The New Nation (History of Us) Vol. 4

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Summary: The American experiment goes from theory to practice
Review: The reason Joy Hakim's "A History of US" series is so perfect for home schooling is that she actively engages her young readers in each volume. Usually in a history textbook like this the author is primarily concerned with presenting a lot of information in a captivating manner. There is some attention paid to the importance of people and events, but it is often left to the teacher in the classroom to make the connections and bring history alive for their students. However, Hakim takes a much more actively role in her textbooks. She is constantly asking her young readers to put themselves in the position of the people she is writing about and does an excellent job of anticipating questions that students would ask while reading about this particular events.

Volume 4 in this series deals with "The New Nation 1789-1850," which is the longest period of time covered in a single volume after the first two, which covered epochs from the first arrival of humans in North America to the entrenchment of the British in America. Hakim begins with the nation getting started with the inauguration of George Washington as the first President and ends with the Compromise of 1850, the watershed event that forestalled the coming of Civil War for another decade. However, the next volume in the series, "Liberty For All? 1820-1860" clearly overlaps with this one big time. This volume deals with the War of 1812 and the Seminole Wars while "Liberty For All?" covers the Mexican American War. The best way to describe the basic distinction between the two volumes is that this one looks at the country as a political experiment while the other deals with the expansion of the nation.

"The New Nation" is basically divided into four sections. The first (Chapters 1-9) deals with the Federalist administrations of George Washington and John Adams, including a look at the key principle of judicial review. The second (Chapters 10-20) deals with the nation from the presidency of Thomas Jefferson to that of Andrew Jackson, which involves both the Indian question and the War of 1812 (a.k.a. the Revolutionary War Part II). The third section (Chapters 21-26) contrasts American ingenuity with the treatment of the Indians. The final section (Chapters 27-36) addresses the slavery issue and the rise of the Abolitionists, ending with the great debate in which Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster gave their final great speeches (I have a background in rhetoric so this is one of my favorite parts of American history).

Hakim's focus is on how the principles of the revolution embodied in Constitution had to be enacted in practice. She underscores that at this point in American history the idea of "people," (as in "we the People") does not mean what it means today. If you are not an adult, white, free, male, property owners, then you are not really a citizen (and it is not until the Gettysburg Address that Lincoln makes the idea that "all men are created equal" part of the national consciousness). Anyhow, I agree with the impulse to have some overlap between the two volumes bridging the Revolution and the Civil War and to provide a clearer focus on the political and social elements by dealing with them this way.