I was just curious to see what history books (fiction or nonfiction) sparked your interest in history as a child. For me, I can remember two books in particular that got me excited about American history: Johnny Tremain and Rifles for Watie.

I lived in Germany as a kid, so I was also fascinated by the town history guides you could buy in multiple languages in old German cities. I must have a dozen or so in English and (a little too ambitiously for a kid) in German. I still enjoy looking at them.

For me, it is hard to say. Starting about 5th grade I read anything to deal with WWII I could get my hands on. Many of them were adult books I had no business reading at that age. From Here to Eternity was one of them. Probably the most influential was Ernie Pyle's Brave Men. A well worn copy sat on my Dad's bookshelf for as long as I could remember. Finally, I picked it up, to this day I still go back and read it about every 3 or 4 years.

Dr. Watson said:

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Rifles for Watie.

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Holy hell, I was going to post this when I saw the topic. Nobody I know has ever read it. But it had a pretty good sized impact on my becoming fascinated with history after I read it in 5th grade.

The other big one was Diary of a Flying Tiger by Charlie Bond. That was after Watie, probably 6th grade. Not really a children's book, but I read it twice in 2 weeks.

I am 68, just to give a time frame.

From ages 5-12, I lived in a tiny town in NW Louisiana.

My parents subscribed to a series of hardbound books that would come in the mail every two months or so called the "We Were There" series. They were formulaic in that the main characters were young people who were caught up in some historical event. They were excellent, and I still have a couple of them. The ones I remember offhand:

We Were There With/At...
Grant and Lee at Appomatox
Lexington and Concord
The Pony Express
Pearl Harbor
The Battle of Gettysburg

My parents also subscribed to a similar series of biographies of various historical figures: Edison, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, etc.

Loved these.......

Rifles for Waite was my favorite! I must have read it a dozen times when I was a kid.

My folks had that picture history of the Civil War and one of the Revolution. I remember being transfixed by those picture maps of the battles.

I don't know that I know which book captured my love of history. The movie Battleground had something to do with it.

I also enjoyed Fallen Angels by WD Meyers as well.

Good one Shiek, I was going to add that one too but figured I had enough. I also had a brown book from the '30s about Indian tribes that was quite good but can't recall the author or title. Looked like a text book though.

"The Boy In The Alamo" is the first to come to mind.




Books like Old Yeller, Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, etc. are what sparked my interest in history.

I read "Woods Runner" by Gary Paulsen as an adult. Its about young adult book about the American Revolution and I'd recommend it to any young readers.

Interesting the cover of that book makes me think it is the same story as the We Were There book-- same author, same historian consulted and same illustrator.

"Banners at Shenandoah" by Bruce Catton started my interest in the Civil War. The climax of the book is Sheridan's Ride to Cedar Creek.

Started a long interest in the war. When I stood at the point of the Union counterattack ( 24 years after I first read the book) and realized how critical that book was to my history interest I got choked up.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/102103/boo_20031021014.shtml#.WZS3OVGQyhM

The Childhood of Famous Americans series (the orange-covered biographies). Famous Americans as children. The Lufkin public library and my elementary library had tons of them. I read them all.

The American Heritage series listed above was great too.

PineTreeAg said:

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"The Boy In The Alamo" is the first to come to mind.




Books like Old Yeller, Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, etc. are what sparked my interest in history.

I read "Woods Runner" by Gary Paulsen as an adult. Its about young adult book about the American Revolution and I'd recommend it to any young readers.

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Yes! Also "Cannon Boy at the Alamo". Going to order them for my son for when he gets a bit older. I read and reread those books growing up.

https://imgur.com/a/TDzTr

And while not exactly a book, the NatGeo Civil War centennial coverage beginning in April 1961 was certainly a start.

https://shop.cricketmedia.com/magazines/Cobblestone-Magazine-for-Kids.html

Cobblestone Magazine. I still have my issues from when I was young. Each issue was a separate topic.

Canyon Ag....ah....the "Texas HIstory Movie Book"...!!! Oh yes, I must have read that book a hundred times. The books was cartoon illustrated (with some really fine drawings I might add). If memory serves I got mine free from an Humble gas station . The Humble gas stations often had promotion give- aways (one was a clear plastic piggy bank with HUMBLE embossed on it.)
Back the Texas History Movie book...I learned more about the Alamo in that little book than anything I read after !!! I swear...a great piece and truly unique.
Thanks for the memory.

