United States Of America Popular Books
United States Of America Biography & Facts
The United States of America (USA or U.S.A.), commonly known as the United States (US or U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federation of 50 states, a federal capital district (Washington, D.C.), and 326 Indian reservations. Outside the union of states, it asserts sovereignty over five major unincorporated island territories and various uninhabited islands. The country has the world's third-largest land area, second-largest exclusive economic zone, and third-largest population, exceeding 334 million. Paleo-Indians migrated across the Bering land bridge more than 12,000 years ago. British colonization led to the first settlement of the Thirteen Colonies in Virginia in 1607. Clashes with the British Crown over taxation and political representation sparked the American Revolution, with the Second Continental Congress formally declaring independence on July 4, 1776. Following its victory in the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the country continued to expand across North America. As more states were admitted, sectional division over slavery led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the 1861–1865 American Civil War. With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally. By 1890, the United States had established itself as a great power. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. The aftermath of the war left the U.S. and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War, during which both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance and international influence. Following the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the U.S. emerged as the world's sole superpower. The U.S. national government is a presidential constitutional republic and liberal democracy with three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house based on population; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state. Substantial autonomy is given to states and several territories, with a political culture that emphasizes liberty, equality under the law, individualism, and limited government. One of the world's most developed countries, the United States has had the largest nominal GDP since about 1890 and accounted for 15% of the global economy in 2023. It possesses by far the largest amount of wealth of any country and has the highest disposable household income per capita among OECD countries. The U.S. ranks among the world's highest in economic competitiveness, productivity, innovation, human rights, and higher education. Its hard power and cultural influence have a global reach. The U.S. is a founding member of the World Bank, IMF, Organization of American States, NATO, and World Health Organization, as well as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Etymology The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his desire to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort. The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776. By June 1776, the name "United States of America" appeared in drafts of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, authored by John Dickinson, a Founding Father from the Province of Pennsylvania, and in the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776. History Indigenous peoples The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia across the Bering land bridge at least 12,000 years ago; the Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to be the first widespread culture in the Americas. Over time, indigenous North American cultures grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the Mississippian culture, developed agriculture, architecture, and complex societies. Indigenous peoples and cultures such as the Algonquian peoples, Ancestral Puebloans, and the Iroquois developed across the present-day United States. Native population estimates of what is now the United States before the arrival of European immigrants range from around 500,000 to nearly 10 million. European colonization Christopher Columbus began exploring the Caribbean for Spain in 1492, leading to Spanish-speaking settlements and missions from Puerto Rico and Florida to New Mexico and California. France established its own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. British colonization of the East Coast began with the Virginia Colony (1607) and Plymouth Colony (1620). The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-governance and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. While European settlers in what is now the United States experienced conflicts with Native Americans, they also engaged in trade, exchanging European tools for food and animal pelts. Relations ranged from close cooperation to warfare and massacres. The colonial authorities often pursued policies that forced Native Americans to adopt European lifestyles, including conversion to Christianity. Along the eastern seaboard, settlers trafficked African slaves through the Atlantic slave trade. The original Thirteen Colonies that would later found the United States were administered by Great Britain, and had local governments with elections open to most white male property owners. The colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations; by the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain allowed for the development of self-governance, and the First Great Awakening, a series of Christian revivals, fueled colonial interest in religious liberty. American Revolution and Revolutionary War After winning the French and Indian War, Britain began to assert greater control over local colonial affairs, creating colonial political resistance; one of the primary colonial grievances was a denial of their rights as Englishmen, particularly the right to representation in the British government that taxed them. In 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and passed a colonial boycott of British goods that proved effective. The British attempt to then disarm the colonists resulted in the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, igni.... Discover the United States Of America popular books. Find the top 100 most popular United States Of America books.
Best Seller United States Of America Books of 2024
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Hidden Figures
Margot Lee ShetterlyThe #1 New York Times bestsellerThe phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space...
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Killing Crazy Horse
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe latest installment of the multimillionselling Killing series is a gripping journey through the American West and the historic clashes between Native Americans and settlers. The...
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One Summer
Bill BrysonA Chicago Tribune Noteworthy BookA GoodReads Reader's ChoiceIn One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports readers on a journey back...
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American Woman
Katie RogersThe first definitive exploration of the changing role of the twentyfirstcentury First Lady, painting a comprehensive portrait of Jill Bidenfrom a White House corresponden...
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House of Rain
Craig ChildsA "beautifully written travelogue" that draws on the latest scholarly research as well as a lifetime of exploration to light on the extraordinary Anasazi culture of the Americ...
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The Threat
Andrew G. McCabe#1 New York Times Bestseller#1 Washington Post Bestseller#1 Wall Street Journal BestsellerOn March 16, 2018, just twentysix hours before his scheduled retirement from the organizat...
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Frederick Douglass
David W. BlightWinner of the Pulitzer Prize in History“Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The New Yorker) of the most important African American of the 19th century: Frederick Douglass, t...
