Rating: 
Summary: THIS BOOK IS REALLY GOOD...
Review: Look the subject first then read on. As I was in the subject don't even bother reading the bad reviews on this books which is in the beginning. Mostly the reviewers didn't read it or etc. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book
Review: This book is terrific. It doesn't go into great detail but it gives very interesting facts. Much easier to read than any text book that can usually be found in school.. All school districts should consider this book. I never felt very interested in History but this book has changed my mind. I will check out all the rest of her books!!
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book
Review: This book is terrific. It doesn't go into great detail but it gives very interesting facts. Much easier to read than any text book that can usually be found in school.. All school districts should consider this book. I never felt very interested in History but this book has changed my mind. I will check out all the rest of her books!!
Rating:
Summary: Epic and Accessible
Review: This is the most entertaining as well as one of the most informative history books I have ever read, the companion volume to the PBS series from Kunhardt Productions. However, it can stand alone on its own merits. It is also the basis of ten individual volumes in a series also written by Joy Hakim. Contrary to what other reviewers apparently think, I have no problem with the fact that the brief Foreword was co-written by George W. and Laura Bush. A close reading of this volume as well as of the ten volumes in the complementary series indicates no political bias whatsoever. Had the Foreword been written by Abraham Lincoln, would those sympathetic with the Confederate cause objected? I am among those who attended public schools, grades 1-12, and whose understanding of U.S. history was based almost entirely on material in textbooks. Only later, in college and then in graduate school, did I realize how much the material in those textbooks had been sanitized. Having said that, I do not want to suggest that any of Hakim's narrative is controversial nor to suggest that the material she presents lacks authenticity. My point is, obviously, that history books can be -- indeed should be -- entertaining as well as informative. The Schamas (father and son) as well as McCullough, Edmund Morris, Ambrose, Foote, and countless other authors of bestsellers have certainly demonstrated that. Following a brief Introduction, Hakim presents her material within 16 Parts, followed by the full text of "The Declaration of Independence" and then a cluster of brief excerpts from the Constitution of the United States selected by Henry J. Abraham and Barbara A. Perry, excerpted from their book, Freedom and the Court. As already indicated, I think the text is exceptionally well-written and also congratulate the producers of this book on the inclusion of hundreds of illustrations, many of them full-color reproductions of paintings by artists such as John Trumbull, Peter Rothermel, Emanuel Leutze, John Mix Stanley, Edward Hicks, George Caleb Bingham, John Gast, Charles T. Webber, Currier & Ives, Archibald Motley, Jr., O. Louis Guglielmi, Alexandre Hogue, William Johnson, Ben Shahn, and Norman Rockwell, The reader is also provided with an abundance of archival photographs, many of which I had not previously seen. It would be a mistake to characterize this volume as a "coffee table book." True, that is where it has been placed in our living room but I hasten to add that almost all of those who visit us (including grandchildren) almost immediately pick it up and soon become engrossed in the text and illustrations. Unlike most other history books I have read over the years, I return to this one almost daily, either to read (or re-read) about a specific person and event, or, merely to browse. In another review, I will discuss the ten complementary volumes. Joy Hakim and her publisher, Oxford University Press, eminently deserve the praise they have received thus far and will continue to receive in years to come.
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