Today at the library book sale I picked up another book about early American History and decided that it was time to write another Historic Book Acquisitions post.

In the first post of the series I featured books about Columbus, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

The second post covered books about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the concept of Liberty and George Washington and Benedict Arnold.

This post will cover books from a shorter time period.

The first book is Builders of the Bay Colony by Samuel Eliot Morison. I picked this one up from Half Price Books and decided to purchase it after leafing through and finding that several of my ancestors were mentioned.

I have read several parts of the book, but need to read more so that I can better understand the colony that my ancestors helped build.

Now from building a colony to Inventing a Nation by Gore Vidal. This book looks at George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and how they worked with others to invent the American Republic.

I picked this volume up at the library book sale a couple weeks ago.

Virtue, Valor, & Vanity: The Founding Fathers and the Pursuit of Fame by Eric Burns was also a library book sale find.

I am looking forward to reading this book as looks at the real men underneath the image we have of the Founding Fathers.

America Afire: Jefferson, Adams, and the First Contested Election by Bernard A. Weisberger was the book that I brought home today.

This will be an interesting read as it explores how the nation started to divide into political factions. I also find it interesting that this book concentrates on the election of 1800 although the first truly contested election was in 1796. However, both of these elections had the same two candidates and indeed the 1800 election was more hotly contested and divisive than the one in 1796.

I am almost finished reading Pulitzer hopefuls, so maybe I will start reading the books in my History stack soon. The Pulitzer Prizes will be announced on April 20.

Which of these books would you read first?

Steven