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Summary: Not a textbook, but an important personal view.
Review: The work is huge, idiosyncratic and immensely entertaining. Johnson covers what he wants to cover, but in the process he takes on most of the revisionist controversies of the last twenty years, from the role of slavery to the reality of the Western frontier. The only thing the book lacks is a proper summing up. He realizes that the "declinist" school that had influenced his book "Modern Times" no longer holds much water, but he seems at a loss to know what to do with the current spate of good news about American society.
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Summary: great read, great story
Review: The writing style is lively. The scope is broad. The view point is traditional. Listen and watch others attack this book.
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Summary: Whaddaya know! We Americans aint so ugly after all
Review: Whee1 What a trip! Paul Johnson is one helluva historian, as readers of his previous work will admit. And reading a history of US by one of THEM is a decidedly interesting experience. Mr. Johnson spends more time discussing the characters of the people who made our history, than on the actual events that occurred. And his analysis of these characters is either enlightening or infuriating, depending upon your personal mind set. Many of the people that we revere as heroes or revile as villains come out the other way around. Washington survives rather well, but Jefferson has a few dents (he had no sense of humor). Aaron Burr was a "sharp-faced New York lawyer" (I didn't realize that the breed went back that far). Polk remains a hero, and so does Lincoln. J. P. Morgan was the Federal Reserve Bank of his time. Teddy R was a real winner. Wilson was great but tragic. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, who we think of as architects of the Great Depression, were unlucky heroes. Now that's a surprise! . And FDR is more or less lacerated. Truman and Eisenhower get high marks, but Kennedy is dissected and stamped on. In Mr. Johnson's analysis, Jack was a creation by and for old Joe, and Camelot was a side show put on by Jackie. Here's a delicious bit. The famous line "Ich bin ein Berliner" translates as "I am a donut." I'd love to believe that. Mr. Johnson is a conservative, and it shows. He has a deep distrust of the liberal media, and blames it for much evil that has befallen. Fidel Castro, he allows, was sponsored by the New York Times. And he seems to have nothing but contempt for the parade of American artists and intellectuals who devoted most of their lives, and all of their admiration, to Europe. He writes in a style which might be called "history by digression." One starts out reading about the Civil War, and wanders into a deep discussion of monetary policy. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Indians are being persecuted. Its ok, and always informative, but can occasionally be frustrating. If one knows the story, one wants to be able to savor it Enough carping. If you are not interested in American History, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you ARE interested in American History, you should read this book.
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Summary: A Flawed but Entertaining Examination of a Great Nation
Review: To try to encompass the entire American experience in one volume is an example of hubris in historical writing taken to an extreme. Yet Paul Johnson has a track record of undertaking similar gargantuan projects and producing remarkable results. The present work nonetheless suffers in comparison with some of his earlier works. Errors of fact compound an interpretation of relatively modern events which suffers from the same (rightist) lack of objectivity that he ascribes to earlier (leftist) historians. (Surely FDR could not have been all that bad as a president, and still fooled more than one generation of analysts as to his greatness?) Still, revisionist history is somewhat in vogue now. (Churchill, for one, is an example of a larger-than-life figure who seems to attract modern detracting biographers like a plague of locusts!) And revisionist history is useful if only to stir the pot of mummified thought and make us re-evaluate what is truly "great" (if we are allowed to use that word) about a country, leader, or whatever. The trick, of course, in any book such as this, is to exclude the valid from the invalid; to (in somewhat coarser terminology) "pick the flyshit from the pepper". If you can do that successfully in this instance, you are left with a wonderfully ambitious and entertaining treatment of a great nation.
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Summary: Poorly written,rife with conservative cliches
Review: As a recently immigrated European and now American Citizen,I have become fascinated by the history of this wonderful country Paul Johnson does not write well,analyses poorly and is very fragmentary and unorganized in his text(It is as if he has pasted several small pieces of prose together,each covering a subject,person or worse an opinion.) His analysis of complex historical epochs is far from intellectual and he likes platitudes.The errors are very bothersome also suggesting sloppy work.This book is not recommended A very boring read and a disgrace.America is great but Paul Johnson is not able to tell us why
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Summary: A superb tour de force. It makes one proud to be American.
Review: Paul Johnson has written a superb overview of American history. His views are unabashadly optimistic and often conservative, providing an unusual perspective. His views of our various presidents are quite interesting -- among our 20th century presidents, he thinks highly of Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan, while dismissing John Kennedy.
As he showed in Modern Times, one of Johnson's greatest strengths is the ability to combine descriptions of historical events, broad economic and political forces, and 1-2 page biographies of historical figures (both well-known and more obscure). The ability to distill the essence of a life into such a short passage adds tremendously to the texture of the book. All in all, I give this book my highest possible recommendation. Looking back, this is the book I would have liked to have had when I studied American history in high school.
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Summary: interesting and fun
Review: This novel is on of great thought and insight. When you read it you can tell that it was thought out for a long time. The thing that I really like about it is that it makes American History fun. History is a very boring to lots of people and U.S. history usually makes those ideas start. The thing that Paul Johnson does that is different from most history authors is that he does not linger on one subject to long and his ideas are ones that are very intersting. I read all kinds of history books and this one has to be the best American History book I have ever read. Paul Johnson also touches on subjects that most people don't really think about. One of the ones that I found most interresting is that of the influence of jazz on America. Paul Johnson is a great writer and historian and I recommend him to any person looking for a good history read.
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Summary: A grand and magnificent history of the America
Review: As he has done in his previous books, "The Birth of the Modern" and "Modern Times", Paul Johnson has brought exhaustive study and a unique perspective, this time, to the study of American history. By starting his history in the sixteenth century with the founding of the Massachusetts colony instead of the American revolution, he has presented the case the there is a separate and unique American identity. And, that this identity is American and not a "multi-cultured" amalgam. This is a positive view of America and while he does not gloss over the tragic aspects of American history, namely the treatment of the American Indians and slavery, he does demonstrate that the American nation can and has to a great extent overcome these horrors to build a nation whose ideals are for the most part embodied in the American character and government. By dividing the book into eight separate epochs of American history, he weaves a story that not only includes the politics of the times, but the cultural, religious and philosophical milieu that those politics existed. This is a richly textured history. One is struck not so much by the amount of history included as to the extent of research Mr. Johnson had to digest to create the flavor of the times he is reporting. This is a major opus on America, and like the other great reporting volume on America "Democracy in America", this book will take its place in the canon as one of the great histories of a story that is still unfolding.
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Summary: excellent right wing presentation
Review: paul johnson doesn't seem too upset by social injustice. his richly textured text, however, makes one proud to be an american, especially since God is on our side.
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Summary: History the way it should be
Review: This is history the way it should be and finally is. Johnson focuses on the accomplishments of a free people, giving the "robber barrons", religon, and average Americans some well deserved credit. Johnson is a writer who truly understands the wonders that freedom can produce, and uses America as an example of just that.
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