Customer Reviews

American Heritage History of the United States

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Brinkley combines the worst of political correctness with sloppy editing and a weird selection of what to include. He begins in his Introduction by apologizing for not including more about Native Americans. He seems to forget himself throughout the book because he is unable to settle on whether these folks should be called Native Americans or Indians. When discussing Balboa he makes an unnecessary comment about how Balboa treated the natives he found. True to his political colors, Mr. Brinkley has only positive things to say about the Aztecs. You will learn how poorly western europeans treated the peoples they found here but nowhere will you learn about the blood lust of the Aztecs. The author explains early in his history that space forces him to be selective about what he includes. As a result, we are given mounds of information about low-level twentieth century individuals but you will look in vain for a reference to Jonathan Edwards or such watershed events in American history as the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century. The book is filled with typos and poor editing. My favorite is a caption that describes greenbacks but shows a picture of confederate money. We are told that The Great Train Robbery is a feature film and that The Birth of a Nation introduced what have now become a number of standard film techniques. Both of these statements are untrue. The Great Train Robbery runs about 15 minutes as I recall. The Birth of a Nation introduced no new film techniques. It simply used existing techniques in a magnificent way. As Mr. Brinkley says, space does not allow me to give more examples. The ones I have given are representative of the manifold problems with this book. If you're looking for a good illustrated one-volume history of the United States, try Eyes of a Nation. It does not pretend to be a comprehensive history but it is better illustrated than this book and does not try to sell itself as something it is not. Good one-volume histories without illustrations are those by Henry Steele Commager and Paul Johnson. Not suprisingly, Johnson's book is not listed in the author's bibliography.

It's a daunting challenge to tackle a subject as vast as the History of the United States -- a topic, like the United States itself, rooted as much in emotion and propaganda as in facts and the truth. Texts such as these almost always invite criticism, which makes you wonder why the people who believe they know more than the author do not write books on the subject themselves.

I, for one, believe Brinkley did a remarkable job, although the book remains a little too superficial for my own tastes. Still, Brinkley said himself that this book "is not aimed to please academic scholars or specalists" and admitted that he "had nightmares about receiving letters of disappointment." Come to think of it, the entire introduction reads like an apology for the book you are about to read. Not exactly confidence-inspiring but I think Brinkley does indeed underestimate his own work. It is a very healthy review of American History. The text is thorough without being too weighty, the story flows extremely well without getting too sidetracked (which kills many historical texts and with good reason -- American History is an inherently complicated subject that doesn't always lend itself to a flowing, linear narrative) and personally I didn't find the book's errors too egregious (although the other reviewer was absolutely right -- the Greenbacks error is hilarious, though hardly earth shattering).

The political correctness charge is more subjective, and I invite everone to make up their own mind about that. Personally, I found it refreshing that Brinkley didn't portray the men who colonized this land as the romantic, globetrotting heroes we read about in elementary school. Let's face it -- they were selfish, greedy men whose wanderlust was financed for religious, political, social, and economic gain. As for the Aztecs, they weren't exactly the innocents Brinkley would have us believe but it still doesn't excuse what Cortez did to their magnificent civilization. That's just one example. You can call that political correctness, but I haven't discovered a text yet that deviates from that fact.

The most astounding aspect of this text is its exclusion of the Native American story -- an exclusion Brinkley himself apologizes for (he blames "space limitations"), again in the introduction, as he directs us to a couple of other texts for a more complete telling of Native American History. How could you have a book entitled "History of the United States" with such brief, cursory mentions of the people who inhabited this land before most of us got here? It's almost inexcusable, really. Then again, considering this country's treatment of Native Americans over the centuries, it's almost cruelly fitting that "space limitations" pushed their story out of the book.

Overall, a worthwhile book, though not exactly a text that historians will reference for years to come. But, again, as Brinkley said, that's not the purpose of this book.

Judging from previous reviews, apparently if you're a US history afficionado you should stay away from this book.

However, if like me you've always fallen asleep in history class, this is the book for you. Don't get me wrong; history is my hobby--WORLD history, that is. With US history, it seems I've had the great misfortune of having professors who loved to dwell on minutia. And since minutia is tremendously dreary when the student doesn't first have the overall picture, it is no wonder many of us find ourselves "otherwise engaged" in class.

I am an American adult who decided it was time to know more about our nation's past, and chose a one-volume work to get me started. I found Douglas Brinkley easy to read, in spite of the fact that his book is larger and weighs more than a small household pet. I've always deduced that because America is so much younger than old world countries, instructors have felt a need to compensate for its history's brevity by weighing it down with innumerable bits of information that are probably better left to the next course level. But I did not feel that way reading Brinkley. More than once, I found myself muttering "so that's what that was about...". The conversational writing style and supporting illustrations made for, if not exactly a page-turner, the closest thing a history book can get to that.

