Become a US trivia whiz with this crash course through four centuries of change, rebellion, conflict, and triumph in the United States.
Where was America’s lost colony? What tipped the balance in the Civil War? Were there second thoughts about dropping the atomic bomb?
Acclaimed historian Dan Roberts—host of radio’s A Moment in Time—takes readers on a bite-sized romp through five-hundred years of American history. With just one minute a day, you can master all the essential facts of America's founding, Civil War, world conflicts, domestic transformations, and more.
Packed with full-color photographs, paintings, and lively mini essays, Master American History in 1 Minute a Day is the perfect armchair companion for history lovers and history learners alike.
Dan Roberts is the consummate teacher-scholar with an uncanny ability to bring history to life for his students through his work in the classroom, for his millions of listeners on the radio with "A Moment in Time," and for the many readers of his written work, including his latest book, Master American History in 1 Minute a Day. The study and appreciation of history has rarely been so accessible to so many.
If anyone can be accurately described as a Renaissance man, it would be Dan McDonald Roberts, Jr. executive producer and host of the award-winning radio series A Moment in Time. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past and its relevance to the present and impact on the future, A Moment in Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.
After receiving a BA in history from Presbyterian College in 1969, Roberts served as an officer in the US Army, including a tour in Vietnam where he was awarded the Bronze Star in 1971. Roberts began training as a Presbyterian minister and completed his professional education at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1974. In August, 1986, he served as guest chaplain of the United States Senate.
In 1990, Roberts obtained a master's degree from the University of Richmond and, in 1997, a PhD in early modern British history and American colonial history from the University of Virginia. He is currently a professor of liberal arts and history at the University of Richmond and serves as chair of the department of liberal arts at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. He has also been a guest contributor and columnist for Education Week, USA Today, Scripps-Howard papers, and Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is often heard as a history commentator on CNN, CNN Headline News, and Fox News.
Dan is a popular jazz pianist and an avid reader. He travels each year to a part of the world for research in his continuous quest to bring history to life. He also spends a great deal of time on the road as a popular speaker for corporations, organizations, and national audiences.
Roberts has three children: Heather Elizabeth Roberts Gill, Kathleen Taylor Roberts, and Daniel McDonald Roberts, III. He also has two lovely granddaughters: Ava McKenzie Hunt and Gerica Gill.
In one page snippets, you can learn about American history from Christopher Columbus to President Biden. The book is divided into sections about exploration, colonization, the American Revolution, nationalization, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution, economic struggle and the World Wars, and the "era of social and economic advance", finishing up by calling recent history "the era of reaction, social struggle, and political contention."
I'm not sure I agree with some of these labels for recent history. Since we are right in the middle of living it, it's impossible to know how historians will look back on this time and label it; but I think there is a narrative there which the author wants to promote, and it doesn't exactly reflect real life. I did not like the political bias of the recent history section. The facts were definitely skewed in a certain political direction, and that is not a historian's job. Some of it even sounded like political propaganda, interpreting the facts in a particular way. I wish the author had just given the reader the bare facts, and let us decide for ourselves how to interpret events.
However, I did enjoy reading the sections of history that just gave the facts of the American Revolution and the Civil War, etc... It was really wonderful to read about how the colonies were first founded, how George Washington became the first president, how Lincoln died, and how so many brave men and women made this country what it is today.
American history is not pretty. Like every other country in the world, we have a dark past. What is amazing is to read about how Americans have led the world in overcoming those dark parts of our history and promoting justice and moral living. That is something to be proud of!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
I love books for young readers that adults can enjoy also. This book is set up in historic order and the articles are short and to the point. Kids will enjoy the short fact filled page while adults will rediscover tidbits of history learned in their youth. This book covers 500 years of history, and has some illustrations to help emphasize a point. This would make a perfect gift for a grandchild to help build a love of history and reading. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Disappointing. The writing was clumsy and error-filled. Topics were introduced sort of mid-thought. The photos and sketches that accompanied each chapter were entirely unsourced and uncredited. The book would have worked just as well as a bullet point list of topics to explore via the “further reading” section at the end.
I was able to use that reference to identify a few actual books to pursue on topics of particular interest to me, which is why i gave it 3 stars; otherwise, it would have been just 2.