Customer Reviews

The Reader's Companion to American History

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Although I've only read a small fraction of this delightful reference work, I'm quite grateful to own it. It allows you to quickly research difficult topics, check the veracity of a book, and follow your intellectual curiousity.
For example, I recently watched a biography of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century abolitionist. That revitalized my interest in the fiery orator and the abolitionist movement. The Reader's Companion contains a concise, yet in-depth profile that emphasizes Douglass' insights into the roots and consequences of racism in the 19th century.
This hefty reference work, featuring the work of respected scholars should be used by anyone enrolled in a United States History course, professional historians, and amateur historians.
There is also enough balance that you can easily detect the biases of various writers.

the book is invaluable as it is quite difficult to read any history book and know every subject or person involved in the reading. Therefore, the reader's companion is a great source when doing history projects or simply reading history. One does not need to pull out all his encyclopedias or go online to find out who a person in his or her reading is. For any student, especially those of history, this book comes highly recommended. The exerpts are detailed, yet not too lengthy, and provide enough bacground for the average researcher.

The Reader's Companion to American History doesn't over-explain. Instead, it provides just enough information to help contextualize a period novel or, in my case, Constitutional law material, quickly. Without this book, I would have been forced to consult any number of sources to gather vital facts about people or events. This book is worth having around for reference.

Let's admit it...all parents help out with homework. Sometimes the help is simply altruistic, other times it is to meet a glaring deadline and of course there are times we just want to make sure everything is done right. To this end, "The Reader's Companion to American History," is a solid companion for parents who pitch in and help their kids finish their homework. It is also a valuable source to make sure our kids are not cutting corners.

This book has it all...brief entries, articles, essays, maps, tables, bibliographies, thorough cross-references and a big-time index. If you want to find out facts about political, economic, social and cultural history, editors Eric Foner & John Garraty do a splendid job. Moreover, the first-class collection of nearly four hundred contributions from eminent scholars, biographers and journalists is very impressive.

Name it...James Monroe (fifth president of the United States), Marilyn Monroe, The Monroe Doctrine...its all there. This book is great to have around during crunch time on homework. It is reliable and easy to use. Its big and heavy and not easy to carry around but when it comes to your kid's education...its worth its weight in gold.

Whether your personal library has only a handful of books or countless hundreds, 'The Reader's Companion to American History' should be on your shelf. It is in fact what the title claims it to be. Dozens of authors have written concise entries covering thousands of American history topics. Topics range from the obvious (Civil War) to the obscure (say, the Granger Movement). Most articles are a few paragraphs of several hundred words while a few range over several pages (e.g. railroads).

Highest recommendation for anyone with an interest in American history of any era.

Authors Foner and Garrity warn the reader in the Introduction that this volume is not a presentation of historical facts, but rather an INTERPRETIVE History. Boy is it ever! Their bias is the contemporary far-left, "America has much to apologize for" viewpoint held by the vast majority of tenured academicians today. That makes this volume extremely useful for college and high school students -- they can liberally lift their term papers from this book and readily find favor with their professors and teachers. In so doing, however, we all lose.

The authors made a special effort to include biographical sketches of members of minority groups and women, in their own words, "... partly because such people have often been neglected in encyclopedias." When this book was first published a storm of protest arose due to this careful selection of biographical entries, leading to incongruous abnormalities such as giving more space to Alice Hamilton, Dorothea Lange, Richard Allen and Jacob Lawrence than to Jefferson Davis. Historical figures like Generals James Longstreet or "Mad" Anthony Wayne are, of course, not mentioned at all. Foner and Garrity have turned American history on its head with this volume, but it is useful as a reference on people the reader has never heard of.

There is a central theme to this interpretive history as noted, and the authors appear to have controlled its content to fit their agenda. The short articles were written by graduate students or post-doctoral writers working under their supervision. The longer, interpretive essays were written by other authorities, but their editorial hand appears heavy and consistent. I am reminded of the statement made by an editorial writer of the Atlanta Constitution, "It doesn't make any difference who writes the editorial, we all pretty much think alike." So it is in this book.

The authors also state that there are two histories: that what actually happened, and that what historians write. They may be literally correct, but one should be aware that much of what is written can be inaccurate or simply propaganda. The German atrocities in Belgium during World War I, for example, were actually fabrications to whip up war fever against the Germans. Such writing is not history, although it fits the author's very liberal second definition. I would contend that the thrust and much of the context of this book is also designed to create a new social history of the US for the authors' own political purposes and as such is hardly history. What is written should be fair and balanced as much as possible given the source materials.

I would recommend buying this book if only to see the depths to which contemporary revisionism has fallen. If the reader is traveling to New York, Hollywood, or attending an elite university, I recommend that large parts of this work be committed to memory. The reader will be able to amaze his acquaintances at cocktail parties or thrill his professors with his knowledge of the contributions made by women and blacks, and become much in demand among limousine liberals. In the red (enemy) states such knowledge will be useless.

Being somewhat of a "history buff," I initially thought that this book would be a useful addition to my library in order for I or anyone else to quickly find information on a variety of topics relevant to American history. In scope and usability this book is good. However, after actually using the book several times time it became increasingly evident to me that the portrayal of American history in this book is consistently biased, in this instance from a liberal/progressive/apologetic tilt, to the extent of which I believe it to be detrimental to the reader on account of the selectivity of the information included (or especially not). While many historical essays and other writings are not necessarily objective, I do not believe that a general reference book should be written in such a fashion. Needless to say this book is no longer a part of my library.