The Vine: June 26, 2009
Dear Sarah,
I am currently living in London but will be moving back to the good ol’ U.S. of A this summer.My Irish boyfriend is set to follow and, being the thoughtful and intellectually curious person he is, wants to read a book on U.S. history before he moves stateside.
I really don’t know of any — all my knowledge comes from elementary/middle/high school and college textbooks of which I have no specific memories.I suppose a textbook would work for him if it’s written for an adult and is interesting, but perhaps another format would be better.
Can you or any of your readers recommend a well-written book that generally covers U.S. history?
I hope I don’t have to settle for U.S. History for Dummies (unless it’s actually a good book)
Dear Hope,
I haven’t read it, but I hear good things about Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, and I suspect the readers will recommend that one (or will at least have read it).Beyond that, while I can recommend histories of periods, I can’t think of any other books off the top of my head that are considered complete primers on the country’s history and well-written also.
Readers, any books to add?
Tags: Ask The Readers Howard Zinn popcult
For early history, “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” by Joseph Ellis, was quite good – informative and thorough re: the establishment of the early US government, without being incredibly boring. It was also a good size to carry around. :)
“Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,” by James W. Loewen. Hits all the highlights and skewers many cherished myths with humor. Every American and everyone curious about America should read it– it’s the most informative book on US history I’ve ever come across.
The Zinn is good, but very, very dense. If he’s looking for a more casual reading experience, I’ve always enjoyed the “Don’t Know Much About…” series, which starts with, um, “Don’t Know Much About History.” As it happens.
Seconding Sars’s rec of Zinn’s People’s History of the US–it’s a good ‘un.
Everyone should read the Howard Zinn book. Even natural-born citizens. Heck, ESPECIALLY natural-born citizens. ;)
I really liked “Don’t Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned” by Kenneth C Davis. Much less dry than reading a textbook and covers the colonial period right up to the early 2000s.
If you’re not embarrassed by reading a (well-written! well-researched! praised by David McCullough!) textbook for kids, I’d highly recommend “A History of Us” by Joy Hakim. Also good is Larry Gonick’s “Cartoon Guide to U.S. History.”
If you want something really comprehensive that will also work as a good reference guide, William Chafe’s “The Unfinished Journey” is excellent. It’s comprehensive and my students have always liked it.
I like Loewen’s book, too, and the way he punctures myths is great, but he doesn’t get everything totally right in that book, so don’t, you know, base your thesis on it or anything.
Ok, it’s not American history per se, but I would recommend Bill Bryson’s “I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away” as well as “A Walk in the Woods”. A different perspective than just straight-up history.
Also chiming into recommend the Zinn.
I read the Zinn book as a Junior in high school for my AP U.S. History class. It is a good one, although as Linda said, it’s a little dense. Not only that, but it paints one of the bleaker portraits of the past 232 years of this country’s existence. I’m not saying it isn’t a worthwhile read, but there’s a chance that Hope’s boyfriend may not want to set foot on American soil after finishing it. That being said, lizgwiz is right, natural-born citizens should read it. It’s definitely an eye-opener to a lot of things that aren’t in your standard public school textbook.
There’s always Jon Stewart’s “America.” Good place to start!
I guess I would ask if you are trying to get him familiar with the details, so he understands when someone mentions speakly softly and carrying a big stick or if you’re trying to get him up to speed with the big-picture “What It Means to Be an American” stuff.
If the latter, I hold pretty close to the idea that the specific is the gateway to the general. Rather than going with a survey of all of American history, I would start with a really compelling story that brings together a bunch of different threads, then gets him started on where he wants to go next. How about “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose? You get Lewis and Clark, and Jefferson, and a dose of the “American character.” Plus it’s a ripping good yarn, which any Irishman worth his salt will appreciate. Or maybe the “Wordy Shipmates” by Sarah Vowell, all about the Pilgrims.
Lots of ideas for novels as well — Roughing It or Huck Finn, Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, Scarlet Letter, just to get started.
Seconding Lies My Teacher Told Me. Great book, extremely informative and also very well-written and enjoyable.
