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Hugh Brogan

The Penguin History of the USA: New edition Paperback – November 1, 2001

by Hugh Brogan (Author)

4.4 299 ratings

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This new edition of Brogan's superb one-volume history - from early British colonisation to the Reagan years - captures an array of dynamic personalities and events. In a broad sweep of America's triumphant progress. Brogan explores the period leading to Independence from both the American and the British points of view, touching on permanent features of 'the American character' - both the good and the bad. He provides a masterly synthesis of all the latest research illustrating America's rapid growth from humble beginnings to global dominance.

Print length

752 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

November 1, 2001
Grade level

12 and up
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

7.7 x 5 x 1.3 inches
ISBN-10

014025255X
ISBN-13

978-0140252552
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hugh Brogan was educated at Repton School and Cambridge. He worked on the Economist for two years before his first visit to the United States as a Harkness Fellow in 1962. He was a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge from 1963 to 1974 and thereafter, until his retirement in 1998, taught at the University of Essex. He has several published works, the most recent of which is 'Signalling from Mars: Selected Letters of Arthur Ransome' (1997).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; 2nd Revised ed. edition (November 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 752 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014025255X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140252552
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.13 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.7 x 5 x 1.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,326,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,332 in England History
- #49,331 in United States History (Books)

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4.4 299 ratings

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Robert Morea

Pretty Good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 16, 2017

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Pretty solid. It's written by an Englishman, and at times that is a bit odd. Sometimes it's just an interesting perspective, but occasionally, at least in my view, he doesn't quite understand what happened.

The book has a particular perspective, and I'd say it's almost a social study of the history of the United States, in that it's more about what the people were thinking in particular eras than it is about what happened. What were the early settlers thinking? What were the revolutionaries thinking? What were they thinking during the Civil War, the World Wars, and after the World Wars? Many details of what actually happened along the way--say at the level of the expeditions against the Barbary Pirates--are not even mentioned.

Others have criticized the book for a liberal bias, which I think is real, but it is mostly under control. Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be any other single volume history without an axe to grind. For example, "A People's History," which is at pains to point out everything the United States should be ashamed of, or "A Patriot's History" which is equally at pains to blow the trumpet. I can't comment with regard to the various "how to pass the AP exam" type books, nor the many-volume Oxford History. This one is pretty good.

10 people found this helpful

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Jason

An informative overview

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 20, 2012

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As an American seeking to remember many of the things I couldn't remember about our history from my schooling, I settled on this book primarily because it was written by someone who wasn't an American, and thought it would be good to get an outside perspective. I wasn't disappointed. The book isn't the easiest read in the world, but far from the most difficult, and it doesn't detract from the book. Some reviewers have suggested that the book is biased, particularly towards the end; while I could see how people could come to this conclusion, I also think it's a bit inaccurate and that for the most part his assessment, to me, seems largely fair and informed by the facts and the aftermath of what happened.

Perhaps the part of the book that I found the most interesting was the chapter about the Constitution, along with his assertion that "The degree of one's understanding of the Constitution is to a large extent the degree of one's understanding of the United States" (p. 204). The way that much of the history is presented in this context makes it much simpler to relate to current events. This discussion of how the Constitution was written and why it was written that way is, to me, the book's greatest strength - an outsider's perspective makes me appreciate, perhaps even for the first time, the place that it holds in this country, its' politics and history, and how it shapes opinions down to this day.

6 people found this helpful

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Zdzislaw Meglicki

Somewhat Sloppy, Somewhat Biased

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2008

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I must admit, I am only moderately impressed with Hugh Brogan's "The Penguin History of the USA". It is written well enough, as befits a distinguished British scholar, but it is marred by excessive editorializing, to the detriment of what one would expect of an informative and unbiased historical text. It is highly informative, even if the presentation feels at times chaotic, but it is emphatically not unbiased.

Looking at more technical aspects: numerous quotations are presented without references; value laden pronouncements are derived from some historical fact or other, or a number, but where these come from is seldom explained; neither it is discussed how representative they might be; whole pages of editorializing are interleaved with more factual portions of the text, but without a clear demarcation; the presentation rambles on in parts.

It is a jolly good read nevertheless: not an easy text to follow, and not a text from which to learn about the US history, sic, more like a long-winded polemic.

Incidentally, the disastrous winter of 1886/7, which is mentioned on page 422, and the drought that followed, may have been long term effects of the Krakatoa eruption of three years earlier. It was followed by chaotic weather patterns and global cooling that did not alleviate until 1888, cf. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester, so the statement on the following page, "The farmers' wounds were in large part self-inflicted, and they ought to have known better..." sounds rather flippant.

An even more calamitous volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora, the largest since AD 181, happened in April 1815, and produced a disastrous "year without summer" in 1816. This then triggered a massive migration of New England farmers to the Upper Midwest mentioned on page 231, but without a reference to climatic conditions at the time, cf. Volcano Weather: The Story of 1816, the Year Without a Summer by Henry and Elizabeth Stommel.

25 people found this helpful

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Sara Bee 1321

pretty good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2012

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I was looking for an overview of American History in one book. This one is very well written and covers all the right bases. Obviously it doesn't go into great detail on anything, but I was looking for a broad brush and this book fills the bill. I'm about halfway through and haven't found anything that seems to promote a biased view.

