A History of the American People

by Paul Johnson

Book Overview

"As majestic in its scope as the country it celebrates. Johnson's] theme is the men and women, prominent and unknown, whose energy, vision, courage and confidence shaped a great nation. It is a compelling antidote to those who regard the future with pessimism."-- Henry A. Kissinger

Paul Johnson's prize-winning classic, A History of the American People, is an in-depth portrait of the American people covering every...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060168366
• ISBN13: 9780060168360
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 1104 Pages
• Weight: 3.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.3" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully written! By a great historian!

Paul Johnson is one of the expert historians of our time. He's written many many wonderful books all worth a read. He is an expressive writer and gets to the meat of things without the droll of a textbook. This is a lot of book with a lot of good history and it is very well written keeping your interest. It is so much better than the fraudulent trash by Howard Zinn who hated America! Paul Johnson is a Brit who loves USA & our history and does a compelling narrative in this great read. It is one of the best & you will learn a lot about your country and why it is so important to know what our founding fathers intended. They weren't perfect men but they were prescient and very wise.

Great corrective to what's out there

While I wouldn't recommend that my students read only Paul Johnson's work on US History, I would definitely recommend that they read it in accompaniment to their texts. Johnson is rightly to be credited for providing a more balanced and optimistic view of the American people/government than is prevalent in the majority of publishing firms today. He does not shy away from criticism where it is due, but neither is he afraid to assert honor where honor is due--even if it means offending some politically correct ears. While I agree that he can be classified as a conservative, I would also note that this is not a "conservative's conservative" book. By that I mean that people who are unabashedly Republican, Religious Right, etc., will not find unscrutinized support for their revisionist accounts of history. While Johnson does overlap with certain conservative appraisals of historical events and figures, he does so on a case-by-case basis, always aiming to support his evaluations with fact. In many instances, these facts are not widely known because they have been cut out from liberal textbooks. They are not, however, smelling of the party line. Indeed, Johnson's book is fascinating for his historical scholarship, research, and deep analysis. His coverage of "forgotten" spans of time (i.e. Grant, Arthur, Hayes, Garfield) is welcome, as is his deft treatment of figures who are normally expansive in coverage (i.e. Lincoln, JFK). I found the 1860-1900 chapters to be personally most enlightening. Johnson is especially great at noticing overarching themes in government and economic life. He is not a social or sociological commentator, which will relieve some of his more liberal readers. And in fact, I believe most people--liberal or conservatve--would gain an awful lot from his research and presentation if they read with an open mind.

History as It Ought to Be Written

Whenever I have told new acquaintances that I have a degree in history, they have typically groaned. They all hate history, they tell me, because it is just names and dates. Besides, the text books in school were extraordinarily dull. Of course, history is not about names and dates, it is about people and ideas. It tells us how we came to be who we are. Paul Johnson has written that kind of history in a style that is informative, lively, and entertaining. The book is eccentric at times and opinionated -- this is the first book I have ever read that portrayed Harding in a positive light. The book is never dull. A number of reviewers have criticized this book because it is conservative. I suppose that if your perspective on life is that anyone whose political perspective differs from your own could not possibly produce a work worth interacting with or enjoying, this will be a problem. For those sufficiently confident in their beliefs to engage an informative book and decide what they will agree or disagree with, this is a great read. One reviewer seemed surprised that a conservative criticized Joe McCarthy: I suggest he should get out more. I would also recommend a couple of other Johnson books I have read: "Modern Times" -- a world history since World War I -- and "Intellectuals" -- a saucy look at the lives of several intellectual leaders of the 20th century.

Excellent objective treatment of American History

Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People" is very readable history whose objectivity is manifest. While necessarily abbreviated in many respects, the book offers a sweeping panorama of the American political, cultural, and religious landscape. It captures and defines the spirit that made this country the greatest and the most powerful in the history of mankind. Unlike most writers of the modern textbooks of history Paul Johnson understands that it is individual freedom of thought and action and the extension of that freedom to the economic, political, and religious spheres that enabled this country to dominate the rest of the world. Johnson brings to light the moral dilemma that arose when the American ideals of equality and liberty came in conflict with the economic and social pragmatism of slavery. A moral dilemma that has influenced American ideological, political, social and intellectual history since the country was founded and continues to this day, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement up to the present banal multiculturalism. He also rightly points out that attempts to restrict man's freedom through higher tax rates reduce productivity and progress. The increasing government involvement in the economy during FDR's administration probably weakened the economy and extended the Depression. The economy was recovering on its own at the time FDR took office. Johnson points out that the debilitating effects of FDR's interference with the economy remained with us until Reagan reinvigorated not only the economy but also the Ameritech spirit, which unfortunately again is under siege with Clinton's administration.Unlike most modern writers of history textbooks, Johnson gives credit where credit is due to Ronald Reagan for ending the cold war and for demonstrating to the world the inherent bankruptcy of communism and socialism and their handmaiden egalitarianism. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history without the current politically correct revisionism that permeates most modern treatments of this subject.

A readable, inclusive in the classical narrative style

Paul Johnson's "History of the American People" recalls the narrative historical style of Herodotus. Without such a classical approach, any attempt to write on such a broad topic as three hundred years of American history would be doomed to pedantry; as it is, Johnson has created a powerful, readable work that recognizes the importance of many strands of American life -- not simply politics, but art, industry, architecture, music, and religion. With this in mind, the few factual errors of which so much has been made say more about the sloppiness of the editor than the abilities of the historian. I've read a number of reviews complaining that this book only focuses on America's leaders. Either these readers have never actually read the book or the capability of politically correct True Believers to see only what they believe exceeds even my fevered right-wing-conspirator's imagination. My reaction upon reading this book was that here, finally, was a history that realized the liberal historian's dream of "history with the politics left out." Does a political history devote two pages to Tiffany glass? Does a chronicle of Dead White Senators rhapsodize endlessly on Scott Joplin or Louis Sullivan? Senator Ted Kennedy once remarked that in America, all change begins at the ballot box. While acknowledging the power of democracy, this book suggests that the most significant changes in out national life have begun elsewhere, when free citizens are left free to invent, to build, and create. That said, even I have to admit that as Johnson's narrative takes him to the period which he himself has experienced, his partisanship shows a bit -- not nearly as much as an ostensibly "objective" textbook might, but conservatives are rightly held to a higher standard. Where much is given, much is expected. Even so, however, what partisanship does creep into the narrative is nowhere near as sharp as some of the above reviewers (who seem only to have encountered Johnson's book in photocopied handouts in Washington State University's remedial history class) would have us believe. Wilson and especially Truman are given far too easy a ride, in my opinion, although I might ascribe this to a Briton's gratitude at those presidents' role in saving Europe. Johnson's treatment of Reagan, while ultimately positive, does make more of his weaknesses than would a true hagiographer. Johnson, like Walter McDougall and Stephen Ambrose, is a readable treasure among historians. We should encourage him. Buy two copies!