The American Reader : Words That Moved a Nation

Rating:
Summary: An ideal supplmental work for an American History class
Review: "The American Reader: Words That Moved A Nation" is a useful collection that can be used by history teachers to supplement the traditional American History textbook, which tends to ignore significant public rhetoric. At best you might get a paragraph or two, but usually there are just references to a speech or a choice quote. The goal of Diane Ravitch's book is "to put its readers into direct contact with the words that inspired, enraged, delighted, chastened, or comforted Americans in days gone by." From "The Mayflower Compact" to Theodore H. White on "The American Idea," Ravitch includes dozens of works that can be easily duplicated as one-page handouts. There are speeches by Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln; songs from "Yankee Doodle" to "Blowin' in the Wind"; poems by Longfellow, Whitman, Frost and Sandburg. They are pamphlets like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," Supreme Court decisions like Brown v. Board of Education, and aphorisms from "Poor Richard's Almanac." Sections cover major sections of American History such as the Colonial Days and the Revolution, Antebellum America, the Civil War, the Progressive Age, the Depression and World War II, and the Troubled Times of the Sixties. These words, as well as the illustrations and cartoons included in the volume, can add flavor and variety to an American History class. This is a worthwhile supplemental text that may well have an advantage over trying to track down these works on line.

Rating:
Summary: An ideal supplmental work for an American History class
Review: "The American Reader: Words That Moved A Nation" is a useful collection that can be used by history teachers to supplement the traditional American History textbook, which tends to ignore significant public rhetoric. At best you might get a paragraph or two, but usually there are just references to a speech or a choice quote. The goal of Diane Ravitch's book is "to put its readers into direct contact with the words that inspired, enraged, delighted, chastened, or comforted Americans in days gone by." From "The Mayflower Compact" to Theodore H. White on "The American Idea," Ravitch includes dozens of works that can be easily duplicated as one-page handouts. There are speeches by Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln; songs from "Yankee Doodle" to "Blowin' in the Wind"; poems by Longfellow, Whitman, Frost and Sandburg. They are pamphlets like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," Supreme Court decisions like Brown v. Board of Education, and aphorisms from "Poor Richard's Almanac." Sections cover major sections of American History such as the Colonial Days and the Revolution, Antebellum America, the Civil War, the Progressive Age, the Depression and World War II, and the Troubled Times of the Sixties. These words, as well as the illustrations and cartoons included in the volume, can add flavor and variety to an American History class. This is a worthwhile supplemental text that may well have an advantage over trying to track down these works on line.

Rating:
Summary: LOVE THIS BOOK!
Review: The American Reader is an anthology of wonderful poems and speeches from critical figures in American history. It is not only perfect for the classroom, but a great bedside companion. I like to read a different selection every night. It is a good tool for self-education, for those of us who had too much "social studies" and not enough real history. And it is fun to read. I love it.

Rating:
Summary: What We've Lost Is Found Again
Review: With the politicization of the schools and the increasing emphasis on race, gender and enthnicity as guides to the "multicultural" curriculum, we have lost the emphasis on our common heritage that should bind us together as a nation and a society. The sad proof of this is how little American kids know about the past that is their cultural patrimony. National Assessment of Educational Progress tests have revealed that three quarters of high school juniors tested did not know when Abraham Lincoln was president; one third did not know what the Brown Decision was about, and 70% could not identify the Magna Carta. One third did not know that the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is from the Declaration of Independence; many were unfamiliar with the Getysburg Address. The American Reader is the best corrective to this situation that there is. Between its covers it presents those words that define our country's past and have expressed its goals and its dreams, its efforts and its achievements. This is what American children should be reading in school. Since many of them are not doing so, this book should be in every home, ready at hand to every parent and teacher.