What do you think?
Rate this book
Patriot's History of the Modern World, Vol. II: From the Cold War to the Age of Entitlement, 1945-2012
The historians turn their focus to America’s role in the world since the end of World War II
The second volume of A Patriot’s History of the Modern World picks up in 1945 with a world irrevocably altered by World War II and a powerful, victorious United States. But new foes and challenges soon arose: the growing sphere of Communist influence, hostile dictatorships and unreliable socialist allies, the emergence of China as an economic contender, and the threat of world Islamification.
The second volume of A Patriot’s History of the Modern World picks up in 1945 with a world irrevocably altered by World War II and a powerful, victorious United States. But new foes and challenges soon arose: the growing sphere of Communist influence, hostile dictatorships and unreliable socialist allies, the emergence of China as an economic contender, and the threat of world Islamification.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published December 5, 2013
29 people are currently reading
405 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 12, 2016
First, I would like to preface the review with the fact that I got this book for free. I won it through First Reads.
So from the title of the book, I expected it to be one of those America-is-so-great kind of histories of America. I was right. The book goes on and on about America exceptionalism.
Some claims that the book makes are so outrageous that they are humorous. For example, the book states that Obama's reelection in 2012 was "perhaps one of the most unexpected political events of the last seventy-five years" (565). Anyone who followed the 2012 election would know that statistician Nate Silver predicted that Obama would win. Obama's reelection was hardly unexpected. If one wanted to talk about an unexpected political event in the last 75 years of American history, perhaps a better example would have been Truman's victory in the 1948 election when Chicago Daily Tribune erroneously published the headline, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN."
Also, the book claims that Carson's Silent Spring contained "many falsehoods and exaggerations" (499), yet A Patriot's History seems to be guilty of the same as it claims that new fracking technologies are "environmentally friendly" (569). The authors seem to fail to realize that fracking still remains an environmentally harmful process and new technologies can take years to fully implement.
Some parts of America's history are lacking in A Patriot's History. For example, the Civil Rights Movement is reduced to only a few pages.
Because of all these faults, it was difficult for me to enjoy this book.
So from the title of the book, I expected it to be one of those America-is-so-great kind of histories of America. I was right. The book goes on and on about America exceptionalism.
Some claims that the book makes are so outrageous that they are humorous. For example, the book states that Obama's reelection in 2012 was "perhaps one of the most unexpected political events of the last seventy-five years" (565). Anyone who followed the 2012 election would know that statistician Nate Silver predicted that Obama would win. Obama's reelection was hardly unexpected. If one wanted to talk about an unexpected political event in the last 75 years of American history, perhaps a better example would have been Truman's victory in the 1948 election when Chicago Daily Tribune erroneously published the headline, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN."
Also, the book claims that Carson's Silent Spring contained "many falsehoods and exaggerations" (499), yet A Patriot's History seems to be guilty of the same as it claims that new fracking technologies are "environmentally friendly" (569). The authors seem to fail to realize that fracking still remains an environmentally harmful process and new technologies can take years to fully implement.
Some parts of America's history are lacking in A Patriot's History. For example, the Civil Rights Movement is reduced to only a few pages.
Because of all these faults, it was difficult for me to enjoy this book.
February 8, 2014
I received this book from Good Reads as a result of a drawng.
Of what I have read of this book, I have enjoyed it. For me, the book is too long and full of details that I just can't latch on to right now. I wish I could. Because of this, I have found I have stopped reading entirely for the last month because of feeling overwhelmed by the length of this book. For some, 600 pages is nothing, to me, I could have read many other books by now. While I read this book, I think of other books I could be reading and finishing.
I will keep this book on my shelves and read it from time to time. Maybe one day I will finish it. For now, I want to move on.
Of what I have read of this book, I have enjoyed it. For me, the book is too long and full of details that I just can't latch on to right now. I wish I could. Because of this, I have found I have stopped reading entirely for the last month because of feeling overwhelmed by the length of this book. For some, 600 pages is nothing, to me, I could have read many other books by now. While I read this book, I think of other books I could be reading and finishing.
I will keep this book on my shelves and read it from time to time. Maybe one day I will finish it. For now, I want to move on.
April 9, 2014
I received A Patriot's History of the Modern World, Vol.II as a Goodreads Giveaway and would recommend it to others with the caveat that it is "conservative" history. This book is an informative, detailed history of the past sixty decades. However, the authors viewpoint and bias is often in the forefront. Realizing this, the reader is still able to learn about past events.
I found the Time Line which introduces each chapter and the authors ability to follow trends to be a helpful insight into how the past connects to the present. This book is more than just facts.
