Also of interest ... in American history reconsidered

The Ascent of George Washington

by John Ferling

(Bloomsbury, $30)

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“Once in a while” a book revolutionizes our understanding of a figure we thought we knew, said Marie Arana in The Washington Post. John Ferling’s “fresh, clear-eyed portrait” of the father of our country presents Washington not as a cardboard saint but as a “full-blooded political animal” who sought to accumulate power, deflect blame, and shape how history would view him. Curiously, the author’s emphasis on the man’s failures—both military and moral—produces a Washington who is “harsher, yet more human, than any we’ve had before.”

Rebirth of a Nation

by Jackson Lears

(Harper, $28)

Following the Civil War, traumatized Americans “attempted to stitch their country back together,” said Beverly Gage in The New York Times. This “fascinating cultural history” traces their collective experience through World War I, from ambitious social crusades to a popular fascination with entertainers such as escape artist Harry Houdini. Mostly, says Lears, the country found common cause in “militarism and racism.” Showing how these trends coalesced into a starry-eyed imperialism still evident in American policy, this is a “major work by a leading historian at the top of his game.”

American Passage

by Vincent J. Cannato

(Harper, $28)

Vincent Cannato’s “exceptionally fine” history of Ellis Island “honors the past by complicating it,” said Luther Spoehr in The Providence Journal. Focusing on the years between 1892 and 1924, when more than 12 million immigrants passed through the famous screening center, Cannato “avoids being either prosecutorial or nostalgic” about how the nation’s newcomers were treated. He reminds us that most Americans wanted neither a completely open door nor total exclusion, and shows how their immigration debates shed light on our own.

The State of Jones

by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer

(Doubleday, $27.50)

It’s “beguiling” to think that during the Civil War, one mostly white county in Mississippi rebelled against the Confederacy and its pro-slavery agenda, said Michael B. Ballard in The Wall Street Journal. But Jones County was more a catch basin for Confederate deserters than a bastion of high-minded idealists. As important as it is to have fresh attention brought “to a little-known and interesting sidebar” to the war’s history, The State of Jones tries too hard to turn a complex story into a tale of uplift.