All the People: Since 1945 A History of US Book 10 [Paperback]

Joy Hakim (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Series: History of US

People call it "post-war," but All the People covers a period in U.S. history that features battles of another kind-from Cold War combat overseas to struggles for equality at home to learning to live with the threat of terrorism on U.S. soil. During these years, the United States began to be a nation for all its people, outlawing school segregation, protesting war in Vietnam, and campaigning for equal rights for women. From Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to seamstress Rosa Parks, extraordinary individuals led us back to the ideals espoused by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. But mostly-as it always has been in the United States-it was ordinary citizens who marched and voted and hoped and dreamed and made things happen. All the People includes the events of September 11, 2001, and a discussion of how many aspects of the terrorist attacks have brought to the forefront the qualities that keep America strong: representative democracy, freedom of speech and press, and, especially in the face of religious totalitarianism, the basic freedom of religious tolerance.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up?This final installment to Hakim's multi-volume history of the U.S. covers the period from the end of World War II to the election of Bill Clinton. The Marshall plan, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the war in Vietnam, and the end of the Cold War are all here. The writing is lively and insightful, and the basic narrative is complemented by quotations and anecdotes that are scattered around the pages in highlighted boxes. The black-and-white photographs and other illustrative material are well chosen; however, they are poorly reproduced in many cases, making it difficult or impossible to see details. Also, the page format is overly busy: the fascinating tidbits around the edges distract from the flow of the events being described. Nevertheless, libraries should certainly consider adding this title to their collections. Far from being a dry-as-dust recitation of dates and facts, it's an epic story told by someone who obviously enjoys telling it.?Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"[An] exciting series... Ms. Hakim braids multiple narratives together to bring alive material long dead to children's imaginations."--The New York Times Book Review

"Joy Hakim didn't rewrite history. But she did make it a whole lot more fun to read."--Education Week

"Readers young and old will find themselves amused, amazed, and engrossed by this searching, opinionated survey. In every sense a fresh look at our history." --Kirkus Reviews

"Merits every accolade, starting with the most personal: I couldn't put it down."--Washington Post Book World

"The liveliest, most realistic, most well-received American history series ever written for children."--Los Angeles Times

"A thorough and accurate narrative of our nation's history."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"I think this is the best American history written for young people that I have ever seen."--David Herbert Donald, Harvard University; Pulitzer prize-winning author of Lincoln

"When master storyteller Joy Hakim wields her pen, you're in for a breathtaking adventure."--Teaching K-8

"An attention to detail and drama alike make these recommended choices for not only readers ages 8-13 but for entire families."--Children's Bookwatch

"Absorbing, real and even fun to read."--Voice of Youth Advocates

"Books of real substance that speak directly to kids."--Jean Fritz, author of Shhh, We're Writing the Constitution

"One of the best nonfiction series of the decade. Impossible to put down."--School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195327241
• ISBN-13: 978-0195327243
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started my career as an author with a ten-volume U.S. history: A History of US, published by Oxford University Press in 1993, and now in a third updated printing. I had no idea the history would end up in ten books, or that it would be so much fun to write.
A History of US has been awarded a bunch of prizes. David McCullough commented, ". . .the idea that history might ever be thought of as a chore has clearly never crossed her mind." In testimony before the Senate Education Committee he called the series "superb." People Magazine described me as "the J.K. Rowling of the history world." (Umm, that would be nice. But the books have sold 5 million copies.)
Mine are narrative history books that attempt to set literary standards. I mean for them to be exciting to read. They're meant for young readers, and their teachers and parents, or for anyone without a deep background in U.S. history. These are books that can be found in bookstores, on Amazon, and in schools. Oxford and Hopkins have done teaching materials for those who want to use the books in academic study.
That series was followed by: Freedom: A History of US (published in 2003), the companion to a 16-part PBS series of the same name that was narrated by Katie Couric, with voices by a host of Hollywood figures, from Tom Hanks to Robin Williams. The videos are available to schools from PBS. And the book spawned a terrific website: (www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus).

I'm now writing The Story of Science. The first three books are jointly published by Smithsonian Books and the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association). They focus on the quest to understand the universe--from ancient Greece to today's expanding universe. The first volume is Aristotle Leads the Way; the second, Newton at the Center; the third book, Einstein Adds A New Dimension, attempts to explain quantum theory and relativity with black holes and space travel too. Writing in the New York Times, Natalie Angier called the books, "richly informative." Alan Alda raved. These books have won prizes too. Science writer Timothy Ferris said he wished he had them when he was a boy. Educators at Johns Hopkins and NSTA have developing coordinated teaching materials for classroom use (available from NSTA or Amazon).

