Inventing America, Volume 2

Rating:
Summary: standard text for general American History
Review: Inventing America is a new history of the United Sates whose unifying theme is innovation. It aims to integrate into a compelling narrative the persistent inventiveness of American in devising new political institutions and practices, economics arrangements, social relations and cultural motifs, adaptations to the natural environment, and exploitation of science and technology.

Indeed, the most original aim of Inventing America is its treatment of science and technology as integral elements of American history. Technical innovation has been important since the earliest times, from pre-Columbian peoples cultivated grains into maize. With the arrival of Europeans, Americans began importing knowledge, technology, plants, and animals from abroad, a process mirrored the import of capital, people, and culture, as we established ourselves as members of a global exchange. The activities of naturalists and scientific societies in eighteenth-century America contributed to the creation of an American identity. The technological and organizational innovation of the nineteenth century changed the ways Americans worked, lived, and spent leisure.

Inventing America serves as an effective teaching tool for the US history survey course. Each chapter features focus questions, outlines, chronologies, and thematic running heads that keep the main points in view for readers. Many features in Inventing America provide readers with a wide perspective: "American Journal" boxes use primary sources to give readers a taste of everyday life in all the major periods. And the packaged CD-ROMs contain numerous archival and original multimedia materials, including audio reading, tours into the different aspects of life, designed to supplement the text discussions.

The text is neatly done: the writing is straightforward and succinct, complete with ample maps and illustrations. As an inevitable part of composing general history, the book does in many instances sacrifices depth for breadth with a less than desirable suggested reading list at the end of each chapter.

Ideal for textbook usage in secondary schools, Inventing America nonetheless proves suitable for all learners of American history with its fresh, intuitive approach of how the nation was invented.