America: A Narrative History, Volume 2, Fifth Edition, Study Guide

Rating:
Summary: Great for students, teachers, and readers of every sort
Review: This is volume 2 of a tremendous American history survey, beginning with the Reconstruction era and continuing to the present (well, almost). I used it for 2 years as a university text; I thoroughly enjoyed it and the students didn't seem to dislike it too much (which is saying a great deal). The writing is sophisticated, but the work is also quite readable. As the title suggests, it's a continuous, coherent narrative--not just a series of disjointed, disconnected vignettes. Tindall and Shi pack a grat deal into a tight space, and they do it well. Their work is both comprehensive in scope and attentive to detail--it has both depth and breadth. The highlights: great social, cultural and intellectual history (not just about tariffs and presidential elections!); gives substantial room to women's history, minority narratives and other things that can fall outside the margins of traditional history; fascinating personal portraits of our presidents and other essential Americans (my students always loved hearing about Teddy Roosevelt swimming naked across the Potomoac); offers alternative interpretations of murky historical concepts (e.g., Cold War: the Soviet take vs. the U.S. take). The weaknesses: the authors try so hard to be fair, representative and democratic that the text sometimes reads like a litany of the things that the U.S. government has done to harm people; in its attempt to be thorough and sophisticated, the text sometimes doesn't give adequate background to complex events. On the whole, I highly recommend this work to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great for students, teachers, and readers of every sort
Review: This is volume 2 of a tremendous American history survey, beginning with the Reconstruction era and continuing to the present (well, almost). I used it for 2 years as a university text; I thoroughly enjoyed it and the students didn't seem to dislike it too much (which is saying a great deal). The writing is sophisticated, but the work is also quite readable. As the title suggests, it's a continuous, coherent narrative--not just a series of disjointed, disconnected vignettes. Tindall and Shi pack a grat deal into a tight space, and they do it well. Their work is both comprehensive in scope and attentive to detail--it has both depth and breadth. The highlights: great social, cultural and intellectual history (not just about tariffs and presidential elections!); gives substantial room to women's history, minority narratives and other things that can fall outside the margins of traditional history; fascinating personal portraits of our presidents and other essential Americans (my students always loved hearing about Teddy Roosevelt swimming naked across the Potomoac); offers alternative interpretations of murky historical concepts (e.g., Cold War: the Soviet take vs. the U.S. take). The weaknesses: the authors try so hard to be fair, representative and democratic that the text sometimes reads like a litany of the things that the U.S. government has done to harm people; in its attempt to be thorough and sophisticated, the text sometimes doesn't give adequate background to complex events. On the whole, I highly recommend this work to everyone.