This book, although geared toward an adolescent audience, provided me not only with an excellent background in to Jefferson's life and decisons, but also addressed issues about his presidency which is rarely found in any book for young adults. The language of the book is pithy and clear, and hence appropriate for any age group. My Grandmother adores the series, after reading any of the books she feels as though she has really learned something. Also, the books themselves are very attractive.

Individuals interested in purchasing an American History book for the sole purpose of quickly researching a specific historical happening need to look no further. Scarcely illustrated, this is a fully encompassing text which provides a brief description of each event. Most descriptions range in length from one-quarter to one-half of a page. For example, it required less than two-hundred words to recount the assasssination of President Kennedy. Lengthy historical events such as the Vietnam War are also discussed in a concise manner. The Vietnam War required seven pages, including the full page map, to educate the reader. Those interested in an American History book that can be enjoyably read cover to cover must look elsewhere. Brief, fragmented event depictions cause the reader's attention to quickly wane. This book is being awarded four stars for its use as an encyclopedia.

The Encylopedia of American History is a wonderfully detailed and comprehensive reference book on almost everything to do with American history. Practically every conceivable aspect of America's history is within these pages; if you have a query concerning anything about the USA, then look no further than here. Neatly laid out in mainly chronological form, the book varies through subjects from politics, military, literature, science and many more. The biographies section contains brief biographies of over 400 influential Americans, from presidents and scientists to Stephen Spielberg. Whether you want to become a walking reference on American history, or are already familiar with the subject and require a reliable reference source, then this book is for you.

The Encyclopedia of American History by Richard B. Morris is an outstanding source of information for the student of history or the professional educator. It contains factual information for the consensus historian. It is not revisionist. I highly recommend this book.

Being a Canadian not at all versed in the minutea of US History I decided on a solitary visit to the US one summer and, at the Smithsonian, purchased this book. Although my US history is certainly spotty compared to Canadian or British Imperial History I am well used to the "Cook's Tour" narrative style of this type of book; whether it applies to the US, Australia or India, it is impossible to encapsulate all relevant history in one text. How and what one does incorporate is important.

To see the text as politically motivated badly misses the point. People with extreme political blinders of the so-called "right" or "left" will always look for, and find, whatever they want to find. When reading history one finds out as much about the American people who consider this to be their history as one learns about the actual events themselves. The FDR Truman New Deal lives on and for people like me who only know FDR as the reformer he apparently was, this book only reinforces that view. The vagaries of the Robber Barons and Teddy Roosevelt's attempts to riegn them in are also wonderfully free of ideology --- old fashioned excesses of greed and lack of any positive government role being explanation enough.

On the other side of the coin there is also what an outsider would refer to as the typical "pablum" which every American was raised upon: Americans somehow suffering a great injustice at the hands of the British. An injustice that is really really not that self-evident: the Boston Massacre was not a massacre (the Americans absolved the troops and commander of any blame at the time); the "battles" of Concord and Lexington not being battles but being built into mythic proportions that persist to this day; and why did the Americans really get so rebellious about, of all things, a tax. Still, having said that, compared with comparable flag-waving narrative best-sellers in American history this book does not even rate. The authors even quite correctly describe the sound American drubbing and defeat in the War of 1812. Something that a lot of lesser Americans historians try to obsfucate. No unneccessary flag waving here.

The description of the vital American character is also included in the beginning chapters. The founding groups in the nascent colonies were vastly different from those groups who followed and built similar colonies in Australia, New Zealand and nearby Canada. The battle between dogmatic protestant religious offshoots and secular authority was a basic element of American society. Although religious groups remained strong (Commanger & Steel describe the colonial Massachussets theocracy) their potential to deprive people of their liberty has always spawned a strong rational, reasoned opposition which ultimately wrote the constitution and established America as the strong secular nation she is today.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone without a narrow old-fashioned ideological axe to grind. The pre-1941 part of the book was originally written by pre-1941 people so necessarily includes their world view; the persistant use of the word, American "Negro" and "savages" reminds me a lot of the imperial literature of Kipling. One does not use such language nowadays and one is not influenced by it, but to try to retrospectively change the terminology is revisionism writ large, and one should always be on guard for such small-minded endevours. The book served its purpose for me and will serve as a jumping off point for further readings in US history supplied by its lengthy list of sources at the back of the book.

