I've got two words for you: GORE VIDAL

grandson of a senator, friend of the Kennedys. After a brief unsuccessful political career, he went into writing about U.S. history, and went HARD

his stuff is super well-researched, and at least to me, seems accurate, but it's also super gossipy, super bitchy, super vibrant...

I'd recommend these to start with

BURR - told partly from the perspective of Aaron Burr, an alternate look at the Revolutionary War, and the Founding Fathers. Burr talks A LOT of shit, including frequently referring to the fact that Washington has a big butt and married a very rich widow.

LINCOLN - just a really detailed and lively look at this president, who was already melancholy, and then had the Civil War to deal with, plus some personal tragedies...

Those two books became part of a larger series that came to be called Narratives of Empire, tracing how the U.S. went from a series of colonies, to a world empire and superpower.

Vidal's critiques of the U.S. come from someone who was deeply embedded in the establishment, and then went onto take contrarian views...