What is a good American History book that is neither left or right wing bias and also is not a text book?

History Lessons -How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History covers the key events in modern American History, citing foreign text books in translation.

A Patriot's History of the United States

I would offer up this volume as a counter to the suggestion of "A People's History of the United States." A Patriot's History of the United States covers a lot of historical ground, but does so in a fairly balanced way. From the historical era - no figure, Founder or otherwise - is immune from criticism. In the modern era, neither side of the ideological aisle (Democrat/Republican) is either. While the authors (Larry Schweikart & Michael Allen) could use with a decent copy editor sometimes, the overall effort doesn't suffer that much. Generally speaking, 'A Patriot's History' covers the American historical narrative with a sort of warm, center-right familiarity, but is no way an ideological whitewash piece for what folks might call 'conservative/red state' values. To quote the Wall Street Journal's review of the book, "A Patriot's History" fleshes out the idea that the underlying truth about the United States is that the country was and still remains "[one] of ideas, ideals, and optimism...is good, and worth defending." Also, the roughly 70 pages of citations and sources in the back of the book doesn't hurt either for those skeptical readers wanting to make sure Schwiekart & Allen didn't source everything from 'The George W. Bush Guide to History.'

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will note that this book was written specifically as a foil to (the previously recommended) Howard Zinn's "A People's History." Mr. Zinn's book is primarily focused on a selective American historical experience from the vantage point of minorities, workers/socialist groups, the poor, or more generally "the oppressed." Not to say that these groups did not/do not have sometime valuable to add to the discussion of US history, but frankly after reading Zinn's book, one could easily be forgiven for believing that we still live in a country that is fundamentally broken and rotten simply because immediate and absolute equality hasn't been achieved for all people under the Star Spangled Banner. Zinn's volume routinely dismisses and discounts the irrefutable fact that America has made tremendous strides socially, financially, and culturally over the past 220+ years.

While not a complete history, Democracy in America by de Toqueville offers an (relatively) unbiased perspective as he was a French man there to report on America. He is quoted by both the right and the left.

This is not a book, but as a history buff, I really enjoy the "Stuff You Missed In History Class" podcast from howstuffworks.com. It discusses interesting historical facts/periods that you may not have thought about before.

I am not certain that one could gain a well-rounded understanding of United States history by reading just one book. I suggest reading three books; A Patriot’s History gets it right in the sense that it is a book that provides background information on much of what we learned (or should have learned) in school. Howard Zinn’s A Peoples History provides a sobering look at our history from the viewpoint of marginalized groups; I think it a valuable read because if you are white, male, heterosexual, and middle-class, this book likely contains information you have never heard. The suggestion of de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is also an excellent idea, though I think most will find it a little dry. As an alternative I suggest Allain de Botton’s Status Anxiety – he covers much of what is important about de Tocqueville’s work and in a much easier to read and even entertaining manner. As a final thought, one might choose to read de Botton’s book first to sort of set the tone and then read the other two.

Ditto on reading both 'A Patriot's History' AND 'A People's History.'

There is no such thing as unbiased. Everyone has a perspective: it can be as innocuous as what you choose to put in -- and leave out.

Taking a position is not necessarily a bad thing. The key is to get as many perspectives as possible, i.e., the "whole truth."

The Frontiersmen: a narrative by Allan W. Eckart
Wilderness Empire: a narrative by Allan W. Eckart
The Conquerors by Allan W. Eckart
Long Knife by James Alexander Thom

Like someone said earlier, there is no such thing as unbiased or objective history, anyone who claims to offer such is either delusional or intentionally misleading, and most times the textbooks are the latter.

This is what makes Zinn's book so refreshing. By his own account he admits this as the reason for writing A people's History:

"This makes it a biased account, one that leans in a certain direction. I am not troubled by that, because the mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction — so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people's movements — that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission." - Howard Zinn

This notion that history can be unbiased is what is what makes the textbooks in history class that claim absolute authority in the matters of U.S. History so dangerous. Which if you have had an education like most, that is all I experienced until I got to college, so I would suggest if you are interested in reading a book that counteracts the the affirming, celebratory, and misleading message of nationalistic history, than check out these below as a good jumping off point.

A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn

Voices of a People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
( Includes voices of people through out history including letters, poems, stories, speeches and even Primary source documents from Columbus's and Barolome de Las Casas)

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything your American History Textbooks Got Wrong - James Loewen

On the Justice of Roosting Chickens - Ward Churchill
( includes chronology of every U.S. military campaign domestic and foreign from 1776 to present, as well as U.S. attempts to violate, obstruct, and subvert International Law from 1945 - Present)

Imperial Ambitions- Noam Chomsky

American Odyssey- Gary Nash

if you would like to read historic novels for real men then you want to start with:

1. Gates of Fire - my favorite book and truly the most badass story ever tol. It is a novel about the battle of thermopylae and the 300 spartans.

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2. Killer Angels - novel about the civil war and is really amazing.

3. 1776 - a novel about the american revolution and the worst part about it is that it ends.