Thread by @BenjaminEPark

Because the "Historians Only Write For Other Historians" trope has appeared, zombie-like, once again, I'd like to highlight ten books from the past 18 months that are brilliant, engaging, relevant, & perfect for the general public. Share this when you hear the "ivory tower" bs.

Let's kick things off with David Blight's biography of Frederick Douglass, who is being recognized more and more all the time. This is a moving and exhaustive work by a master historian on one of the most important figures in our history. amazon.com/Frederick-Doug…

When did congressional partisanship begin? A long time ago, details @jbf1755, and it used to be much more bloody. Check out her book for how violance has always been tied to the capitol. amazon.com/Field-Blood-Vi…

A lot has been made about citizenship lately, especially for those on the margins of society. @marthasjones_ demonstrates how African Americans were central to the fight for birthright citizenship, and why that victory was so necessary. amazon.com/Birthright-Cit…

Want to know the long-form intellectual genealogy of our political debates, communication networks, and marginalized oppression? Jill Lepore wrote an impassioned single-volume survey of the entirety of US history with those themes in mind. amazon.com/These-Truths-H…

Everyone is amazed at the close relationship between religion and capitalism, but how did that connection flourish? Darren Dochuk's new history of religion and oil points to one particularly important facet of that story. amazon.com/Anointed-Oil-C…

Conceptions of liberty and subjugation have always been central to the American experience, intertwined in our founding paradox. @TiyaMilesTAM demonstrates how the scope of the nation's slaveholding past even gripped northern midwestern towns like Detroit. amazon.com/Dawn-Detroit-C…

Political division has never been worse! Or so the pundits say. But @KevinMKruse and @julianzelizer contextualize the most recent version of partisanship, and clarify what it was in response to. amazon.com/Fault-Lines-Hi…

How do we reconstruct the lives of those on the margins of society? Isn't American history theirs, too? Quincy Newell, as if a seasoned detective, stitches together the life of a black woman who converted to early Mormonism. amazon.com/Your-Sister-Go…

And what of faith and politics? Few people capture the devotion of American religious life like Elizabeth Seton, and @codonnellinaz's meditative biography brings that world into rich color. amazon.com/Elizabeth-Seto…

And what of the early colonization attempts and their displacement of native people? Lisa Brooks's detailed and powerful history of the King Phillips War highlights how American development came at a bloody cost. amazon.com/Our-Beloved-Ki…

I could highlight another 100 books, easily. But these ten are at least a start.

Anyone saying historians aren't writing books for the broader public are either lying or willfully ignorant. /fin