I found the Time Line which introduces each chapter and the authors ability to follow trends to be a helpful insight into how the past connects to the present. This book is more than just facts.
July 20, 2016
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. This is a bit biased, but did my best to put that aside and pay attention to the facts. Which is the way I approached A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. There was some places where the rah rah, USA chant was a bit too much but factually well done. Too bad there is not an honest approach to history today and political agendas (left and right) are of more importance than the honest truth when writing history today.
Want to read
December 5, 2013I won this book from the first reads giveaways and I am so excited to read it. Thanks.
June 21, 2014
My rating is 5 stars for content, 4 stars for writing style.
Highly recommend reading with a highlighter and bookmarks. You'll want to refer back to key passages. These are a few of my favorites.
Page xi: "The salient point of the post-World War II period was that by 1957 no nation had adopted the four pillars that made American exceptionalism successful in the first place. As developed in the first volume of this history, those pillars consisted of a Christian (mostly Protestant) religious foundation, free enterprise, common law, and private property with titles and deeds."
Page xvi and xvii has a great chart that illustrates clearly which types of governments are most dangerous to its people. "But the point stands that by far the most deadly ideological systems were the Communist, fascist, and authoritarian systems tested on multiple occasions."
Page 73: "Not until William Graham Sumner's essay 'The Forgotten Man' (which today would be America's middle class) in What Social Classes Owe to Each Other did an academic challenge the fundamental immorality of socialism. Sumner asked how any individual or group had the moral right to burden any other."
Page 74 has a good paragraph on Friedrich von Hayek. "Attempting to take from the engine of an economy, private-sector business, and transfer resources to unproductive elements through government action (redistribution of the wealth) meant that all would suffer, leveling all nonelite humanity in hopeless poverty."
Page 125: Really cogent point by German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who said that anyone who "strives for a centralization of political and economic power in the state or in a class and who as a result advocates the principles of class conflict, is an enemy of freedom of the individual; he necessarily prepares the way for dictatorship in the thoughts and feelings of his supporters, even if it is another who takes the prepared path."
Page 478: I was shocked not to know about this!?!
"In 1981, during the gubernatorial election in New Jersey, a lawsuit was brought against the Republican National Committee et al., accusing them of violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States. To settle the lawsuit, in 1982 the RNC entered into a consent decree, which was national in scope, forbidding the RNC and all subsidiary and affiliated organizations from engaging in activities to ensure ballot integrity, ballot security, or other efforts to prevent or remedy vote fraud unless the RNC obtained court approval in advance. This little-known agreement opened the door for Democrat Party fraud that could not be contested by the Republicans. An appeal affirmed the lower court's decision, and since 1982, the consent decree has been renewed every year by the original district judge, a Democrat appointee."
January 16, 2014
The main driving point to this work is the power of American exceptionalism and how its decline within the American consciousness has led to a material decline not only within the U.S. itself, but also around the world (the latter having lost the guiding light of the former). What this line of thinking seemingly ignores, however, is the inherent problem with such "we have it right, and everyone else has it wrong" mentality, particularly when applied to overt political thinking. Some very similar cases, including the former Yugoslavia, the former USSR (to some degree, anyway), Rwanda, and the Koreas, among others, are railed against for their ultra-nationalism and misguided political myopia, while the same ideas are being promoted by the authors with respect to the US. Making matters worse are the mis-conflations of terms by the authors (apparently communism and socialism are the same things, as are other pairs), their straight demonization of both communism (in general and as the particular political ideology espoused by the Soviet Union) and "liberal"/"progressive" ideologies, and the inconsistencies of many of their arguments (for example, communist infiltration into the American government and populace was a huge threat, despite the fact that popular acceptance of communist policy was minimal to say the least and the apparent near-hijacking of the government by foreign agents didn't really do much to help their Soviet handlers all that much, given how the Cold War panned out). Ultimately, it was obvious from the title and subtitle that this was going to be a heavily slanted and ideologically-centered work, but it was more saddening to see the authors' blindness to their own inconsistencies than it was to be preached at by nostalgia-goggled, everything-was-so-much-better-back-in-the-day-and-today-is-the-beginning-of-the-end-times ideologues. Let's all agree to disagree, but let's not think that everything is going to fall to pieces if we're not listened to, shall we? If nothing else, this work does in fact highlight the fact that History (with a capital H) is beyond the reach of human minds: This is "A...History" of the time period, not THE history, thus allowing for other (potentially competing/antithetical) interpretations of the same events/sources. So there's that...
