18 Best nonfiction books like On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

Cover of On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

On Juneteenth

By: Annette Gordon-Reed

4.18

Format: 148 pages, Hardcover

Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annet…

"History is always being revised, as new information, comes to light and when different people see known documents and have their own responses to them, shaped by their individual experiences."

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

"Origin stories matter, for individuals, groups of people, and for nations. They inform our sense of self; telling us what kind of people we believe we are, what kind of nation we believe in. They usually carry, at least, a hope that where we started might hold the key to where we are in the present. We can say, then, that much of the concern with origin stories is about our current needs and desires (usually to feel good about ourselves), not actual history."

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

"Why would White Texans be more obstreperous than other White southerners? It has been suggested that this was because, unlike other Southern states, Texas had not been defeated militarily. They had won the last battle of the Civil War. That the state had been its own Republic, within the living memory of many Texans, also set them apart from the other Confederates. The very thing that has been seen as a source of strength and pride for latter-day Texans, may have fueled a stubbornness that prevented the state from moving ahead at this crucial moment. [p. 131]"

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

If you liked the nonfiction plot in On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed , here is a list of 18 books like this:

1. The Battle of Gettysburg

By: Bruce Catton

3.18

Format: 159 pages,

read more

Similar categories in Bruce Catton's The Battle of Gettysburg book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

Cover of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

2. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

By: Imani Perry

3.97

Format: 410 pages, Hardcover

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South… read more

Similar categories in Imani Perry's South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"So I went deeper into an archive of historical memory, hoping to sort it out"

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"Acting like you know everything and acting like you don't know how to be respectful will keep you ignorant. Be humble."

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"And yes, slavery was abolished, Jim Crow is over, but the prisons, the persistence of poverty, are constant reminders of how the past made the present."

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"What, by analogy, happens to the family of the university, or the town, or the state, or the Old Dominion, or the nation itself, given what has been built into its creation?"

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Cover of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

3. A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan

4.38

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the rivetin… read more

Similar categories in Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"When hate was on the ballot, especially in the guise of virtue, a majority of voters knew exactly what to do."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"Stephenson had succeeded with an unusual formula for a mass movement: men were the muscle, women spread the poison, and ministers sanctified it all."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"The governor of Georgia, Clifford Walker, told a Klan rally in 1924 that the United States should 'build a wall of steel, a wall as high as heaven' against immigrants."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"There are millions who have never joined, but who think and feel and, when called on, will fight with us," Evans wrote. "This is our real strength, and no one who ignores it can hope to understand Am…"

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

Cover of James by Percival Everett

4. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

5. King: A Life

By: Jonathan Eig

4.67

Format: 688 pages, Hardcover

The first full biography in decades, King mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk a… read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Eig's King: A Life book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
Cover of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson

6. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson

4.42

Format: 286 pages, Hardcover

“Engaging and highly accessible.” —Boston Globe “A vibrant, and essential history of America's u… read more

Similar categories in Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

7. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • audiobook
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

8. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

By: Nikole Hannah-Jones

4.62

Format: 590 pages, Hardcover

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present. … read more

Similar categories in Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

9. Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond

4.27

Format: 284 pages, Hardcover

Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in Ameri… read more

Similar categories in Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"To live and strive in modern America is to participate in a series of morally fraught systems. If a family’s entire financial livelihood depends on the value of its home, it’s not hard to understand …"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"The rest of us, on the ·other hand-we members of the protected classes-have grown increasingly· dependent on our welfare programs. In 2020 the federal government spent more than $193 billion on homeo…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"In her book The Government-Citizen Disconnect, the political scientist Suzanne Mettler reports that 96 percent of American adults have relied on a major government program at some point in their live…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

Cover of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

10. All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

By: Tiya Miles

3.95

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In a display case in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture sits… read more

Similar categories in Tiya Miles's All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Though necessary to the work of uncovering the past, archives are nevertheless limited and misleading storehouses of information. While at times imposing and formal enough as to seem all-encompassing…"

-Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

Cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint   Smith

11. How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith

4.71

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a… read more

Similar categories in Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"How do you tell a story that has been told the wrong way for so long?"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Just as he did during the Slavery at Monticello tour, David did not mince words. "There’s a chapter in Notes on the State of Virginia ,"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Jefferson believed himself to be a benevolent slave owner, but his moral ideals came second to, and were always entangled with, his own economic interests and the interests of his family."

