Customer Reviews

The Oxford Companion to United States History (Oxford Companions)

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Students and history buffs need a good, comprehensive volume on the significant people, events, movements and changes in the United States over the course of its history. This volume, from the leading publisher of reference books in the English language, fails and disappoints with regard to these goals. This Oxford Companion tries to be the United States History of Everything, as a result it misses key aspects of political history and what it does cover is often inadequate and incomplete.

The Companion tries to cover too many aspects of cultural history and its icons. As a result it sacrifices information on many important political and public figures. We get biographies of Michael Jordan and Marilyn Monroe but no separate bios of George Mason, William Borah, Hiram Johnson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Tom Watson, Joseph Cannon, Thomas Dewey, Nelson Rockefeller, Clarence Darrow, Sam Rayburn, Jesse Jackson -- and the list goes on and on. When they are covered it is often in snipets in subject area articles, which does not give a complete overview of their public careers.

What it does cover in cultural and intellectual history is often incomplete. The Companion has separate artices on the history of the blues, jazz and a weak article on rural country and folk music, but absolutely nothing on bluegrass or commercial country music and its pioneers. The index doesn't even mention the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe or Hank Williams. Yet country music far exceeds both the blues and jazz in popularity in terms of its fan base and are certainly deserving popular art forms for inclusion.

The selection of significant figures for separate biographies is often strange and arbitrary. The Companion offers a bio of physicist Eugene Wigner but not of Hans Bethe or Richard Feynman, like Wigner both Nobel Prize winners. Feynman is considered by many to be the most important theoretical physicist of the second half of the 20th century. This arbitrariness in selecting subjects for biographies can be repeated in many different subject areas.

The Companion contains 26 black and white maps, often of poor resolution, and follows the same arbitrary editing in terms of subject matter. You get a map of the properties of U.S. Steel, but no map on how the United States looked at the end of the Revolution or after the Louisiana Purchase, though there is a barely readable map of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. No reference tables and charts are included to tell the reader Presidential election results, who were the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, or who occupied important positions in Congress or the military over the course of American history.

On the positive side there are many good articles here on political and social history. However the reader must use this book carefully and supplement it with other Oxford Companions and reference books. At $... I would examine this book in a library before considering a purchase.

This volume contains entries that deal with concepts, events, persons, and movements in u.s. history. The length of the entries is appropriate to the topic considered. In addition, the entires both inform the reader with up-to-date information and indicate how revisionist historians have resahped opionions or refocused the discipline. The entries are clearly written and eminently readable. They are persuasive in thier opionions, yet respectful of other stances. The cross references are helpful and ample. The same obtains for the bibliographies. The Oxford Companion to U.S. History far surpasses some other contemporary dictionaries in U.S. history. Its articles are treated in more depth and greater nuances. The entries in the other dictionaries are too short and far too superficial. I would highly recommend this for people involved in serious historical study and research. The price, especially the discounted one offered by amazon.com, is well worth the investment for scholars,libraries, and families.

This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in American History. It gives a clear, concise explanation on most important aspects of the United States history and the history of the lands that would eventually become the United States. The most unique aspect of this book is that, unlike a school textbook, it explains a topics role throughout the history of the United States in on section. In other words, if you looked up Civil Rights, you would find a history of Civil Rights in America from the colonial period to present. All the background information you would need would be in one place, not scattered throughout the book. This is beneficial for teachers who need to quickly find some basic information to answer a student's question, or for a student who needs to quickly brush up on a topic. This is a work that I will definetly use for years to come.

The Factual Events on United States History as it happened. Its Laid out like a Dictionary with the Definitions of events throughout the timeline of our Countries History.

From abortion to the Zenger trial. This massive book covers everything (or just about): the heroes, the tragedies, the darker moments, Presidents, inventors, wars, government, ideologies, movements, culture, entertainment, science, art, religion. There are 1,400 entries and some 900 historians.

While there are some questionable individuals and subjects inserted, others just as noteworthy are forgotten. It is of course a monumental undertaking; data will come up short periodically; should be complemented with other sources, such as "A Patriots Guide to US History". This treasure is in dictionary form: fairly written, convenient to use, and not dry. A reference that should be in all households.

Wish you well
Scott

Easton has been printing gorgeous books for as long I as can remember. They work on the same old subscription method of "giving" you a low-priced "introductory" volume, after which Easton automatically enrolls you in their subscription list. "The Story of a Thousand Nights and a Night" (which the rest of us know as the story of the Princess Shaharazed) offers you the first volume at a low introductory price of $50 (if you watch TV, you can hardly avoid the ads), and then suddenly the remaining books are $64 dollars.

While I have always disapproved of this marketing scheme I also have to add that Easton Press publishes some of the most beautiful machine-made books in the world. The books are bound in full leather, with luxury abounding: all the page edges (as opposed to those who gild only the page tops) are covered with gilt, while the books come with sewn-in satin bookmarks, and include moiré silk front and end pages. Furthermore the spine (with four ridges) and front cover especially, display elaborate gilt tooling of exquisite designs. If all I wanted to do was sit and gaze upon beautiful books or even sit and read beautiful books, I would buy all Easton Press books without the slightest qualm.

Let's be clear, however, about one thing: price vs. value. Like beauty, value is in the eye (and hand) or the beholder, or, in this case, reader. And as both beholder and reader, I love these books. There is nothing like the feel of a fine book, and, except for a handmade version, Easton's books are about as good as they get. Would I buy them? If I had much more money, or wanted to build a beautiful private library (especially if I had young children and wanted them to learn the joys of a private library), absolutely. I do own some Easton Press books that I'm not selling at all.