Being a Canadian not at all versed in the minutea of US History I decided on a solitary visit to the US one summer and, at the Smithsonian, purchased this book. Although my US history is certainly spotty compared to Canadian or British Imperial History I am well used to the "Cook's Tour" narrative style of this type of book; whether it applies to the US, Australia or India, it is impossible to encapsulate all relevant history in one text. How and what one does incorporate is important.

To see the text as politically motivated badly misses the point. People with extreme political blinders of the so-called "right" or "left" will always look for, and find, whatever they want to find. When reading history one finds out as much about the American people who consider this to be their history as one learns about the actual events themselves. The FDR Truman New Deal lives on and for people like me who only know FDR as the reformer he apparently was, this book only reinforces that view. The vagaries of the Robber Barons and Teddy Roosevelt's attempts to riegn them in are also wonderfully free of ideology --- old fashioned excesses of greed and lack of any positive government role being explanation enough.

On the other side of the coin there is also what an outsider would refer to as the typical "pablum" which every American was raised upon: Americans somehow suffering a great injustice at the hands of the British. An injustice that is really really not that self-evident: the Boston Massacre was not a massacre (the Americans absolved the troops and commander of any blame at the time); the "battles" of Concord and Lexington not being battles but being built into mythic proportions that persist to this day; and why did the Americans really get so rebellious about, of all things, a tax. Still, having said that, compared with comparable flag-waving narrative best-sellers in American history this book does not even rate. The authors even quite correctly describe the sound American drubbing and defeat in the War of 1812. Something that a lot of lesser Americans historians try to obsfucate. No unneccessary flag waving here.

The description of the vital American character is also included in the beginning chapters. The founding groups in the nascent colonies were vastly different from those groups who followed and built similar colonies in Australia, New Zealand and nearby Canada. The battle between dogmatic protestant religious offshoots and secular authority was a basic element of American society. Although religious groups remained strong (Commanger & Steel describe the colonial Massachussets theocracy) their potential to deprive people of their liberty has always spawned a strong rational, reasoned opposition which ultimately wrote the constitution and established America as the strong secular nation she is today.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone without a narrow old-fashioned ideological axe to grind. The pre-1941 part of the book was originally written by pre-1941 people so necessarily includes their world view; the persistant use of the word, American "Negro" and "savages" reminds me a lot of the imperial literature of Kipling. One does not use such language nowadays and one is not influenced by it, but to try to retrospectively change the terminology is revisionism writ large, and one should always be on guard for such small-minded endevours. The book served its purpose for me and will serve as a jumping off point for further readings in US history supplied by its lengthy list of sources at the back of the book.

It has been 50 years since I have read a history of the United States, having graduated from college with only in-depth education of courses in the military history of the United States.

I recently had occasion to read George Washington's Farewell Address. I was struck by the scope and scholarship of the amazing document, wondering how our first president knew so much. I then realized that I had not really thought much about the founding of our nation in a long time; that I really didn't remember enough of the founding or the subsequent events throughout the history as a whole.

The Pocket History of the United States fills the bill perfectly for me. What I wanted is all there and can be read in a reasonable length of time.

One of the main reasons I selected this book from a wide selection was that so much was written before the beginning of WWII and therefore I expected that it would have the author's perspective of the world as I knew it in my most formative years. I find that some modern historical writing blurs the black and white, right and wrong, obscuring and slanting the details I wanted to know. I was happy to find WWII and the following eras covered in the same book in much the same tone as the origional author.