Rating: 
Summary: More than a Text Book
Review: While taking AP American History at my high school I was worried about how much reading I would have to sacrifice myself to. While reading did take a good 45 minutes to an hour for each chapter in The American Pageant, it was exciting venture. Unlike most texts which are filled with flat sentences, the words used to teach history in the American Pageant bounce of the page and are filled with life. The vigor that Bailey and Kennedy bring to describing history is unlike anything I have ever seen before. History is told through metaphors and figurative language, the antithesis of almost all other text books which simply state the facts with no emotion. The enthusiasm in which the book was written rubbed of on me. I was actually excited about coming home and reading about World War I, or The Great Depression, or The Spanish-American War, or The Stormy Sixties. It was a vastly entertaining book, and, while I never thought I would say this, I am considering buying myself a copy for the years to come. The American Pageant taught me more history than anything I ever read. This fact is due to one key difference between this book and all other text books I have read: The American Pageant kept me interested. I will always remember the clever writing style and substanative information that was included in every chapter. I am forever grateful to The American Pageant for showing me the intresting and exciting side of the United State's past, and, of course, for helping me recieve outstanding grades in American History.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful book...if you prefer fiction
Review: This is the biggest lie I have ever read about American History. You can only fully appreciate what you read if you are a socialist as the authors are. They neglect the simple truths such as the true causes of the Great Depression and the War eras. It is dissapointing to see so many people still duped as to truth when our textbook writers are passing off incredible works of fiction as the correct history of our nation. I can only hang my head after finishing this book....
Rating:
Summary: STILL GREAT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Review: I read Baily's American Pagaent many years ago while an undergraduate. It made me really appreciate and love American History. I still thumb through the book I had all those years ago when a trivia question comes up. I taught American History for a year in high school before going on to law school. It's been a long, long time, but I recently saw the movie U-571 and I could still remembered Baily's comments about German U-boat captains reluctance to surface to identify ships, as required by international law at that time. "Shoot first and worry about the consequences later" was the paraphrase.Thanks, Tom. You truly did make a difference for me. I still love American History 25 years after you inculcated me with that love.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, especially when faced with the alternatives
Review: I last read Bailey a year or so ago in my APUSH class, and loved it! The "confusing" metaphors, the dry wit, the opinions I often disagreed with, the obsession with the French, all of it made history "come alive" as they say, and now, thanks partly to that book, I plan on majoring in history. And I still plan on majoring in history, even after struggling through an AP Euro class with McKay's History of Western Civilization. BlAH! All those complaints about Bailey being too difficult to find information in because of all the "superfluous" pieces should try learning from master of the doldrums, McKay. Bailey will always have a place in my heart, while McKay... McKay will always have a place somewhere else... preferably far away from me...
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but at times a bit wordy
Review: I used American Pagent in my AP US History course. I enjoyed it very much. The writing was so interesting, that at times I thought I was reading a book. However, when I needed to get homework done quickly, I found that I had to read through too much commentary to find information quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: self-important witticisms a far cry from "genius"
Review: While this book did provide a good amount of the information needed for my AP US History study, the author's clever metaphors and downright snooty one-liners, so often praised as the life of the text, made me dread my reading assignments. I resent the San Diego reader's comtempt for "mediocre" students who don't have an appetite for history as told through the droning and, yes, tedious blathering of a historian too in love with his own desert-dry wit and eloquence to bother making history interesting to others. When he has to start adding footnotes to explain his own metaphors, he's been "eloquent" enough for fifty textbooks. Besides the raw historical data, this book has only been useful to me as a lesson in how not to write on historical subjects. I can only be thankful that my teacher, Bailey-loving though he is, provided us with enough supplementary material and class discussion time to rekindle our devotion to the subject, even encouraging us to challenge some of Bailey's arguments. Bless you, Mr. Ross--unless you're the San Diego reader...
Rating:
Summary: Very Informative Text on American History
Review: The American Pageant was the textbook that I used last year in my AP U.S. History class. I thought that this particular book provided a vast amount of knowledge between its covers. It provided in depth accounts of milestones in history and also added a little humor while doing so. I felt that this book was most responsible for helping me to pass the AP U.S. History exam last May. It can be difficult to understand at times especially if you use more than one textbook. If you want to read about the history of the United States, this is the book that you want to read.
Rating:
Summary: AWFUL
Review: This book is my text book for US History AP. I hate it. I can hardly handle reading a chapter out of it. The usage of metaphors and figurative language takes over the presentation of the facts. I get lost in trying to figure out what is meant by the figurative stuff and never get the facts straight. There is no overview or key points. I suggest the book for reading as entertainment but not as education.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely phenomenal work
Review: I can quite clearly remember the amazement with which I first read the opening paragraphs of Bailey's American Pageant six years ago in high school; and even now, after graduating from college in a field completely unrelated to history, I return to this text to read in my spare time just for the sheer enjoyment of it. I hesitate to even call it a text: rather, it is almost a work of art. Personally, I am flabbergasted by some of the negative reviews I've read below. Of course someone will not like this book when they haven't read it all semester, and then they have an approaching final and try to quickly skim the text and learn all the "important facts" of this nation's history. This book isn't written to satisfy the poor study habits of a mediocre, disinterested student who could care less about history; it is written to express history as seen and studied and understood through the eyes of an absolute genius: Thomas Bailey. For those who believe the book is opinionated, I'll agree with that notion. That's what historians are supposed to do -- they shape and mold historical events into tangible, real entities that one can relate to, rather than just relate dry facts and statistics. (That's what an encyclopedia or government records are for.) If I could, I would give this book more than 5 stars -- surely it deserves as much.
Rating:
Summary: Makes history fun
Review: the only way in which one can call this book tedious is if one never cracks the binding. This is one of the wittiest books I have ever read. It turned me on to a love of history. This book neads to be READ not just skimmed. As much is said between the lines then is said in print.
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