Reviews for History of the United States

The average rating for History of the United States based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-17 00:00:00 Bianka Matchett If you only have one set of U.S. History books on your shelves for middle school (and younger) children, this is the best one I've ever seen. Full to capacity for 1st person documents, and appendixes that lead you to original sources. It combines storytelling, with fact delivery. Children are given hundreds of photos from the various time periods. The books tell the stories of those who were in the margins, too. You "hear" their first person narrative; see the contrast of their intelligent narratives in stark contrast to the newspaper clippings or posters that portrayed them as villains and buffoons. These books ensure that history is never told as neat, tidy tales of heroism; rather, they learn early that history is complicated and full of well-meaning, brilliant, good-hearted people who often made terrible judgement calls and that with ignorance came fear and hatred. They find heroes and villains on all sides.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-28 00:00:00 Bill McHardy And excellent series for teaching U.S. History for late elementary, early middle grade readers. I love these books because they give history a fair shake--telling the truth without demonizing the characters, putting the story of us into the perspective of the time, rather than filtering it through our 21st century sensibilities. Some say they don't offer enough information. If you REALLY want to delve deep into US History, that's true. But that's not the point of these books. The point is to make history as interesting as possible for children. Ms. Hakim also gives plenty of resources for further exploration within the books, which is what you should do. Start with these books and explore from there with other books, videos, etc. Thank you, Joy!