We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Some books to liberate your understanding of history from the chains of propaganda

The US ruling capitalist class has not yet seriously censored books, and they believe that Americans don't read books. So, you can still reach real political awareness on various on political topics, both domestic and international, by reading these books.
 
The following list whose subjects are placed roughly in historical order that their subjects deal with. This list is only a fraction of what I read from original sources during these earlier times. 
 
I have replaced Antony Sutton's book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler with Pauwels' well-researched book Big Business and Hitler because the latter is vastly superior. With our ruling class's revision of history of WWII, a period after which saw the rise of the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, I think this (Pauwels' book) is essential reading as is Stephan Wertheim's recent book Tomorrow, the World: the Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy (2020) which tends to legitimate the integral fascist-capitalist ruling class's rise to power since WWII.
 
A Short History of the French Revolution by Albert Soboul (1965)
The Bourgeois Revolution in France 1789-1815 by Henry Heller (2006)
A People's History of the World by Chris Harman 
History of the Great American Fortunes by Gustavus Myers
The Great Transformation by Karl PolanyiDemocratic Promise by Lawrence Goodwyn
The Lords of Creation by Frederick Lewis Allen
The Marx-Engels Reader edited by Robert C. Tucker
Britain and the Russian Civil War by Richard H. Ullman
The Armed Prophet, v.1 by Isaac Deutscher
Lenin's Last Struggle by Moshe Lewin  
Triumphant Plutocracy by Richard F. Pettigrew (1921)
The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair
Propaganda by Edward Bernays
War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer
Saving Private Power by Michael Zezima ("Mickey Z") 
Even the Gods Can't Change History by George Seldes
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
American Empire by Neil Smith
Our Vichy Gamble by William L. Langer   
Roosevelt and Hopkins by Robert E. Sherwood
As He Saw it by Elliott Roosevelt  
Trading with the Enemy by Charles Higham
Nazi Nexus by Edwin Black (This is a brief summary of a scholar's research about US corporate collusion that is documented in his many books covering the Nazi regime.)
Big Business and Hitler by Jacques R. Pauwels
The Sane Society by Erich Fromm
The Anglo-American Establishment by Carroll Quigley
The Origins of the Korean War v.1 by Bruce Cumings
This Must Be the Place by Dave Chaddock
NATO's Secret Armies by Daniele Ganser
Imperial Brain Trust by Shoup & Minter (a must read)
JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass
What Really Happened to the 1960s by Edward Morgan
An Act of State by William F. Pepper
Family of Secrets by Russ Baker
Friendly Fascism by Bertrand Gross
The Fish is Red by Hinckle & Turner
The Money and the Power by S. Denton & R. Morris
Double Cross by Sam and Chuck Giancana
Gangster Capitalism by Michael Woodiwiss
The Secret Team
by Col. (Ret.) L. Fletcher Prouty
Conspiracies, Con. Theories, Secrets of 9/11 by Broeckers
Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt
Toward an American Revolution by Jerry Fresia
Escaping the Matrix by Richard Moore
The Lost Science of Money by Stephen Zarlenga
Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway
The Gods of Money by F. William Engdahl

9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel .... by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth
The 2001 Anthrax Deception by Graeme MacQueen 
JFK-9/11: 50 Years of Deep State by Laurent Guyénot (a very readable book) 
Bailout by Neil Barovsky 
The Lugano Report by Susan George 
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, .... by David Talbot 
Liberalism by Domenico Losurdo  (first eight chapters) 
The Apprentice's Sorcerer by Ishay Landa 
Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson 
Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film by Jay Dyer
Who Rules America Now? by G. William Domhoff
Going Dark by Guy R. McPherson
Israel: A Beachhead in the Middle East by Stephen Gowans 
Science of Coercion by Christopher Simpson 
Central Bankers at the End of Their Rope? by Jack Rasmus (chapters 1-3, & 11)   
Rebel Minds: Class War, Mass Suffering and the Urgent Need for Socialism by Susan Rosenthal 
The Capitalists of the 21st Century by Werner Rügemer. (My paperback does not include an index which I consider very important. I cannot determine if a hardback book contains an index.)
The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.