Out of Many: A History of the American People - Brief Edition

I've used this book for years in my American History surveys at the Borough of Manhattan Communuty College. It's a good, concise history that covers a lot of ground. It does have some weaknesses in the first volume, however. While Out of Many probably has the best coverage of the West of any US textbook that I've seen, the attempt to cover diverse regions sometimes creates a disjointed narrative, especially in the brief editions. My students complain that the book "jumps around" between time periods so that they don't know what happened when. I also think that the discussion of Bacon's rebellion and John Brown both leave something to be desired. In the newest editions of the brief volumes, the new features in the text seem to balance some of the narrative problems with focused questions that should remind students of the main points and keep them on track. I was skeptical of the higher price and the bells and whistles of the illustrations, etc, but it does seem to be worth it.

This was a very well written history textbook. It read more like a story than like the dry, non fiction academic text that I thought it would be. I appreciated the small excurses on social and cultural life in America, and the maps were colorful, and the many pictures and paintings added a much needed dose of culture and nostalgia.I should say that I was disappointed at the anti-Christian bias of the authors. They make the great Swedish theologian John Calvin seem like a radical, and they portray Jonathan Edwards out to be a fire and brimstone preacher when in fact "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was atypical of his more serene and calm manner in the pulpit.Moreover, the accounts of the first and second Great Awakenings were exploited for their religious excesses rather than mined for the way these two events contributed to the cultural and social life of 18th and 19th century America. As a preacher and as a discerning man of faith, I felt that these glosses could have been avoided with more careful and objective research.But minus this, what you have here is a fun history book to read. I recommend it with caution.