Customer Reviews

The Making Of America

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

 

 

I enjoyed this book. I used it to refresh my memory of U.S. History. In that respect, it did not disappoint. I find it hard to believe that this was written for 5-8 graders. Adults could easily read the book and benefit. I did find Dr. Johnston to do a lot of editorializing, especially as it related to social issues. I would not necessarily disagree with many of his conclusoins, but I believe that he provides them at the expense of his objectivity. He doesn't gloss over the warts in our nation's past, and evidently that is a problem for some reviewers. I appreciated that fact. I thought the last couple of chapters, dealing with 1960's to present were somewhat choppy. In many cases he covered major events in less than a paragraph (i.e. Watergate). I really agonized over whether to give the book 3 stars or 4. Ultimately, I gave it 4 in order to balance out some of the negative reviews. Overall, its not a bad book, but one would definitely need to look at other sources for more indepth study.

The Making of America, by Robert Johnson, with a forward by Laura Bush, is a well-written picture book history of America. It includes numerous not only good history and pictures, but also unusually insightful profiles of important debates in American history, such as the Federalists versus the Anti-Federalists and the struggle over slavery culminating in Civil War.

The books includes loads of concise facts that ever American should know and profiles of important people from different aspects of American history, such as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and President Abraham Lincoln. It also includes important documents at the back of the book, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In only 199 pages you gain a solid understanding of the making of America. Keep in mind that this book seems designed to 1) be interesting and 2) provide an excellent overview. Therefore, you will need to seek a more thorough history books for a more thorough adult history of America.

My daughter thought that the sections on the Great Depression, World War II, Cold War and post-WWII era, Civil Rights, and Mexican War were the strongest. The profiles were good. I thought the Revolutionary War era was good. My daughter thought some parts were a little disjointed, which is expected for a brief book like this. Realistically, the Civil War, including the numerous battles and politics, cannot be easily convered in a book of this size.

My daughter also liked "Don't Know Much About American History" by Kenneth Davis as a supplement. It seems more factual and has fewer pictures, so that book is geared to older kids.

The tone of "The Making of America" is optimistic, patriotic and factual. I disagree with the nagative comments posted by another reviewer. Concerning Columbus, the book tells that traditional story but also states factually the very important historical fact that "when Europeans arrived, the population of North, Central and South America was about 60 to 70 million people. Between 5 million and 15 million of them were spread throughout the land that is now Canada and the United States. Over the next four centuries, that figure fell by more than 90 percent before it began to rise again. Millions of Indians died in what many scholars, and most Native Americans, consider the greatest disaster in all history."

That is a truthful statement and a very important fact of history. Big events like that should not be supressed because someone today feels attahced to person many centuries ago. Indeed, my daughter knows many more stories about Columbus and Cortez that were left out. The coverage in this book is fair and honest.

Nobody today should be personally offended. Is anyone from 500 years ago still around? That event is a story of another time and different people. WE did not do anything.

To put this in perspective, my ancestors were Vikings, and the truth is that they could be brutal savages. I have nothing to do with what they did centuries and so take no offense with telling the entire story of the Vikings. The complete story of the Vikings is fascinating history.

In summary, this is an outstanding picture book history of America that is optimistic and engaging, unless you are an extremist and hate simple facts.

Enhanced with a Foreword by First Lady Laura Bush, The Making Of America: The History Of The United States From 1492 To The Present by historian Robert D. Johnston (Associate Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University) is an impressively written history of America ranging from Columbus' voyage through national independence, two world wars, and down to the present day. Maps, photographs, and even historical cartoons add visual impact to this direct and straightforward and highly readable historical summary, which is fascinating to simply browse through -- especially for those whose high school history classes were a long time ago.

I consider myself an intellectual who had a liberal education. I've read several American History books, including the standard high school text published by Prentice Hall, and I liked them all. I don't have a problem with political correctness as long as they keep the facts straight. Then I found The Making of America to homeschool my kids. The book looks beautiful, with big type and pictures, and I expected no problem at all.