No particular titles to recommend, but it’s worth noting that 1776 minus 1492 = 284 years of European influence on this continent that don’t get much attention, not to mention at least a few millennia of Native American goings on prior to that.
If Boyfriend wants “U.S.” history specifically, starting with the Revolution is fine. If he wants “American” history, there’s plenty more.
Bill Bryson is great! Also a good one – Simon Schama’s The American Future – A History.
nthing the call for “A People’s History.” I really didn’t find it dense at all – in fact, for me, it was really readable. Another idea, if he’d be interested in reading specifically about the history of American diversity, is “A Different Mirror” by Ronald Takaki.
The Zinn is a great book, but it’s really a corrective for people who have learned the “party line”. I do think he should read it, but he should probably read the Davis “Don’t Know Much About History” first. Zinn’s book is about what the big events of US history looked like if you were not a mover-and-shaker, but it does presuppose that you know what those big events were.
Daniel Boorstin’s The American’s books – he’s entertaining when he writes!
Nthing “Don’t Know Much About History.” And then the graphic novel by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin, “Birth of a Nation,” in which East St. Louis secedes from the nation.
If you’re looking for an actual primer of American history that’s not so painful to read rather than a “here’s what you DIDN’T learn in high school!” sort of thing, I’d recommend Bailey’s American Pageant. It was my textbook for AP American Civilization in high school, and my class developed this odd devotion to “the Bailey” and its weird turns of phrase. We had the Zinn as side reading, but the Bailey was the meat and potatoes.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Pageant-Republic-Thomas-Bailey/dp/0669397288
The current ones are like $150, but I’d imagine one of the previous editions going for $10 used would be just as good if you’re not getting graded on study questions and you’re relatively familiar with American history post-2000.
A History of US by Joy Hakim is great. I bought a few volumes for my son (there are ten volumes, but they’re designed for older kids, so they don’t take terribly long to read) to counteract some of the Pilgrim/Indian fiction he was learning in school. I recommend them because the books give a look at all sides of each historical event covered and acknowledge uncertainties where they exist, but always come down solidly in the ‘cut the romantic lies we love to teach’ camp. Hakim also goes for depth over breadth.
The surprisingly informative and thoroughly entertaining Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States
I second the recommendations for both “Lies My Teacher Told Me” and “A History of Us”. The Zinn has been sitting on my shelf for a couple years, but I never got to it. Hakim, on the other hand, I devoured when I was 9 and 10 years old, and I credit her, far more than the prep materials we used junior year, with my great AP US History test score. The Loewen was really enjoyable – it screwed with my head in a great way – , but I don’t know if someone who wasn’t brought up with US history would get as much out of it as I did.
I remember my college roommate reading A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, and she really liked it. It looks like Amazon might have it classed as a YA book, so probably a quicker read than the Zinn, although probably not any more cheerful. http://tinyurl.com/pwwbpn
I think SorchaRei (as is not uncommonly the case) nailed it: the Zinn is great, but it assumes it is a counter to a certain Classic American Tale. And it’s worth knowing what that tale is first. Among other things, it’s worth understanding American historical mythology, in addition to actual American history, if you want to understand how the place ticks, if that makes sense. The Davis is good, the Zinn is good, the Sarah Vowell is good (great idea). You could even do it with a series of historical biographies (Team Of Rivals, American Lion, etc.) But if what you are talking about is getting a feel for how Americans generally understand their history, I’d go with the Davis, which is kind of straightforward without being rah-rah-go-Columbus.
Zinn, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and the Daily Show book for good measure.
You can always supliment a more dense book with It All Started With Colombus. It teaches important lessons about US history, such as:
The Constitution provided for the following:
1. Two houses, a lower and an upper, with a stairway, or escalator clause, between. Bills, which were afterwards to be sent to the taxpayers for collection, would first be thrown in a large hopper and allowed to age. Members of the lower house were to be elected according to population, that is, according to whether enough of the population voted for them. Members of the upper house were to represent the states instead of the people. To get into the upper house, it was necessary to have:
(a) A broad-brimmed hat
(b) A flowing bow tie
(c) A good name
(d) A key or a ladder
It also includes quizzes at the end of each chapter, asking such probing and thought provoking questions as:
What would you have done in Ponce De Leon’s shoes? How do you know he wore any?
