Customer Reviews

Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion

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

 

 

Sheinkin does it again! I am commenting on Which Way because it is my favorite of his (thus far) three US history books. I reluctantly picked up this one because I had little interest in the American Westward Expansion but loved King George and Two Miserable Presidents (his two previous titles). Sheinkin's is an expert engager, and I quickly converted to a Wild West enthusiast. Sadly, I reached adulthood (with a BA and MS!!!) without a clear understanding of hows and whys of US history (though, you bet could draw a heck of a time-line). Thankfully, Steve Sheinkin is here to illuminate American History for (us and) our children. Let's hope that he continues covering US history right up until the present!

I love all of Steve Shenkin's books, and now I own all three. Instead of focusing on a war, this time Mr. Shenkin wrote a book about the wild west. It is great, and follows his funny and intriguing style. His ability to find wacky stories is very much appreciated, and it makes his books many times more interesting than if they had simple, standard, stories. All in all, this book was great and I loved it, as I have with all of Mr. Shenkin's books.

This book is great for the 8th grade history. My class loves it one of the most picked up books in my classroom.

The drive by American colonists westward involved an enormous effort to explore new territories, purchase land, engage in military force, create travel routes, set up homes in the frontier, and make a living in undeveloped areas. In the process, the country as we know it today gained its national borders, but at an enormous cost: the Native American population was virtually decimated through violence and disease, and those who survived had to relocate to reservations under precarious conditions.

Readers will recognize a range of economics lessons entwined in the historical accounts. These lessons include the establishment of international trade in beaver pelts, the role of incentives and entrepreneurship in fueling the gold rush, the importance of property rights in drawing settlers to the new territories, how cowboys worked to ensure that the supply of cattle met the demand for beef, and the magnitude of corruption during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

This informative historical narrative uses a number of literary tools to catch the attention of younger readers who ordinarily may not enjoy reading their history books: vignettes, narratives of relatively unknown but fascinating events, puzzles, and cartoon-style illustrations. These techniques work well to help readers gain more familiarity with a tumultuous period of U.S. history.

This is a well-written, fast-paced book which gives one a good overview of this period in history with enough details and anecdotes to help make the time come alive. Reading this book one comes to an understanding of why so many people were willing to take the arduous journey across America or around Cape Horn in South America in order to reach the American west. One also gets a sense of the hardships involved in these travels as well as the uncertainty of the "rewards" for all the effort. The book is written at a middle school level and would be an excellent overview book for anyone studying this period in history. I would recommend it as a supplement to whatever history program you are using. Homeschoolers in particular would find it a good resource to use as a "hinge text" to organize and unify the historical fiction titles read in the program and thereby to more fully develop the student's understanding of Westward Expansion.