Rating: 
Summary: GREAT OVERVIEW OF U.S. HISTORY
Review: This book is an excellent counterpoint to most high school and college texts. Too many times they want to focus on minor events and present how the "big bad USA" has done mostly wrong.Yes the USA is not perfect. But how many societies have allowed so many elements, such as academics, to criticize the system? How many, despite some intolerance, are so open to different religions, immigrants, etc? Perhaps the best contribution of Mr. Johnson's book is that it presents the importance of religion in America's founding and focuses on the major themes of the country's development. While some say that there is much left out, that is a blinding flash of the obvious. Not all details can be included. But to his credit, Mr. Johnson includes much that is not discussed in many academic history books. (Not many critical challenges to those statements in the one and two star reviews.) While I personally found the chapters on the Civil War and Problem Solving, Problem Creating America not up to Mr. Johnson's normal standards, the book is still a good read. In fact, the last chapter is the most controversial. It challenges the established legacy of JFK, the Social Security program and other social programs. While I personally can not agree with all his assessments, such as the anti-abortion being on par with the abolition movement, he challenges us with other interpretations of the past. Perhaps the best recommendation for this book is that one university's history class decided to submit multiple critiques. The book must obviously have some merit to receive such good academic spite.
Rating: 
Summary: What about "A History of Old, White, Dead Guys"?
Review: One man's version of history is just that, one's man view of history. Until one reads a number of different texts about the same history it is difficult to appreciate this fact. It would seem that writing history is cut and dried. An event occurs and is subsequently rendered into historical status by the passage of time. The telling of the facts of the event is what a history text is supposed to be about. Yet, that is not what writing history is about. Writing about history becomes at least as much about how the facts are told as to what the facts were. After all, it is impossible for any reader or student of history to precisely know what happened in any historical event. All that exists after most events in recorded history is some author's account of the events that were the basis of the facts as he saw those events occur in real time. If the writer did not witness the event personally, he still could write a history based on his interpretation of those same events as they were described by someone else who had written about or seen the events. Thus, writing about history is about writing one's version of what he thinks is true. Any version of history is imbedded with the values of the author as to what is important about the truth being told. Facts are subject to the bias of the author. A good example of this concept is the text by Paul Johnson, A History of the American People. Mr. Johnson is British but his abiding affection for the American people is clear from the beginning of the preface to the last period in the text. He is enamored of the American spirit of individualism and freedom. The rugged American is the epitome of the exercise of Free Will that is man's gift form Divine Providence. There is no greater truth than the existence of America and its founding principles of individual freedom, equal opportunity and equal protection under the laws written by the founding fathers and affirmed by all their descendants that codify the American way of life. Mr. Johnson writes from this point of view and it colors his version of events from the treatment of the truly native Americans to slavery to equal rights for women. This is not to say that he relates facts and events that are untrue. The facts are undoubtedly correct. It is just that the way they are told emphasizes a bias that Johnson has about the nature of America and its people. Johnson's admiration of the American People is abundantly clear. He carries with him throughout the book a sense of deep appreciation for this country's founding fathers. He extends an enormous amount of respect for anyone who went against the grain to form what he believes to be a nearly perfect nation. From the beginning Johnson overlooks the injustice brought upon the Indian nations by the ancestors of the founding fathers. Another bias was the mistreatment of women and their struggle to survive through the harsh environment of the New World. Finally, Johnson seems to avoid talking too much about the slaves. The reader gets the feeling that Johnson did not want to elaborate on the black minorities, which is a mistake for a book entitled A History of the American People. However, this history of the American people is centralized entirely around white elite men, who were fortunate enough to have an education. Men such as Cotton Mather, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the list goes on. These men are part of only a minority. They have money which puts them in a minority all their own. This wealthy 10% has the power and the rest must follow. When Johnson does talk about the blacks, women, and Indians, he suggests that all of the darker events that happened were inevitable and had to be done in order for America to succeed. While ignoring the darker side of American history, Johnson tends to follow the greater man theory that our founding fathers did what they had to do in order to form a perfect union. In my own opinion I felt this book was insightful and truthful from the White Elitists point of view, yet it lacks information about society. There was no evidence of class struggle throughout the book. There are no emotional perspectives of women of that time, or even information of how they adapted to the new lifestyle. Finally there is no insight into the pre-Civil War blacks or how they lived their lives. I know they existed at that time but Johnson declines to tell their story. In telling the story of history it all comes down to the author's point of view. Johnson's book is plethora of historical facts of America's Founding Fathers, but the history is lacking in the sense of the common man. Perhaps a renaming of the book is an appropriate solution. What about A History of Old White Dead Guys? I think I like that.
