|
|  | Authors: Larry Schweikart, Michael Allen
Publisher: Sentinel Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $3.91
as of 9/7/2010 14:54 CDT details
You Save: $21.09 (84%)
Seller: BookHouseUSA
Rating:  257 reviews
Sales Rank: 512
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 960
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 2
ISBN: 1595230327
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781595230324
ASIN: 1595230327
Publication Date: February 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Excellent customer service with hassle free return Policy.Ship from different location depending on your zip code and availability. Satisfaction Guaranteed!!
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 126-130 of 257
 biased ignorance March 4, 2010
Nick H (Seattle, WA United States)
16 out of 67 found this review helpful
Don't waste your time with this claptrap. If you want to understand US History and how progress was made, then read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. There's nothing patriotic about burying one's head in the sand and believing this self-serving whitewashed tripe.
 Great reading! March 3, 2010
W. Cox (Columbus, OH USA)
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
I haven't been through the whole book yet (really long), but what I have read is very insightful and detailed. I have enjoyed it so far.
 A Patriot's Review March 2, 2010
Charles Dickens
27 out of 46 found this review helpful
I'm reading this book along with Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States. Zinn's book focuses on examples of injustices towards people and communities from the time of Columbus to the present. I feel those are important topics to understand and discuss and Zinn does a great job shedding light on the darker side of government. I also feel it's important to understand the true greatness of this country, so I hoped this book would provide a good counterbalance and enhance my pride of this country. Instead, I find it rather frustrating at times. The best example is how these two books cover Columbus. Zinn portrays Columbus as a cruel murderer who cared only about money and power and considered the Natives as animals that could be slaughtered at will. Zinn did a very detailed assessment and it's impossible to argue with the facts. The guy was a murderer, plain and simple. It's like looking at a doctor convicted of murder and saying, "well, he killed people, yes, but he was a doctor. He saved lives. So we have to give him credit." No one looks at it like that. A murderer is a murderer, anything good they've done is irrelevant. The authors of this book instead describe Columbus as a great explorer who had the highest respect for the natives and wanted only to peacefully convert them to Christianity. They don't even mention the death of a single native, even though all reasonable estimates show that a true genocide went on. Yet, when describing the Aztecs, the authors portray them as bloodthirsty savages who ripped each other's hearts out during human sacrifices. Zinn acknowledges the violence of the Aztecs, but gives a much more balanced view of what was going on at the time. I don't understand why you can't be a Patriot and still also be able to acknowledge that some pretty awful things happened in the past. Anyway, it was the Spaniards who were the murderers, not the colonists or founding fathers. Is it because the Spaniards were Christians and the natives had no official religion that the authors chose to portray them in the best light?
As such, I have to say this book, rather than simply giving the other side, chooses to gloss over facts and give a distorted view of history. Zinn's book is much more intellectually honest. I wish this book was simply a counterbalance to Zinn's book, as it was advertised as, and showed American history from the point of view of government with the same sort of intellectualism and attention to detail, rather than being written almost like a manual meant to brainwash those with weaker minds and assure them that conservatism is the correct ideology. Still, if you can get past the frustration of reading a book that glosses over important facts in an attempt to make the Christians seem good and everyone else seem bad, this book is still full of historical facts, which I can only trust are well referenced, laid out in a simple to read format. So it does have some value.
For Those Genuinely Interested in a Balanced History March 1, 2010
Demaris H. Miller (Rappahannock County, VA USA)
18 out of 26 found this review helpful
After careful examination, I can only conclude that those who wrote one-star reviews neglected to read this book. It is surprisingly even-handed, telling both sides. My high-school history teachers focused on things that interested them -- I can describe in detail the major battles of the Civil War -- and my college professors taught a more complete history, but with a decided liberal bias.
This book is more comprehensive in its treatment of important events in American history, giving both the good and the bad, the popular and the unpopular, from beginning to end. Left and Right will find their heros treated fairly. The 2007 edition does include factual corrections over the 2004 edition, but these are, for the most part, adjustments, correcting small errors that do not detract from the general picture.
If you want to brush up and fill in what your teachers neglected, or if you have teenagers who are getting an inadequate or distorted education in American history, this book is the antidote. I definitely plan to see that my grandchildren read it -- even if I have to bribe them.
Pie In The Sky... February 28, 2010
P. J. Barille (Lake Worth, Florida)
40 out of 124 found this review helpful
I have a great deal of criticism for American History Academia.
That said, I believe this book is an attempt to rewrite history to please the ignorant. It amazes me to see how blatently people can pull the wool over the eyes of the people with a few "patriotic" tear tugs. If you must wallow in American History, and if you don't have the courage to face truth, then this book is for you.
Put your head in the sand and never, never admit to the truth. We have done some pretty dastardly acts in the name of Patriotism. But, what does it matter? It matters because we will never raise an enlightened citizenry with this distortion.
I have been an historian for thirty years. It pains me to attempt to rise to the level of maturity only to see it all go down, for the sliver of influence in America that co-opts common sense for a political gamesmanship.
You really can't know anything about history without attempting to know it all, good, bad and ugly.
Read SEIZING DESTINY, by Kluger....excellent!
Showing reviews 126-130 of 257
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. | |
