A History of US: Book 8: An Age of Extremes (1870-1917) [Paperback]

Joy Hakim (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: History of Us

You'll learn about ECONOMICS in this book--a subject that is often a yawn, but not in these pages. Read about powerful Pierpont, Mother Jones, a teddy bear President, and two brothers who want to fly.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A big breath of fresh air and the best possible news for the youngsters who get to read them." -- David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of John Adams

"Magnificent." -- Denver Post

From the Publisher

For the captains of industry--men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, and Henry Ford--the Gilded Age is a time of big money. Technology boomed with the invention of trains, telephones, electric lights, harvesters, vacuum cleaners, and more. But for millions of immigrant workers, it is a time of big struggles, with adults and children alike working 12 to 14 hours a day under extreme, dangerous conditions. The disparity between the rich and the poor was dismaying, which prompted some people to action.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (August 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195127668
• ISBN-13: 978-0195127669
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started my career as an author with a ten-volume U.S. history: A History of US, published by Oxford University Press in 1993, and now in a third updated printing. I had no idea the history would end up in ten books, or that it would be so much fun to write.
A History of US has been awarded a bunch of prizes. David McCullough commented, ". . .the idea that history might ever be thought of as a chore has clearly never crossed her mind." In testimony before the Senate Education Committee he called the series "superb." People Magazine described me as "the J.K. Rowling of the history world." (Umm, that would be nice. But the books have sold 5 million copies.)
Mine are narrative history books that attempt to set literary standards. I mean for them to be exciting to read. They're meant for young readers, and their teachers and parents, or for anyone without a deep background in U.S. history. These are books that can be found in bookstores, on Amazon, and in schools. Oxford and Hopkins have done teaching materials for those who want to use the books in academic study.
That series was followed by: Freedom: A History of US (published in 2003), the companion to a 16-part PBS series of the same name that was narrated by Katie Couric, with voices by a host of Hollywood figures, from Tom Hanks to Robin Williams. The videos are available to schools from PBS. And the book spawned a terrific website: (www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus).

I'm now writing The Story of Science. The first three books are jointly published by Smithsonian Books and the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association). They focus on the quest to understand the universe--from ancient Greece to today's expanding universe. The first volume is Aristotle Leads the Way; the second, Newton at the Center; the third book, Einstein Adds A New Dimension, attempts to explain quantum theory and relativity with black holes and space travel too. Writing in the New York Times, Natalie Angier called the books, "richly informative." Alan Alda raved. These books have won prizes too. Science writer Timothy Ferris said he wished he had them when he was a boy. Educators at Johns Hopkins and NSTA have developing coordinated teaching materials for classroom use (available from NSTA or Amazon).

I'm currently working on two books that put biology into a narrative framework.

Before I began writing books, I was an associate editor, editorial writer, and business writer for The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk's morning paper) and a general reporter and photographer on the staff of The Ledger-Star (Norfolk's afternoon paper. I did a whole lot of freelance writing while raising three kids. And I was an assistant editor of World News, a foreign news service at McGraw-Hill.

Writing and teaching seem to be two faces of the same need to explain things. Which may explain why I've had dual careers--as writer and teacher.

I've taught elementary school (Omaha, NE), high school English (Virginia Beach, VA), special education in a middle school (Syracuse, NY), and English composition and American literature at a community college (Virginia Beach). I initiated and taught a writing course for high school teachers of English through the University of Virginia.

I do a lot of speaking, especially to education groups. For three years I worked with a group of history teachers in Los Angeles under a TAH (Teaching American History) grant. I've spent some of my time in an inner-city school where most of the students speak Spanish at home and reading English doesn't come easily. I'll be speaking at Teachers College, Columbia in the fall of 2009 where reading guru, Lucy Calkins, has called my books the "gold standard" in the field.

As to my schooling: I earned a B.A. from Smith College after high school in Rutland, Vermont. Then I received a M.Ed. and an honorary doctorate from Goucher College. Smith gave me the Smith Medal (2000); the Matrix Foundation, the Edith Workman Award (2003); I've taken graduate courses in journalism and in geography at New York University, child psychology at Johns Hopkins, and courses in American history and science at Brown, Harvard, Cornell, and Cambridge University. My website is: joyhakim.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joy Hakim looks at the extremes of the Gilded Age, August 9, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of US: Book 8: An Age of Extremes (1870-1917) (Paperback)

Joy Hakim forewarns her young readers that "An Age of Extremes 1880-1917," volume 8 in A History of US, talks a lot about Economics, but also assures them that this time around it will not be a "yawn." This particular volume looks at the United States at what we now refer to as the turn of the last century, what Mark Twain called the "Gilded Age." However, the preface sets up the idea that this period was an age of extremes that saw business tycoons with great wealth and millions of immigrants living in poverty. While the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal were being built Jim Crow laws were established in the South and the Indian wars ended in the West. Underneath this all Hakim reminds her readers that the United States is a nation of practical idealists and that in contrast to the Founding Fathers like Benjamin Franklin, the businessmen of the Gilded Age, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, were unscrupulous rather than altruistic.

"An Age of Extremes" basically breaks down into five sections. The first (Chapters 1-7) starts with the rags to riches story of Andrew Carnegie and other magnates, as well as a dreamer of a different type in L. Frank Baum. The second (Chapters 8-14) covers American politics at the end of the 19th century, contrasting Republican support for big business with the rise of the Populists and William Jennings Bryan. The third (Chapters 15-21) offers the flip side of the first, focusing on the plight of the working class. The fourth (Chapters 22-28) tells how the Gilded Age turned Progressive, beginning with the Muckrakers and ending with the emergence of Theodore Roosevelt on the national stage. The final section (Chapters 29-37) begins with America's imperialistic interests in the Spanish-American War and ends with Woodrow Wilson leading the nation into a World War to save democracy. In between, T.R. remains the dominant figure.

As always, Hakim's book is richly illustrated with period photographs, paintings, editorial cartoons and the like, including a photograph of the Dakota apartment building seen from Central Park after its construction which will strike a chord with fans of John Lennon. The pictures reinforce Hakim's point that this period was a time of both prosperity and poverty, of idealism and corruption. The volume ends with the U.S. entering the First World War, setting up the revolutionary changes that would come afterwards in the Jazz Age. The strength of Hakim's volumes remains her ability to engage her young readers. This might be a good old-fashioned juvenile history text, but it has the energy of a CD-Rom or a great Internet website. The series is perfect for parents who are home schooling their children because Hakim "talks" to her readers as if she were teaching them in a classroom, anticipating questions and demanding that they look at history from the perspective of the people they are reading about in these pages.

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable History, August 23, 2010

By 

Michael G. Bennett - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: An Age of Extremes: 1880-1917 (A History of Us) (Hardcover)

Vol 8 in an 11 volume set, "The History of Us," was missing from my original purchase from Goodwill. Great prices!! I've been very impressed with the series and found it informative, and interesting. I've learned a lot, and it has peaked my curiosity about history, especially during colonial times. I've become a genealogy hobbyist and this helps put so much of what went on into a nice perspective.

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An age of extremes proves to be a book of greatness., May 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of US: Book 8: An Age of Extremes (Paperback)

When reading this book, one might think that it is a simple critique and outlandish excuse used to mock the non-chalant and over-distinguisable world we live in. However, these accusations (McCarthy like in terms) prove to be ungrounded after one reads it. It is then that he discovers that Hakim wrote it for favourable purposes on all diameters. I definetely recomend it, however the word usage and placement could use some re-adjustment, so could the past she describes. If one enjoys reading a book that can be bragged about to friends, let this be it.

Pick it up today.