Although it is obvious from page one that the author has very strong beliefs, they are so blatant that I did not feel it was a hindrance--any reasonable adult will question whether the characters and events were truly as noble or ominous as the writer has painted them, and readers should certainly never make judgments based on one book alone anyway. This work is really just to have an overview of US history, and people can decide from there what they'd like to learn more about. To include all the details other reviewers felt should have been in this book would have made it the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Just one more thing--who the heck IS Emma Goldman????? ;-)

I've been out of school for "awhile" and decided recently to brush up on U.S. history. After poring over several alternatives in the bookstore, I chose this book to fill the bill...and it does! It provides a great overview and is superbly written. When I finish the book, I'll move on to more specialized works, but (for my current purposes) I can't recommend it highly enough. It is simply a treat to read!

Douglas Brinkley's American Heritage History of the United States has all the marks of one of those terrible textbooks we were force fed in High School and college. Glossy pictures, special topic sections, maps, history capsulated into eras, the book has all the appearance of something written by a committee. When you were a teen, the best thing about it was that lots of photos meant less text.

Thankfully, American Heritage History of the United States was not written by a committee. Mr. Brinkley's text has personality, even humor, and intelligence. It flows smoothly and retains the reader's interest. I learned more than I had known and probably even remember some of it, which is more than I can say for my High School textbooks.

Concerning the subject itself, it is almost impossible to be entirely objective when it comes to history, any history. It is much to Mr. Brinkley's credit that I was unable to determine his political background, a question that is usually, unfortunately, answered far too soon far too often. (There appears to be a fine line with history between analysis and polemics.) Mr. Brinkley does have opinions and does voice them, but he is ultimately more concerned with portraying the facts of the matter at hand, whatever the matter at hand may be. He reminds the reader, on a fairly generous basis, that problems arising in one president's term of office may have begun in a prior president's term of office if not further back or may have nothing to do with the presidential office at all.

Recommendation: It's big and it's heavy. The price isn't bad for a big, heavy hardcover filled with photographs, just make sure you have somewhere to put it.

The History of the United States by Douglass Brinkley is exactly what the book jacket promises, "the incredible journey of the United States," told in one volume of 610 pages, "that is as much a delight to look at as it is absorbing and instructive to read."

Each chapter is 25-40 pages, and loaded with facts about each particular era that is addressed. In structure, this book is similar to "The West" by Geoffrey C. Ward. There are over 500 images, political cartoons, and full-color maps in the book. Some of them are beautiful pieces of art that you can take 5-10 minutes to study, and detailed political catoons that really do tell a story. These images really add to the story.

The text itself is ok. Brinkley could have used another editor, as there were a few typos. I also noticed the picture of a confederate dollar bill, while the caption claims it is a greenback. The book has a two-page section on the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century, without any mention of the First Great Awakening of the early 18th century, which contributed to the unification of the colonies.

Not that I'm hung up on omissions; he didn't mention William Bradford, or Jonathan Edwards, or the Whiskey Ring, or even Crédit Mobilier, and I'm sure I can find hundreds of other names that he left out. That's going to happen when you condense American History into 610 pages.

The chapter on the Cold War is awkwardly written, as it starts with the Truman Administration, jumps to the Eisenhower terms using the Korean War as a fulcrum, then finishes up with the Truman Administration, as if the last few pages of this chapter were an afterthought.

Despite these errors, I really enjoyed reading the book. I spent 4-5 hours on each chapter, because the deluxe photographs were just so wonderful to look at.

This is a book I purchased for cheap used but in killer shape off here. I orginally found it at the library and kept renewing it so finally just bought it. It it fairly comprehensive (American History is a HUGE topic, only can address so much in one book) and I just like the layout of the book, the ease of the read, the visuals to drive home the points. It made brushing up on my American History (and even learned some new things) very enjoyable, and I will revisit it often.

although i am not sure that i feel this book deserves five stars, that is what i gave it because i wanted to even out the other reviews - i feel that they are rather harsh. despite the fact that this might not be the most thorough book ever, it is lively and entertaining, and has many wonderful pictures that sum up our history quite well. i also found it quite useful when writing a thesis paper on the navigation acts, which were quite difficult to find information on elsewhere. i believe that this book is at least worth a skim at the library, if not a purchase for the coffee table.

I'm an adult attempting to brush up on American history and found this book very informative and interesting. I do believe it has a fairly right-wing Republican political slant, but the author is thoughtful and detailed in his personal views. I would recommend reading more than one political view of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidency, for example, in order to get a broader,truer understanding.

I am tired of Political Correctness. I am tired of even hearing that term. Do we now have to distort, truncate, alter and omit events in our own History to please some unknown enigmatic entity or group that we can not even define? Political Correctness is a name for a witch-hunt in my opinion. The witch-hunt in this case is a quest not to offend. Offend whom? Our selves? We are all Americans in this country. People of all races, color and creed died to preserve our American Heritage and freedoms that no other country in the world can equal. This book would have you think otherwise.