Books Set in the 1900s and 1910s

Book Summary

Dr. Tucia Hatherley made a mistake while operating and left behind her career as a doctor to work in a factory. However, when that livelihood is also threatened, she must find a way to support her disabled son. She only has one choice left – join a charismatic showman named Huey and become part of his traveling medicine show.

While her medical license gives the show credibility, she hates peddling cures and tonics that are placebos at best. Though she’s finding some camaraderie with other performers, she’s doing her best to get her debts paid so she and her son can start a new life away from the traveling show.

Things come to a head when they reach Galveston. When Tucia tries to leave, Huey instead pulls her in deeper. But something bigger is looming. A storm has formed a hurricane that will change Galveston and Tucia forever.

Book Summary

While much of the country was experiencing social unrest in 1919, Harlem felt different. This corner of New York was filled with Black pride, as evidenced in the music, theater, fashion, and arts. Positioned right in the heart of this renaissance is a literary editor for a preeminent Negro magazine named Jessie Redmon Fauset.

The founder and editor of the magazine, W.E.B. Du Bois, tasked Jessie with discovering promising young writers whose words could change the world. Jessie wastes no time finding 16-year-old Countee Cullen and 17-year-old Langston Hughes. She also discovers Nella Larson, who becomes one of Jessie’s best friends.

Subscriptions soar for the already notable magazine, and every Black writer in the country is vying for the opportunity to be published in The Crisis. Jessie’s career is taking off, but her relationship with her married boss, W.E.B., threatens to jeopardize it all. At a time when she faces both overwhelming sexism and racism, Jessie will have to find a way to balance her drive and her desires if she hopes to preserve her legacy and achieve her ambitious dreams.

Book Summary

Twin sisters Peggy and Maude work in Oxford’s university press book bindery. While Maude is very content spending her days folding the pages of books with her fellow bindery girls, Peggy dreams of more. As Peggy works, she wishes she was instead across Walton Street at Oxford’s Somerville College, where female students have a huge library at their fingertips.

When Oxford is filled with Belgian war refugees, the sister’s lives are impacted in surprising ways. Peggy becomes more determined to find a career that uses her intellect instead of her hands. But, the responsibility that comes with falling in love with a Belgian soldier may hold her back.

Book Summary

This historical fiction novel is based on the remarkable true story of J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, a Black woman who became one of the most powerful women in NYC at the turn of the century.

Belle da Costa Greene was working at Princeton University Library when J.P. Morgan’s nephew recommended her for a position curating a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artbooks for his uncle’s newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. This position of prominence made her one of the most influential people in the art and book world. She became a fixture on the New York social scene.

But Belle had a secret that could change everything. She led people to believe that her dark complexion was the result of her alleged Portuguese heritage. In truth, however, she was born Bella Marion Greener – the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard University.

Book Summary

While Nora’s sister is content being a wife and mother, Nora has different plans for her own life. She becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corps.

Charlotte lost her husband in the trenches and now lives with his relatives who treat her like the help instead of like a mourning family member. But baby Aileen drives her to work toward a better life.

Nora and Charlotte’s paths cross in an unexpected way when an explosion rocks Halifax Harbour, changing both of their lives forever.

Book Summary

In 1916, swimming at the Jersey Shore was a relatively new activity. When a swimmer dies and a prominent surgeon, Dr. Halsey, examines the body, he concludes that there has been a shark attack and warns that it will likely happen again. However, no one else believes him. Dr. Halsey finds himself fighting widespread confusion, conspiracy theories, defiance, and outright denial of the shark.

As WW1 rages overseas and an unprecedented outbreak of polio strikes fear into the nation, shark-deniers theories range from a huge mackerel to a giant sea turtle or even a German submarine. Local fishermen and the Lenape tribe also have beliefs about what looms under the water.

Book Summary

Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood, and the rest of their classmates at their English boarding school feel protected from the war in 1914. In fact, they go as far as feeling the war is exciting when they hear news of heroic friends, even when those friends haven’t survived.

Gaunt is half-German, and his parents ask him to enlist for the British to help curtail the anti-German sentiment they are facing. He jumps at their suggestion, but only because he’s been fighting a private battle. He’s been infatuated with his friend, unaware that the feelings are reciprocated. Ellwood makes the unexpected decision to join Gaunt on the front, and together, they face the tragedies of war and forbidden romance.

