"Documentary-style" books e.g. In Cold Blood

[Rachel]

I'd like some suggestions for non-fiction books which build up a picture of a community, an event or group of people etc. Some examples would be In Cold Blood or Underground

I also like Studs Terkel but something more up-to-date in that style would be good.

Sociology or psychology-type books are also good if they are based around interviews or people telling their life stories, e.g. Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships

[wanderer]

In Broad Daylight

A small Missouri town takes justice into their own hands.

[Liralen]

Some of these might work for you:
Ghettoside: A Story of Murder in America
Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
What It Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out
Emma's War (more of a biography, but also an interesting overview of Sudan at the time)
Alexandra Robbins's books
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement
Cheer!: Three Teams on a Quest for College Cheerleading's Ultimate Prize
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
After Freedom: The Rise of the Post-Apartheid Generation in Democratic South Africa
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children

[Liralen]

And a few more:
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture
Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

(It's probably a rather eclectic list, but hopefully something here will work for you!)

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

One of the best books I've ever read:
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare
Sidewalk
Slim's Table: Race, Respectability, and Masculinity
There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma

[Tina]

I loved Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon which described his year as a ride along with the Baltimore PD.

This book is the non-fictional account that acts as basis of the TV shows Homicide(NBC) and The Wire (HBO).

[``Laurie]

[Mary]

People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman - not sure if this is what you are looking for, but read it recently and it was fascinating and sad.

[Railyn]

The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule. An account of her days working with Ted Bundy, before anyone knew about his "other side". I found it interesting, because she initially refused to believe that he could have committed the crimes that ultimately got him caught.

The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Classic Story of Seduction and Murder

[Darcy]

Granted it's an ethnographic text, but it may suit your brief In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I haven't read it but someone compared This House of Grief to In Cold Blood. Sounds like it could be an interesting read.

[Hillary]

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and other books by Ted Conover would work, it is what he does.

[Lyd's Archive (7/'15 to 6/'18)]

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra and its fiction "companion"The Lost Crown. No romance in either. Great history reads.
Also The Quest for Anastasia: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Romanovs especially for readers of Anastasia: The Lost Princess.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party. It was written in the 30s but it does a good job of building up to an event.