Give me some other good historical books. . . . I'm a fan of American history, from the finding (not founding) all the way through the Civil War.
Past Imperfect by Peter Hoffer
If you don't read anything else on my list read this. It is about the trade of historiography ITSELF, which is a darn good thing to read about before reading its product.
These are in chronological order by subject matter:
Hamilton's Curse by Thomas DiLorenzo
The Presidency of James Buchanan by E. Smith
(this whole series is great - one for each administration - Univ of Kansas Press)
Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men by Jeffrey Hummel
The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo
Lincoln Unmasked by Thomas DiLorenzo
The Economics of the Civil War by Mark Thornton
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it for the period of your maximum interest. The following are still US focused, but are post-bellum, still in chronological order by subject matter:
The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton Folsom
Churchill, Hitler, and an Unnecessary War by Patrick Buchanan
(as much for the WW I material as the WW II)
On WW I, I'll also second Clovis' recommendation:
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Day of Deceit by Robert Stinnett
Other Losses by James Bacque
(a lot of my-country-right-or-wrong types pan this, but stuff coming out of the old Soviet archives seems to support it)
The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh
The Attack on the Liberty by James Scott
OK, that gets us throught the LBJ admin. I'm still too POed at Nixon (RIH) to read a book about him without throwing it at the wall, so I'll stop there. Most of the above are at least somewhat contrarian to the most common perceptions of what "everybody knows" but it is all pretty soundly documented and think we need a lot more re-examination of what "everybody knows" much of which is fossilised propoganda, wishful thinking, or jingoistic self flattery.
only historical I ever got into was Carry on Mr. Bowditch. biography of 18th century American Mathemetician. haven't found a copy in 20 years though.
20 years ago you were how old? You don't have to answer that. But that's actually a children's novel that is semi-biographical, not what OP is asking for. A descendant of Bowditch's navigation text was still in use not so long ago and was refered to casually as just "Bowditch". I have actually studied it.