Some of the Independent’s staffers informally polled history-loving friends and colleagues about their favorite titles. Here are the 17 books most likely to line those history buffs’ home shelves.

1. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking Adult, 2005).
2. 1776 by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, 2005).
3. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf, 1997).
4. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2003).
5. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (William Morrow, 2004).
6. John Adams by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, 2001).
7. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Penguin, 2004).
8. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf, 2000).
9. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Knopf, 1990).
10. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon & Schuster, 1996).
11. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (Random House, 2001).
12. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster, 1994).
13. Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham (Random House, 2003).
14. Truman by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
15. The Years of Lyndon Johnson series by Robert Caro (Knopf, 1982). Read the Independent’s review here.
16. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).
17. A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn (Harper, 1980).