Rating:
Summary: A History of Great American Men
Review: There is no doubt that Paul Johnson's A History of the American People does not contain valuable historical information of the last several hundered years. The problem however is that these facts and stories are often in conjunction with meaningless trivia. One such example can be found in a passage discussing the ideal temperature for thinking. This fact is cited from a book dating back to the 1930's. In cases such as this I found myself struggling to find the relevance. Johnson's particular forte is his knowledge of American political leaders. Through out the book he singles out specific men whom he has found had the greatest impact on the evolution of America. His wealth of knowledge on Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Clay etc give important insight into what made up early political thinking. One aspect of A History of the American People that should go agianst Johnson is his denying the proper attention to Indians, blacks, women, poor, and immigrants. What talk there is of these minorities is only that which is grossly unavoidable. From Johsnon's point of view women really didn't exist for the first 200 years of his book. Overall I did enjoy ready this book. The only reason that I did not give it a higher rating was becuase I felt it was much to conservative. This lead to an ommision of people and events that should be considered integral aspects of American history.
Rating:
Summary: Provides excellent leader profiles but much unneeded info
Review: A History of the American People, by Paul Johnson, is an optimistic work that is designed to show the moral lessons that America has presented to the world. However, I found that this optimistic attitude displayed by Johnson throughout the book is, although desirable, often maintained at the expense of truth. He focuses on the lives and achievements of the great figures of American history and brings them vividly alive to the reader but often glosses over the trials and struggles of the common people of a given era. He continually fails to adequately recognize the condition of the poor and the oppressed portions of the populace. Religion, one of his specialties, is one of the notable exceptions to this. I found Johnson's exploration of the "Great Awakenings" and other religous issues and events in history informative and provocative. The narrative shows American morality's tendency toward extremism as well as providing fascinating hints concerning the reality of life among the masses of early America. However, throughout the book the reader must endure Johnson's excessive detail and occasionally ridiculous fallacies that result from his zeal for the topic. For instance, he drones on for pages about numerous incompetant and unimportant British administrators during the time of the American Revolution to contrast them to America's geniuses and belabors a point that could have been made in several paragraphs. One notable example is found when Johnson purports supposed evidence that the moderate climate of what became the United States is ideal for the highest "mental activity" and that this allowed the English colonies to thrive. Johnson, at his best, is eloquent and focused but he often strays on tangents that, although interesting and drawn from his copious research tend to distract from and dilute the points that he is trying to make. Thus, a choppy tone ensues between the more succinct points and his ramblings. While the book has fascinating commentary on many inportant formative events the conclusions drawn are sometimes tenuous and misleading given that the vast array of detail, with which Johnson deluges the reader, is not easily resorted into a clear sectional thesis. Overall, Johnson provides excellent profiles of national leaders and informative commentary on important trends and events, but tends to burden the reader with unimportant or unsupportable material. But, if such things do not bother you and you want a good, conservative view of American history; add a star to my rating and give it a shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Another book to throw in the pile of 'great man' authors
Review: Paul Johnson's A History of the United States, can be thrown into the enormous pile of history books devoted to glorifying the 'great men' of American history while dismissing the lives and struggles of the people. Johnson asserts that "...writing a history of the American people, covering over 400 years...can be accomplished only by the ruthless selection and rejection of material." (Johnson xv) Johnson attempts to 'ruthlessly cull' for relevant information, and in the process, leaves out, for the most part, the struggles of the working class, Native Americans, African American slaves, and of course one half of the population: women. Johnson writes history as if it is a mere list of 'historically important' white males, declarations, wars and conflicts, and treaties. For example, when Johnson writes about the economic prosperity of the nation during the industrial revolution, he neglects to go into detail about the struggles and conditions of the men and women working in the factories. Class struggles and economic stratification are briefly addressed and 'tokenized' as economic trends so that their is more 'space' to ramble on about the physical characteristics of our founding fathers. Johnson writes a history of the United States while leaving out the conditions of the middle and lower class. Throughout the text Johnson rarely credits the accomplishments of women and infrequently addresses the social and economic struggles of women. Johnson seriously neglects to identify with the lives of a majority of the society. Little credit is given to the common man and little challenge is given to the reader. If you are simply interested in the 'great' accomplishments of the rich white males, read this book, or the thousands of other books which assert this exclusionary philosophy.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot to say, with little meaning
Review: If you are having trounle sleeping try reading Paul Johnson's book, A History of the American People. I am a student at Washington State University majoring in history. In my history 110 class we read the book and disscussed it in class. Johnson tries to write an accurate account of the history of the United States. Notice, I said tries. This book is filled with 1,000 plus pages of pointless details. Johnson appears to be a very intelligent man but he tries to hard to show it by using these pointless details. For instance, he rambles on about George Washington and the amount of cutlury his family had for almost an entire page. To Johnson's credit, he was attempting to show the economic status of his family, but once again what could have taken a paragrapgh took a whole page of pointless details. Instead of trying to wow the reader with his vast knowledge perhaps Johnson could have addresssed more important issues such as slavery. Slavery was a major moral and economic factor in the period of time that is covered in this book. Johnson simply writes the slave issue of as a mere economic neccesity of the south which was key in establishing the United States. Thinking of another writer on American History Howard Zinn, who states in his book A People's History of the United States, to mention mass murder and quickly move on is to say that it ment nothing and should not be considered important. Taking everything in to account, I would not suggest the reading of this book to anyone unless they are interested in un-important details. If you need some help catching up on you sleep invest the fifteen dollars and get some rest.
