Reviews for A History of Western Music (4th LP Edition: Norton Anthology of Western Music)

The average rating for A History of Western Music (4th LP Edition: Norton Anthology of Western Music) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-19 00:00:00 Charles Gebhart First off, let me clear something up: I AM A HISTORY BUFF. I ADORE HISTORY. I have been known to read history textbooks FOR FUN. So when I say I hated this... it's not just cuz it's a) history or b) a textbook. It's because it was a HORRIBLY written, unclear, confusing, History Textbook, riddled with historical mistakes and oversights. This is basic history. My time period. It goes up to Lincoln's assassination. I have been studying the 1700's-1900's my entire life. That's my favorite time period. I already know basically everything in this textbook. Tindall and Shi managed to confuse me, on topics I already knew everything about. In their miserable attempt to create an "interesting" textbook, all they succeeded in doing was make up or exaggerate stuff about certain religious groups or historical figures that is completely false, and confuse people. When they're describing the battles of the Civil War, it's NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to decipher a) who LED the battles and b) who WON the battles. Kinda important facts, don't ya think? They were constantly jumping way out of historical chronology, and half the time it was obvious that the authors of this textbook had not personally read any primary sources, or done any real research on the topics they are covering, but rather, they just copied what other people had SAID about those primary resourced. Ever heard of the game telephone? Yeah, this textbook kinda ends up like that. It's hard to sort out the real facts through all the flowering language, and constant time jumps. Also, the authors seem to hate all Americans. Every single person they talk about, they hate. They're derogatory, and tell you how all these people are horrible, horrible, humans, and show a completely one-sided point of view, without ever giving thought that their might have been MOTIVE for their actions (if the actions actually happened, which you can never really be sure of with this book.) Please, please, please, I have read countless AMAZING U.S. History textbooks. PLEASE, if at all possible, read a different book. This book will make you hate humans, and history.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-25 00:00:00 Daniel Shaner While not exciting, a good, solid and very readable history of America through reconstruction.