SOURCES
Amazing – The Book of Amazing History
This large collection of anecdotes covers a lot of ground. Chapters include “Voyages of Discovery”, “Let’s Hear It for the Ladies”, and “Lowlights”. Each has numerous fairly long anecdotes. Some of the anecdotes take a deeper dip into known events like “Who Betrayed Anne Frank?” or “Dorie Miller: An Unlikely Hero”. This is a great book for anyone just interested in History.
Ayres – That’s Not in My American History Book by Thomas Ayres
Ayres’ book is a collection of interesting stories. They are longer than the usual anecdotes. Many of them are about obscure characters and incidents. Typical chapters include “Men in Flight: The Men Who Flew Before the Wright Brothers” and “Wild West Cowboys and Outlaw Queens”.
Bathroom 1 – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into History Again
These two book are typical Uncle John’s readers, but they have only history articles in them. Some of the topics are covered in a lot of detail, like “Guerrilla Warfare”.
Bathroom 2 – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into History
Boller – Presidential Anecdotes by Paul F. Boller, Jr.
Boller’s book is probably the best for great stories and information about the Presidents. Each chapter starts with a biography that is chock full of interesting facts. The second half of the chapter is a collection of anecdotes. Even Millard Fillmore has one. Each anecdote has a footnote that tells you the original source.
Botkin – A Treasury of American Anecdotes by Benjamin Botkin
The subtitle is “Sly, Salty, Shaggy Stories of Heroes and Hellions, Beguilers and Buffoons, Spellbinders and Scapegoats, Gagsters and Gossips, from the Grassroots and Sidewalks of America”. Some of those words will clue you in that this source is decidedly old school. It contains only anecdotes. Many of the stories are apocryphal, so be careful.
Engrossing – Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader
This is #22.
Flagel – The History Buff’s Guide to the Presidents by Thomas R. Flagel
Flagel organizes his information in lists like “Top Ten Scandals” and “Top Ten Most Influential First Ladies”. Not a book of anecdotes, it concentrates on explaining the role various presidents played in different events. It’s an excellent source beyond the textbook.
Foods – “Squirrel stew, jelly beans, and hoecakes: Here are all 44 presidents’ favorite foods” – https://www.businessinsider.com/presidents-favorite-food-dishes-white-house-2019-5
This article simply takes you through the Presidents and tells you what their favorite food(s) were.
Frank – The Presidents Tidbits and Trivia by Sid Frank and Arden Davis Melick
Frank and Melick have collected a wide assortment of trivia bits about the Presidents. They are not organized, but the book is a fun read and you’ll run across a lot that you can throw into your class. Much of this information ended up on my President pages on this website.
Fuller – 2,500 Anecdotes for All Occasions by Edmund Fuller
Fuller’s classic is organized into sections like ‘Character and Manners” and “Recreation and Sports”. These sections are then broken down into subcategories like “Eating”. It is mainly aimed at speakers, but you can find some juicy historical anecdotes from all of history.
Fully Loaded – Uncle John’s Fully Loaded
Gordon – American Chronicle by Lois Gordon and Alan Gordon
This wonderful book covers the period 1900 to 1998. Each decade gets an article summarizing the basics, including culture. Each year has its own coverage. This starts with events happening that year. It includes quotes from the year. It covers lists of top books, movies, TV shows. You find out about big developments in the arts and sciences. You can look up all kinds of sports information like who the champions were that year. The chapter concludes with trivia, fads, and first appearances from that year.
Hover – Fourteen Presidents Before Washington by Herman D. Hover
Hover’s book is just anecdotes and interesting tidbits. His chapters include items from various historical periods. He also has chapters on the Presidents, the states, cities, and the Supreme Court. The book is more focused on interesting facts than anecdotes.
Humes – Speaker’s Treasury of Anecdotes About the Famous by James C. Humes
Humes has collected anecdotes about famous people that can be used by speakers. It is organized into topics in alphabetical order. Typical topics include “hypocrisy” and “patience”. There are almost 600 anecdotes here and they are all short. About half are from American History.
Kane – Facts About the Presidents by Joseph Nathan Kane
Kane’s book is full of details. For example, you can find out all their Cabinet members. It includes important events in their administration and in their lives. Each chapter includes anecdotes.