One person found this helpful

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Reidulf K. Molvaer

Excellent on the US of A

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 24, 2013

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I have bought a lot of histories of the USA, and too many of them are heavy going; but this one by Hugh Brogan is very good. For once I found a history in English of the USA that it is pure pleasure to read.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Be Careful about Editions!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2007

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This is a solid survey of American history told in engaging prose. I agree with the other positive reviews.

ONE BIG CAVEAT: If you already possess Brogan's earlier surveys, the Longman History of USA (1985) or the Pelican History of the USA (1986), this is essentially the same book with a little updating for the 1980s.

9 people found this helpful

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Charlene Maahs

never used this book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2013

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ordered it for class and never bothered reading it so I returned the book so sorry but I didn't need it I guess. But I got it for a super great price

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Paul Stuart

Not a BRIEF history of the USA

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 19, 2013

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I was looking for a brief history of the USA and I thought that this book fit the bill. It did not. It is more in depth than what I was looking for. The righting seems good though and well topics are well researched. I would recommend it for people who have a better memory than I do and want a more in depth look at the history of the US

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Kindle Customer

Great condition for a used book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 30, 2023

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Used books always better condition than expected, bought several times from world of books and always prompt with no issues

Darren Simons

Very detailed with some surprising omissions

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 23, 2012

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Penguin have published a number of very detailed heavy history books covering various parts of the globe and this is an excellent example on that genre. Written by Hugh Brogan, a university teacher, this is not a book to be undertaken lightly. If you are wanting an easy introduction to everything American, forget it (Bill Bryson may be a better point of reference). However, as a detailed chronology of the Why as opposed to the What then I would definitely recommend it. It provides an insight into a lot of the though process of America as a whole, and perhaps highlights how their politics is so different to British politics, in a way I've not read elsewhere. Reading a lot of this so soon after the last US Presidential election it provided some useful context to the main political parties and how their differences have changed over time.

The book itself comprises 5 books separating the history of the US into settlement, revolution, equality, gold and superpower. I read the first 3 books and then took a break (several months in fact) before finishing the rest of it. Generally I felt the earlier chapters were more detailed in chronology and later on there is more comment on why things happened and the choices available. Much of the second half follows the decisions of each President and associated election. I did feel the last chapter (post-Cold War) was a little rushed and it was quite apparent it was written as a revised edition as opposed to being in the original. That said, I found the book very educational and enjoyable to read, albeit not always that easy (the tiny font didn't help either!)

To provide some criticisms: some better references in the back might have helped - a chronological list of Presidents would have helped me avoid some confusion and the maps included in some chapters would have benefited from being in one place. I only really have one major criticism and this is why it drops a star - despite being about the Why more than the What I felt the balance of subject matter could have been better... much detail was given to the various organisations set up during the New Deal and beyond, yet there is minimal mention of the Gold Rush (despite there being a book about er... gold!), and the establishment of a lot of the latter joining States was brief at best. Surprisingly little was said about the Kennedy dynasty (notably Joseph Kennedy) and there was not too much written about the nuclear bombs at the end of World War 2. On reflection I thought the book's highlights were how it handled the latter half of the 19th century.

22 people found this helpful

Amélie Römerová

Great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 20, 2023

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A comprehensive and interesting read, would recommend!

Steve247

The greatest story ever told - but told badly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 19, 2019

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It's a sad fact that most (yes, most) historians can't write in a readable fashion. This author has done an enormous and commendable amount of research to produce a work of great authority and a likely source of facts for many a student essay.
But he has also produced a turgid and exhausting account lacking in life, or insight into the people involved. History, if it's interesting, is about those who make it and their motivations, their foibles, and their own stories within the big story. Here, as so often in history books, we have a torrent of names, places, events and dates that numb the consciousness and blur the context.
And those sentences! It should be the first lesson for any writer to keep things brief and digestible. Spare us the grammatically correct construct that drones on for ever - sometimes for over half a (Kindle) page. Full marks for the correct use of semicolons - too often ignored nowadays - but why use them to string together a whole list of phrases into an interminable, dry slab of text? Well, at times it made me angry! Does this person actually speak like this too? Just droning on, and on, and on?
And why use so many obscure words when there are a host of simpler ones to hand?
Yes, I'm glad I read the book, because I got a sense of the long course of events, but wow, I'll be looking elsewhere for the human stories that provide a true understanding.
In all, this is a momentous work spoiled by the effort it demands to actually read it.

18 people found this helpful

Liam of Wales

A solid book from Brogan.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 14, 2010

Verified Purchase

This book goes in to a lot of depth about American History from founding fathers to modern day. Brogan is obviously an expert in the field and coveys this very well, while still making to information accessible as you would expect from a penguin book. The author adds great humour to make what would seem a long book an easy read. As a student who also works part time, I don't have a lot of time for reading as many books as I should, but I got through the book relativity quickly. I'm not saying that this is a novel mind, its a sound history book suitable from high level (A or B grade) Advanced Level students right the way through Undergraduate to Postgraduate Level (Obviously with further advanced reading).
The one criticism I would have of this book, is the fact it can sometimes appear a bit disjointed nature. Brogan can also sometimes appear it bit 'lecturish' which may not appeal to the casual reader.
Overall, I would give this book a very solid 4 out of 5. An essential for any academic student studying America, or history buffs.

One person found this helpful

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