April 13, 2014
I received A Patriot's History of the Modern World, Vol.II as a Goodreads Giveaway and loved it.
So I gave this book to my husband for Christmas and he left it in the bathroom. He loves history and reads some of the book every day (if you know what I mean). Anyhow, I would read some everyday too but sometimes it was not in the bathroom and it turns out he takes the book to work . . .
Well, some of the book I remember because I grew up during most of the period covered by this book. My earliest memories occurred during the period covered by Chapter 4: Castles made of Sand. I was in the 5th grade when Kennedy was shot. And I remember Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King being shot.
And then I got to chapter 5 and there was more history that I remembered . . . Chapter 5 covers my teen age years and early adulthood. I remember Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. Woodstock happened when I was in the 10th grade. I remember Watergate, and HOLY COW – DISCO MUSIC!!! And wasn’t Jimmy Carter's brother a total embarrassment!
Now I am skipping forward to see what Chapter 6 The Ash Heap of History has in store. I remember Reagan and “Star Wars”. I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. And a whole lot more.
I found this to be an incredible book! I found it interesting and extremely readable. More background information is provided than a standard high school history text book which is sometimes too brief, even biased at times. What this book does for me is give me an inside look at what was going on at the time. All the background information was very well researched, very informative, and presented in a way that made the whole story make sense.
I have not read the full book yet, right now in the middle of “star wars” but plan to read more if my husband will ever leave the book at home. His comments so far: “good book.”
I am giving this book 5 stars because it is perfect. I think it will stand the test of time and prove itself be pretty much on target. I don’t think it is biased. All this stuff happened exactly the way I remember them happening, this book just provides background information to make the entire period more understandable.
So I gave this book to my husband for Christmas and he left it in the bathroom. He loves history and reads some of the book every day (if you know what I mean). Anyhow, I would read some everyday too but sometimes it was not in the bathroom and it turns out he takes the book to work . . .
Well, some of the book I remember because I grew up during most of the period covered by this book. My earliest memories occurred during the period covered by Chapter 4: Castles made of Sand. I was in the 5th grade when Kennedy was shot. And I remember Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King being shot.
And then I got to chapter 5 and there was more history that I remembered . . . Chapter 5 covers my teen age years and early adulthood. I remember Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. Woodstock happened when I was in the 10th grade. I remember Watergate, and HOLY COW – DISCO MUSIC!!! And wasn’t Jimmy Carter's brother a total embarrassment!
Now I am skipping forward to see what Chapter 6 The Ash Heap of History has in store. I remember Reagan and “Star Wars”. I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. And a whole lot more.
I found this to be an incredible book! I found it interesting and extremely readable. More background information is provided than a standard high school history text book which is sometimes too brief, even biased at times. What this book does for me is give me an inside look at what was going on at the time. All the background information was very well researched, very informative, and presented in a way that made the whole story make sense.
I have not read the full book yet, right now in the middle of “star wars” but plan to read more if my husband will ever leave the book at home. His comments so far: “good book.”
I am giving this book 5 stars because it is perfect. I think it will stand the test of time and prove itself be pretty much on target. I don’t think it is biased. All this stuff happened exactly the way I remember them happening, this book just provides background information to make the entire period more understandable.
October 16, 2014
I won this book through a good reads first reads give away. My heart sank when it arrived. It is huge. Almost 600 pages long without the notes. It is also quite dense, and a slow read. Quite frankly, the book made me hate books for a little while. I'd sit down to read, and when I got up, discovered I had only made it through 20 pages, then I would looka t how much further I had to go. It wasn't even that the book was terribly disinteresting. There were lots of interesting points and arguments, but the book is just so dense I can't remember most of what I actually found interesting. It is "A Patriots History" so it's very heavily right wing. This isn't all bad, it points out a lot of times where history has now proven that liberals have made mistakes or have had bad ideas. And these points aren't likely to be made elsewhere. But it's far from being balanced, or even fundamentally fair. More of an attack piece in that regard. It does point out some conservatives flaws, but the book is clearly rooting for one side over the other. And in such a way that I found distracting, and a little less worthwhile than if it had tried to be more fair.
Whats the book about? Everything from the post WWII era to the present day. It could have, and should have been made into 2 or 3 separate books
Whats the book about? Everything from the post WWII era to the present day. It could have, and should have been made into 2 or 3 separate books
January 7, 2014
The last six decades of history are documented and broken down in this volume of Patriot's History. Wonderfully broken down and easily explained, this is what history books should be like in school.
