Book Review - A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

 Book Review - A History of the American People by Paul Johnson


I don’t really like using textbooks in our homeschool, especially for history.  A History of the American People by Paul Johnson is definitely not a textbook, but it does give a thorough history that will enrich an education.  This book was recommended in The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise and was also recommended on this year’s G3 Reading Challenge, so I decided to check it out as a possibility for part of my high schooler’s American history credit.  I’m so glad I did.  Don’t get me wrong, reading it was daunting, it is almost 1000 pages, but it was worth the time.  Paul Johnson delivers a very readable and well written history of the United States and her people from the beginning of colonization up to 1997.  There were times when the perspective given was different from one I had heard in previous courses and readings, and this enriched my understanding.  I would recommend this as a great read for anyone who would like to know more about the history of our nation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am not . . .

OK, it has been a while since I blogged, but today I am feeling a little inspired. I am struggling mightily, again. Guilt. All the mistakes of the past. All the mistakes of the present. Guilt. I was listening to some music this morning, trying to focus on praise, when a song came on talking about how much I was forgiven. And grace washed over me, again. I am forgiven. Right there in the laundry room, while folding to mountains of clothes, I said it, out loud - "Go away, Satan, and take your guilt with you! I am forgiven, and that is all there is to it!" Peace. Followed quickly by my usual need to find a friend of my childhood. I do some googling, again. Maybe success this time, maybe not. But why do I have this terrible need to keep looking to people of my past? What am I clinging to? What am I running from? This week is a restful break. Don't get me wrong, there is still work to do. But instead of having school, we are just going to do some cleaning and relax a little. Y
Read more

Book Review - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

  Book Review - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage is different from most of the books I read.  It is like an impressionist painting.  Where the painting uses light, color, and brush strokes to evoke the feeling of the moment rather than an exact image of the scene, this novel uses imagery to evoke the feelings of the battle while not really describing the battle as a whole.  It is more realistic than the romantic renderings of battle usually given.  Whereas is many “war” novels soldiers are seen as heroes and the battle as something great and glorious, this novel describes the horror, the fear, the stress and strain, as well as the feelings of heroism and victory.  While I would read this first before I let my kids read it as it is somewhat graphic, I think high schoolers should be able to handle it and would do well to work through it in a group or class.  This is a great companion to any study of the Civil War.  
Read more

Beauty in the hard times

  I live in the woods.   There is a ring of grass around my house and then woods, including lots of weeds.   There are cacti around, which seems odd based on the climate and makes me wonder if someone dumped them out at one time.   There are also some weeds that have weird silvery leaves with spikes on the edges.   Today, I looked out of my window and one of the cacti has a beautiful yellow flower on top.   The spiky weed just a few feet away has a lovely purple bloom.   Isn’t it amazing how something so harsh, even painful, can have beauty come from it?   I am reading a book of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons from the book of Job (I’ll get to a book review on it when I finish).  Job suffered a lot and not because of anything he did or didn’t do.  Sometimes life is just hard.  Sometimes, God allows us to suffer so that we will have all the extra and unnecessary stuff stripped away and He can bless us with better.   That’s what I think of when I see these difficult “weeds” crowned wi
Read more