A History of the United States and Its People

This is a good book with thorough study questions. However, it is smaller than a typical textbook which I wasn't expecting, so if one has difficulty reading fine print, it may not be a good choice.

When I received the book in the mail I was immediately pleased with it's format. The dimensions differ from what is posted (instead of 13.2 x 5.5 it's closer to 8x6) which was actually a nice surprise; it's a more compact/portable book than expected. The cover illustration is printed directly on the book and not a book jacket. The illustrations inside are a very high quality. There are Hundreds and hundreds of detailed images done by a handful of artists. The Maps, like the pictures are sharp and clear. Many of the pages are also broken up with sub panels of information. Short biographies, object descriptions etc. These only add to the inviting quality of this book. Highly recommended to all, history buffs and students.

I teach History at a private middle school in California and have been using this book in class. It is exceptionally readable and includes paragraph summaries in the margins along with exquisite illustrations. It refreshingly lacks marxism and political correctness, as noted by another reviewer. This is truly the way textbooks ought to be written.

For example, this book explains why the initial British colonies of Plymouth and Jamestown almost starved: redistribution of wealth. The simple solution was to assign private property ownership. By the next harvest the result of private land ownership led to overwhelmingly plentiful food and led to our current Thanksgiving celebration. Few modern texts mention that it was primarily the lack of private property rights that led to starvation in these colonies.

One word of caution...it reads easily and provides an excellent overview, but does not go into sufficient detail for middle school. Supplemental materials are required.

This, the third book in Edward Eggelston's textbook series, is a remarkable example of how textbooks ought to be, and once were, written.

From the first page to the last, Eggleston's clarity and obvious love for the subject infused me with the desire to push on, thus learning what was to happen next. The bite-sized chapters (which are about four pages of text each) ensured that this desire did not wane out of a failure to mentally digest a ton of facts all at once. And, to top it all off, the pictures and maps inside this book actually added to (rather than distracted me from) its content.

As a current student, I can only tell you that I would love for one of my teachers to have used, or to use, a textbook like this for one of my classes. It contains nothing but solid American history and is a textbook that is at once both readable and immensely worth reading. I'm giving it five out of five stars.

A grade school history book, free from political correctness and Marxism. Unabashedly pro-American.