History Book Group

The History Book Group is an informal group which meets at 7 pm on the the last Thursday of every month (with exception of November and December; and no meetings in July or August), for people with an interest in history – local, U.S. and world history. Due to ongoing COVID-19, this group meets virtually. If you are new to the group, please register for the meeting you would like to attend on the library’s calendar or sign up for the group’s newsletter below. Regular members will be sent the Zoom link for each meeting prior to the meeting date.

Please note: during COVID-19, all of our book groups are meeting online. Contact the group leader for access details.

Selected titles for this group

The group was on hiatus from March 2020 until February 2021.

2019:

Jan 31, 2019 – Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917 by Laura MacDonald
Feb 28, 2019 – The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb by Neal Bascomb
Mar 28, 2019 – The Woman’s Hour: the Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss
Apr 25, 2019 – Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
May 30, 2019 – The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
Jun 27, 2018 – Secret Token: Myth, obsession and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke by Andrew Lawler
Sep 26, 2019 – Grant by Ron Chernow
Oct 24, 2019 – Black Flags, Blue Waters: the Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin
Nov 21, 2019 – Boston’s Massacre Eric Hinderaker by Eric Hinderaker
Dec 19, 2019 – Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War by Andrew F Smith

2018:

Jan 28, 2018 – SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
Feb 22, 2018 – Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for Renaissance Florence by Lauro Martines
Mar 29, 2018 – In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Apr 26, 2018 – Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
May 31, 2018 – Constantine’s Sword: The Church and The Jews, A History by James Carroll
Jun 28, 2018 – Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff
Sep 27, 2018 – Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress by Douglas Brinkley
Oct 25, 2018 – Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
Nov 29, 2018 – Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Dec 20, 2018 – A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage

2017:

Jan 27, 2017 – The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
Feb 23, 2017 – Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
Mar 30, 2017 – The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America by John Demos
Apr 27, 2017 – Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
May 25, 2017 – Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
Jun 29, 2017 – Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
Sep 28, 2017 – The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
Oct 26, 2017 – Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson
Nov 16, 2017 – The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson
Dec 21, 2017 – The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe

2016:

Jan 28, 2016 – Isabelle: The Warrior Queen by Kirstin Downey
Feb 25, 2016 – The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester
Mar 31, 2016 – An Imperfect God: George Washington, his slaves and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek (title changed)
Apr 28, 2016 – Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner
May 26, 2016 – A Man Called Intrepid: The Secret War by William Stevenson
Jun 30, 2016 – A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, 1599 by James Shapiro
Sep 29, 2016 – 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
Oct 27, 2016 – A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign by Edward Larson
Nov 17, 2016 – West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt
Dec 15, 2016 – The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

2015:

Jan 29, 2015 – The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor
Feb 26, 2015 – Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944 by Anna Reid
Mar 26, 2015 – When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs and Money in the Age of Sail
by Eric Jay Dolin
Apr 30, 2015 – The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto
May 28, 2015 – Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth Power and Civilization by Steven Solomon
Jun 25, 2015 – Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
Sep 24, 2015 – Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Oct 29, 2015 – Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History by Nick Bunker
Nov 19, 2015 – Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the Woman Behind Cosmopolitan Magazine by Jennifer Scanlon
Dec 17, 2015 – The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley

2014 Titles:

Nov 20, 2014 – The Black Count: Glory, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
Dec 18, 2014 – Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior by John Man
Jan 30th – Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose
Feb 27th – White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India by William Dalrymple
Mar 27th – The Year without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History by William K. Klingaman
Apr 24th – New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore
May 29th – Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived by Andrew Wilson
Jun 26th – Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller
Sep 25th – Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
Oct 30th – The Exchange Artist: A Tale of High-Flying Speculation and America’s First Banking Collaps by Jane Kamensky

2013 Titles:

January 31st – Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Montefiore
February 28th – Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford
March 28th – The Great Plague by A Lloyd and Dorothy Moote
April 25th – Changes in the Land by William Cronon
May 30th – People’s History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael
June 27th – George Washington’s False Teeth by Robert Darnton
September 26th – Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer
October 24th – Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz
November 21st – 1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
December 19th – The Whites of their Eyes by Jill Lepore

Please note the dates for 2013. For October – December, we will
not be meeting on our usual last Thursday of the month due to Halloween,
Thanksgiving and Christmas.

November 29th A City so Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900 by Stephen Puleo
December 20th The Shoemaker and the Tea Party : Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young

March 29th Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that won the Civil War by Charles Bracelen Flood
April 26th The Murrow Boys : Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism by Stanley W. Cloud
May 31st Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 by Pauline Maier
June 28th A voyage Long and Strange : Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz
September 27th Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII by John W. Dower
October 25th Cleopatra : A Life by Stacy Schiff

January 26, 2012: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
February 23, 2012: A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of The American Nation by Catherine Allgor

November 17th, 2011 – The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis
December 15th, 2011 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Lori Ginzberg
Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Lewis Roberts
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel T. Ulrich
Nothing like it in the World by Stephen Ambrose
The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall
Masters of the Air by Donald Miller
Tried by War by James McPherson
The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
The Scratch of a Pen by Collin C. Halloway
Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hacket Fisher
The Last Apocalypse by James Reston
The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
Vanished Smile by Rita Scotti
Salt by Mark Kurlansky

Selected titles for this group

2023

2022:

2021: