Words That Built a Nation

I bought this from a 5th grade teacher's sale and have used it every year as my kids passed through the different stages of history. Its great span of time and notable documents makes it relevant to any year of schooling. I love that they are the original documents, not summaries- all together, in order. Since I am not a historian myself, I depend on great reference books like this one to make teaching history easy and accessible. I have recommended this book to many other homeschoolers. It pairs very easily with "Story of the world" or Beautiful Feet's American history curriculums.

Since my academic background is primarily as a rhetorician I can certainly appreciate the impetus behind "Words That Build a Nation: A Young Person's Collection of Historic American Documents." The title certainly gives you a sense of what Marilyn Miller has collected within these pages, although the title is unavoidably inexact. "Documents" means much more than the traditional meaning that would clearly point to the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. Herein you will find excerpts from "Poor Richard's Almanack" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," speeches by Chief Joseph and John F. Kennedy, Constitutional amendments and a Supreme Court decision, along with letters by John Adams and Richard Nixon. Young readers will find such "documents" from the speech Hillary Rodham Clinton gave at the United Nations Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995 (which my daughter Jamie heard in person while missing the first week of school in the 5th grade) stretching back to the "Mayflower" Compact of 1620. This volume is not intended as a substitute for an American history textbook but rather as a supplement. Your standard American history textbook probably includes a choice piece of advice from Benjamin Franklin and key phrases from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March of Washington Address (as the "I Have a Dream" speech is called here). It might even have the entire text of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," which is short enough, and certainly it will mention George Washington's Farewell Address, the Monroe Doctrine, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and Franklin Roosevelt's "War Message to Congress." But here you will find the entire text of each. For that matter, you will find the complete lyrics to "The Star Spangled Banner."The shortest entry here would be Nixon's letter resigning the presidency and the other end of the spectrum would probably be the complete text of the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately there are only choice excerpts from Malcolm X's speech "The Ballot or the Bullet," but I know how long that entire speech is and while it would be nice to see the complete work in print since our collection of great speeches is out of print, I understand the considerations of space and money involved. Right before Clinton's speech is Reagan's "Farewell Address," so clearly there is a sense of providing "balance" in terms of contemporary politics as well.In addition to presenting these various documents, Miller also offers explanations. Each document begins with a brief background section with the text appearing in a shaded area, followed by sections on both the author and the response to these particular "words." If there are photographs or other illustrations of the actual speech (or document) those are usually provided as well. The margins of the book include other interesting information about the text, author, and/or situation. Both teachers and students will find this a useful book for providing

I have bought this book for high school and college graduation gifts and for my husband, who enjoys history. It is a great reference book for many important events of our country, from the Mayflower Compact, to M.L.King's "I have a dream" speech, to "The Eagle has landed" piece. There are 40 documents cited. I believe the authors' words are used, not simplified for young people as the title might suggest. Some are complete, and some are excerpts of the original article. Each is followed by a short paragraph about the author, and a paragraph that explains the impact that piece of writing had on the people of the time or the direction of America from that point because of that document. There are pictures and illustrations to break up the text, making it "reader friendly." A few of the other documents are: Declaration of Independence, Monroe Doctrine, the slave auction chapter from Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gettysburg Address, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and Kennedy's Inaugural Address.