Customer Reviews

Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 2: Since 1877, 2nd Edition

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The book takes a completely different view of our nation's history from the late 1800's through the late 19000's than the average history text book most of us read in high school. Side bars and tid bits add anecdotal highlights to the information covered in that section or chapter which keep it relevant and interesting. It was very refreshing to see things from the bottom up. i.e. What was happening with this or that wave of immigration that caused the City's and Urban areas to change in this way, that caused the political and religious environment to change in that way, that caused this person to be elected, that caused this law to be passed, that caused this backlash, that led to this conflict, that led to this resolution. Instead of - this war was faught and this official was elected and this country won. It is biased towards labor and labor's role in building this country, so if you want traditional conservative history, this isn't the book for you. But if you like to read some of the stuff they don't tell you in high-school history 101, this is it. I'll never look at labor disputes or the immigration question the same way again. I came away from the book with a greater understanding and retained more of how we got to the 21st century in America from the 19th century.

I think it is okay to have a specific perspective to U.S. History as long as it is stated within a specific discipline such as Social History of the U.S. or an Economic History of the United States. This book is somewhat misleading because it gives a hint of what this book is about a history of labor in the United States and its relationships to the economic forces of the various time periods it covers. That to me, is in the domain of Economic History of the United States. This book basically is an introduction to the economic history of the United States, eventhough, that is really not explicityly stated. It does do a good job of providing detailed descriptions of labor history in the U.S. But I do not think it should be used in a classroom where the students have not have had a generalized introduction into U.S. history; unless of course, the trend is to now slice American history, into specific topics, and provide that one specific aspect as a introduction to American history.