Breaking Nation is built on the work of untold historians from across US history. Below is a Recommended Booklist for each episode that I would encourage students of the American Civil War to consider and dive into. Every reference for every episode may not be included, and often reference materials will span more than one episode.
There are many online sources for new and used books, but I would also encourage supporters to not forget about your local library system. Many systems allow online searches across multiple libraries, and part of the fun of research is tracking down source material.
S1E2 – The Father of All
Adams, James Truslow. The Rise of the Union. Vol. 1 of The March of Democracy: A History of the United States. 7 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932-1955.
Catton, Bruce. The Coming Fury. New York: Doubleday, 1961.
Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
Hanson, Victor Davis. The Father of Us All. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010.
Heidler, David S. & Jeanne T. Henry Clay: The Essential American. New York: Random House, 2010.
Larson, Edward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign. New York: Free Press, 2007.
McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Rasmussen, Dennis C. Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Reynolds, David S. Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson. New York: HaperCollins, 2008.
S1E3 – American Slavery
Beckert, Sven. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.
Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation. New York: Vintage Books, 2007.
Johnson, Walter. River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
Kilmeade, Brian. The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul. New York: Sentinel, 2021.
Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. 1854. New York: Penguin, 2013.
Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. New York: Random House, 2020.
Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. New York: Penguin, 2006.
S1E4 – A Political Free-For-All
Delbanco, Andrew. The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War. New York: Penguin Press, 2018.
Downey, Arthur T. Civil War Lawyers: Constitutional Questions, Courtroom Dramas, and the Men Behind Them. Chicago: ABA Publishing, 2010.
Freeman, Joanne B. The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Hay, John & John G. Nicolay. Abraham Lincoln: A History. 10 vols. New York: The Century Company, 1909.
Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Meacham, Jon. And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. New York: Random House, 2022.
S1E5 – Stars and Banners
Achorn, Edward. The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023.
Dickey, Christopher. Our Man in Charleston: Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South. New York: Crown Publishers, 2015.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War – A Narrative. Volume 1: Secession to Fort Henry. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998.
Larson, Erik. The Demon of Unrest. New York: Crown Publishing, 2024.
Swanberg, W. A. First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957.
S1E6 – The Island in the Harbor
Adams, Charles. When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000.
Long, E.B., with Barbara Long. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1965. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.
Mitchell, Elizabeth. Lincoln’s Lie. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2020.
Swanberg, W. A. First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957.
Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Mary Chesnut’s Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.