“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010

“Division Street: America,” by Studs Terkel, 1967

“There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America,” by Alex Kotlowitz, 1991

“The Dealmakers of Downstate Illinois: Paul Powel, Clyde L. Choate, and John H. Stelle,” by Robert Hartley, 2016

“Frontier Illinois,” by James E. Davis, 1998

“A. Lincoln,” by Ronald C. White Jr., 2009

“Freedom’s Champion: Elijah Lovejoy,” by Paul Simon, 1994

“A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan,” by Robert Cherny, 1985

“Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America,” by Elliott Gorn, 2001

“Behind the Smile: A Story of Carol Moseley Braun’s Historic Senate Campaign,” by Jeannie Morris, 2015

“American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley – His Battle for Chicago and the Nation,” by Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor, 2000