As a student in the American education system, I did not get a lot of non-White American history and I want to rectify that. Any books on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color’s history, as well as lesser known history, history of other countries, etc welcome!
Edit to add: i would also to read about other countries’ histories as well! sorry if i didn’t make that clear lol
by serialxkillers
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An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
An African American and Latinx History of the United States
Asian American Histories of the United States
Etc. Etc. – these are books in the “Revising History” series and they are all good (the Sports one is so good!)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/RVH/revisioning-history
1491 by Charles Mann
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Half Has Never Been told by Edward Baptist
The Indigenous Palaeolithic of the Western Hemisphere by Paulette FC Steeves
Washington Bullets by Vijay Prashad
Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom
The Dawning of the Apocalypse by Gerald Horne
The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism by Gerald Horne
I’ve recently explored titles from [NDN Girls Book Club](https://ndngirlsbookclub.org/), which has book lists on their Education page. Phyllis Webstad wrote two books, Orange Shirt Day and Phyllis’ Orange Shirt, and founded the Orange Shirt Society, which has [extensive resources](https://orangeshirtday.org/reconciliation-hub/resources/) you might explore as well.
In college, I took a Slavery and Abolition Course, and these were on our list: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs. Harriet Tubman and the Fight for Freedom: A Brief History with Documents, by Lois E. Horton. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry: A Brief History with Documents, by Jonathan Earle. Major Problems in the History of the American South, Vol. 1: The Old South, edited by Sally G. McMillen, Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Paul D. Escott, and David R. Goldfield. William Lloyd Garrison and the Fight Against Slavery: Selections from the Liberator, edited by William E. Cain. Indiana Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Indiana from Interviews with Former Slaves, prepared by The Federal Writers’ Project 1936-1938. Suicide, Slavery, and Memory in North America, by Terri L. Snyder. The Confessions of Nat Turner, with Related Documents, Edited by Kenneth S. Greenberg. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, by Walter Johnson.
Other books, not necessarily directly about histories of BIPOC/global majority peoples, but do give insights on industrial and agricultural implications: Chocolate: A Global History, by Sarah Moss. The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair Trade Tea Plantations, by Sara Besky. The Politics of Fashion in 18th Century America, by Kate Haulman. Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet, by Minh-Ha T. Pham. (Food, fashion, politics, and colonialism are forever entwined.)
Anthony Burgess has a fun linguistic read that touches on issues of language education called A Mouthful of Air. Mostly he talks about teaching troops to read, but unfortunately some of the same language barriers and accessibility issues are still prevalent in today’s schools and ‘modern’ societies. The Empires of the Word, by Nicholas Ostler gives an account of language empires, the rise and fall of languages, which languages are likely to be most dominant and why. This isn’t specific to America, but he touches on the factors that fueled the destruction or spread of cultures, with lots of maps. [GoodReads also has a list of Native American language books](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84978.Native_American_Languages), a mix of reflections and beginner courses.
A more contemporary book you may include on your list is Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo. It won the Booker Prize in 2019.
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline might also meet your list requirements, though it involves Australian history.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors, by Kawai Strong Washburn is a marvelous fiction, with lots of explorations of poverty, Hawai’ian perseverance, and the magic that flows from ancestors to later generations. I encourage you to enjoy the audiobook, the VAs were awesome. You’ll ugly cry, I promise. It is beautiful.
Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey is also wonderful. I encourage you to enjoy the audiobook, because the performance is amazing.
Hope this wasn’t too overwhelming, but gives you a selection to start from. Looking forward to expanding my own lists from this thread.
Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hamalainen is incredibly well written and details the sociopolitical landscape of North America between 1492-1850s. Well worth a read.
Why You Can’t Teach United States History Without American Indians ed. Susan Sleeper-Smith et al