Book Summary

In the early 1900s, Irish immigrant Sophie was desperate to get out of a New York tenement. She answered a mail-order bride ad and agreed to marry a man named Martin Hocking in San Francisco. Martin is an aloof but handsome widower with a silent five-year-old daughter.

One evening, a young pregnant woman arrives at their doorstep. Sophie also learns of another woman, hundreds of miles away in Arizona, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The fates of these three women become intertwined on the eve of the devastating San Francisco earthquake.

Book Summary

The Padgett family’s marble-mining company dominates the town of Moonstone. Sylvie’s father works for them, and she knows the workers are discontent with how they are treated. When she leaves her mountain cabin to work for the Padgetts in their manor, she’s in awe of the luxury they live in.

While the Padgett family expresses lofty philosophical ideals, Sylvie notices the contrast between the talk and the real-life labor practices that created the Padgett fortune. Their servants, the Gradys, are formerly enslaved people who are also aware of the hypocrisy. The Gradys plan to leave the Padgetts and form a new utopian community on the Colorado prairie.

Outside the manor, labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The newspaper editor is also involved and regularly publishes unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie is stuck in the middle, with conflicting loyalties, until she is forced to choose sides.

Book Summary

We all know the names Wilbur and Orville Wright, but what about Katharine? She may just be one of the most important and overlooked women in history, and this historical fiction novel finally gives voice to her story.

Before becoming obsessed with flying, the Wright brothers jumped on the popular new fad of bicycle riding, opening a bike shop in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Repairing bikes led to tinkering and building, and eventually a new dream took shape. But their younger sister knew they couldn’t do it without her.

As the brothers began obsessing over blueprints and testing models on the beaches of North Carolina, Katharine became the mastermind behind the scenes. She sourced materials, managed communications, and kept the brothers focused on their goal even when it seemed that hope was lost.

When they finally achieved the first controlled, sustained flight, it resulted in both fame and fortune. The siblings traveled the world demonstrating their invention, training pilots, and building new models that could fly higher and further. But then, a tragedy tore the family apart and forced Katharine to make an impossible choice that would haunt her for the rest of her days.

Book Summary

As British men left to fight in WWI, women stepped up to work in the arsenals, making weapons for the military. Thousands of former housewives, shop girls, cooks, and maids became “munitionettes” and worked grueling shifts with little protective gear.

April is 19 years old and was a housemaid before hearing about the higher wages she could earn at Thornshire Arsenal near London. Lucy is married to an Olympic gold medalist & star forward of the Tottenham Hotspur football team. She joins Thornshire to do her part in shortening the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballer’s wife, they invite her to join the Arsenal’s ladies’ football club, the Thornshire Canaries.

When the women begin having unexplained health problems, including yellowing skin, the boss’s wife, Helen, becomes their biggest advocate. Helen suspects the chemicals are to blame for the health issues and became a staunch advocate for the workers who became known as “canary girls.”

Book Summary

By 1906, San Francisco was full of new wealth and those dreaming of new wealth. Two of those dreamers were Gemma, who was trying to rekindle her singing career, and Suling, a Chinese seamstress trying to escape an arranged marriage. The women meet through the acquaintance of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate and collector of Chinese antiques, including the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

However, before the women can benefit from Thornton’s patronage, the 1906 earthquake rips through the city and Thornton disappears. Then, five years later, the Phoenix Crown reappears at a Paris costume ball. Gemma and Suling must join forces to figure out what really happened to Thornton.

Book Summary

As the US celebrated the end of WWI in 1918, the Spanish flu brought a new threat to American cities. In Philadelphia, 13-year-old Pia, a German immigrant, is forced to venture out into the quarantined city in search of food for her and her younger brothers.

Amid anti-immigrant sentiment in her city and the grief of losing her baby to the Spanish flu, Bernice Groves formulates a plot to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into “true Americans.”

After collapsing on the street, Pia wakes up days later in a hospital, desperate to return to her brothers, but instead, she is taken to an orphan asylum.

