The 83 most important documents of the American past are presented with commentary by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Henry Steele Commager, and other distinguished historians. The selections span the spectrum of American history as it was made, and as it was lived.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An American education in one voluime,
By
This review is from: An American Primer (Paperback)
Included in this volume are fundamental documents of American political life, from the Mayflower compact of 1620, and including the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, Washington's Farewell Address, Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, William James Pragmatism, Wendell Wilkie's One World Faulkner's Nobel Prize Acceptance, John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address. There are eighty- three selections which touch upon American political , economic and cultural history. The documents are analyzed by eminent historians including Daniel Boorstin, Samuel Eliot Morrison, David Potter, Martin Marty, Dumas Malone, Clinton Rossiter, Leonard W. Levy,and others. The volume has an introduction by Daniel Boorstin.
This work provides American education in one volume. I dip into it sometimes and read here and there one of the documents, and its analysis.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An American Primer,
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This review is from: An American Primer (Mass Market Paperback)
Overall good purchase. The cover, being paperback was slightly torn/worn but the book as a whole is in great shape.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A note,
By bukhtan (Chicago, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An American Primer (Mass Market Paperback)
An aspect of this excellent work that differentiates it a bit from some other compilations is the inclusion of texts which no longer can be considered fundaments of an American philosophical or political self-conception, but which mattered immensely in earlier times. The previous reviewer listed Wendell Wilkie's One World. Other examples would be:
Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health James Cardinal Gibbons - the Question of the Knights of Labor or Lincoln Steffens - the Shame of the Cities The ideas contained in these texts may no longer have a direct impact on American popular thinking, for better or worse, but certainly they figured largely in public debate, at one time. It might have been useful to include a tirade against Freemasonry, as paranoia about that movement is widely agreed to have thrown an American presidential election. In fact, if readers construe this book as a collection of texts forming the basis of popular debate, from time to time in America, the compiler could be faulted for not including pieces by Roger Williams, William Penn, Marx, Freud, Tolstoy and others who were born and bred elsewhere, and may never have set foot in America. But Boorstin chose to limit his reach to the native children of what is now the United States.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The Mayflower Compact, so called because it was drafted and signed on board the Mayflower as that ship approached Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, is justly regarded as a key document in American history. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
battle with the slum, complete mental revolution, unlawful conspiracy, conspiracy doctrine, wee haue, steam drill, honest graft, other public ministers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, John Henry, Fourteenth Amendment, Poor Richard, House of Representatives, New England, Knights of Labor, Abraham Lincoln, North Carolina, John Adams, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tammany Hall, Great Britain, Secretary of State, United Nations, Alexander Hamilton, White House, Monroe Doctrine, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, John Wanamaker, Marshall Plan New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The Mayflower Compact, so called because it was drafted and signed on board the Mayflower as that ship approached Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, is justly regarded as a key document in American history. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
battle with the slum, complete mental revolution, unlawful conspiracy, conspiracy doctrine, wee haue, steam drill, honest graft, other public ministers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, John Henry, Fourteenth Amendment, Poor Richard, House of Representatives, New England, Knights of Labor, Abraham Lincoln, North Carolina, John Adams, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tammany Hall, Great Britain, Secretary of State, United Nations, Alexander Hamilton, White House, Monroe Doctrine, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, John Wanamaker, Marshall Plan New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 53
books:
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43
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- Science and Health: With Key to the Scripture by Mary Baker Eddy on 6 pages
- The Declaration Of Independence by Sam Fink on 6 pages
- Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) by William L. Riordon on 4 pages
- The Way to Wealth (Little Books of Wisdom) by Benjamin Franklin on 4 pages
- on page 377, page 383, and Index
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- The Marketing Era: From Professional Practice to Global Provisioning by Kalman Applbaum in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory by Ranjit S. Dighe in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- American Manhood: Transformations In Masculinity From The Revolution To The Modern Era by E. Anthony Rotundo in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- American Culture: An Anthology of Civilization Texts by Anders Breidlid in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Technology and the Spirit by Ignacio L. Gotz in Front Matter, and Back Matter
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