Rating: 
Summary: Fasicnating, intriguing and a bit controversial
Review: This is one fun history book! Focusing on people, it covers a vast scope without every losing the common threads that hold it together. Filled with amusing anecdotes used to illustrate the character of the man or womas as well as the times, it quickly takes you through its many pages. Provacative, in that the author makes no claims to being anything but opinionated, and it will therefore strike some as "wrong, wrong, wrong!" and others as "right on!" Even where I disagree with conclusions drawn (I do think FDR deserves a bit more of a break here...) I find the syle and the presentation excellent. The overall admiration of the "American Way" displayed by the author rings a bell with this particular unabashed capitalist!
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: This book is a refreshing truthful insight in today's hopelessly biased political economy. Johnson's work puts a sledgehammer to the myriad mindless masses who actually believe the distorted and misleading lies they read and watch in the mainstream media. Perhaps the politically correct In Government We Trust congregation will make use of their eyes and witness what is really happening around them. Bravo Bravo Bravo to Paul Johnson.
Rating:
Summary: History of the American People
Review: The book provided me with many new insights into our history and culture. So much so that I sent my copy to a relative in Europe, who unfortunately possesses a somewhat stereotyped attitude toward America. I highly recommend the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Breathtaking, Reactionary, Quirky, Lively
Review: Like other reviewers here, I was inadequately forwarned by the hints on the dust jacket, about Johnson's downright quirky--even reactionary--take on recent American history. The chapters before the 20th century, however, provide powerful perspective and sweep. Johnson has written a massive and very readable book about American history up to the Roaring 20's, with a wealth of lively stories about the fabric of American life. But then comes the 20th century, with some astonishing historical interpretations by the author. To name a few, Professor Johnson finds Coolidge and Hoover to be among our finest presidents, while he can scarcely conceal his contempt for FDR. Truman was decent enough; how in the world did he ever come to be a Democrat? Kennedy and Johnson were mountebanks, and Carter a pathetic blunderer, while Nixon and Reagan were shining principled leaders, tragically misunderstood by liberal snipers. President Bush (the first) was an underappreciated footnote. Most recently, Clinton's administration should be remembered mainly for its "corruption" in Johnsons' view, a view which in this case is adumbrated by very little historical detail. Despite the plainly political slant, I found an awful lot to like in the book, and plenty to be amused by. The book is a wellspring of anecdotes. It triggered many lively conversations among my friends--just as it apparently has among my fellow reviewers. Overall, this book is worth reading, if only to give your jaw-dropping muscles some exercise.
Rating:
Summary: interesting general history
Review: I am struck by the fact that so many reviewers of this book are Americans. And that so many of you find this book, for the most part, to be commendable and to be rated highly. However, this reviewer, a Canadian, came to this book knowing lots of 'snippets' of American history, but really wanting to get a grasp, for the first time, of the totality of American history. I can't say I came away completely disappointed, for Johnson has researched prodigiously, and the sweep of this work is, to my mind, amazing. I would concur with many of the reviewers that this work deserves a place as a good starting point for those, like me, who would like a good, general introductory study. Having said that, I have to note that I completely gave up reading the book halfway through Part 8, related to the Kennedy years and beyond. I felt that Johnson had suddenly decided to cast away any pretence of objectivity and balance, to slur and demean some political or social leaders he didn't approve of, and glorify others, with scant acknowledgement of faults or even, of serious Presidential crimes, that we are all too familiar with. That last chapter really disturbed me, and it makes me want to caution others that Johnson really makes his biases and outright distortions so evident as to make me wonder about the rest of the work, which I may have naively accepted as well-grounded and intelligent opinion. Hence my ambiguous rating of this book. In conclusion, read up to Part 8, and then put the book down and be done with it. Part 8 is just a cranky RANT...which really doesn't belong in this otherwise most interesting book. (Where was his editor?)
Rating:
Summary: An authoritative work
Review: Mr. Johnson is simply astounding in his ability to present the complex history of the birth and development of the United States in a interesting and coherent whole. He defies the current revisionist hegemony in our academic institutions. Johnson correctly recognizes the important contributions of business, those derided in historical scholarship as "robber barons", to both society and the forging of a world power. His treatment the misguided social policies of the FDR era and afterward has been borne out by time. Read Johnson's Modern Times to see where such social engineering leads to when taken to extremes. And while I respect the leftist guilty conscience of the critic below and will concede that cases such as the Civil Rights movement might have been given more space, however mere confusion of confederate generals does not a bad book make. Howard Zinn is your man (he desperately wants the Indians to win), or any of the other works of resentment which fill the shelves. While we have not in every case lived up to our ideals, Johnson brings out the truth that the United States has made many remarkable achievements and done much good in the world. This perspective has now been given its due. I highly recommend A History of the American People, as well as any of Johnson's other works.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Work About A Great Country!
Review: A fantastic work! It is a pleasure to see a balanced view of American history for a change. A breath of fresh, unbiased air amid the liberal-elitest-American bashing-leftist smog. Anyone who considers themselves a well read historian MUST have a copy in their collection. As an educator I've already included it as required reading in the curriculum for my history students and many of my peers are doing the same.
Rating: 
Summary: Utter Trash
Review: The Focus on the Family crowd is currently hyping this excrement on its "Boundless" right-wing PC website. That should tell you enough. For a REAL history of the American PEOPLE, try Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.
Rating:
Summary: "A History of Dominant American Personalities"
Review: I think that is a better name. Mr. Johnson has a delightful and sometimes acerbic style that he uses to write history how he sees it. I have read his "Modern Times" and "A History of Christianity" also, and I think all are high quality, well-researched, historically accurate accounts of what happened. I disagreed with many of his conclusions about the 'why' and 'how' of an event, but I commend him on his arguments and wealth of knowledge. He shows keen insight on many points of American history, and if I were Catholic, I think I would have liked him even more. I tried to keep in mind his conservative Christian leanings and not be too critical when he strayed off the objective path he usually started on. I am somewhat disturbed that such a good historian can be seemingly objective in one area, but yet completely biased in another. This may be why I am intrigued by him. Definitely a good read. If you know of other high quality works that are worth reading, email me, and I will consider putting them on my list to read if I haven't yet read it. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: A biased and bad "history of U.S. Presidents"
Review: This is Johnson's worst book, and one of the worse history books I ever read. The title is misleading, don't expect "A History of the American People", theres is very little "people" in it, only a series of small biographies of U.S. Presidents. You will learn all the votes in every election since Washington, but you will not see anything about what the American People did in these 500 years on Arts, Philosophy, Political Science, Architecture, Music, Urbanism. You will not hear about Science, Nobel Prizes, AT&T, GE, General Motors, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Advertising, Marketing, Ideas, Idealism, the Mafia, crime, violence, etc. He concentrates on details about the Presidents, that's all, does'nt even make an analysis of the major currents of thought in these centuries that made these men reach the Presidency. Don't buy this book, you will be mislead by the dishonest title.Publishers and the author should be more open to the public and call this book " A History of U.S. Presidents". Even then, you are better served reading "To the Best of My Ability" by James M. McPherson(Editor), David Rubel (Editor). If you want to taste what great history-telling is, try Will Durant's The Story of Civilization
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