ISBN0618375899

I am a high school student who just recieved this book for the year. The teacher claims that it is a college level text book, and after a few nights of reading, i agree with him. This stuff is really hard to read. It reads somewhat similarly to a primary source, very wordy with very long sentences. It is very hard to concentrate while reading, so it is vital to take notes while reading. My class and i agree that 10 pages takes about an hour with notes. And it is hard to take notes out too because it is difficult to pick out the most important information.

I teach a U.S. History course for a local college and have utilized this textbook in conjunction with more substantive books that provide deeper assessment and critical analysis of historical events. While this text is good for a survey course, I would not recommend it for a history student who wants to delve into a more nuanced and robust analysis of U.S. History. The tone and pace is what one might expect from a textbook, laborious to read and monotone in prose. One nice aspect is the introduction of controversial topics throughout the text. While the book does not provide an expansive background of the more controversial topics, it does provide a satisfactory introduction that can lead to a more in-depth review from other sources of both primary and secondary nature.