If you have a chance and like reading history books in your free time, check out:
A People's History of the United States.
I endorse it. It affected me deeply, similar to the way reading Vonnegut for the first time did, which is odd, I think.
Zinn's You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train is the inspiration for Pearl Jam's Down.
Probably some Slaugherthouse Five parallels.