So who do you like? and why? As American historians, , my favorites are all dead, with no replacements I can see waiting in the wings. I like Richard Hofstadter and David Halberstam; and can't stand Samuel Eliot Morison or Howard Zinn.

Most of David McCullough's books are top of the line, And while he is 88 years old, he is still alive,

I love reading about history, especially when it covers something new to me. Well, I 'd like to recommend you read The Island at the Center of the World.  This book is fantastic. I learned so much about the Dutch colony which began on Manhattan that it meant unlearning so much of what I was taught in school. So much of what we cherish as American traditions originated with that colony. I left a lengthly review on that book's page.