Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After reading the previous reviews, I fully expected to get "American History Lite" when I read this book. What I did get instead was a book that while being primarily an overview describes the history of America in a clear, concise, and objective manner. As I enjoyed US history in school, reading through various chapters reminded me of "names from our past," George Washington, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, "Blackjack" Pershing, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, etc. It also makes it easy to recount historical facts. One thing that stood out as I read through the book: the amount of violence in our past, be it wars with either the Indians in the early days of our history or with other countries. Of course, both World Wars were major conflagrations that required our assistance in stopping.

I will agree with one other reviewer on one point. This book I feel would have benefitted from some maps showing the routes that early voyagers to America took, progress of the colonies, what parts of the US were acquired through various treaties or purchases, etc. Perhaps these could be added in a future edition. Other than that, this book gives a good recounting of our history, up to Y2K.

I thought this book was a wonderful resource for the non-historian. It is a great way to read all about that history you learned in junior high and then immediately deleted to make space in your brain for good dirty hallway jokes. I have felt a real deficiently in my education in the history of my own country, and this book filled in some gaps. Don't get me wrong, it is not an extensive study. It is obviously an overview at best. But if you just want to skim the surface of history (and then move on to The complete Idiot's guide to Understanding Einstein) then this is the book for you.

As a person who is just starting to get interested in history, I really enjoyed reading the Idiot's Guide. Although at times Axelrod went a little skimpish on big topics (only 5 pages on World War I) and he didn't have much about the growth of the United States until about 1870, I would reccomend this book to anyone who has a taste for history!

This book is great for anyone who wants to refresh their US History knowledge. Although we should have learned all this information in grade school, I am sure that we have all forgotten almost everything. This book illustrates everything clearly and is fun to read.

The line of "Idiot's" books seems to be aimed for the everyday reader. Unfortunately, this volume falls just short of drawing you in. Peppered with little known facts and anecdotes separated from the text by boxes, Axelrod fills this history book with information. Although this is less intimidating than most history tomes, this idiot wasn't able to read her way through, but found it useful for looking up facts in the index.

As an Australian observer of U.S. history and politics, I found this book an impressive read. Concise, pithy, nicely balanced and structured. It's ideal for bringing history out of the closet and into children's class rooms, something that is badly lacking in my own country. Popular history at its best.

Until I read this book, I had always felt that I missed quite a bit of history during school. It has filled in those gaps as far as I'm concerned. It's a book that I'll definately read again, and recommend to anyone, especially those who felt they missed some history in class.

I have been wanting to bone up on my American history and since I have had such great luck with the "... for Dummies" series of books, I thought I would try the "Idiot's Guide to ..." series. My brother credits this Idiot's Guide to getting him through high school history so I grabbed it when he was tossing it.

The layout of the book was very like a textbook and had none of the interesting attributes of the "... for Dummies" books which I have read. The topics jumped around more than I would have liked, but this did make each section a good read individually. The author mostly kept the book entertaining and even succeeded in explaining the Native American issue with balance and tact. Unfortunately, the research and balance seemed to drop off as the modern era was approached especially anything since the New Deal. From FDR onward, there are blind assertions that socialist policies are good, while free market policies are bad. Clearly, it is difficult to write history while history is being written but that only underscores the need to provide good research to back up claims. All in all, I would recommend this book be treated like my American History class. I paid attention and learned good stuff but we ran out of time and stopped abruptly after the Industrial Revolution.

[...]

I really enjoyed this book.

An a non-American it taught me an awful lot about American history in what I took as being from a very unbiased and impartial persepective. Politicians of both side of the devide are given equal voice and noted for both positive and negative achievements, similarly with English, Spanish, French, Black and Indian roles in American hsitory (or is it America's role in their histories?).

Making the complex simple without making it stupid is the mark of a great summarizer, Axelrod does it extremely well.

Buy the book. Enjoy life!

I cannot challenge the accuracy of this book, however, Axelrod is clearly a left-winger and his political leaning shows. He makes it very, very, very clear of his sympathies for the Indians and blacks. Geronimo or Molly Ivins could have written this book. The white man, especially the Spanish, are ripped apart. In later chapters he picks apart Reagan and other conservatives. Axelrod doesn't just state the facts, he interjects personal political jabs (very unprofessional). Also, there is not ONE map in this book. Early voyages, the progress of the colonies, etc. would become much clearer with maps. This is a major flaw.

I will stay away from any book written by Axelrod.