Customer Reviews

Out of Many: A History of the American People

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

 

 

This was a very well written history textbook. It read more like a story than like the dry, non fiction academic text that I thought it would be. I appreciated the small excurses on social and cultural life in America, and the maps were colorful, and the many pictures and paintings added a much needed dose of culture and nostalgia.

I should say that I was disappointed at the anti-Christian bias of the authors. They make the great Swedish theologian John Calvin seem like a radical, and they portray Jonathan Edwards out to be a fire and brimstone preacher when in fact "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was atypical of his more serene and calm manner in the pulpit.

Moreover, the accounts of the first and second Great Awakenings were exploited for their religious excesses rather than mined for the way these two events contributed to the cultural and social life of 18th and 19th century America. As a preacher and as a discerning man of faith, I felt that these glosses could have been avoided with more careful and objective research.

But minus this, what you have here is a fun history book to read. I recommend it with caution.

I've used this book for years in my American History surveys at the Borough of Manhattan Communuty College. It's a good, concise history that covers a lot of ground. It does have some weaknesses in the first volume, however. While Out of Many probably has the best coverage of the West of any US textbook that I've seen, the attempt to cover diverse regions sometimes creates a disjointed narrative, especially in the brief editions. My students complain that the book "jumps around" between time periods so that they don't know what happened when. I also think that the discussion of Bacon's rebellion and John Brown both leave something to be desired. In the newest editions of the brief volumes, the new features in the text seem to balance some of the narrative problems with focused questions that should remind students of the main points and keep them on track. I was skeptical of the higher price and the bells and whistles of the illustrations, etc, but it does seem to be worth it.

Out of Many by John Faragher wrote an extremely well written book.
This combine volume starts with chapter one, "A Continent of Villages, to 1500", chapter two, "When Worlds Collide, 1492-1590", chapter three, "Planting Colonies in North America, 1588-1701", chapter 4, "Slavery and Empire, 1441-1770", chapter 5, "The Cultures of Colonial North America, 1700-1780", Chapter 6, From Empire to Independence, 1750-1776", chapter 7, "The Creation of the United States, 1776-1786", chapter 8, "The United States of North America, 1787-1800", chapter 9, "An Agrarian Republic, 1790-1824", chapter 10, "The Growth of Democracy, 1824-1840", chapter 11, "The South and Slavery, 1790s-1850s", chapter 12, "Industry and the North, 1790s-1840s", chapter 13, "Coming to Terms with the New Age, 1820s-1850s", chapter 14, "The Territorial Expansion of the United States, 1830s-1850s", chapter 15, "The Coming Crisis, the 1850s", chapter 16, "The Civil War, 1861-1865", chapter 17, "Reconstruction, 1863-1877", chapter 18, "Conquest and Survival: The Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1900", chapter 19, "The Incorporation of America, 1865-1900", chapter 20, "Commonwealth and Empire, 1870-1900", chapter 21, "Urban America and the Progressive Era, 1900-1917", chapter 22, "World War I, 1914-1920", chapter 23, "The Twenties, 1920-1929", chapter 24, "The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1940", chapter 25, "World War II, 1941-1945", chapter 26, "The Cold War, 1945-1952", chapter 27, "America at Midcentury, 1952-1963", chapter 28, "The Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1966", chapter 29, "War at Home, War Abroad, 1965-1974", chapter 30, "The Conservative Ascendancy, 1974-1987", chapter 31, "Toward a Transnational America, since 1988".
This book also offers an appendix, bibliography, credits, and the index; however, it does not offer a dictionary with the key terms listed. The newer 5th version does have this feature.

Much better than the full version. Well written. Deserves to have a hard cover to reduce wear.

History text book on the United States of America. This is a very in depth text book that gives a detailed account of the history of the United States of America. A very readable textbook with many pictures and interesting inserts that will keep the reader engaged throughout the entire book.

I found certain chapters very well written and in depth, but if you read through the whole book you find that alot of paragraphs and chapters have contradicting information or tones that make it too obvious it was written by many writers. But you should get this book instead of the newer edition because the chapters are almost exactley the same except for new pictures.

I dont like the book but need it for school so I bought it here so very worth it. I WILL continue buying the books i need here

Bought for a class, so didnt have a choice. The material was easy to read and well written.