American History: A Survey

by Alan Brinkley

Highly respected for its impeccable scholarship and elegant writing style, Alan Brinkley's American History provides students and instructors with a broad, comprehensive approach to the American past. It offers not only a scrupulous account of American political and diplomatic history, but also a deep exploration of the many other fields that are central to a critical understanding of the nation's past: social, cultural, economic, and urban history, including the histories of the South and the West, the environment, science and technology, race, ethnicity, gender, and the global context of the American experience.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Textbooks, American History, School

1056 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Alan Brinkley was an American political historian who has taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost.

Reviews

[Amir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characters were good but the plot was horrible.
Seemed rushed.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first time reading an entire textbook from front to back. Holy shit

[Carmen Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

The amount of time Alan Brinkley took from my life is foul

[abaraona]

Can’t believe I read this entire thing

[Wm]

The book lacks partiality. I am up to chapter 4, but every chapter has some comment about slavery. If not slavery then how awful America was for indentured servants, women, farmers, Indians, immigrants and those who didn't practice a specific religion. I cannot complain, since I found the book in the trash can. I will be returning it from where I found it.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

TAKE THAT HISTORY!!!

[Roxy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brinkley, Brinkley, Brinkley. Dear god, why Brinkley?

[Yasmin]

Eh it's a history textbook
I wish the discussion of oppressed peoples had been more integrated, though

[Clarice · Rating 4 out of 5]

we had some good times together in apush.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This counts as a book right?? :P

[Brittany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just nine days and then I am done! Take me back to Europe!

[carlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this textbook was informative, but i am VERY glad to be done. i dislike the way that brinkley often seemed to rush through rather important historical events and how the textbook not written in chronological order. while i definitely learned a lot, this book also gave me a ton of unnecessary anxiety so overall would not recommend lol. also the first (and hopefully last) textbook i have ever read cover to cover

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was much more enjoyable - provides a good analysis of various wars as well.

[Earcm56 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is fine; I just don't really like reading textbooks cover to cover while outlining every chapter. But I had to read it for APUSH and now we're done, so there's that I guess.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brinkley does a great job at throwing information at the reader, but it does not form as cohesive of a narrative as it should. It felt very repetitive in its writing style, especially in the different categories of culture that come up every 2-3 chapters. The major problem with this text was the lack of chronology, which made it very difficult to read and understand at times, not having a clear picture of in what order things truly happened. Instead of being structured chronologically, though, the information is grouped more by theme, which did help to keep information about the same topic together and help the reader to think thematically. Overall, it was a good text to learn such a massive amount of information from.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish it had less chronological skipping though, and the reading gets boring sometimes. Of course it does! But it works as a SUPER broad overview of American History, and I’m happy to have read it anyways. Provides a good foundation for further investigation.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sloooowwwww read. But I guess I'm glad I read it...

[Aseel · Rating 2 out of 5]

-.- Must I answer this? Five million cows..

[Brad]

It's over!!! WOOOOOOH!!!!

[Thomas]

This was my AP US History book and while well written caused numerous late nights and come on its still a textbook.

[Xenon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best textbooks I used in high school. It was clear and very well-written. The chapters were entertaining and the format made it easy to take Cornell Notes. Highly recommend!

[Mark Cuison · Rating 1 out of 5]

APUSH

[Hiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

AP US History... that has been an intense, but great class. I'm going to miss it.

[Darrell Keller · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an AP and Honors US History teacher, I try to read as many textbooks as I can. I read the 13th Edition, published in 2009 and before textbooks like this one were required to strike a balanced approach to US History. This textbook is extraordinarily liberal, rendering the final two chapters nearly worthless for anything other than DNC propaganda. Loaded language against Republicans and Conservatives was laid on thickly; and the left-wing bias on every single issue from 1980 to Obama's election was obvious. I have not read the latest editions of the textbook, but if they are as biased as this one, then you should search for a more middle-of-the-road textbook, like Tindall and Shi's America: A Narrative. I cannot recommend this textbook.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

As textbooks go and having to read this one all the way through, I think that this is pretty good. The text is not overly verbose, the images fit very well and provide information, and it manages to stay very neutral in the chapters on the more recent times in US history. I understand that parts of this book will be outdated now, with the big political events that have happened since publication, so I did not consider that issue in my review. That said, I did find it strange that a good textbook had one big glaring page of errors. On page 62, the author messes up the familial relations and religions of the British monarchs of the time. He refers to King Charles I as a closet Catholic, which is flatly untrue, as his Catholic sympathies are generally regarded as just results of his wife's influence. He also calls Charles I James II's grandfather; James II is his son, his succession to the throne resulting from the lack of male heirs by the previous king, his brother, Charles II. Additonally, the author does seem to dart around, making the book flow rather strangely, as the last chapter (comes to mind as it was the most recent one I read) covers areas of the 70s and 90s which should have been placed in the chapters that talked mostly about those time periods