Suggestions for Outside Reading—Social Studies 7 & 8

This is no way a list of all the books worthy of reading but a selective list of works that relate to our seventh and eighth grade history curriculum. Highlighted books are available in the YA section of the Sycamore School Library.

1812 by David Nevin (A great fictionalized story of the War of 1812)

A Rumor of War by Phillip Caputo (Soldier in Vietnam)

A Special Fate—Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust by Alison Leslie Gold (Easy to read story of a Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust)

Armageddon by Leon Uris (Berlin at the end of World War II and during the Cold War)

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The by Ernest Gaines (Fiction—One black woman's story from the Civil War to the 1960s)

Babi Yar by Anatoly Kuznetsov (Fiction—The story of a Soviet boy growing up in German-occupied Kiev during World War II)

Blue Max, The by Jack Hunter (Fiction—World War I fighter pilot)

Booknotes: Stories from American History by Brian Lamb (Short selections on various historical topics)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Utopian novel written in the 1930s)

Brother, The by Sam Roberts (The story of the Rosenberg atomic bomb spy case told from the perspective of David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg’s brother and the key witness for the prosecution)

Carry Me Home: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Movement by Diane McWhorter (Chronicles the story of the struggle for civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama)

Case Closed by Gerald Posner (An investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy)

Clarence Darrow for the Defense by Irving Stone (Biography of the great attorney)

Closed Chambers by Edward Lazarus (Inside look at the Supreme Court)

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody (A black woman grows up in the 1950s)

Courting of Marcus Dupree, The by Willie Morris (A town recovers from the stain of three civil rights murders through the exploits of a high school football star)

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (Fiction—Apartheid in South Africa)

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler (Fiction—Stalinist Russia)

Day of the Jackal, The by Frederick Forsyth (Fiction—Plot to assassinate Charles deGaulle)

Dreadnought by Robert Massie (The German British rivalry that led to World War I)

Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War by Bob Greene (Story of the pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb)

Eagle Has Landed, The by Jack Higgins (Fiction—Germans plot to kill Churchill)

Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof (The story of the 1919 World Series, which was fixed by gamblers. A fascinating look at America in the post-World War I era)

Enigma by Robert Harris (Fiction—British codebreakers in World War II)

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (Fiction—Search for a German spy who knows the secret of D-Day)

Eyes on the Prize by Juan Williams (History of the Civil Rights Movement)

Fatherland by Robert Harris (Fiction—What if Hitler had won World War II?)

Fifties, The by David Halberstam (An easy to read and comprehensive study of the 1950s, a decade that we don’t study in class in very much depth)

Forsaken Army, The by Heinrich Gerlach (Fiction—Germans at Stalingrad)

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (Fiction—American volunteer in the Spanish Civil War)

Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis (Account of a famous Supreme Court case)

Girl With the White Flag, The by Tomiko Higa (The battle for Okinawa from the perspective of a young Japanese girl)

Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (Fiction—Vietnam)

Guns of August, The by Barbara Tuchman (The first month of World War I)

Ho Chi Minh by William Duiker (The definitive biography of the Vietnamese leader)

Home Before Morning by Linda Van Devanter (The story of a nurse in Vietnam)

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien (Fiction—A Vietnam veteran faces the consequences of participating in a massacre)

King Rat by James Clavell (Fiction—Japanese POW Camp)

Lenin’s Tomb by David Remnick (The end of communism in the USSR)

Lincoln by Gore Vidal (Fiction—Abraham Lincoln skillfully navigates through the Civil War)

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns (Candid biography of the tragic story of the Johnson presidency)

Magnificent Ambersons, The by Booth Tarkington (Fiction—A Midwestern family in the 1870s)

March of Folly, The by Barbara Tuchman (Non-fiction account of foolish decisions in history from the Trojan Horse to Vietnam)

Mila 18 by Leon Uris (Fiction—Warsaw Ghetto)

Murder in Irvington by Robert Fangmeier (Fictionalized account of the 1925 murder that destroyed the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana)

Nazi Seizure of Power, The by William Sheridan Allen (The rise of Nazism in one German town)

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie (The last Russian Tsar)

QBVII by Leon Uris (Fiction—Trial of an English doctor accused of Nazi medical experiments)

Quiet American, The by Graham Greene (Fiction—Vietnam in the 1950s)

Patriots by A.J. Langutth (Fascinating fictional narrative of the American Revolution)

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy (Courageous stands by members of the U.S. Senators)

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (Fiction—America at the beginning of the twentieth century)

Things They Carried, The by Tim O’Brien (Vietnam)

Titan by Ron Chernow (Biography of John D. Rockefeller)

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals (A firsthand look at the 1957 integration of Little Rock High School by one of the nine black students. A fascinating story from the perspective of a teenager.)

We Are Not Afraid by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray (Freedom Summer 1964 in Mississippi and the murder of three civil rights workers by the KKK. See also The Courting of Marcus Dupree)

Wild Blue, The by Stephen Ambrose (Story of bomber pilots during World War II).

Yeltsin by Leon Aron (Biography of Russia’s first president. Don’t be intimidated by the size, it is very readable).

Zimmermann Telegram, The by Barbara Tuchman (The background behind the issue that led the U.S. to enter World War I)