Russell Shorto Books in Order

This illustrated biography follows Geronimo through the Apache wars and his struggle to hold his people together as settlers encroached on their lands. It introduces Apache traditions alongside the conflicts that shaped resistance to expanding American power.

This biography introduces Tecumseh as a Shawnee leader, warrior, and orator who sought unity among Native nations. It follows his effort to build a confederacy capable of resisting settlers and soldiers advancing onto Indigenous lands.

This illustrated book pairs the familiar Cinderella tale with a second version told from a stepsister’s perspective. Turning the volume over reveals a comic challenge to Cinderella’s perfection, inviting young readers to reconsider who controls a story.

Written for young readers, this biography follows Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency during the Civil War. It places his leadership within a nation divided by conflict and introduces his central struggle to preserve the Union.

A short biography for young readers traces Abraham Lincoln’s political career and his changing relationship to slavery. His presidency during the Civil War provides the setting for an introduction to the decisions that helped end legal enslavement.

This illustrated biography for young readers follows Jackie Robinson, the baseball player who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. It introduces his role in breaking the major leagues’ color barrier and the racial prejudice surrounding that milestone.

This biography examines the relationship between Jane Fonda’s acting career and her political convictions. It follows her involvement in social and environmental causes, showing how public activism made the celebrated performer a controversial figure beyond the screen.

Interviews introduce young readers to fourteen jobs involving animals, from zookeeping and game protection to illustration and dairy farming. Photographs and firsthand accounts offer a look at different ways an interest in animals can become work.

Interviews introduce fourteen careers centered on working with people, from psychology and teaching to flight service and convention organizing. Professionals explain their routes into the work, daily responsibilities, advice, and rewards, helping young readers consider possibilities beyond familiar occupations.

This illustrated introduction explains how the space shuttle operates and follows the work astronauts perform during a mission. Written for young readers, it connects the mechanics of piloting a spacecraft with the practical tasks of life in orbit.

Shorto investigates scholarly efforts to reconstruct the historical Jesus, examining ancient texts and the debates of the Jesus Seminar. He follows competing interpretations of the evidence to explore the distance between religious tradition and historical biography.

Russell Shorto explores the contested boundary between psychiatric illness and spiritual experience through patients and researchers. Their stories examine changing ideas about mind and soul, asking how science might understand experiences once treated as exclusively religious or medical.

The travels of René Descartes’s remains become a guide to centuries of conflict between faith and reason. Russell Shorto follows the philosopher’s bones across Europe while examining the scientific, political, and religious struggles surrounding his intellectual legacy.

Shorto traces Amsterdam's development as a center of trade, religious tolerance, and individual freedom. Combining the city's history with personal stories, he explores how its experiments in liberalism shaped modern life and exposed the limits of inclusion.

Six intertwined lives reveal the American Revolution from different social positions, extending beyond its familiar leaders. Shorto follows their struggles for freedom and belonging to examine how the founding era's ideals emerged from sharply unequal experiences.

Investigating his grandfather's role in the mob, Shorto uncovers a gambling empire in postwar Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Working with his ailing father, he connects family secrets to immigration, exclusion, and organized crime in small-town America.

Shorto reconstructs England's takeover of Dutch Manhattan in 1664, following the negotiations that transformed New Amsterdam into New York. The account explores how commercial opportunity and pluralism developed alongside slavery and the displacement of Indigenous people.

This short illustrated biography introduces the life of Edgar Allan Poe, the American writer associated with unsettling stories and dark poetry. Written for younger readers, it offers an introduction to the author behind those works.

Russell Shorto reconstructs the Dutch colony of New Netherland using its surviving records. The story follows its diverse society and the conflict between Adriaen van der Donck and Peter Stuyvesant, exploring the colony’s influence on New York and American political culture.

Written for young readers, this biography follows Thomas Jefferson’s life and political achievements, including his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. It introduces the ideals behind his contribution to the formation of American democratic government.