Started off slow, but became more interesting. Overall, it's too philosophical for my taste. It was assigned reading for my US History class and while I did learn some things, I felt like I was reading a philosophical/sociology text. Definitely not what I expected. However, for someone majoring in History, I can see its worth. ( )

This is a very brief guide to U.S. history. It is from a series by a frankly conservative but the content is not highly polemical. The opening 20 pages or so are an extremely general discussion of the nature and value of history in general with very little reference to the U.S. I liked this both for nits philosophy and its writing style. Then there are some chapters about how American history in general can be approached. The last broad section, "Windows" does give brief descriptions of specific themes in U.S,. history -- frontier, liberty, etc. The only regional one is "the South" --I should think "the West" also deserves one in terms of the basic American historical myths. Some of the book choices are more polemical than the overall tone of the writing --Whittaker Chambers' Witness as a book every student should read, for example. I think it is a valuable source for the early Cold War era, but not one of the all-time greats. His section on capitalism also leans heavily toward the pro-capitalist side. The only anti-capitalist book he mentions is Josephson's The Robber Barons, and while it is fair to say that is outdated, it is hardly the last word from that side of the argument. ( )