Publisher's Weekly Review
To write a thorough, balanced history of the United States in under 400 pages is no mean feat. Remini, professor of history emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a National Book Award winner for his work on Andrew Jackson, deftly wraps his expertise and deep knowledge of his subject in stripped-down prose that provides everything a casual (or bewildered) reader needs to know about the United States from the first English colonists until the beginning of 2008. Remini's final chapters are slightly rushed and his judgments too general to be useful, but these flaws are easily overshadowed by his masterful middle sections focusing on the 19th century (his scholarly specialty). In contrast to some surveys of American history, like Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States or William Bennett's America: The Last Best Hope, Remini delivers an objective narrative of this nation's history that readers of all political stripes will appreciate. 16 pages of b&w illus., 14 maps. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
National Book Award winner Remini (The House, 2006, etc.) boils down U.S. history, illuminating the present. This neat survey begins and ends in uncertainty. Who were the first inhabitants of the New World? Is the United States now on the verge of irreparable decline? As can be expected from a biographer of Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, as well as the official historian of the House of Representatives, Remini serves up American history with a heavy dose of big-name politics. After a patronizing account of the continent's earliest inhabitants ("these natives were limited in what they could do by the fact that they had not invented the wheel"), he zips through the colonial period, the Revolution and the early 19th century. Americans, he explains, only achieved their distinct national identity after the War of 1812. The Jacksonian era then receives generous treatment. Remini remarks that Jackson transformed the executive branch by demonstrating that "all it takes is a President with determination, popular support, and leadership skills to direct both domestic and foreign policy and decide the future course of American history." John Quincy Adams had previously warned that the United States must not go "abroad in search of monsters to destroy." Nevertheless, after the Civil War, America emerged as an industrialized nation unwisely eager to spread freedom and democracy to other parts of the globe. One consequence of its continued involvement in the Philippines after the Spanish-American War was the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By the end of the 20th century, successive presidents had ignored the constitutional jurisdiction of Congress over declarations of war. Following 9/11, President Bush made "one of the most disastrous foreign policy mistakes ever committed by the United States": the invasion of Iraq. In 2008, Americans face war, terrorism, recession and the rising economies of China and India. Yet the author avers there is still reason to hope for good leadership. Astute assessments of an evolving nation and ideal reading for November voters. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The reigning scholarly biographer of Andrew Jackson, Remini has been a frequent writer of popular works on American history; his topics have ranged from The Battle of New Orleans (1999) and Joseph Smith (2002) to presidential inaugural speeches (Fellow Citizens, 2008). Here, Remini covers the whole American shebang in 368 pages, yielding a parsimonious narrative that to regular readers of American history resembles an outline but they aren't Remini's audience. He seems to be writing for those who need anchorage in the major events in the development of the U.S., a large target indeed considering the gaps in the public's knowledge of U.S. history as revealed by occasional surveys. An instructive technique Remini uses is to emphasize a precedent in history, such as the Mayflower Compact or the legislation of the First Congress under the Constitution, whose influence extends up to the present. Besides government, Remini applies this method to economics, civil rights, and foreign affairs. A good choice for general circulation needs.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The historian of the U.S. House of Representatives and a National Book Award winner, Remini nicely packs U.S, history into fewer than 400 pages. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.