Tuesday, 06 January 2009
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An American History Reader
Book Review: The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America
William Bennett and John Cribb have done Americans a great favor. They have compiled hundreds of vignettes from American history and have condensed them into short, readable, one-page accounts in this great book. The stories recounted in this volume are informative, inspirational and even surprising, at times. They will help refresh your memory of your high school or college history classes and even inspire you to search out more information on the events they highlight.
The authors have formatted the book as an almanac, with a one-page reading for each day, along with a listing of significant events that happened on that date on the calendar, along with the year it occurred. Between each month, there are also special segments which offer information on the American flags across the years, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and a number of other segments.
This book doesn’t take the place of a good American History textbook, but I think every American should read it. The book organizes the readings according to the day of the year, but not by the year, so the stories are not in chronological order. The editors have compiled and included a great, but not exhaustive index in the back. It would have been nice to have a chronological index in the book of all the events discussed also.
I am sure that I will be re-reading this book again and again. I highly recommend it to you!
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