8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good US History text, December 20, 2008
We like this US history book. It is especially helpful because it has a companion text, Guide to the Essentials for my daughter who is an ESL student. It covers the basics, tries to make connections between cultures as well as giving students ample opportunity to review and write about related topics. It is not perfect, as it has its biases. What history book doesn't? It is a good text.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Supplement w/Additional Readings, November 11, 2009
The text is okay, but to really do a good job, you must a) read widely outside the text and b) give the students supplementary materials. For basic factual information, the text is largely acceptable. However, it is at times factuallly wrong, trying to claim in the early chapters that American Indian and African cultures were equally a part of the developing American legal system and culture--which is patently false.
American legal ideas were almost exclusively derived from British law and the Bible, not only in the early colonies, some of which outright stated, "We have no king but Jesus." but in the ideas of the CHRISTIAN Enlightenment, most particularly John Locke. Bsides the bible, the two most widely read writers prior to the Revolution were Locke and Blackstone, later on it was Locke and Montesquieu (checks and balances.)
Addd The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, The Founder's Constitution and Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny to your study, background and supplementary information you give to your students. The text ignores the importance of The Federalist Papers, which are essential in understanding the development of the US Constitution.
IF you really want to teach American History, don't rely predominately on the textbook, get the primary source information, there are plenty of websites out there, and Ashland University has a great series of workshops. (www.teachingamericanhistory.org). And don't settle for an education degree---go get their Master's in American History and Government---the program is great and you will never regert it. It focuses on primary texts, which you MUST use to do history.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
i do learn from this book, April 25, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: America Pathways to the Present: Pathways to the Present (Hardcover)
most history books are pretty dry, but this one teaches me. i actually do learn the history of america from a concise text.
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