A History of US: Book 7: Reconstructing America 1865-1890 [Paperback]

Joy Hakim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2002 | Age Level: 9 and up | Series: History of US (Book 7)

Covering a time of great hope and incredible change, Reconstructing America, 1865-1890 is a dramatic look at life after the Civil War in the newly re-United States. Railroad tycoons were roaring across the country. New cities sprang up across the plains, and a new and different American West came into being: a land of farmers, ranchers, miners, and city dwellers. Back East, large-scale immigration was also going on, but not all Americans wanted newcomers in the country. Technology moved forward: Thomas Edison lit up the world with his electric light. And social justice was on everyone's mind with Carry Nation wielding a hatchet in her battle against drunkenness and Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois counseling newly freed African Americans to behave in very different ways. Through it all, the reunited nation struggles to keep the promises of freedom in this exciting chapter in the A History of US.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up?Written in a lively, conversational tone, this seventh book in the series goes beyond reviewing the presidents and the familiar events of the era, and provides anecdotes about everyday life during the post-Civil War era. Readers meet suffragettes, civil-rights advocates, Chinese launderers, black legislators, as well as key people like Thaddeus Stevens, P.T. Barnum, and Thomas Edison. Hakim adds many a new twist to even the most familiar biography. The layout, with many illustrations, marginal notes, and sidebars, is a bit busy; some readers may find it tiring. Also, the author often interjects questions into the middle of the text, which is distracting. The list of suggested readings is a good mix of fiction and nonfiction. This evenhanded overview will be a great source for report writers and browsers.?Elizabeth M. Reardon, McCallie School, Chattanooga, TN
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

"A bold contrast to the old facts-and-dates approach to history..." -- Philadelphia Inquirer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (September 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195153324
• ISBN-13: 978-0195153323
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,338 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 A time of great hope and incredible change in U.S. history, August 5, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A History of US: Book 7: Reconstructing America 1865-1890 (Paperback)

"Reconstructing America 1865-1890," the 7th volume in Joy Hakim's A History of US series, expands the notion of reconstruction, usually applied only to the Southern states of the former Confederacy to include the entire nation. In her preface to the volume Hakim declares "Are We Equal? Are We Kidding?" Her point is to underscore the Declaration of Independence's famous proposition that all men are created equal and to point out that ending slavery does not really free people if they are denied education and jobs. However, while the issue of racial division begins and ends this book, Hakim covers the entire domestic history of the United States in between the Civil War and the rise of the nation as a world power.

This volume does not have a formal structure but you can still find four rather distinction units. The first (Chapters 1-10) talks specifically about Southern Reconstruction and the fight between President Andrew Johnson and Thaddeus Stevens, leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress. The second (Chapters 11-18) tells about the opening of the West and Indians ordered to reservations. The third (Chapters 19-25) contrasts the world of Boss Tweed and Thomas Nast, P.T. Barnum and Mark Twain, with the immigrants who came to both coasts of the country. The fourth (Chapters 26-37) starts with the beginning of the movement towards rights for women and ends with Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois taking on the Jim Crow laws, with the birth of the Industrial Revolution and its patron saint Thomas Alva Edison in between.

As you can see, this is an inelegant division of these 37 chapters at best. But in the second half of the 19th-century of American history lacks the direction of the first, where the nation was hurdling towards Civil War. The idea that America was indeed reconstructing, or remaking itself, makes sense. However, there is no finality to the story at this point because equality between the sexes and the races are still a half and full century away respectively. One sign of the changing focus of history is that George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn is literally a marginal topic while the story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce gets an entire chapter.

These volumes are wonderfully illustrated, with historic photographs, paintings, and in this particular volume political cartoons that help bring the period alive. Throughout the book you will find detailed features on subjects such as the first conservationist, John Wesley Powell, and the Route of the Nez Perce in 1877. As always the margins are crammed with notes, definitions, mini-biographies, and choice quotations. For children raised on computers and the Internet it is clear that Hakim is speaking their language, and for parents home schooling their children they will find Hakim to be an active teacher who anticipates questions and concerns from students even when she is writing and book and they are reading it. This is an excellent series of American history textbooks.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Not What You're Probably Thinking..., February 23, 2002

By 

Lily "Random*Oddity" (Livermore, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of US: Book 7: Reconstruction and Reform (1865-1896) (Paperback)

When I first saw this book, I thought that it would be like the awful textbooks they force you to read in schools across the country (i.e. "and then Washington retired, and Adams became president,etc.,etc."), but it wasn't boring at all. Joy Hakim's fabulous writing and the fun facts and illustrations scattered throughout this book make history seem like an ongoing story, instead of an endless monologue. Good for kids and adults alike!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for ages 8-12...AND EVERYONE ELSE TOO, November 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of US: Book 7: Reconstruction and Reform (Paperback)

This book is really supposed to be for little kids in elementary school, but I am reading it to understand my U.S. history class in high school, because it conveys our history with such clarity, and doesn't muddle things up like big ol' textbooks. SO BUY THIS NOW!You won't regret it...I wish I could have given this book more than 5 stars.