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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good general history for the student and reader interested in a positive view of America, May 4, 2007
This review is from: America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom (Hardcover)
This is the second volume of William J. Bennett's history of America. It is written for the general reader or student who is interested in reading the history of our country from an unabashedly supportive point of view. Bennett judges events, good and bad, from a moral point of view that would be recognizable to anyone aware of traditional religious teaching, that is before the moral relativism of the mid-twentieth century took hold of historical writing.
Bennett picks up the narrative from the first volume with World War I and takes us through the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency and the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. He offers an epilogue explaining why he ended the volume there and talks briefly about his view of America and our current situation in the world, including the current war.
As one can tell from the title of these works, Bennett does believe in American Exceptionalism and that, despite its failings, we are a moral country that is seeking to do right and to improve. For this reason, this can be a refreshing read for anyone who believes in traditional morality, admires American, and yet desires a readable and honest history that doesn't shy away from our mistakes and failings. The focus is always on history being made and lived by real people rather than some abstract forces. Bennett is also clear about the various political perspectives of the various historical actors and commentators. This helps the reader keep straight how various schools of political thought have affected the course of history in our country and around the world.
I can imagine that any number of students who are home schooled would use both volumes of these texts to study American history. While this isn't the only such option available, it is easy to read and tells stories about our history that one doesn't find in many other places. He doesn't shy away from the role of religion in our nation's public life, which I enjoyed a great deal. This current obsession of sanitizing the public square of religious expression is a recent innovation and a mistake. It also distorts our history so greatly as to be dishonest about the contributions of religion and its huge role in the fabric of our nation's history.
Another very refreshing inclusion is the role of conservative thought and not treating it as the source of all malevolence or as an aberration that must be gotten rid of as soon as possible. One can even read about Ronald Reagan, William Buckley, Milton Friedman, and others without all kinds of qualifiers, personal attacks, and scare quotes.
Is the book perfect? Of course not. No history can be. I do wish there were more pictures and that those supplied were printed in better quality. However, in the age of the Internet, a student can go find any number of images on any topic he or she chooses. So, this is not a big problem.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great addition to volume 1..., May 3, 2007
This review is from: America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom (Hardcover)
William Bennett's America: The Last Best Hope, Vol. II is a wonderful conclusion to the work he began in volumer I. Full bodied, well written and honest in its breadth, Volume 2 is the history that most Americans would be proud of. I also agree with the other reviewer that both volume I and II would make a terrific course of study for home schooled children. I would go one step further in stating that it should be required reading on every high school and perhaps college campus in the country, not because it cries out our successes and glosses over our mistakes. Infact, the book does make much of our successes in the 20th century. Bennett does an excellent job in discussing our role in two world war victories. He explains our unsurpassed economic growth and our continued dominance in the world market. He includes our movement in making sure that all are given the opportunity to share in the country's richness. But Bennett also includes our failures and this is what makes the book so great.
My favorite topics of this book are Chapters 1 (America and the Great War (1914-1921)), Chapter 2 (The Boom and the Bust (1921-1933)), Chapter 4 (America's Rendezvous with Destiny (1939-1941)), and those sections dealing with the Reagan years. Bennett is not embarrassed over his devotion to Ronald Reagan and this is clear in the book.
I highly recommend Volume 2.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good, readable U.S. history book, May 17, 2007
This review is from: America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom (Hardcover)
This book is a perfect follow up to the first volume. Bennett continues his readable writing style. Even those that marginally like history should find the book enjoyable to read.
While the first volume covers over four centuries, this second volume covers about three quarters of a century. With 533 pages of reading material and 41 pages of bibliography, it is still necessary to drastically limit scope. This is perhaps the most difficult task for a history writer. It necessarily means that some issues are touched upon only lightly.
Bennett's sense of what to include lends to the book's readability as much as does his writing style. He cleverly weaves in human interest stories that help draw the reader in. These vignettes demonstrate America's strengths and weaknesses, but overall they provide an optimistic view of the U.S.
Another device Bennett uses for limiting scope is to largely frame the book around national politics, and particularly around presidential administrations. This is highly useful in providing insight into the kind of people Americans have elected to govern them, which provides a glimpse into the thinking and experiences of Americans at regular historical intervals. But this device also tends to lightly treat some important issues that are not well addressed in national politics.
Bennett's personal feelings regarding historical figures was evident in the first volume, but it seems to me that this shines through much more clearly in the second volume. Perhaps this is because Bennett personally experienced many of the later events and has even had dealings with some of the people he discusses.
For example, Bennett's respect for Eisenhower and Kennedy are apparent, as is his undisguised disgust with Johnson and Nixon. Nowhere is Bennett's loathing more apparent than in his treatment of the withdrawal of American support from Southeast Asia in the mid 70s that resulted in the deaths of over two million human beings.
One of the highlights of the book is Bennett's handling of World War II. I felt a palpable sense of what average Americans in the pre-war years were experiencing as the free world hurtled toward a showdown with fascism and militarism. Not only did I feel a sense of how average Americans experienced the war, but I gained fresh insights into the personalities and interconnections of the movers and shakers in the war.
More than anything else, this book helps explain the whys behind historical events. And it does so in a pleasantly readable way. I assume that some history professionals would dismiss Bennett's book as lacking some of the elements they have come to expect in scholarly offerings. Bennett, himself a professor of history, says that most such history tomes are dry and deplorable. He argues that few Americans understand history because few good and readable history texts are available. With this book and its predecessor volume, Bennett does a good job of making sure that at least some factual, readable, and optimistic American history books are available.
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