Atkinson, Rick. The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780. (American Revolutionary, bk. 2). Crown. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780593799185. 880p. $42. HISTORY

Multi–Pulitzer Prize winner Atkinson (An Army at Dawn) returns with this second in his “American Revolutionary” trilogy (after The British Are Coming), this time focused on the middle years of the Revolution, the period when George Washington had just barely kept the army fighting, the battle of Brandywine, and the winter at Valley Forge.

Ferling, John. Shots Heard Round the World: America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War. Bloomsbury. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9781639730155. 560p. $35.99. HISTORY

Ferling (Winning Independence) offers a new view of the Revolutionary War on its 250th anniversary. He looks into the actions of France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic; military leaders and private citizens and the key choices they made across the war years; and the global implications of the war, both at the time it was fought and over centuries later.

Grandin, Greg. America, América: A New History of the New World. Penguin Pr. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780593831250. 640p. $35. HISTORY

Grandin, a professor of history at Yale, winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes, and a finalist for the National Book Award, offers an accessible, character-filled history of the Western hemisphere, covering 500 years, revealing how the many nations of the Americas defined themselves through engagement, reflection, and struggle with each other.

Luo, Michael. Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America. Doubleday. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780385548571. 576p. $35. HISTORY

Luo, editor of the New Yorker website, traces more than 100 years of Chinese people in America, from the mid-19th century, when thousands of people immigrated during the gold rush, to the mid-20th century, when the U.S. welcomed immigration from Taiwan. In between are hateful periods of violence, bigotry, and expulsion.

Pember, Mary Annette. Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools. Pantheon. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780553387315. 304p. $29. HISTORY

Ojibwe journalist Pember offers a mix of history and personal biography about Indigenous boarding schools in the U.S. These religious and governmental institutions separated tens of thousands of children from their families, including Pember’s mother, and subjected them to horrible abuse. Pember considers both their history and their lasting reverberations.

Rappaport, Helen. The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had. St. Martin’s. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9781250273123. 336p. $32. HISTORY

Bestselling Rappaport (The Romanov Sisters) offers a historical biography of Julie of Saxe-Coburg, who became the bride of Constantine, Catherine the Great’s grandson. Fighting against the atmosphere of the imperial court of Russia, Julie finally was granted permission by Tsar Alexander to leave, which she did, eventually living a life of scandal and freedom.

Sorkin, Andrew Ross. 1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History. Viking. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780593296967. 400p. $35. HISTORY

Sorkin, an award-winning journalist for the New York Times, coanchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box, author of Too Big To Fail, and cocreator of Showtime’s Billions, writes a character-centered social history of the stock market crash of 1929, based on new research found in letters, diaries, and notes from the time.

Walker, Shaun. The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission To Infiltrate the West. Knopf. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9780593319680. 448p. $32. HISTORY

Walker, an international correspondent for The Guardian and author of The Long Hangover: Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past, unravels an espionage tale mixed with political history by detailing Russia’s secret spy program, begun over a century ago, which trained and planted Soviet citizens as deep-cover spies and sent them on missions that could last for decades.

Wilkinson, Toby. The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. Norton. Apr. 2025. ISBN 9781324052036. 352p. $37.99. HISTORY

Bestselling Egyptologist Wilkinson (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt) writes about the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE), including the founding of Alexandria, scientific discoveries, royal and palace intrigue, and the building of temples in the Nile Valley.