I was first shocked to read "Columbus was greedy and brutal." (p.14) But I thought, well, maybe he was. Then I read, "Many historians argue that Columbus, along with many settlers over the three centuries that followed his arrival, committed genocide. When the Europeans arrived, the population of America was about 70 million people. Over the next four centuries, that figure fell by more than 90 percent. Millions of Indians died in what many scholars consider the greatest human disaster in all history."

Is that why we celebrate Columbus day? This is the first time I ever heard about Columbus being charged with genocide! Most history books I read before said most American Indians died from white man diseases because of their lack of immunity. However, the white man did not do so on purpose, and that alone make me think that no sane historian can put Columbus on the same level as Hitler.

Say if I go visit a friend and he dies from a flu bug I have on me but don't know it, does that mean I commited murder?

Furthermore, if the author thinks the death of 70 million over several centuries is the "greatest human disaster in all history," then he hasn't looked at Russia and China during Stalin and Mao's communist rule, when more than that many people were deliberately massacred over merely a few decades.

I persisted and read to p.20 where it says, "Slavery within Africa was usually relatively humane. Slaves and their food and clothing were much the same as everyone else's. Often they could marry, and their children were free at birth."

That's not true at all! I remember reading a personal account of an African (Algerian) slave who was sold with his family. His master treated him shamefully, and that was common practice. Slavery is NEVER humane.

I'm glad I check out this book, though, because it reminds me why I wish to homeschool my kids. It is better to jump now then later, when my kids come home from school and yell, "Mom, Comlumbus committed genocide!"

Bought this book by mistake... It is a good coffee table book and also nice gift item for a young reader. Book by same title "The Making of America", put out by the "National Center for Constitutional Studies" is a must read for anyone interested in learning about how our form of government was established. Especially recommend it for teens and young adults.

The best book I have ever seen on the subject. It is an excellent book for ALL families in America to have in their home; and in a place where everyone in the family and visitors can easily 'pick it up' to browse and read.

As an adult, I really enjoyed reading this book. Since about 2007, I have been learning a lot of history. This book was a great overview of American History. By the time you finished reading it, you will know a lot. Yes, it is an overview...but at least it will point you in the right direction for further study.

If you are looking for a book that reinforces the "politally correct" bias taught in most public schools, this is it! While the photographs and layout of the book are attractive to look at, if you actually read the text, you will find that it finds fault with Americans on every major issue; from calling some of the founding fathers "hypocrites," to siding with the Indians in our quest to settle America, to focusing on all the negative aspects of WWII, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans, rather than the positive aspects of how we freed the world from the Nazi regime, to pro feminism, very liberal text. If you are proud of our American heritage, and the Christian principles our country was founded on, this book is not for you. I was very disappointed. There is so much that is great about our country, but this book doesn't emphasize it!

For a history book, this one is disturbing; for example, on p. 217 is the "Declaration of Sentiments," which I had never heard of. It follows "The Declaration of Independence," "The Constitution," and "The Gettysburg Address." So I thought it must be important; however, unlike the aforementioned documents, there is no information identifying the origin of this document. The index does not reference this "important" document either. On the Internet, I learned this document is from the beginning of the Women's Movement; but instead of the listed date of 1948, the date actually was 1848. Lack of fact-checking is very serious, especiallly in a history book. The book is not so much history as propaganda for the "politically correct." I ordered this book for my granddaughters, but I certainly would not give it to them!

This book is on the recommended supplemental reading list for studying the late Renaissance-Colonization period - grade 7 or 8 - in The Well Trained Mind. I have found that it is perfect for my daughter's homeschool needs.

Basic facts and ideas about American history are broken up into easily handled unit segments. Each segment is short enough for her to read in a reasonable period of time and contains enough information for her to gain a good grasp of the major movements and considerations of the period. The book is not so overloaded that she gets bogged down in it, so she has plenty of time to continue studying world history alongside American history. Each unit also contains a two page spread outlining salient points of one major debate that occurred during the period which has provided some good dinner table conversation and debate.