The first history book I remembered was a book on Francis Marion called "Swamp Fox" (there are literally dozens, so I can't identify it now). I was a nave kid in South Texas where the only two ethnicities in my world were white and Hispanic, so when they talked about "colored" people I thought it might be people with tattoos or something, but why they were all servants made no sense to me. I was about 7 or 8 at the time, so this would be late 70s.

At some point, I also read a book on Alexander the Great.

What really cemented my love for history, however, was not books, but the radio. I grew up near San Antonio, and WOAI used to always play Henry Guerra's "13 Days of the Alamo." I listened to that in Henry's very deep, old school radio announcer's voice and was fascinated.

Then as I got older, my brother and his best friend got into WWII airplane modeling and I was the tag-along brother at the time, so I got into that too. By the time I was 12, the vast majority of play and reading was history related. I do remember reading 30 Seconds over Tokyo in 6th grade.

BQ78 said:

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I stared at these beauties from it for hours:

http://cwmemory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/61ZLxe8JgTL.jpg

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I know this book was great my favorite one was Fredricksburg

1969 - given to me by my paternal grandparents as a birthday present. (My grandfather had served in France in the Army in 1918, although not in the sector where the Red Baron flew). Well researched and well-written.


1969 - my dad picked this up for me during one of his business trips. Interesting bookend to the Burroughs book (Burroughs didn't think it was at all that important as to whether the Baron was killed by another pilot or by ground fire; what mattered was the Baron's contribution to military aviation). It was interesting to follow Carisella's detective work (50 years after the fact) in figuring out which ANZAC gunners would have had the best shot at MvR as he flew over the Allied lines. Carisella also gives an account of the German side of things the day the Baron died; the autopsy and burial; postwar relocation of the Baron's body (from Bertangles to Fricourt and thence to Berlin); and a bunch of trivia about the Flying Circus, the ANZAC gunners, etc.

Nearly a half century later, I still have both of these books. (Amazing that the paperback is still in one piece)

Bantam War Book Series and Ballantine Illustrated History of World War II (Weapons, Battles, Campaigns) .

Every one of them that I could lay my hands on. My Dad still has them in his very extensive history library.

My brother and I had reading lights above our beds for years. I was surprised when I discovered that none of my friends had lights over their beds.

OMG, I remember reading Brazen Chariots. (At least, the part where the author appropriated some nice silk pajamas that someone had apparently left behind; only to discover the following day that they were left behind because they contained body lice)

Other Bantam War Books that I read nearly 50 years ago were Fly For Your Life (RAF ace Standford Tuck); We Die Alone (Jan Baalsrud's escape from Nazi-occupied arctic Norway); and Reach for the Sky (RAF ace Douglas Bader). Great stuff!

CanyonAg77 said:

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I remember enjoying that one a great deal; I recall her Great Depression novel (No Promises in the Wind) was very good as well.

Johnny Tremain as mentioned above (Rab...the feels).

Then I read John Jakes' American Bicentennial series starting about 5th grade. Some parts may have been a little over my head at the time.

Oh! And Carol Hoff's Johnny Texas. Anyone remember that one?

Anything by Fred Gipson. Old Yeller, Savage Sam, Little Arliss and Trail Driving Rooster.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I absolutely loved this bok when I was a youngster. I used to read it everyday. I wish I still had my old copy of it.

Aggie12B said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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I absolutely loved this bok when I was a youngster. I used to read it everyday. I wish I still had my old copy of it.

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-TEXAS-HISTORY-MOVIES-BY-MAGNOLIA-PETROLEUM-COMPANY-IN-FAIR-TUB-CCC/110964886521?hash=item19d605cbf9:m:mzRBpoNuK8vLnSbnUP3m4nA

Lots more on eBay, including some 1985 versions. Wonder if the reprints have been sanitized and made PC.

I bought one off eBay a few years ago. Still love the crazy things.

I really liked Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. WWII novel about a little girl with a Jewish friend and how the underground resistance worked in Europe to rescue Jews from the Nazis. I recently read it again and it holds up well.