Words That Built a Nation: Voices of Democracy That Have Shaped America’s History

by Marilyn Miller, Ellen Scordato

When originally published in 1999, Words That Built a Nation was hailed for bringing together the United States’ most important historical essays, speeches, and documents into one accessible collection for kids. Now, this history lovers’ must-have is back, and it’s been revised, revamped, and expanded for the 21st century. From the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, the updated collection preserves the documents of the first edition and introduces the landmark statements that are impacting our nation today.

With all new illustrations, a refreshed design, and complementary background information behind each of the documents, Words That Built a Nation is the ultimate tour of United States history, created to engage, inspire, and equip kids with the knowledge they need to change and shape their world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Education, Childrens

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 13, 2018

Reviews

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words That Built a Nation is fun, colorful, concise, and chock full of information. It is a great guide of the founding documents and voices that have helped shape the United States. It summarizes and analyzes important documents, provides interesting background on the authors, while giving you context on how it relates to United States history. Loved it!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty cool. An ideal classroom resource book packed to the brim with selected historical documents, a brief description for each, and a smattering of photographs. Cartoon-esque sketches make the non-fiction "academic" text perceptively more palatable.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description of this book pretty much tells you all you need to know. I would just add that I read this as an adult and found it extremely informative. I knew the historical backdrop to most of the documents, but had not read the actual words for many of them. And for those that I have, it was a wonderful refresher. I'd highly recommend this for anyone, children just learning about this country's history and adults just looking for a good overview of important events in the course of America's development.

[Elaine Bearden · Rating 5 out of 5]

g3/4-12
Oh my gosh, this is a fascinating book! And beautiful, too, with a great texture. Archival photographs, and hand drawn lettering are appealing. The content seems really solid, with the original words of a document followed by things like "response." I think this would be an interesting book to booktalk for older grades - maybe adv4/5

[Laura Hoyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfect book to refer to while teaching history to young people! I cannot wait to use it this school year!

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of famous speeches and documents that have helped shaped the United States. What I really love is that the book goes into the history and cultural climate behind the document.

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have for studying American history

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speeches and other writing pertinent to our country. Cute illustrations. I didn't read it cover-to-cover, but read some to my kids for school.

[Victoria Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! Very educational, loved reminding myself of all the wonderful & also sad moments in history!

[Kimberly Alberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primary documents made accessible for young learners. Invaluable resource for teaching and learning US history.

[Shauna Yusko · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2. Good collection of documents. Updating from a previous publication?