Portrait of America Vol. 2 from 1865 7th ed.

by Stephen B. Oates

Book Overview

PORTRAIT OF AMERICA is an anthology of essays written by some of America's most eminent historians. The collection maintains a loose biographical focus. The essays in this secondary-source reader... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395900786
• ISBN13: 9780395900789
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 447 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 24.1" x 19.7"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic supplement

A secondary source reader is a hugely valuable resource for teaching American History. Portrait of America is a fantastic supplement to any US History Survey. Each essay, written by a prominent historian, provides a sophisticated analysis of certain events and personalities in American History, in more depth and detail than any survey text provides. The variety of viewpoints taken by the authors also provide an excellent springboard to discussions of historiography. I use it as a supplemental reader, along with a survey text and a primary source reader, for teaching an Advanced Placement US History course. I have also used individual selections for teaching non-AP level US History courses to high school students.

Good survey of American History

I assigned this book to my AP and Dual Credit classes for outside reading. It has submissions from several authors which exposes students to different viewpoints and writing styles. The students got a lot out of each essay and were able to better understand the topics discusses in class. Highly recommended.

A Flowing Reach

The book contains various writings about the time from Reconstruction to the end of the Cold War. The assembled multitude of capable scholars, from Eric Foner on Reconstruction, to Paul Fussell on the Great War, all combine clarity and brevity of text with insightful analysis to make this an enjoyable read. The questions at the end of each selection make this even more useful to a high school U.S. History teacher and his students. The range of topics also adds to the enjoyability of the book. The topics include Sitting Bull, Women's Suffrage and WWI, the Bomb, Vietnam, Betty Friedan and Richard Nixon, among many other people and events. It is well worth the read.