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.
Sign up for email announcements and reminders about this group!
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
2023
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- Thursday, January 26: Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure, by Menachem Kaiser
- Thursday February 23: African Europeans: An Untold History, by Olivette Otel
- Thursday March 30: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Erik Larson
- Thursday, April 27: The Bright Ages: a New History of Medieval Europe, by David Perry and Matthew Gabriele
- Thursday May 25: The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, by Stacy Schiff
- Thursday June 29: River of the Gods: Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile, by Candice Millard
- Thursday September 28: Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong
- Thursday October 26: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, by Eric Fone
- Thursday November 19: How Do We Look: the Body, The Divine and the Question of Civilization, by Mary Beard
- Thursday, December 21: An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
2022:
- Thursday January 27, 2022 – Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
- Thursday February 24, 2022 – Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, by Deborah Blum
- Thursday March 24, 2022 – Rope Walker: A Texas Jewish History Mystery, by Jim Yarin, copies provided by the author
- Thursday April 28, 2022 – Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
- Thursday June 2, 2022 – War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion, by Jeff Guinn
- Thursday July 7, 2022 – Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino
- Thursday September 22, 2022 – Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable
- Thursday October 27, 2022 – Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, by Annalee Newitz
- Thursday November 17, 2022 Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the final great voyage of the Age of Discovery by Andrés Reséndez
- Thursday December 22, 2022 Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks
2021:
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- Feb 18, 2021 – American Dialogue: the Founders and Us by Joseph Ellis
- Mar 25, 2021 – The Race Underground: Boston, New York and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America’s First Subway by Doug Most
- Apr 22, 2021 – The Pioneers: the Heroic Story of the Settlers who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough
- May 27, 2021 – Jane Austen at Home: a biography by Lucy Worsley
- June 24, 2021 – Bread and Roses: Mills Migrants and the Struggle for the American Dream by Bruce Watson
- September 23, 2021 – Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: the Daring Young Woman who led France’s Largest Spy Network against Hitler by Lynne Olson
- October 28, 2021 – The Boys in the Boat: nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
2020:
- Jan 30, 2020 – Forgotten: the Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes at Home and at War by Linda Hervieux
- Feb 27, 2020 – The Invisible History of the Human Race: how DNA and History Shape our Identities and our Futures by Christine Kenneally
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