@ Emily G.
Oh GOD! I remember the Bailey American Pageant! I still recall a phrase from that book when it was discussing the colonial, new england, middle colony, southern colony rivalries wherein discussing new england:
“It seemed all one had to do was tickle the earth with a hoe, and it would laughingly give up it’s bounty.” I SWEAR TO GOD.
Yeah, it did have a weird turn of phrase, but also in response to this question, it was the first thing that came to my mind. The best sort of comprehensive book I ever read. And trust me. You can scan the crap out of that thing too. Many study seshes before a test have taught me that.
Great Book.
I read The Free and The Unfree: A New History of the United States (by Peter N. Carroll and David W. Noble) in college and found it well written and engaging. It only goes up to 1986, though, so you might want something else to cover very recent history. But it’s very informative and enjoyable and not too dry or dense.
If your boyfriend is at all interested in language, I recommend Bill Bryson’s Made In America. It is a history of the development of American English which ends up covering a lot of historical territory from a somewhat unusual perspective. It is light and popular rather than truly scholarly, but a fun read and reasonably accurate.
The Zinn book is good but it’s also outright and unabashedly left/liberal in its presentation of American history. Zinn wrote the book to deflate myths (not a bad thing) and tell the stories of the victims/underclass/women/ minorities who populate American history but until the 1960s never had much written about them. He’s giving those people a voice.
I second what Linda said up above: might not be a bad idea to learn sort of “classic” American history and then read the Zinn for a more balanced understanding of events. A semi-recently written high school textbook might not be a bad place to start.
millionth-ing the zinn and loewen.
also, i’m sorry, but it’s a load of hooey that writing about underrepresented people is ‘unabashedly left/liberal’… seriously? no it’s not. writing them accurately/at all is a legitimate way to show more facets of american history and it’s not like the zinns and loewens of the world are ever going to overrule the lies that predominate what’s taught in school, anyway.
The Zinn book is a great reco.
A book about more modern issues within the US, covering the civil rights movement (that seems particularly apt to a lot of things going on now) is “Walking with the Wind” by John Lewis (D-GA). This book absolutely changed my life, and made me look at all the things we take for granted now in a different way. The first 2/3s, I think, should be essential reading within any American History class. (the last 1/3 is more about his road to politics, which, while important and interesting, is not as broadly relevant as the rest).
I’d be careful about high school textbooks, just because they’re notoriously bad. The Chafe book I recommended is meant for college students, and it’s got more nuance than most high school textbooks. I could go into a long-winded complaint about high school text adoption processes, but that’s really beside the point now.
GREAT idea to use The Wordy Shipmates!
I pulled out a copy of Jordan and Litwack’s “The United States”, which was my AP History textbook in 1987-88. It’s actually pretty good overview, and this editioin (’87) has info on women’s history/immigration/Native Americans/African Americans in just about every chapter. (I think a lot of HS and College textbooks in the last 29 years have probably been revised based on the influence of “A People’s History.) The nice thing about textbooks is that they have lots of maps and timelines. When I’m reading fiction and non-fiction about another country, I often find myself looking at maps, and doing the wikipedia thing to figure out dates and all that, so I think a textbook could be good for this.
Looking through my AP textbook, one off the “Further Reading” suggestions in the last chapter (the ’80s) was Studs Terkel’s “American Dreams: Lost and Found.” You really can’t go wrong with Studs Terkel.
I don’t think I’ve replied yet (Sars, sorry if I have). I’d highly recommend the Zinn. It’s a little dense, but not in a boring way, if that makes sense. I loved it.
Hi all, thanks for all the great suggestions. Amazon thanks you, too!
My favorite high-school-textbook story involves my beloved high-school American History teacher, who was like the coolest, bad-ass-est lady I ever knew. She did away with the high-school history text used before her arrival, as I heard the story, in part because it included the sentence, “The Pilgrims went west, taking with them their cattle and their women.”