The decrease in the number of private libraries is one of the tragedies of present-day life. When I was growing up, we (my family) had books everywhere. A number of them were Modern Library, much simpler hardback publications, many of which I have to this day. Easton Press employs the arts of high-end bookmaking that, unfortunately, most people never see.

Nor is the Easton content to be dismissed lightly. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had included coverage of the trial of John Peter Zenger for sedition, libel, and treason. This 1734-1735 hallmark case is without doubt one of the most important trials in our national issue. A complicated and tangled case, with party politics mixed in with land ownership and subservience to the Tory government in Britain, at the time of the trial, the jury was instructed that to prove the charges, prosecution had merely to prove that the defendant had printed the passages at issue -- whether they be true or not. In America's first case of jury nullification, the jury acquitted Zenger becase what he had printed was true, and you cannot find a man guilty for telling the truth. The standard has stood the test of time and nearly all cases involving freedom of speech or freedom of the press, almost always do so by invoking the precedent of John Peter Zenger. As far as I'm concerned, that's reason enough to buy the book, even apart from the usual beauty of the book itself. For more information on the Zenger trial, select the following link: John Peter Zenger and Freedom of the Press copy, then paste it into the Amazon search window. This book is essentially an elaboration of the notes made by Livingston Rutherford, Zenger's attorney, as the trial progressed.

So, I admit, I'm partial to the book because it is just gorgeous and with proper handling will teach your children the value of great books, and because it covers one of my favorite subjects, one I consider to be the most important subject in American history. Now, having said that, I bow to other reviewers who complain about bias or deletions. After all, it's a truism that history is written by the winners. But if you want a beautiful book that covers at least the winners' view, this is certainly a gorgeous place to start. I hope you enjoy it. And then you then move on to more comprehensive views of American history, such as Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.), A People's History of American Empire (American Empire Project), A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, or, Zinn's wonderful story of "SNCC: The New Abolitionists." Or, oh heck, anything by Howard Zinn. Warning: "Liberal content. Reader discretion advised. You might get influenced by an idea."

Happy reading.

This volume contains entries that deal with concepts, events, persons, and movements in u.s. history. The length of the entries is appropriate to the topic considered. In addition, the entires both inform the reader with up-to-date information and indicate how revisionist historians have resahped opionions or refocused the discipline. The entries are clearly written and eminently readable. They are persuasive in thier opionions, yet respectful of other stances. The cross references are helpful and ample. The same obtains for the bibliographies. The Oxford Companion to U.S. History far surpasses some other contemporary dictionaries in U.S. history. Its articles are treated in more depth and greater nuances. The entries in the other dictionaries are too short and far too superficial. I would highly recommend this for people involved in serious historical study and research.

Most of the entries are detailed and informative, as well as fair and balanced, even on controversial subjects. The articles on "Protestantism" and "Revivalism" are excellent, befitting their distinguished authors, Martin Marty and Edith Blumhofer, respectively. (Unlike some dictionaries and encyclopedias, all entries are signed, instead of initialed or attributed to the staff and editors collectively.)
An occasional exception would be articles such as the hagiographic piece on "Margaret Sanger." At least its author is willing to include "Eugenics" as a cross reference. (Unfortunately, there is no reciprocal cross reference in the "Eugenics" entry.)
Sanger's work alongside the eugenics movement is whitewashed as a "pragmatic alliance." This is no more credible than a claim by liberal German Protestants that they emerged guiltless from WW II since their alliance with the Nazis was merely "pragmatic." In contrast, a true example of a pragmatic alliance from that era is the U.S. and Russia--we acted on different military fronts, and are not stained by the atrocities of Soviet commissars and the punishment regiments that raped and plundered eastern Germany. In contrast, Sanger and Planned Parenthood are forever linked with the abortion of lower class babies and children of color, which continues unapologetically today. http://www.blackgenocide.org/sanger.html

Editor in Chief Paul S. Boyer states in his Introduction (p. viii): "Still another central goal has been to make this a 'state of the art' work incorporating the best and most up-to-date historical scholarship. We have chosen contributors who are authorities on the subject which they write about, and who in many cases are themselves the authors of books and essays that have shaped contemporary understanding of the topics they write about."

The entry "SACCO AND VANZETTI CASE" in The Oxford Companion to United States History has factual errors. Why Lynn Dumenil was chosen over David Felix to write this entry is curious. Dumenil has no book on Sacco and Vanzetti. Felix's 1965 book, "Protest: Sacco-Vanzetti and the Intellectuals," received strong reviews. Keeping up to date on Sacco and Vanzetti, Felix rebuked Hugh Brogan, chair of the History Department at the University of Essex, in a letter to the TLS on May 31, 1985, p. 607. He rebuked Brogan a second time in a letter to the TLS on February 21, 1986, p. 191. Within the last eighteen months Felix has published two letters in the TLS, evidence that he is still in the intellectual arena and has continuing respect in the intellectual community. But Oxford University Press chose to ignore Felix. It is Dumenil and other scholars who have shaped opinion on Sacco and Vanzetti. Perhaps Paul S. Boyer will incorporate in the next edition of The Oxford Companion to United States History new evidence on Sacco and Vanzetti that was discovered at Dexter, Maine, in 2003 and new evidence that was discovered in The Sacco-Vanzetti Case Papers, microfilm Reel #21, in 2005. Authors of U. S. history textbooks have yet to publish this new evidence.