The Best History 2025

1. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the New York Times bestseller Paddle Your Own Canoe returns with a second book that humorously highlights twenty-one figures from our nation's history, from her inception to present day--Nick's personal pantheon of "great Americans." To millions of people, Nick Offerman is America. Both Nick and his character, Ron Swanson, are known for their humor and patriotism in equal measure. After the great success of his autobiography, Paddle Your Own Canoe , Offerman now focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning. He combines both serious history with light-hearted humor--comparing, say, Benjamin Franklin's abstinence from daytime drinking to his own sage refusal to join his construction crew in getting plastered on the way to work. The subject matter also allows Offerman to expound upon his favorite topics, which readers love to hear--areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.

Gumption : Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers, Used [Hardcover]

2. I Love Paul Revere, Used [Paperback]

At long last in paperback, Richard Shenkman's bestselling sequel to Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History . Provocative and amusingly heretical, "I Love Paul Revere, Whether He Rode or Not" (a quote attributed to Warren Harding) offers eye-opening revelations debunking long-held American legends.

I Love Paul Revere, Used [Paperback]

3. James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Focusing on less sensational times in U.S. history (non-war and pre-Depression) James Sturm's America draws a portrait of the people and their dreams that make up this country. Comprised of three chapters--"The Revival," "Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight," and "The Golem's Mighty Swing"--the stories grow as the country grows: from pioneers searching for a place to call home to ghost towns gutted by greed and racism to the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment.

James Sturm's America : God, Gold, and Golems, Used [Hardcover]

4. Alex Sweet's Texas: The Lighter Side of Lone Star History, Used [Paperback]

Alexander Edwin Sweet (1841-1901) is Texas's own "Sifter," whose humorous columns appeared in the Galveston Daily News in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In his wickedly funny, tongue-in-cheek sketches, readers learned of an astonishing variety of frontier phenomena, some familiar, others downright odd. For example, there was the typical nineteenth-century custom of New Year's Day receptions for bachelor guests only, with refreshments consisting largely of strong drink and equally strong fruitcake. Imbibing a bit more cheer at each stop, according to Sweet, the bachelors brought the last prospective sweethearts they visited New Year's greetings as incoherent as they were heartfelt. At times Sweet parodied the Yankee image of the typical Texan, whom he described as "half alligator, half human," eating raw buffalo and toting an arsenal of weaponry like a "perambulating gun-rack." But he also did as much as any writer to establish and enlarge upon the national image of Texas and Texans. Even the irascible red ant and the other "critters" in Sweet's column were Texas big and Texas- fabulous In 1881 Sweet co-founded Texas Siftings, a humor magazine that moved from Austin to New York to become one of the most popular periodicals of its kind in the United States. From Texas Siftings, from Sweet's two published books (one called by John Jenkins in Basic Texas Books the "best volume of 19th century Texas humor"), and from many never-before-collected newspaper columns, editor Virginia Eisenhour has assembled an Alex Sweet sampler that presents the very best of the timeless humorist's work. The result--Alex Sweet's Texas--clearly demonstrates why the New York Journal pronounced Sweet "second to no living writer in freshness, originality, sparkling wit, and refined humor." A century later, that wit still sparkles and is guaranteed to delight Texans present as it once did Texans past.

Alex Sweet's Texas : The Lighter Side of Lone Star History, Used [Paperback]

5. Cartoon History of Texas [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Cartoon History of Texas by Patrick M. Reynolds

Cartoon History of Texas [Paperback - Used]

6. History Bites: The Past's Strangest Moments in Bite-size Portions [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Did you know that when Teddy Roosevelt traveled to Dakota in 1883, he was known as "four eyes" until he knocked a man unconscious in a barroom brawl? Take an entertaining look at the past through "bite-size" short stories that reveal some of the strangest or funniest moments in history, from classical times through the mid-twentieth century. More than 500 accounts feature famous figures and events, quirky tales, and amusing anecdotes that rarely turn up in a history class--although maybe they should. There are military blunders, royal encounters, political affairs, art and artists, plots and coups, disasters (man-made or otherwise), and much more.

History Bites : The Past's Strangest Moments in Bite-Size Portions, Used [Paperback]

7. You Might Be from Saskatchewan If...., Used [Paperback]

A delightful romp through one of Canada's most beloved provinces, this illustrated collection of geographical quips, barbs, and jokes takes an intimate look at what it's like to be from Saskatchewan. Perfect for visitors or longtime residents, this joke book is sure to bring laughs to any reader familiar with the Land of the Living Sky.

You Might Be from Saskatchewan If...., Used [Paperback]

8. Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons - World War II (hardcover edition), Used [Hardcover]

Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons - World War II (hardcover edition)

Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons - World War II (hardcover edition), Used [Hardcover]

9. Built in Texas [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. A book of folk building in Texas, that ranges across the state in word and photograph. It explores the pine buildings of settlers in East Texas, those of oak in the Western Cross Timbers, and the rock homes of European migrants into Central Texas. West Texans of the Pecos, who had neither rocks nor logs to build with, mixed mud and grass, made adobe brick, and built in traditions borrowed from the Mexican-Indian population already settled there. These were the folk, building out of the environment, wasting nothing, building forms to suit their needs. Germans, Poles, Norse, and Alsatians coming straight from the Old World with their countries' ways of building in mind had to adapt to the new materials and learn from the older Anglo settlers the methods of putting the materials together. Built in Texas is divided into Methods and Materials; Style and Form; Barns and Outbuildings; Gates and Fences; Holding Water; Restoration and Preservation.

Built in Texas, Used [Paperback]

10. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, Nick describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they ignite in him such profound inspiration. He combines serious history with light-hearted humor, expounding upon his favorite topics, which readers love to consume - areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat. Nick Offerman returns with a second book that humorously highlights twenty-one figures from our nation's history, from her inception to present day - Nick's personal pantheon of "great Americans." To millions of people, Nick Offerman is redolent of America. Both Nick and his character Ron Swanson are known for their humor and patriotism in equal measure. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, Nick describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they ignite in him such profound inspiration. He combines serious history with light-hearted humor, expounding upon his favorite topics, which readers love to consume - areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.

Gumption : Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers, Used [Paperback]