(She was also famous for making little jokes that would occasionally go entirely over our heads, at which point she would mutter, “Shoot lower, Sheriff, they’re riding Shetland ponies.”)
@ Jennifer. I don’t believe I wrote that writing about underrepresented people was “left/liberal.” I said the book was because Zinn specifically states over and over that his goal in writing the book is to change the world and uproot traditional conceptions of American history. Those aren’t exactly right/conservative goals by any stretch of the imagination. Zinn IS unabashedly liberal. He doesn’t deny it and he admits that his (and every other historian’s) beliefs will color what he writes about and why:
“The historian’s distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interests, where any chosen emphasis supports (whether the historian means to or not) some kind of interest, whether economic, or political or racial or national or sexual.” Zinn, pg. 8.
Definitely Bill Bryson’s Made in America, and also his Notes from a Big Country, which is a series of columns he wrote the year he returned to America after living in Great Britain for many years. It discusses American culture in quite a lot of detail, and contrasts what he has been used to in England with what he finds in America. Very easy to read but informative.
“Don’t Know Much About History” is definitely a fun read. I wouldn’t call it an end all, be all text, but it’s engrossing, well researched (I think it’s in 2nd or 3rd edition now, if not more…) and has a warped sense of humor that I really enjoyed.
Seconding – thirding? fourthing? – the Bill Bryson recs. I read his ‘Notes from a Small Island’ several times whilst living in Britain, then switched to his America books [‘Notes from a Big Country’ (aka ‘I’m a Stranger Here Myself’), ‘Made in America’, et. al.] to reacclimate myself to my native country.
Also, I had not realized that Simon Schama had written a book on American history! I highly recommend his work; his ‘History of Britain’ has long been my go-to guide for British history.
@PollyQ – I know, huh? The guy is so surprising! I used to live down the block from him & he is so nice & so damned FUNNY!
If he’s looking for something more fiction, I’d go with John Jakes and his series that starts with “The Bastard”. Historical fiction, and the series goes all the way from pre-revolution to mid-1900’s. The family that it follows end up being involved in/mover and shakers of all the major US historical movements, so you get all the history with a great story (and some steamy romance scenes) thrown in.
I strongly second the recommendation for Larry Gonick’s “Cartoon History of the United States”. It’s not as good as his “Cartoon History of the Universe”, but it’s still quite enjoyable.
“What a wonderful world this would beeeeeeee”
“Thanks” to all who recommended Davis, as I now have that song in my head for the rest of the day.
And thanks, seriously, to all posters for the multiple additional entries on my library list!
I’d like to put in my vote for Dave Barry Slept Here. I’ve probably read it about fifteen times. I’ve discovered that everything I actually remember about US history is due to that book.
You pretty much can’t go wrong with Zinn. It’s a thick volume, but it’s so well-written that it just flies. My husband, for whom English is a second langauge, thought it was one of the best books he’d ever read.
@Jess (now with more capitalization)
Okay, fair enough. I over-read into what you were saying and Zinn does definitely put his work forward as leftist. But I don’t see why, generally, there is a worry about that. American history has never been portrayed from a ‘balanced’ point of view, if there can even be such a thing.
I don’t think that in this specific context (someone from the Isles seeking good information on the US) it makes sense to try to offer a ‘balanced’ perspective as though right-wing/conservative viewpoints on American history and identity don’t already make up the majority of what is available for the public sphere to consume and use to formulate impressions. I really think that in this situation, considering that the prevailing new and print media sources will inevitably have at minimum a large degree of (literal) whitewashing and a conservative or at least staid ‘centrist’ perspective/bias, it is more appropriate to offer texts that seek to subvert.
What the Irish fiance receives from his own press/schooling will reflect not-dissimilar attitudes about history generally, so why not shake it up a bit? He’ll get his share of institutional drivel from everywhere else.
Uh… and this isn’t really meant to be negative on or at you, at all. It’s more of a MY BUTTON, IT HAS BEEN PRESSED and I get really antsy when I have this discussion.