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1493
Charles C. MannNATIONAL BESTSELLER A deeply engaging history of how European settlements in the postColombian Americas shaped the worldfrom the highly acclaimed author of 1491. "Fascinatin...
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The Indifferent Stars Above
Daniel James BrownFrom the #1 bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat and Facing the Mountain comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American fron...
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Travels with Charley in Search of America
John Steinbeck & Jay PariniAn intimate journey across and in search of America, as told by one of its most beloved writers, in a deluxe centennial edition In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a jour...
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Stamped from the Beginning
Ibram X. KendiThe National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist that we're living in a postraci...
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Coming Apart
Charles MurrayNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A fascinating explanation for why white America has become fractured and divided in education and class, from the acclaimed author of Human Diversity.“I’...
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Just Kids
Patti SmithWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path o...
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Empire of the Summer Moon
S. C. GwynneFinalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Texas Book Award and the Oklahoma Book AwardThis New York Tim...
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Hillbilly Elegy
J. D. VanceTHE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER IS NOW A MAJORMOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD AND STARRING AMY ADAMS, GLENN CLOSE, AND GABRIEL BASSO"You will not read a ...
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A Promised Land
Barack ObamaA riveting, deeply personal account of history in the makingfrom the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAACP IMAGE AWARD N...
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Seabiscuit
Laura Hillenbrand#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of the runaway phenomenon Unbroken comes a universal underdog story about the horse who came out of nowh...
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American Gun
Chris Kyle & William DoyleTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FOLLOWUP TO AMERICAN SNIPERJoin Chris Kyle on a journedy to discover “how 10 firearms changed United States history” (New York Times B...
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Killing Lincoln
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardA riveting historical narrative of the heartstopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from megabestselling author Bill O'Reill...
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My Dear Hamilton
Stephanie Dray & Laura KamoieUSA Today Bestseller"An edgeof my sear immersion into historical events...No study of Alexander Hamilton would be complete without reading this book." Karen White, New York Ti...
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The Beast
Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman, Daniela Maria Ugaz & John WashingtonAn Economist and Financial Times “Best Book of the Year” “Harrowing” true stories from two years of immersion reporting on the migrant trail from Chiapas to Arizonaan “honor...
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Masters of the Air
Donald L. MillerThe inspiration for the major Apple TV+ series, streaming now!The riveting history of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II and the young men who flew the bombers that help...
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A Higher Loyalty
James Comey#1 New York Times Bestseller now in paperback with new material The inspiration for The Comey Rule, the Showtime limited series starring Jeff Daniels premiering September 2020In hi...
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Rebel Yell
S. C. GwynneFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the epic New York Times bestselling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic natio...
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Three Roads to the Alamo
William C. Davis"William C. Davis's Three Roads to the Alamo is far and away the best account of the Alamo I have ever read. The portraits of Crockett, Bowie, and Travis are brilliantly sketched i...
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Forget the Alamo
Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson & Jason StanfordA New York Times bestseller!“Lively and absorbing. . ." The New York Times Book Review"Engrossing." Wall Street Journal“Entertaining and wellresearched . . . ” Houston Chronicle T...
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White Trash
Nancy IsenbergThe New York Times bestseller A New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for NonfictionOne of NPR's 10 Best Books Of ...
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A Short History of the Confederate States of America
Jefferson DavisA Short History of the Confederate States of America is a memoir written by Jefferson Davis, completed shortly before his death in 1889. Davis wrote most of this book while staying...
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Decision Points
George W. Bush#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this candid and gripping memoir, President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his presidency and personal l...
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The Butler
Wil HaygoodThis mesmerizing companion book to the awardwinning film, The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century American history through the...
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An Empire of Wealth
John Steele GordonThroughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their domination through force of arms and political power. But not the United States. ...
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History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1
George Washington WilliamsSlavery existed long before the United States of America was founded, but so did opposition to slavery. Both flourished after the founding of the country, and the antislavery movem...
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The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chi...
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In Search of Sisterhood
Paula J. GiddingsThis history of the largest block women's organization in the United States is not only the story of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (DST), but also tells of the increasing involvement ...
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War on the Border
Jeff GuinnThe dramatic story of how over a century ago, the United States and Mexico went to war over their border, a conflict that still resonates today.In 1916, Mexican rebel Pancho Villa ...
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Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
Jonathan BlitzerThe national bestseller!“Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is sure to take its place as one of the definitive accounts of the U.S. and Central American immigration puzzle. . . . Hopeful...
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The Soul of America
Jon Meacham#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in ou...
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A Nation Rising
Kenneth C. Davis“History in Davis’s hands is loud, coarse, painful, funny, irreverentand memorable.” San Francisco Chronicle Following on his New York Times bestsellers America’s Hidden History a...
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The Unwinding
George PackerNATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKAN NPR BEST BOOK Selected by New York Times' critic Dwight Garner as a Favorite Book A Washingto...
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The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel WilkersonNATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize–winnner and bestselling author of Caste chronicles ...
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Killing the Mob
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardInstant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller!In the tenth book in the multimillionselling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard take o...