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"But not enough people spoke about the reasons so many black children grow up communities saturated with poverty and violence. Not enough people spoke about how these realities were the result of deci…"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Cover of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

12. The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

By: Anna Malaika Tubbs

4.09

Format: 261 pages, Hardcover

In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates … read more

Similar categories in Anna Malaika Tubbs's The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Bertis, Louise, and Alberta, grew from children, to teenagers, to young women at a time when the birth of a nation characterized black men as scoundrels intent on brutalizing white women. When the pi…"

-Anna Malaika Tubbs, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

"Their military experience made them more of a threat. Their pride was seen as something in need of control. Once again irrational white supremacist fears turned into extreme forms of brutality. Accor…"

-Anna Malaika Tubbs, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

Cover of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

13. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

By: Ilyon Woo

3.99

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

New York Times Bestseller | New York Times 10 Best Books of 2023 The remarkable true story of El… read more

Similar categories in Ilyon Woo's Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

14. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

4.17

Format: 296 pages, Hardcover

"Stony the Road presents a bracing alternative to Trump-era white nationalism. . . . In our current… read more

Similar categories in Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Slavery didn’t end in 1865, it just evolved. The North won the Civil War, but the South won the narrative war"

-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

"I actually think the great evil of American slavery wasn’t involuntary servitude and forced labor. The true evil of American slavery was the narrative we created to justify it. They made up this ideo…"

-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

"I actually think the great evil of American slavery wasn’t involuntary servitude and forced labor. The true evil of American slavery was the narrative we created to justify it. They made up this ideo…"

-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

"We now know, thanks to developments in DNA analysis, that one in three African American males carries a Y-DNA signature inherited from a direct white male ancestor. Say, a great great great grandfath…"

-Henry Louis Gates Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

Cover of On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

15. On Juneteenth

By: Annette Gordon-Reed

4.18

Format: 148 pages, Hardcover

Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annet… read more

Similar categories in Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
"History is always being revised, as new information, comes to light and when different people see known documents and have their own responses to them, shaped by their individual experiences."

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

"Origin stories matter, for individuals, groups of people, and for nations. They inform our sense of self; telling us what kind of people we believe we are, what kind of nation we believe in. They usu…"

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

"Why would White Texans be more obstreperous than other White southerners? It has been suggested that this was because, unlike other Southern states, Texas had not been defeated militarily. They had w…"

-Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

Cover of Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

16. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

By: Zora Neale Hurston

4.04

Format: 193 pages, Paperback

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-… read more

Similar categories in Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"The present was too urgent to let the past intrude."

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"You see de rattlesnake in de woods?' Dey say, 'Yeah.' I say 'If you bother wid him, he bite you. If you know de snake killee you, why you bother wid him?' (Oluale Kossula)"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"So den we gittee married by de license, but I doan love my wife no mo' wid de license than I love her befo' de license. She a good woman and I love her all de time. (Oluale Kossula)"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"Whole nations are transported, exterminated, their name to be forgotten, except in the annual festival of their conquerors, when sycophants call the names of the vanquished countries to the remembran…"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Cover of Illiberal America: A History by Steven Hahn

17. Illiberal America: A History

By: Steven Hahn

4.20

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

If your reaction to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was to think, 'That’s not us,'… read more

Similar categories in Steven Hahn's Illiberal America: A History book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • politics
  • american history
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem by April Ryan

18. Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem

By: April Ryan

4.15

Format: 208 pages, ebook

In this long-overdue celebration of Black women's resilience and unheralded strength, the revered, … read more

Similar categories in April Ryan's Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"The FBI, the country's national security apparatus, have declared white supremacy to be the country's most dangerous domestic terrorist threat."

-April Ryan, Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem

Cover of Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles

19. Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People

By: Tiya Miles

4.10

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

From the National Book Award–winning author of All That She Carried, an intimate and revelatory rec… read more

Similar categories in Tiya Miles's Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men by Reah Bravo

20. Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men

By: Reah Bravo

4.10

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

A thoroughly researched and deeply personal examination of how women unintentionally condone workpl… read more

Similar categories in Reah Bravo's Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

21. We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

By: Kellie Carter Jackson

4.49

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A radical reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to whit… read more

Similar categories in Kellie Carter Jackson's We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance book and Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook

6 must-read memoir books like On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

Transform Your Habits

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Imani Perry

3.97

Transform Your Habits

King: A Life

Jonathan Eig

4.67

Transform Your Habits

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

Tiya Miles

3.95

Transform Your Habits

On Juneteenth

Annette Gordon-Reed

4.18

View all the books

16 Best audiobook books like We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

Transform Your Habits

Fire Exit

Morgan Talty

3.79

Transform Your Habits

Whiskey Tender: A Memoir

Deborah Jackson Taffa

4.14

Transform Your Habits

The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power

Terry J. Benton-Walker

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Another Word for Love: A Memoir

Carvell Wallace

4.35

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