The Best Books of 2012 on the United States

Turner’s portrait of this unique American figure is balanced, thoughtful, and readable. It is a book that no student of the American West can afford to ignore.

Wide ranging, deeply researched, and clearly expressed, Preston’s history of the influence of religion on U.S. foreign policy, from Colonial times through the Obama administration, is a landmark in the field of American foreign policy studies.

In this brilliant new look at the destruction of slavery during the American Civil War, Oakes reveals how the U.S. abolitionist movement relied not only on high-minded moral suasion but also on the small-bore legalistic strategy of the Republican Party.