If you’ve been on one of my tours (thank you for coming!) and have asked me for recommended reading, or if you have simply stumbled on the site and would like to learn more about Boston (and American) history, here are some of the books I have read and found useful (and engaging!) in the course of my studies.

Revolutionary Boston:

Cradle of Violence: How Boston’s Waterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution-Russell Bourne

 

 

American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution– Harlow Giles Unger

 

 

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution– Nathaniel Philbrick

 

 

The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution– Alfred F. Young

 

 

The Court-Martial of Paul Revere: A Son of Liberty and America’s Forgotten Military Disaster– Michael M. Greenburg

 

 

The Adams:

John Adams– David McCullough

 

 

Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage– Edith B. Gelles

 

 

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams– Lynne Withey

 

 

Revolutionary America (Beyond Boston):

American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address– Stephen Puleo

 

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation– Joseph J. Ellis

 

 

Boston Beyond the Revolution:

Boston Ways: High, By, and Folk– George F. Weston, Jr.

 

 

A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900– Stephen Puleo

 

 

Civil War Boston: Home Front & Battlefield– Thomas H. O’Connor

 

 

Salem:

Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America’s Richest City– Robert Booth

 

 

Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials– Marilynne K. Roach

 

 

Boston Characters:

The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War– Stephen Puleo

 

 

Cambridge Characters:

The Appletons of Beacon Hill– Louise Hall Tharp

 

 

Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life– Charles C. Calhoun

 

 

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child– Bob Spitz

 

 

A Covert Affair: When Julia and Paul Child joined the OSS– Jennet Conant

 

 

My Life in France– Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

 

 

The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act

 

 

Harvard and Radcliffe:

Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History– Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

 

 

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars– Dava Sobel