As a teen I was obsessed with ww2 books and read tons of them.  In the past couple years I started reading fiction zombie books but would like to start reading more history.  What are some must reads for American history from revolutionary war to ww2.  I would like some Texas history also.

Currently working on "a Patriots History of the United States" if you haven't read it, it's a solid book. Very uncensored too. There are also several other good works by that author.
Happy reading,
Cole

Of course there are many thousands of books on all aspects of American history, but a good starting point might be the books written by Stephen Ambrose.
He wrote history books covering a wide range of American history.

Some of his best were "Band of Brothers" and "Nothing Like it In the World" about the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's, the great "Undaunted Courage" about the Lewis and Clark expedition, "D-Day: June 6 1944", "Crazy Horse and Custer", "Citizen Soldiers", "The Victors", "Americans At War" and others.

All of these are not the usual dry story, they're all very accessible readable stories.

I did read Ambrose's D day book in 9th grade or so, it was very informative and a great read.

I went with "battle cry of freedom" by James McPherson.  Hopefully it will.get my interest and keep it.

For Civil War reading, some of the more recent biographies of US Grant are excellent and so is "The Tangled Lives of William T. Sherman" by Robert O'Connell.

Grant's own "Personal Memoirs" is considered to be the greatest military memoir since Julius Caesar.
You can usually get Grant's memoir free on Amazon ebook.

A recent book is "West Like Lightning" by Jim DeFelice about the pony express.

Another recent one is "Wild Bill" America's First Gunfighter" by Tom Colvin, who also wrote "Dodge City" about the Earp's and Bat Masterson.

Start with the original history book:
The Pelopponesian War, Thucydides

Then The Annals, Tacitus

If you read these two, and can't immediately and clearly see a number of parallels with current events, then you might as well stop reading history.  But more than likely, you'll see that lots of things have changed in 2,500 years, but not men.

For Texas history, a good start is the two books about the Texas Rangers by Robert Marshal Utley.
They are "Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers" and "Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century".

The Civil War, a narrative by Shelby Foote. (3 volumes)
Undaunted Courage about Lewis and Clark
The Gates of the Alamo
A Line in the Sand (also the Alamo)

I have some books I want to give away if anybody is interested.

Patriots - James Wesley Rawles
Survivors - James Wesley Rawles
Day By Day Armageddon - J.L. Bourne
DBDA Beyond Exile - J.L. Bourne

Oops, I meant to put this in another thread.

I recommended to my US History 100 level classes the novels by Newt Gingrich on the Revolutionary War. Well written and accurate. Perfect for students who were not history majors but wanted to learn more.

Another good source for historical novels about American history are the books written by Michael Shaara and his son Jeff.

Michael Sharra wrote the famous "Killer Angels" about Gettysburg, that was made into a movie.

These cover the Revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Korea.
These are well researched, and tell history in a novel format centering on an individuals experience.
An eye opener was the novel about the Marine's in WWI.  I knew it was bad, but had no idea it was that bad.

For one of the best history series ever done on WWII is the three massive book series by Rick Atkinson.
"Army At Dawn" covers North Africa, "Day of Battle" covers Sicily and Italy, and "Guns At Last Light" covers D-Day to the end of the war.
The Greatest Generation was just that.
We owe.

Pekka  Hamalainen’s  “The Comanche Empire” is absolutely fantastic.  From roughly 1700 to 1875, the Comanches lorded over the area from central New Mexico to Arkansas, from Kansas to Northern Mexico.  Fascinating read on American and Texas history.

Hking

I read a recent book about America's longest war....The Apache War.
In the book it mentioned that once before whites appeared the mighty Comanches rode into Arizona to show the Apache's who was King.

It said that the surviving Comanches rode out of Arizona and never entered Arizona again.

I think it was General Cook who once was asked by an Easterner what Arizona was like.
He drew a line across a paper and drew a rock and small cactus.  He named it "Arizona landscape...with Apache raiding party".

You could peruse through the bibliography of my first book, Sharpshooters (1750-1900).  Save your ducats and get it via interlibrary loan for free.  Several universities have it.

For the Civil War, I loved The Class of 1846 by Waugh, Mosby's Rangers by Wert, and Stonewall Jackson by Robertson.

James I. Robertson Jr. is the premier scholar on Stonewall Jackson, his brigade, and their battles/military tactics.

I've had trouble getting put of this rabbit hole, thanks to all the literary works produced on the subject.