Curated reading

American History Book Store

Read deeper into the neighborhoods, communities, ruins, resorts and disasters that shaped Allan's Abandoned America.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This page uses supplied Amazon affiliate links; each link opens Amazon in a new tab.

Monday Book Club

Start with the story of Chávez Ravine

Cover: PublicAffairs / Hachette

Current Book Club SelectionCurrent selection

Los Angeles History / Displaced Communities

Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between

By Eric Nusbaum

Our first Book Club selection explores the communities displaced from Chávez Ravine and the complicated events that led to the construction of Dodger Stadium.

Reading begins September 15, 2026, and the first cycle ends October 26, 2026. Members obtain or borrow their own copy; Amazon is only one option.

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Books by story

34 titles in the curated store

33 titles in this collection

Monday Book Club

The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

By Roy Rosenzweig; Elizabeth Blackmar

A landmark history of Central Park that restored Seneca Village to public awareness.

Before Central Park

By Sara Cedar Miller

An illustrated history of the communities, farms and institutions that occupied the land before Central Park.

Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles' Space Age Nautical Pleasure Pier

By Christopher Merritt; Domenic Priore

The dedicated history of the Santa Monica pleasure pier featured in the documentary.

Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America's Edge

By Naomi Hirahara; Geraldine Knatz

The strongest direct companion to the film, covering Furusato and the other communities erased from Terminal Island.

Farewell to Manzanar

By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston; James D. Houston

The memoir referenced in the Terminal Island documentary, beginning with the arrest of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's father.

Related topic: Terminal Island; Japanese American incarceration

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Displaced Communities

Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s

By Francisco E. Balderrama; Raymond Rodríguez

A definitive account of the mass removal campaign surrounding the 1931 La Placita raid.

Bunker Hill in the Rearview Mirror

By Christina Rice; Nathan Marsak

A concise illustrated account of the rise, clearance and redevelopment of Los Angeles' Bunker Hill.

Related topic: Bunker Hill; Oceanwide Plaza

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Lost Cityscapes

Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850–1950

By Arnold Hylen; Nathan Marsak

A photographic tour of the Los Angeles streets and buildings removed for redevelopment and freeways.

Related topic: Bunker Hill; Old Chinatown; Oceanwide Plaza

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Buried Neighborhoods

Chinatown in Los Angeles

By Jenny Cho; Chinese Historical Society of Southern California

A photographic history spanning Old Chinatown, China City and the community's later rebuilding.

Chávez Ravine, 1949: A Los Angeles Story

By Don Normark

Don Normark's intimate photographs preserve the neighborhood before eviction and Dodger Stadium.

An Air That Kills

By Andrew Schneider; David McCumber

The investigative account of how asbestos poisoning in Libby became a national scandal.

Pullman: An Experiment in Industrial Order and Community Planning, 1880–1930

By Stanley Buder

A detailed social and planning history of George Pullman's controlled company town.

The Days of Rondo

By Evelyn Fairbanks

A resident's memoir of the thriving Black St. Paul neighborhood destroyed by Interstate 94.

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears

By Donald R. Katz

An inside history of Sears during the period when its retail model began to fracture.

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

By Nelson Johnson

The history behind Atlantic City's resort boom, political machine and casino-era reinvention.

The Northside: African Americans and the Creation of Atlantic City

By Nelson Johnson

A focused history of the Black community that helped build Atlantic City while being excluded from its prosperity.

High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing

By Ben Austen

A resident-centred history of Cabrini-Green and the forces behind its demolition.

Detroit: An American Autopsy

By Charlie LeDuff

Reportage from inside Detroit's bankruptcy, abandoned industry and civic breakdown.

Detroit's Spectacular Ruin: The Packard Plant

By Thomas A. Klug; Theresa Welsh

A photographic record of Detroit's Packard Plant during its years as an open industrial ruin.

Ghosts of Kennecott: The Story of Stephen Birch

By Elizabeth A. Tower

The story of the promoter who built Kennecott into one of the world's dominant copper operations.

Bodie: 1859–1962

By Terri Lynn Geissinger

A photographic history of Bodie's rise from mining camp to preserved ghost town.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike: A History

By Dan Cupper

A dedicated history of the turnpike, including the original tunnels and later bypasses.

Related topic: Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Ghost Towns

Pennsylvania Ghost Towns: Uncovering the Hidden Past

By Susan Hutchison Tassin

A practical history of 46 abandoned Pennsylvania settlements and ruins.

Related topic: Pennsylvania ghost towns; Centralia; Laurel Run

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Environmental Investigations

Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire

By David DeKok

The reported history of the Centralia mine fire and the failures that allowed it to consume a town.

Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape

By Brad Tyer

A narrative investigation of Montana's toxic copper-mining legacy and the communities left with its waste.

Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas

By Leonard A. Cole

The book-length investigation of secret US Army biological tests over American cities, including St. Louis.

Related topic: Pruitt-Igoe; St. Louis aerosol tests

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Environmental Investigations

Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present

By Richard S. Newman

A full environmental and community history of Love Canal and the activism it triggered.

Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont

By Robert Bilott

Robert Bilott's account of the PFOA case that began with Wilbur Tennant's West Virginia farm.

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

By Eric Schlosser

The definitive account of the Damascus missile explosion and the wider risks inside America's nuclear arsenal.

Related topic: Damascus Titan II accident

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Industrial Disasters

The Johnstown Flood

By David McCullough

A classic narrative history of the preventable 1889 disaster and the private club behind the failed dam.

Sutro's Glass Palace: The Story of Sutro Baths

By John A. Martini

The dedicated illustrated history of the enormous San Francisco bathhouse and its surviving ruins.

Greetings from the Salton Sea

By Kim Stringfellow

A visual and environmental history of the Salton Sea's creation, resort boom and decline.

A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan from Radio Row to the New World Trade Center

By Matt Kapp

A richly illustrated history of Lower Manhattan's repeated reinvention, tracing the destruction of Radio Row for the original World Trade Center through the rebuilding of the site after September 11. Matt Kapp combines archival photographs, plans, paintings and historical narrative to recover the communities and conflicts hidden beneath today's skyline.

Related topic: Radio Row; Lower Manhattan; World Trade Center

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.