Timelines introduce each chapter and amazing information is relayed to the reader. Some of which, since I went to a private institution, I was lucky to be informed and educated of, but that is where it stopped - until now.
Winston S Churchill once said, "History is written by the victors." At one time I believed this and over time I became cynical, but now I see writer's like Mr. Schweikart that unveil the truth of history and deliver it in an inspiring and educating way.
This is the perfect addition to one's personal library, for one's own further knowledge or for the family's, it would also be great for reports, and being used as a reference.
***** This is a First Reads, Thank You Goodreads ****
Timelines introduce each chapter and amazing information is relayed to the reader. Some of which, since I went to a private institution, I was lucky to be informed and educated of, but that is where it stopped - until now.
Winston S Churchill once said, "History is written by the victors." At one time I believed this and over time I became cynical, but now I see writer's like Mr. Schweikart that unveil the truth of history and deliver it in an inspiring and educating way.
This is the perfect addition to one's personal library, for one's own further knowledge or for the family's, it would also be great for reports, and being used as a reference.
***** This is a First Reads, Thank You Goodreads ****
August 13, 2016
I received this book through a Goodreads first reads giveaway.
At 600 pages, this book is daunting in its length, but it is not in any way a difficult read. I had to remind myself many times that history texts are often (or maybe always) biased in some way, but this book is very comprehensive and informative. It contains basic information and facts about major and little-known events, and it would be enjoyed by anyone with the time to devote to reading it. It is a great book for anyone, from the merely curious reader to the major history buff.
At 600 pages, this book is daunting in its length, but it is not in any way a difficult read. I had to remind myself many times that history texts are often (or maybe always) biased in some way, but this book is very comprehensive and informative. It contains basic information and facts about major and little-known events, and it would be enjoyed by anyone with the time to devote to reading it. It is a great book for anyone, from the merely curious reader to the major history buff.
January 5, 2014
This is a Goodreads First Reads review.
History should not be trademarked, it should be kept and studied and not used to further someone’s agenda. A Patriots History is a mixed bag with some entries that provide both sides of the story, while others are slanted to a conservative view.
The authors do seem to have an agenda against liberals, the news media and “Progressives,” while glorifying some and deriding others. There are better looks at history with an unbiased viewpoint.
History should not be trademarked, it should be kept and studied and not used to further someone’s agenda. A Patriots History is a mixed bag with some entries that provide both sides of the story, while others are slanted to a conservative view.
The authors do seem to have an agenda against liberals, the news media and “Progressives,” while glorifying some and deriding others. There are better looks at history with an unbiased viewpoint.
January 11, 2014
"History is written by the victors." - Winston Churchill
I find this book to be a bit more biased than a true history book should be. But then that would be a utopian dream, wouldn't it.
The layout of the book is interesting and rather helpful to understand underlying connections. However to derive the most of those connections, it is best to enter into the reading with ample, less biased history knowledge.
I find this book to be a bit more biased than a true history book should be. But then that would be a utopian dream, wouldn't it.
The layout of the book is interesting and rather helpful to understand underlying connections. However to derive the most of those connections, it is best to enter into the reading with ample, less biased history knowledge.
February 16, 2014
The book claims to cover 1945-2012. The word for that is ambitious. Ambition is not necessarily a bad thing but this book is not successful. I cannot deny that there were successful sections. Overall however the book seems to pick and choose certain events to focus and certain points to frame their context. For example the civil rights movement was given 4 pages while a 60 page chapter was devoted to "Sex by Consent, Beauty by Consensus".
March 11, 2014
Got the book as a give away winner contest.
This is a very solid work on history and many interesting facts covered I have not being familiar with before. I liked the read and used as a research for my son schools projects. Still reading, as it is a big volume and a lot of good information
This is a very solid work on history and many interesting facts covered I have not being familiar with before. I liked the read and used as a research for my son schools projects. Still reading, as it is a big volume and a lot of good information
January 5, 2014
This is a cover of the years very informative!! Can see this being used by my hubby to prove his point and kids for reports! A must have for history lovers.
Want to read
December 30, 2013I received this book as an advanced copy. I love history and am excited to read it.
December 20, 2013
This book is fascinating, illuminating and very hard to put down. If you're interested in history this is the book for you.
Want to read
February 25, 2014I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Want to read
December 30, 2013HEY! I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. Reading it now. Thank you.
June 21, 2014
One of the best history books I have read. Well written, well documented (plenty of cites that back up the text).
November 6, 2015
It was a very good book, and explained and backed up every claim with more than ample evidence.
September 2, 2024
A massive history of the modern world. Overall a good work minus some of my quibbles with it here and there.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews