Kenneth C DavisDon't Know Much About® History [30th Anniversary Edition]: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned

This is a good, thorough treatment of American history. It's long (I think like 800 pp.) so be prepared for that. You can use it as a reference if you just want to look up a specific event in history, or you can read it end-to-end like a story. If you prefer your American history sanitized, this is not the book for you. If you can handle knowing that slavery was not done for the purpose of providing Black people with valuable life skills, and you can handle learning about the Trail of Tears, then you can handle this book.

The whole series of books in the "Don't know much about..." series are wonderful. Don't mistake these books for some kind of "For Dummies" book. They are packed with fascinating info and feature extensive bibliographies, that became an additional reading list for me.

I lead historical trips at our high school. This has filled in many gaps of my education.The font is pretty small though.

Considering the scope of this book -- covering American history from "discovery" of the Americas to the Obama administration -- it covers the topic with a satisfactory amount of depth at a pace that keeps the reader engaged. The writing style didn't feel dumbed down but was still accessible and readable, and the author tackles both the highs and lows of American history with equal attention and comparable amounts of objectivity. Quotes from primary sources are supplied throughout, as are recommendations for additional reading. Readers interested in a scholarly yet accessible approach to American history will likely enjoy the book -- readers looking for antiquated beliefs about American exceptionalism and other white-washed ideas may not.

This book goes in detail with our American history. I read this whole book in one week. Easy to read and understand. I now have it in our restroom for my guest to read and when they come out someone knows just a bit more about our great country. From the good and bad, history is a must.

I have to say that I really, really loved this book - to my surprise! It was assigned as the text book for a Legal Analysis of U.S. History class. However, it's really not a legal book at all. My only complaint is that it is definitely written with a little bit of a liberal buyist and slant. However, other than that it is excellent and super interesting. It's not like the super boring history text books of childhood and not long that way either. It makes this stuff really real, relevant and highly interesting. This book covers America from 1492 with Columbus and the Indians to President Obama! It was really shocking for me to learn just how we got "HERE" on so many different subjects (even including our relationship with Iran and the mess of North Korea, and who were the pilgrims and first settlers here really anyway). It answers all the questions you could possibly have. Amazing reading!

Obviously the title of the book is a misnomer. It is clear from the start that it is concerned only with American history. The goal of the author is to make history interesting so that people who have dosed off in history class can get interested again. In that regard, the book is successful. There is a strong narrative flow and a suspense that keeps you turning pages, despite the awkwardness of the question-answer format and the annoying repetitiveness. Pluses include the "voices", excerpts and quotes from historical figures and documents, as well as a long list of book recommendations for those wishing to delve further.The book suffers from major flaws, however: in many places, it is shallow as well as selective in its choice of topics. Much of the book boils down to a narration of "facts" without much analysis, the kind of information you could get reading headlines in news archives. While there is an argument for not making the book excessively long, much space is wasted by those "timelines" of every war and crisis that serve no purpose other than to bore the reader to death.Secondly, the selective choice of topics is most visibly felt in the area of foreign policy. Much of the outside world is disregarded until it makes itself felt (e.g., during a war). In this, the book is symptomatic of isolationist American culture as a whole, where people will look up a country only after we have troops there. That tendency to ignore the outside world is precisely why American foreign policy is in shambles. If a book that proclaims the wish to re-educate Americans about history is woefully inadequate when it comes to describing America's relation with the outside world, then there is no hope!As an example, I choose the Middle East. That region, of vital importance to the US, recipient of the bulk of US foreign aid, heavy trade and influence, and location of most of America's recent wars, is brought up in only a few places. A few pages are devoted to it in connection with the Arab Oil Embargo, without much explanation of the background - why the Arabs and Israel were fighting. There is no real discussion of the question of Palestine, the deep injustice most people in the Arab world feel about that issue, and the role of the US in creating and perpetuating that injustice. The US role in the failed Peace Process of the 1990s is completely absent. The book talks about the two Iraq wars, again without much background as to the whys. There is no mention of how, throughout the 1990s, Dick Cheney and others in the subsequent Bush administration were lobbying Clinton for an Iraq War. There is no mention of the Caspian Oil pipeline, again a desire since the 1990s and one of the major reasons for a war in Afghanistan.Finally, the book is more or less a "names and dates" book. Too many pages are devoted to descriptions of presidents and their campaigns, and too few devoted to describing how ordinary Americans lived. A much better read is Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States", but even that has gaping holes in foreign issues, especially when it relates to the Middle East.

Such a great book! I've been intimidated while reading up or studying American history before, but this book is very user friendly. It's easy to find main events from a period in history and get more information as wanted. What I appreciate most is that Davis acknowledges different points of view. He neither demonizes nor idealizes historical figures. As a future teacher, I've really wanted to know the facts from the opinions! Take Christopher Columbus for example (a very controversial figure these days). Davis debunks the common myths (ex. what did he really discover?), while acknowledging BOTH his great successes and his devastating errors. Personally, I think this is critical when reflecting on historical events and how they've shaped our country today. In general, you'll encounter different current historical interpretations and explanations of how culture impacted each era.

I received it on 26 August ( it arrived earlier than I had expected ). The book itself is very interesting. School text books very often describe the fabricated history ( especially regarding wars ) to convince the people for jusification of the government's wrong decision and we tend to have biased vision about it, however, we ourselves should always try to have another view point in order to verify the truth with more flexible mental atrtitude. This book can give us such opportunities.

Funny, interesting and easy to read. If all books were like this one people would read history all the time!

I had the unabridged 1990/1995-version on compact cassettes (heard it through >10 times from beginning to end) and bought this for an update. Dick Estell read it far better - he thought about what he read, he "lived" it, whereas Arthur Morey's reading is superficial (is that the right word? - I'm a German) - Morey does not transmit Davis' emotional writing. Estell did!This abridged 5-CD version is (for my taste) also much too short. Esp. the 18th/19th century, plus the period until Carter are reduced to some crucial events, and so many interesting parts were victims to the shortening.To the historically interested, I'd recommend the unabridged version - however: that's 29 hours! And available on Audible only, as far as I know. If you want that, but don't have audible, buy a used old one (which has the huge advantage of Dick Estell as the narrator!), plus this 6,5hr update, esp. for the period from Bush sr. to Obama.Anyhow - for a 6.5hr-rush through American History - this anniversary edition is still perfect.As others pointed out, this recommendation is mainly for liberal or open minds. Davis does not evade or downplay dirty spots in America's history or it's protagonists.For conservative republicans with too low blood pressure, it's also perfect ;-)H.Hellwig

I really like everything written by Kenneth Davis. This is no exception. In fact, I liked it so much that I've given it as a Christmas present.

smashing