad of Gram Parsons and his Cosmic American Music by David N. Meyer
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

2012
The True Story of Pochahontas: the Other Side of History by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star"
A Southern Girl in '61: the War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator's Daughter by Louise Wigfall Wright

2013
The Abolitionists: The Growth of a Dissenting Minority by Merton L. Dillon
The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax: Words, Photographs, and Music by Tom Piazza

2014 (So far. I'm not sure if I'll read any U.S. history during December)
Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael A. Hiltzik
Black and Blue: the Golden Arm, the Robinson Boys and the 1966 World Series that Stunned America by Tom Adelman