Reading about US history and policy

My semi-newly obtained citizenship, I think, requires me to read some new things about the US. I did go to High School here, so it isn't like I know nothing, but arguing with some requires deeper knowledge which I couldn't be borthered about, until now. So far I've read Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky, part of What's the matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank, and I'm going to read 1776 by David McCullough. For some right leaning books, Bill Kristol's new The Weekly Standard: A Reader is out, and/or perhaps The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk? I'm going to have to read more Chomsky after that, and I did manage to see the documentary Manufacturing Consent.

Other books on my list, Lincoln, and Jefferson, but I don't know if I really want to read 300 pages of Christopher Hitchens, when only one of his columns take a good amount of time to think through.

Those are mainstream books (except for Chomsky, depending on who is reading), anything not mainstream that I wouldn't know about worth reading?

So far the best part of What's the matter with Kansas: Kansas was a heavily progressive and democratic state, but those people moved to Canada...