Bellows, Amanda. The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions. Morrow. Jun. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063227408. $32.50. HIST

Bellows (history, the New School) considers 10 figures—explorers of all types—who have shaped the identity of the United States, from an enslaved person who forged his freedom as a mountain man to astronaut Sally Ride. Spanning two centuries, the work includes nearly 2,000 endnotes as well as a 16-page color insert.

Dugard, Martin. Taking London: Winston Churchill and the Fight To Save Civilization. Dutton. Jun. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780593473214. $32. HIST

Dugard, who often partners with James Patterson and Bill O’Reilly, returns after his best-selling Taking Paris with another book focused on WWII, this time examining Winston Churchill’s leadership during the London Blitz and Great Britain’s air defenses, mounted by pilots known as the Few in the legendary Spitfire airplane.

Graff, Garrett M. When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day. Avid Reader/S. & S. Jun. 2024. 512p. ISBN 9781668027813. $32.50. HIST

Director of the cyber initiative at the Aspen Institute, best-selling Graff (The Only Plane in the Sky; Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate) offers a panoramic history of D-Day, from the planning of the massive maneuver to the morning when over 150,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy.

Questlove. Hip-Hop Is History. AUWA. Jun. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780374614072. $30. HIST

From Questlove’s imprint comes a discography of hip-hop, comprised of one song from each year, starting with the birth of the sound in 1973. The book explains each of the songs, addressing their creation, context, and role in the genre’s development and advancement. With a 200K-copy first printing.

Lloyd, Nick. The Eastern Front: A History of the Great War, 1914–1918. Norton. Jun. 2024. 608p. ISBN 9781324092711. $42. HIST

Lloyd, professor of modern warfare in the Defense Studies Department at Kings College London, returns after his esteemed The Western Front with the second in his planned trilogy on WWI, this time addressing the vast theater in which the armies of Russia, Germany, the Balkans, and Austria-Hungary fought.