American History, Volume 1: A Survey

Item is exactly as described. It's actually 10 times better than the one I had bought originally from our bookstore - books over there were so beat up, but this book was only lightly used and shipping was decent.

comprehensive and interesting a bit long winded, but detailed doesn't pick a side in historical debates, but explains both sides reasonably fairly

I am an English and history teacher currently working with high school students in the Czech Republic. This book happened to be in our library and it has become an invaluable resource for me in teaching American history in this very unique context. I appreciate that the author focuses on issues of race, gender, and class in addition to the presidents and wars of old-style history books. The layout of the book is visually appealing and it includes abundant and well-chosen pictures which I find useful for picture description activities (a great way to get language learners to interact with history!) The other advantage of this book is that it's sophisticated enough to be challenging to high school students, but not so difficult that English language learners get bogged down by the text. My students have found it interesting and motivating to read. Overall, I'm very satisfied.

It may seem dorky to read a textbook cover to cover but that's what history students at my old high school do every year with Alan Brinkley's, "American History: A Survey." It is engaging, scholarly, fascinating, and thorough. For an extensive study and understanding of American History, Brinkley's work is a must. It is fairly unbiased and is noted as one of the "most-readable" history texts. I can't agree more. It took me a course and a year of study but thanks to Alan Brinkley and an amazing teacher, I have extensive knowledge of American History and it's impact on the modern world.

In "American History: A Survey", Alan Brinkley manages to create a comprehensive survey of American history, devoting in-depth discussion to both political and social history. In the process new insight is shed on familiar events while important aspects of the past which tend to be overlooked, e.g. Native Americans, women and African Americans, are covered in detail. Features like "Where Historians Disagree" not only show and amply discuss different viewpoints on significant issues but also show that the study of history itself is a dynamic and living process. The ideal survey of American history. Balances detail and "the big picture" perfectly, all in a very readable prose