- Hardcover: 704 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1 edition (April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060083816
- ISBN-13: 978-0060083816
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,579,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"If you've always wondered exactly what Boss Tweed bossed andwhat Tammany Hall was, Davis is your man."-- "Washington Post Book World""Davis writes with humor, he can turn a fine phrase ... If history were usuallytaught this way, we wouldn't have to worry about the dosing of the American mind."-- "Booklist""Quirky, sardonic, accurate, rudimentary and often amusing...a breezy question-and-answer approach that is far removed from themassive textbooks all of us once lugged around."-- "Atlanta Journal and Constitution""Unquestionably a handy reference book. It's just the thing when your peskyschool-age kids try to show you up at homework time."-- "Dallas News""Refreshing and vastly informative ... fun, engrossing and significant...History in Davis's hands is loud, coarse, painful, funny, irreverent-and memorable."-- Patrida Holt, "San Francisco Chronicle"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
From Columbus's voyage to the Clinton administration, author Kenneth C. Davis carries the reader on a rollicking ride through 600 years of Americana. With wit, candor and fascinating facts, he explodes long-held myths and misconceptions -- revealing the very human side of history that the textbooks neglect.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Few eras in American history are shrouded in as much myth and mystery as the long period covering America's discovery and settlement. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Few eras in American history are shrouded in as much myth and mystery as the long period covering America's discovery and settlement. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As many people have pointed out this book is not perfect. It has some notable omissions, it has an occassionally grating liberal bias (if you are not liberal minded this may be more than occasional) and, whilst I am largely unable to varify these, it seems there are factual errors as you find in most broad surveys (some of these come down to subjectivity which is part of the joy of History!) Nevertheless, put this to one side and there is much to admire and enjoy here. For anybody who has recently read the John O'Farrell histories of Britain the format will be familiar - 1 or 2 pages briefly explaining something specific making up a chapter that attempts to explain something more broad. This book covers discovery and founding, Revolution, Civil War, emergence as world power, boom and bust, ww2, the Cold War and recent history up to Clinton. It attempts to put a number of other events or movements in the context of these broader themes.
If you have an interest or deficiency of knowledge in any, or all, of these subject areas then this is a light, readable and enjoyable introduction. Not a reference book for those who wish to study the period but a perfectly acceptable way to spend a few hours. Recommended.
If you have an interest or deficiency of knowledge in any, or all, of these subject areas then this is a light, readable and enjoyable introduction. Not a reference book for those who wish to study the period but a perfectly acceptable way to spend a few hours. Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If it's true that 'the winners write history', then it must be a corollary that liberals edit and selectively disseminate it. Mr. Kenneth Davis proves this by choosing in the main the worst, most unappealing aspects of American history, and then tries to fob it off on the public as 'Everything You Need to Know... etc'. His book is roughly the equivalent of a restaurant reviewer who rummages through the bins behind the top eating establishments and reports only on the garbage he finds. One would expect some semblance of accuracy from a purported history book, but such, alas, is not always the case. A couple of the serious howlers: William Randolph Hearst must have been a fast learner to have 'learned in the Civil War that war headlines sold newspapers', since he was only 2 or 3 when it ended; Richard Nixon made his 'you won't have Nixon to kick around any more' speech after losing the 1962 California governors' race, not after losing the 1960 presidential election. If Mr. Davis can be either wrong or misleading on small issues like this, why should we believe him on big ones? But it's about economics and law where Mr. Davis is especially suspect. For instance, in his panegyric on FDR, Mr. Davis never mentions a couple of inconvenient facts: there was no Constitutional basis for most of his New Deal, and most of what he tried not only didn't work, it made a bad situation worse. Want to know what really caused the Great Depression? Don't read this book, read Milton and Rose Friedman's account in their book "Free to Choose". Mr. Davis and other liberals still haven't forgiven Ronald Reagan for being both successful and wildly popular. Any objective reviewer of the US economy before and after the Reagan Administration would conclude that the 1980's benefited all strata of the American economy, not just 'the rich' as the liberals keep yammering on about. 'Objective' and Mr. Davis don't belong in the same sentence let alone book. A few other examples of the overall slant to this liberally biased account: if the only other man in the world whose power matched FDR's was Hitler, then what was Stalin, chopped liver? In disparaging the Marshall Plan which saved Europe following WWII as nothing but a capitalist plot, does Mr. Davis claim that Europe would have been better off under Stalin's heel? I can't wait for Mr. Davis next magnum opus, "Don't Know Much About Anything".
In an attempt to further educate myself, I picked up this book, and a few others, at a local store. I thorougly enjoyed it. It was exactly what I was looking for. There were major spots in history that I was completely oblivious to. I wanted to know what they were, but I didn't need to know every last detail. I just wanted a general understanding. This book delivers it. Another review of this book remarks how the author's opinion comes through. I agree. It comes through on many topics. However, I think it adds to the book. This isn't a text book. It's a history book that some guy wrote his own way. So what if his opinions come through? If I didn't want insight, I'd grab a high school text book.
Enjoy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Political Correct History ?
I read the book before reading the reviews. First mistake. As noted by several other reviewers, the book is laced hard factual errors. The author's liberal bias ... Read more
Published on 31 Aug 1999
Didn't know much about history until I read this book.
I hated history in highschool and especially in college but Davis makes learning about the obscure but familiar facts and phrases in American history easier to understand. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 1999
Interesting for the "non-historian"
Much has been said about what the author has left out. The author makes a decent attempt to condense American History into 480 pages of easy-reading. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 1999
The why of American history and easy to read
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is good light reading and provides some insight as to why events happen, not just that they did happen (ala school history classes). Read more
Published on 13 Jun 1999
Author Don't Know Much About History
The most appropriate place for the title of this book should be right after the author's name. Imagine writing, for example, the history of World War II without ever mentioning... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 1999
Interesting and accessible
I bought this book several years to help me prepare for the State Department's Foreign Service written exam. Read more
Published on 3 May 1999
History should be a yarn, not a yawn ... Boring and silly
Just look at the cover and ask yourself how flippant can a history book be? Why not just call it "U.S. History for Dummies"? Read more
Published on 16 April 1999
Interesting and accessible
I bought this book several years to help me prepare for the State Department's Foreign Service written exam. Read more
Published on 4 April 1999
Finally, a great supplementary book for US history students.
I am a US History teacher and I teach in North Carolina. If I did not know better, I would have thought that the author wrote this book to match our standard course of study. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 1999
A Review of U.S. "Political" History
I enjoyed Ken Davis' book on U.S. History. I read my daughters high school textbook which was filled with many interesting facts but little opinion. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 1999
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