Obtain one or both of the two volumes of _Building the American Republic_, published by the vaunted University of Chicago Press, for _free_ right now. Each of the volumes retails for $30 each.
Volume I, authored by Harry L. Watson, is a _Narrative History to 1877_. Volume 2 is a _Narrative History of_, well, the U.S. after that time. Jane Dailey authors it.
I'm giving, below, the results of the entire search of all University of Chicago Press Kindle titles, sorted by price low to high. The ones featured above appear first; there are more worthwhile _free_ titles to follow. You'll have to ignore the "sponsored" returns; you might also wish to ignore the "Chicago Shorts" title's. You can hit some more pay dirt after doing that.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=a...qid=1549086113.