Books from or about 1951-1976 (America250 Challenge)

Updated April 11, 2026
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Books from or about 1951-1976 (America250 Challenge)

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All you have to do is call
Maher, Kerri
Paper Book
Chicago, early 1970s: Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane. The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground women's health organisation composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to live lives free from the expectations of society by offering reproductive...
The all-American
Finkbeiner, Susie
Paper Book
A 2024 Michigan Notable Book "A moving novel, fit for inspiring any reader to dream big and believe that anything is possible."--BookPage *** Two sisters discover how much good there is in the world--even in the hardest of circumstances <...
American baby : a mother, a child, and the shadow history of adoption
Glaser, Gabrielle
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to relinquish, and their search to find each other. During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were...
American sirens : the incredible story of the Black men who became America's first paramedics
Hazzard, Kevin
Paper Book
The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world   Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your...
The Briar Club : a novel
Quinn, Kate
Paper Book
"Quinn evocatively balances the outward cheerfulness of the 1950s with historical observations exploring racism, misogyny, homophobia and political persecution in this sharply drawn, gripping novel." - People Magazine The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The...
Buses are a comin' : memoir of a freedom rider
Person, Charles
Paper Book
A firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward--written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers. At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement...
Chaos : Charles Manson, the CIA, and the secret history of the sixties
O'Neill, Tom
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NOW A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY A journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to "gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI's involvement in this "kaleidoscopic" (The New York Times)...
The Chelsea girls : a novel
Davis, Fiona
Paper Book
The Chelsea Hotel has long been New York's creative oasis for the many artists who have called it home - something playwright Hazel Riley and actress Magnolia Mead are determined to use to their advantage. Yet they soon discover the greatest obstacle to putting a show on Broadway isn't art but...
The family Roe : an American story
Prager, Joshua
Paper Book
Despite her famous pseudonym, "Jane Roe," no one knows the truth about Norma McCorvey (1947-2017), whose unwanted pregnancy in 1969 opened a great fracture in American life. Journalist Joshua Prager spent hundreds of hours with Norma, discovered her personal papers--a previously unseen trove--and...
The final revival of Opal & Nev : a novel
Walton, Dawnie
Paper Book
An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK NAMED A BEST...
The gales of November : the untold story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Bacon, John U.
Paper Book
For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represented the apex of the American Century...
Ghost Town
Perrotta, Tom
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling author Tom Perrotta, hailed by critics as "the Steinbeck of Suburbia" (Time), "our Balzac of the burbs" (Chicago Sun-Times), and "an American Chekhov" (The New York Times), comes a gripping and darkly nostalgic tale about a tumultuous...
The girls : a novel
Cline, Emma
Paper Book
THE INSTANT BESTSELLER * An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle,...
The great alone
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller In Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in...
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
McBride, James
Paper Book
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the...
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
Shetterly, Margot Lee
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller -WINNER OF ANISFIELD-WOLF AWARD FOR NONFICTION -WINNER BLACK CAUCUS OF AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BEST NONFICTION BOOK -WINNER NAACP IMAGE AWARD BEST NONFICTION BOOK -WINNER NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING...
Hula : a novel
Hakes, Jasmin 'Iolani
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Summer by Harper's Bazaar and ELLE * Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award Winner * HONOLULU Magazine's Book of the Year About Hawai`i "Stunning . . . An intricately built novel that spans decades, moving in and out of a collective voice, while also telling...
I'll be there : my life with The Four Tops
Fakir, Abdul
Paper Book
Spanning over decades, this is the remarkable, heartfelt memoir from Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, the last surviving member of The Four Tops. Amidst a backdrop of Detroit, I'll Be There features revealing anecdotes from the group's formation, their early days as backup singers for the...
Kent State : an American tragedy
VanDeMark, Brian
Paper Book
On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, political fires that had been burning across America during the 1960s exploded. Antiwar protesters wearing bell-bottom jeans and long hair hurled taunts and rocks at another group of young Americans--National Guardsmen sporting gas masks and...
Let's call her Barbie
Rosen, Renée
Paper Book
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she's setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be...
The life and times of the thunderbolt kid : a memoir
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
From one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century--1951--in the middle of the United States--Des Moines, Iowa--in the...
The Lincoln highway
Towles, Amor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Readers' Choice Best Book of the Century, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The...
Love & saffron : a novel of friendship, food, and love
Fay, Kim
Paper Book
The Instant National Bestseller and #1 Indie Next Pick For fans of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and 84, Charing Cross Road, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that...
Mercury rising : John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the new battleground of the Cold War
Shesol, Jeff
Paper Book
If the United States couldn't catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War--a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in...
The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family
Roberts, Dorothy
Paper Book
From Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and a writer who "has brilliantly illuminated the Black experience in America for decades" (Bryan Stevenson), comes a spirited and riveting memoir of growing up in an interracial family in 1960s Chicago and a daughter's journey...
The Mountains We Call Home: The Book Woman's Legacy
Richardson, Kim Michele
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek comes a triumphant tale of a librarian's fight to bring literacy to the prisons of Kentucky and the underserved neighborhoods of downtown Louisville, revealing a story of fierce love, quiet strength, and the healing...
Nuclear folly : a history of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Plokhy, Serhii
Paper Book
Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, today's world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War:...
On the rooftop
Sexton, Margaret Wilkerson,
Paper Book
A Reese's Book Club Pick "An utterly original and brilliant story." -Reese Witherspoon A stunning novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with the daughters' ambitions for their own lives--set against the backdrop of gentrifying 1950s San...
An ordinary man : the surprising life and historic presidency of Gerald R. Ford
Smith, Richard Norton
Paper Book
Wall Street Journal Top 10 Best Books of 2023 "Richard Norton Smith had brought a lifetime of wisdom, insight, and storytelling verve to the life of a consequential president--Gerald R. Ford. Ford's is a very American life, and Smith has charted its vicissitudes and import with great grace...
Red Scare : blacklists, McCarthyism and the making of modern America
Risen, Clay
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews From an award-winning historian and New York Times reporter comes the timely story about McCarthyism that both "lays out the...
The road to Woodstock
Lang, Michael.
Paper Book
"[A] vivid and lively account of those hectic and historic three days....The best fly-on-the-wall account, tantamount to having had a backstage pass to an iconic event." --New York Post Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock with the definitive book on the festival. ...
Shoot for the moon : the space race and the extraordinary voyage of Apollo 11
Donovan, Jim
Paper Book
Learn why NASA astronaut Mike Collins calls this extraordinary space race story "the best book on Apollo": this inspiring and intimate ode to ingenuity celebrates one of the most daring feats in human history. When the alarm went...
Silent spring revolution : John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the great environmental awakening
Brinkley, Douglas
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon...
Small mercies : a novel
Lehane, Dennis
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller "Small Mercies is thought provoking, engaging, enraging, and can't-put-it-down entertainment." -- Stephen King The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival...
Traveling : on the path of Joni Mitchell
Powers, Ann
Paper Book
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. "What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and...
An unfinished love story : a personal history of the 1960s
Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller from "America's historian-in-chief" (New York magazine). An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America's most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography,...
Watergate : a new history
Graff, Garrett M.
Paper Book
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Do we need still another Watergate book? The answer turns out to be yes--this one." --The Washington Post * "Dazzling." --The New York Times Book Review From the...
The women
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times! From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women--at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a...
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