History Nation: A Citizen's Guide to the History of the United States

by David Hanna

HISTORY NATION joins the best aspects of E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World with Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Multiple-award winning teacher and author, David Hanna, makes sense of our nation's history by connecting past to present, and reminding us of our best and worst moments as teaching tools for the future. This volume's economy of style and surprising details will make it enjoyable for people who enjoy reading history, as well as those who usually don't. There's a little bit of something for everyone in this "guide" to our common past.

"David Hanna has created a useful, richly layered resource that enlightens readers on the history of the USA... The book is a bountiful supply of information that reflects the author's attention to detail and his meticulous efforts in crafting it.

Hanna doesn't waste words but gets his information across skillfully. Since it covers various historical themes and topics in a concise and straightforward manner, the time-constrained reader will appreciate that they can receive great value from it in their spare time... a reminder to never stop learning."-San Francisco Book Review

Genres: History, Nonfiction

359 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 11, 2024

About the author

I am an author based in New York and Morris County, New Jersey. I grew up in the Pemaquid region of Maine.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

History Nation: A Citizen's Guide to the History of the United States. David Hanna. Morris & Essex Books, 2024. 357 pages.

David Hanna has written an excellent and concise overview/review of American history, just in time for America's semiquincentennial, and I'm extremely jealous. Hanna is a high school history teacher and author, and he's basically written up his class curriculum. It feels like his curriculum and mine were very similar. Here, he's told America's story, albeit in broad strokes, the good, the bad, and the ugly, using the "city on a hill" theme as bookends, from John Winthrop's use of the phrase in 1630's "A Model of Christian Charity" to Ronald Reagan's invocation of the phrase throughout his political career. He connects events and ideas across time and makes them incredibly accessible. It is a progressive and inclusive historical summary, but it's much more balanced and objective than Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, a book that some reviewers have compared it to. If you're interested in celebrating "America250" with a solid review that will encourage thinking about America's story and how it should be studied and taught, this is a great book for you.

[Brown67 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Hanna's book on the naval war in 1812-1815 some years ago, and I really enjoyed it so when I saw this new one on U.S. history, I bought it. You can tell right away that Hanna has been teaching this material for a long time, and that he loves it, and has thought a lot about it. History Nation is different than his War of 1812 book. But it's equally as good, or maybe even better. Highly recommend for people who like reading history, like me, but also for people who don't usually like reading about history. I also recommend the paperback format because it isn't cumbersome to carry around, and the font and spacing is large enough that someone my age doesn't have to strain their eyes to read it.