I'm currently working on two books that put biology into a narrative framework.

Before I began writing books, I was an associate editor, editorial writer, and business writer for The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk's morning paper) and a general reporter and photographer on the staff of The Ledger-Star (Norfolk's afternoon paper. I did a whole lot of freelance writing while raising three kids. And I was an assistant editor of World News, a foreign news service at McGraw-Hill.

Writing and teaching seem to be two faces of the same need to explain things. Which may explain why I've had dual careers--as writer and teacher.

I've taught elementary school (Omaha, NE), high school English (Virginia Beach, VA), special education in a middle school (Syracuse, NY), and English composition and American literature at a community college (Virginia Beach). I initiated and taught a writing course for high school teachers of English through the University of Virginia.

I do a lot of speaking, especially to education groups. For three years I worked with a group of history teachers in Los Angeles under a TAH (Teaching American History) grant. I've spent some of my time in an inner-city school where most of the students speak Spanish at home and reading English doesn't come easily. I'll be speaking at Teachers College, Columbia in the fall of 2009 where reading guru, Lucy Calkins, has called my books the "gold standard" in the field.

As to my schooling: I earned a B.A. from Smith College after high school in Rutland, Vermont. Then I received a M.Ed. and an honorary doctorate from Goucher College. Smith gave me the Smith Medal (2000); the Matrix Foundation, the Edith Workman Award (2003); I've taken graduate courses in journalism and in geography at New York University, child psychology at Johns Hopkins, and courses in American history and science at Brown, Harvard, Cornell, and Cambridge University. My website is: joyhakim.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hakim brings A History of US up to date, August 13, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A History of US: Book 10: All the People 1945-2001 (Paperback)

Joy Hakim completes her juvenile American history series A History of US by looking at over a half-century's worth of events from the end of the World War II to the aftermath of September 11th. The title of this particular volume, "All the People 1945-2001" underscores her guiding question: "Does our land of promise, at last, have the will to become a nation for ALL the people?" Instead of dealing with this period as the "post-war" era Hakim sees it as featuring battles of another kind, from Cold War combat in foreign lands to the struggle for equality at home, and including now the threat of terrorism on American soil. By looking at the Supreme Court decision outlawing school segregation, American youth in the streets protesting the war in Vietnam, and the campaign for equal rights for women, Hakim clearly sees the U.S. beginning to become in practice what it had always claimed to be in theory, a nation for all of its people.

The complex tapestry of American history has never seemed clearer than in this particular volume. For all of the rest I have been able to find a sense of narrative structure, but it is hard to find a clear sense of division amongst the chapters of "All the People" by the end of the volume. After a preface covering the struggles of democracies and a look at the lives of the accidental president Harry Truman and Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in baseball, there is an initial unit (Chapters 11) looking primarily at the Cold War but also touching on the Marshall Plan, Joseph McCarthy, Ike, and mass consumerism. The second unit (Chapters 12-26) focuses primarily on the Civil Rights struggle, but also the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson. But once we get to the Vietnam War the mixture becomes a whole lot cloudier. The third unit could simply end with the double impact of Vietnam and Watergate (Chapters 27-36), which leaves the post-Nixon presidents from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton (Chapters 37-45) along with the significant events of the 21st century and Hakim's epilogue (Chapters 46-52), which reinforces her firm conviction that knowing about American history is the most important civics lesson of a young student's life.

Part of the problem, if that is how you choose to see it, is that current events constantly get in the way of the historian's perspective. I have always thought of Richard Nixon as being the most important president of my life because of not only Watergate, which has colored all domestic politics since it forced Nixon out of office, but also because of Vietnam and détente (only Nixon could go to China). But when we get another couple of generations down the road and historians look back at the last half of the 20th century (with September 11th now being recognized as the start of a new era that will get its volume), who will they decide was the most important politicians after Nixon? Ronald Reagan was the most popular but will history judge him as having a bigger impact than Bill Clinton? Or did Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan (profiled on page 231) have the biggest impact of anyone on the lives of the American people in this period?

The fact that history continues to unfold faster than she can put together the next edition of A History of US (as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have more than amply evidenced) does not dissuade Hakim from arguing that she sees pattern and meaning in the nation's recent history. Hakim uses the events of September 11, 2001 to consider how many aspects of the terrorist attacks have brought the qualities that keep American strong to the forefront (e.g., representative democracy, freedom of speech, religious tolerance). As always, this serves to underscore the way in which Hakim is not merely writing about American history, she is teaching it. All of the volumes in this series have parenthetical comments and questions Hakim includes to involve her young readers in learning about their nation's history.

Hakim makes reading about American history a personal experience. For example, while telling all about the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case, Hakim has a sidebar that tells about the integration of a Southern school as related by two students, one black and one white, who lived through the times. The margins of these books are filled with not only interesting facts but address obvious questions that young students would ask their students. The main reason that this series is such a hit with parents home schooling their children is that Hakim's presence as a teacher is clearly felt throughout every volume in this series. Her readers might be paying attention to all of the period illustrations that are crammed into these books, but virtually every one of those illustrations and its caption is making a point. Hopefully this will allow young students to realize what some of us have known for years: that learning American history can be fun (as well as important).

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buyer Beware., July 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of US: Book 10: All the People (1945-1998) (Paperback)

I doubt there's any US History textbooks more excitingly written for kids age 9-12 than Joy Hakim's. (This series is the one used in one of the best private schools in Silicon Valley.) They're glossy and beautiful, and well-nigh irresistible. What an incredible shame. What's the problem? The problem is they contain a version of history so slanted as to amount to an utterly shameless propagandizing of children. I'm a liberal atheist, but, really, these books should be sealed into a time capsule, to entertain future historians.
I assume Hakim simply doesn't know any better, but even a Marxist with a PhD in American History would blush a little to discover that a child reading this series would never suspect that close to 100 million innocent men, women, and children died under the yoke of socialist regimes, nor that a third of the world was plunged into an unnecessary grinding poverty for decades. On the other hand, they will learn, as they should, that National Socialism murdered six million innocents, and that the Ku Klux Klan `grew hugely' in the 1920s. But they won't learn that any other serious totalitarian movements also grew hugely in the 1920s, or that five million innocents died under the rule of Lenin's first experiment in socialism in the 1920s.

On the contrary, all anti-Communism in the twentieth century is presented as nothing better than a witch-hunt. Indeed, anti-communism is literally referred to as a `witch-hunt,' several times. Come on. So, was the fight against Hitler's National Socialism a `witch-hunt'? Why such a palpable double standard for twin evils? Hakim teaches children that while National Socialism was indeed a real and present danger, and even worth waging an unprecedented World War to fight it, on the other hand, international socialism, or Communism, was, as she tells it, never any real danger to Americans.

For instance, there's a chapter on the HUAC hearings in which McCarthy is referred to as a 'liar' about a half a dozen times. The chapter literally begins with the opening sentence "Joe McCarthy was a liar." Sure, he's controversial, but the latest research by historians just doesn't back up Hakim's wild-eyed account of liberal anti-socialism in America as nothing better than a nefarious `witch-hunt' conducted by `liars' and oppressors. Totalitarian Communist Lillian Hellman is profiled as a hero, and the overall impression is given that none of these people really were Communists, but, instead, were all just as falsely accused as the supposed `witches' of Salem.

This conclusion is then used to prove the statement that Americans are a fundamentally paranoid people, who basically lose their marbles very once in a while. (See book "Not Without Honor." on McCarthy and PBS documentary on Salem to find out why even Salem wasn't actually paranoia after all, but a toxic crop of moldy rye.)

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Only I'd Had These Textbooks When I Was In School, October 25, 2002

By 

Carolyn Bright "Motor City Reader" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of US: Book 10: All the People 1945-2001 (Paperback)

I was astonished to pick this up off my nephew's desk and, a few hours later, realize that I'd just read the best history textbook of Post-war 20th century America ever written. No wonder my nephew's favorite class is history. The author writes accurately and always takes care to allow the readers to view history from the proper perspective. That is, she includes quotes and excerpts that allow readers in 2002 to understand some of the seemingly inexplicable times and situations that this great country of ours has confronted.

The best example (and mind you, it is only one example) of this I can point to is how the author covered the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam War means so many things to so many people now as well as when it was actually happening. I think the author has done a great job of putting the whole conflict into perspective, and explaining to students of history how it is that the American people could ever come to a point where they would not support their own fighting forces in such large numbers. How could Walter Cronkite, the most respected man in America at the time, come out and say the war is wrong? Why would Vietnam vets, still in uniform, march in Washington, D.C. against the war? Why is the word "Vietnam" so loaded with meaning today for so many Americans? The answers are here, in terms that any high school student can understand and appreciate. This book should be required reading for Americans of all ages, Vietnam vets and their families included.