Book Summary

Lillian was one of the most sought-after artist models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing famous landmarks throughout the city – from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. After losing her mother to the Spanish Flu outbreak, however, Lillian feels lost in the world.

Her work has mostly dried up, so when she’s offered a job as a personal secretary at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian is eager to accept the opportunity. Working closely with Helen Frick, daughter of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, pulls Lillian into a privileged world and a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that might prove to be life or death.

Five decades later, in the 1960s, Veronica, an English model, is working in the former Frick residence, which has since been converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. After being dismissed from a Vogue shoot, she finds herself snowed into the mansion. When she and a young art curator stumble upon a series of hidden messages in the museum, they might discover the truth behind a decades-old murder.

Book Summary

A Night to Remember is still considered the best book written about the Titanic. It’s a riveting non-fiction account of Titanic’s fatal collision – including what was happening to passengers and staff before, during, and after the iceberg.

While this book is a true account written based on interviews and news reports, it reads like a historical fiction novel.

Book Summary

Uprising tells the story of three women. Bella arrived in New York from Italy and was one of the hundreds of immigrants hired to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The hours are long, and the conditions are grueling. Her coworker, Yetta, is crusading for a union and convinces the workers to strike. Jane is a young, wealthy socialite who learns the plight of the factory workers and becomes invested in their cause.

On March 25, 1911, Bella and Yetta were both at work, and Jane was visiting the factory when a spark ignited some cloth. The building was quickly engulfed in flames. This historical fiction novel draws on extensive research to bring the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to life.

Book Summary

While the First World War raged in 1918, the world was also fighting a second battle against the Spanish Flu. In Denver, schools were turned into hospitals, and horse-drawn wagons must continually collect corpses from the streets. Sisters Helen and Lutie are new Denver residents, moving after the death of their parents in Iowa.

Nurse Helen has found a new beau who is a doctor, and Lutie works in advertising at a chic store. To help make ends meet, they have a tenant in the basement of their tidy home. However, when she passes from the flu, they find themselves unexpected caretakers for her young daughter, Dorothy. Their lives take another turn when Lutie arrives home from work to see Dorothy’s father dead in their kitchen. Worse, Helen is standing over him with an ice pick. 

The sisters devise a plan to leave him in the street and hope he’s mistaken for yet another flu victim.

Book Summary

When Emma marries Otto, she dreams of a simple and happy life. However, Otto’s obsession with his businesses, including beer, mining, and hospitality, makes them one of the wealthiest couples in the nation. Despite the wealth, Emma is lonely and unhappy. Then, an accident brings her an unexpected choice – should she choose loyalty or independence?

In 1943, a dying woman issued an ad for someone to write her life story. Mabel needs to flee her old life in Baltimore after the war and is eager to escape to San Antonio for this unique position. As she learns Emma’s story, she’s surprised to find a woman who experienced both devastation and astonishing success as she navigated a brewery through Texas prohibition.

Book Summary

In May of 1915, the Lusitania, a luxury ocean liner, sailed out of New York bound for Liverpool, England. The ship had the feel of a well-appointed English country house. On this crossing, it was carrying a record number of children and infants traveling with their parents.

As the ship set sail, the passengers were anxious because German U-boats had been terrorizing the waters of the North Atlantic. Still, the Captain and others were confident that the centuries-old unwritten rules of warfare would keep a civilian ship safe from attack. Additionally, the speed of the Lusitania made it likely that it could outrun any threat. Unfortunately, Germany decided to change the rules of the game.

This narrative non-fiction places you aboard the ship with a cast of real-life characters and tells a story of glamour, mystery, suspense, and, ultimately, tragedy.

Book Summary

This beloved American classic brilliantly captures a unique time and place and deeply resonant moments of universal experience.

Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff from her earliest days. Growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit – and Francie has each of these in spades. Neighbors often scorn her for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior, including her father’s taste for alcohol and her Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying again and again without the formality of divorce. No one, least of all Francie, would say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama.

Book Summary

In 1918, Ireland was ravaged by both war and disease. Julia is a nurse working in an understaffed hospital caring for pregnant women who have been quarantined after contracting a terrible new flu that would come to be known as the Spanish Flu.