Kelly – Best Little Stories from the White House by C. Brian Kelly
This book is in chronological order. Although the word “little” is in the title, these anecdotes are longer than usual. Typical stories include “Telephonitis in the White House” and “Nixon Resigns”. History buffs might want to read this book from cover to cover. It includes a section with interesting things about each of the First Ladies.
Lawrence – Fascinating Facts from American History
Lawrence’s book is a chronological narrative of American History concentrating on interesting topics. It is not anecdotes, but if you are teaching a chapter in American History, you will find some information that a textbook would not include. For instance, the chapter on WWII includes topics like “the birth of ‘blue eyes'” and “scrap the Jap”. It is the kind of book history books would find an entertaining read.
Lists – Uncle John’s History Lists
Typical of the Uncle John’s series, the book is all over the place, but this one is just history. Each chapter covers a topic that has a list of subtopics which have a paragraph of interesting information. Typical subjects are on gold rushes and battles for hills.
maroon – *** this refers to anecdotes that were in my notebook from years ago
Matuz – The Presidents Fact Book by Roger Matuz
This huge book is a great source for biographical information about the Presidents and their First Ladies. If you use only one source for Presidential biographies, this should be it.
Parents – “Presidential Parents” – http://www.presidentsparents.com
This is the go-to source for biographies about the fathers and mothers of the Presidents.
People’s 1 – The People’s Almanac by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace
These books were very popular when they came out. The information is very eclectic, but it is mostly historical. It reminds of the Uncle John’s series, but the articles are longer. It includes American History year-by-year trivia and Presidential biographies and trivia.
People’s 2 – The People’s Almanac 2 by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace
Similar to the first volume, both are massive (this one has over 1,400 pages) and full of entertaining stuff.
People’s 3 – The People’s Almanac 3 by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace
Sadler – Children in the White House by Christine Sadler
Salutes – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces
This one covers military history. Some of the articles are long. There are some biographies of famous soldiers. There are lists of movies and TV shows. Fascinating stuff for anyone interested in the American military.
Shenkman – One Night Stands in American History by Richard Shenkman and Kurt Reiger
Shenkman and Reiger are kind of old school in their anecdotes. It’s organized in chronological order. Each story includes the source. This is one of my favorite books of anecdotes.
Strange – Reader’s Digest Strange Stories and Amazing Facts
“Stories that are bizarre, unusual, odd, astonishing, and often incredible” This is more a collection of short articles about interesting topics, than anecdotes. It covers a wide variety of topics and not many of them are on American History. However, it does have some articles like “An Unsolved Mystery That Led to War: Did Sabotage or an Accident Cause the Sinking of the Maine?”
Uncle 1 – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader #1
This is the original in the series. The chapters are short and all over the place. Most of them are not on history, but the ones on history are very entertaining. They are not really anecdotes. They are more like dives into interesting topics like “The Truth About Custer” and “Presidential Affairs”.
Uncle 2 – Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader (#5,6,7)
Uncle 3 – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader #4
Uncle 4 – Uncle John’s 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader
Uncle 5 – Uncle John’s Great Big Bathroom Reader
This is #11.
Uncle 6 – Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader
This is #15.
Uncle 7 – Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Great Lives
Uncle 8 – Uncle John’s Ultimate Bathroom Reader
Weird – Weird History 101 by John Richard Stephens
Stephens put together an eclectic mixture of eyewitness accounts of historical events, unusual people from history, weird documents, etc. There is a chapter on the Presidents. The book includes a lot of primary source material. It makes for a good read if you are just interested in reading a book about stuff you would not find in a history textbook.
Whitcomb – Oh Say Can You See? by John and Claire Whitcomb
This is an excellent source for anecdotes. All it has is anecdotes. They are organized into categories like “Infidelity” and “Napping on the Job”.
Whitcomb and Whitcomb – Great American Anecdotes by John and Claire Whitcomb
This book is written as a narrative with anecdotes and trivia thrown in. It covers a wide range of subjects, but most of the anecdotes are about celebrities. It includes a lot of interesting quotes and lists like “Six Absolutely True White House Tales”.