Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evolution’s Workshop: God & Science on the Galápagos Islands | 1965 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 2 | Trial & Error: The American Controversy over Creation & Evolution | 1985 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 3 | Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South | 1995 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 4 | A Different Death: Euthanasia and the Christian Tradition | 1998 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 5 | The Scopes Trial: A Photographic History | 2000 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 6 | The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia | 2000 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 7 | The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy | 2001 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 8 | Property: Cases and Materials | 2004 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 9 | The Constitutional Convention | 2005 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 10 | A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign | 2007 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 11 | The Panda’s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Controversy | 2007 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 12 | An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science | 2011 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 13 | The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789 | 2014 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 14 | George Washington, Nationalist | 2016 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 15 | On Faith and Science | 2017 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 16 | To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration | 2018 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 17 | Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership | 2020 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 18 | Unchecked and Imbalanced | 2020 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 19 | Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion | 2020 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 20 | American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795 | 2023 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
| 21 | Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters | 2025 | Edward J. Larson | Buy |
Edward J. Larson’s 21 non-fiction books span six decades of publishing, from his early work on evolution and the Galapagos Islands to his 2025 book Declaring Independence. The collection covers several distinct areas: the science-religion debate (Trial & Error, The Theory of Evolution, On Faith and Science), the American founding (The Constitutional Convention, A Magnificent Catastrophe, American Inheritance), and exploration history (An Empire of Ice, To the Edges of the Earth).
His most celebrated book remains Summer for the Gods, which won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History and has been updated in later editions. Larson also tackles difficult subjects like eugenics in the Deep South and euthanasia in the Christian tradition, bringing the same careful research to uncomfortable topics that he applies to his more popular histories.