Two newcomers to the hospital ward will change everything over the course of three days. One is Doctor Katleen Lynn, who is rumored to be a Rebel on the run from the police. The other is Bridie, a young volunteer.

Book Summary

Marcella has been married for three years and has two young children. Her once charming husband. Michael has revealed his true, cruel nature, and she’s determined to divorce him. While Michael’s waiting for a judge in France to award custody of their children, he receives shocking news.

Margaret is a fun-loving New York socialite who is touring Europe with friends. When she begins to feel restless, she decides to return home aboard a celebrated new steamer ship, the Titanic.

As the ship sets sail for America, the paths of Marcella, Michael, and Margaret become forever intertwined. This historical fiction novel is based on a true story.

Book Summary

Detroit museum curator Cassie loves solving mysteries from the past, especially when the stories involve the Detroit River rumrunners from the Prohibition days. When a home renovation uncovers a cache of Bailey Brothers Best whisky, she hopes it’s the missing piece she needs to understand the truth about the bootleggers.

In 1918, Corporal Jeremiah Bailey was wounded as part of his job planting mines under enemy trenches. As he recovers at a Belgium hospital, he’s cared for by nurse Adele, one of the Canadian “Bluebirds.” The connection between Jerry and Adele is strong as they’re from a similar area along the Detroit River. But when Jerry is sent back to the front, he’s not sure he’ll ever see Adele again.

When Jerry and Adele unexpectedly cross paths after the war, they have a chance for a fresh start, but both carry baggage from what they saw overseas. Prohibition is in full swing, bringing them both opportunity and the threat of destroying everything they’ve worked for.

Book Summary

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made.

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, which was the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.

Book Summary

Mercy Wong lives in the poverty of Chinatown within San Francisco in 1906. She knows the best hope for her future is to get into St. Clare’s School for Girls, but admittance to the top school is limited to only the most wealthy white girls. But Mercy is determined and finds a cunning way in, only to find out that admittance was the easiest part. Unfortunately, her classmates are less than welcoming.

But then, on April 18th, a historic earthquake destroys the school. The students are forced into an encampment at a park as fires rage around them. Mercy’s determination, bravery, and leadership skills are all needed to help her classmates and herself.

Book Summary

For years, Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls in London has watched over London’s flower girls, as they are known. These orphaned and disabled children survive on the streets by selling violets and watercress. In 1912, Twenty-year-old Tilly Harper left her native Lake District and moved to London to become an assistant housemother at the home.

Tilly discovers the diary of a young woman named Florrie with dried flowers pressed between the pages and a heartbreaking tale of her separation from her sister, Rosie. Drawn into their story from the 1870s, Tilly hopes to discover what happened to Rosie.

Book Summary

Francesca arrived in America from Italy with dreams of a better life than the one she left behind. She arrived at Ellis Island on Alma’s first work day at the immigrant processing center.

However, both soon discover that Ellis is not the refuge it appears to be. President Roosevelt put in new measures to deter crime, which led to a new kind of crime and corruption.

Based on historical events, this novel explores the prejudice and exclusion that happened within Ellis Island. But, it’s also a story of friendship and the resilience needed to secure a better future.

Book Summary

The Saturday Evening Girls Club is a pottery-making group in Boston’s North End. It provides four young immigrant women a respite from the struggles in their daily lives.

Sicilian Caprice wants to open a hat shop, but her parents have different plans for her future. Ada wants to take college classes, but her Russian-Jewish father disapproves. Maria is stunning and has plenty of prospects for a husband, but she fears ending up miserable like her Italian Catholic mother. Thea is shy and torn between speaking up for herself or falling in line with an antiquated Jewish tradition.

Despite their cultural differences, the friends draw strength from each other as they fight to transform their immigrant stories into fulfilled American dreams.

Book Summary

This narrative non-fiction lets you travel with Theodore Roosevelt on a dangerous adventure down the Amazon River. The territory he covered with his crew, including son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, was previously uncharted.

The river’s rough rapids were only the beginning of the challenges. Indigenous groups hunted the rafters with poisonous arrows from the shores, and the water was filled with its natural dangers, including piranhas and disease. Along the journey, three men died, including one murdered by someone in their group. Roosevelt himself was driven to the brink of suicide.

However, the group endured and changed the map of South America forever.