Rating:
Summary: Full of information but ignores too many parts of history.
Review: Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People" contains a wealth of facts. Names, dates, and events abound. Perhaps the most valuable parts of the book are the brief biographies about prominent white males. These biographies often help to explain the reasons behind their actions and at times refute some of the legendary characteristics that have been applied to the most notable figures. However, he includes many facts that have no place in the story he tell of American history. One of the most irrational of these is a complete list of the names of the dogs owned by George Washington. He even describes Henry Clay's great knack for kissing. The history also tends to ramble with little logical connection being made from one point in history to the next. For example, a discussion of Fanny Trolope's views on American manners leads Johnson to mention great Senate debates by way of the American habit of spitting tobacco. In other areas the book might have benefited from the inclusion of a time line so that the reader could more easily maintain a sense of the chronology of events. Johnson's rambling does, however, lead him to discuss some possibly important aspects of American history that might be beyand the scope of a typical history text book. He devotes a significant number of pages to religious movements in America and the effects of religion on other events. He also takes the time to relate some events in European history to others in American history. For example, he details many of the events and movements in Europe that affected the discovery and settlement of America. Despite these additions, many Americans are not given adequate representation. Harriet Beecher Stowe and Fanny Trollope account for nearly all of the women mentioned by name in the first half of the book, and American Indians are only mentioned when they are in direct conflict with European settlers. In fact, Johnson sums up the thousands of years of American history that passed before the arrival of Europeans in a single paragraph. Can "A History of the American People" be comlete without these stories?
Rating:
Summary: History of the American People.
Review: In Paul Johnson's book The history of the American People, I found the book to be very uninformative in a lot fo places. Johnson did bring up some very good points of events and people in American history, but when he put in details on the events or the people they were I felt fillers. In other words they were paragraphs that Johnson would simply add issues or topics about people that frankly hardly anyone in their right mind would care to hear about. One example is Washington and some items that he had or his dogs in which Johnson brought up to a point. Those are things that just are not important to the history of America and how it was shaped. The book is large and if Jonhson were to write about just factual issues, it would be probably about a quarter of the size that it is now. I have read many books that dealt with history, from the time in which slavery was introduced all the way up to the 80's and I have never come across a book as long, drawn out and not to the point as Johnson's. I feel that he simply needs to cut some of the items out of his book and it would probably get a better rateing.
Rating:
Summary: a detailed account of the people, places and events of A.His
Review: Paul Johnson's History of the American People is a detailed account of the people, places and events that have shaped American history. He describes the events throughout history using individual stories of great men and women. Johnson has successfully written a history book that closely examines historic events and people, looking at both the positives to be followed and the negatives that should be avoided, all of which Johnson encourages us to learn from. He tells American history through story form, making it easy to read, yet easy to breeze over important historical events that get lost in the detail of the great men and women he is describing. Johnson includes a number of interesting facts form the names of George Washington's dogs, to the detailed description of Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, even touching upon the attire of Dolly Madison at her husband's inaugural address. Covered by all this detail is the vital decisions that Madison made leading to the British invasion of Washington during the War of 1812, or the historical importance of Jefferson's presidency. With all this detailed information it is easy to loose sight of the historical events that Johnson is trying to describe. Johnson focuses on the men and women that shaped America, whether he tells the stories of prominent men and women in history or the unknown men and women, through their stories he illustrates the events that shaped America. His narrative is easy and enjoyable to read if you can dissect the detailed facts to absorb both the historical events and the detailed accounts of America's great men and women.
Rating:
Summary: Indeed, A History FOR the American People
Review: Paul Johnson gives a refreshing and unique look into the lives of the american people. Straying away from the normal 'Text book' history that students have been subjected to, he gives indepth detail and analysis into the lives of our nations most important political leaders. However at times, in his senseless ramblings, he seems to lose the reader with insignificant facts and details that could make one want to put the book down all together. Reader's must appreciate the way Johnson adresses important issues in our history though, from the first settlers to the revolution, all the way to our civil war. He covers these events with clarity but at some points he is a bit biast, excluding a majority of the population for the first 500 pages or so. He fails to cover the position of the Africans, other than labeling them as 'cheap labor' for the growing cotton industry, and almost completely ignores women, unless he is talking about one of the presidents 'lovely' wives or the 'insolent prostitutes' that romed the streets of Boston. When it comes down to the meat of our history, Johnson prevails, giving a very informed, but at times inaccurate, account of the leaders that fought to build our country. From Washington to Adams and Jefferson to Jackson, he honestly covers the lives that the presidents led, from their shortcomings and weaknesses to their talents and strengths, he does a great job interpreting the era's in which they were in power. I felt that Johonson could have sympathized more with the indians however and was a bit shocked when he praised Polk for taking as much land as he could from 'greedy mexican hands.' Overall I found his interpretation of american history to be fresh and insightful and I need to say again, a nice break from the 'normal text book' offered in highschool.
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