The American Spirit: Since 1865

Rating:
Summary: Great teacher source
Review: As a secondary school social studies teacher I found this book very helpful. There are numerous sources, and each has an informative and interesting introduction. A broad range of sources include everyday people and politicians, cartoons, letters, and speeches. A must have for the social studies classroom!

Rating:
Summary: The Spirit is willing but some documents are weak
Review: Bailey and Kennedy's documents collection is now a standard in secondary schools and some colleges, and with good reason. The book is well-organized, contains excerpts short enough that students can read them as complements to a narrative text (or even in class), and the authors generally include multiple perspectives on controversial issues. The section on the Spanish/American/Cuban/Filipino war, for example, provides at least one document from each "side," making this a useful resource for those of us who teach.

Readers should beware, however, that subsequent revisions of the original edition have not kept pace with developments in historical inquiry. The book is very lean on social history, and there are almost no documents on cultural history. Furthermore, the collection is very idiosyncratic in its inclusion of African-Americans and women. For example, the text does not include an excerpt of the Brown v. Board decision of 1954 and omits any mention of second-wave feminism in its collection of documents on "the stormy sixties."

Perhaps the 10th edition will be more inclusive, but for now I'd suggest students -- and teachers -- of American history seeking for a supplementary documents collection keep looking.

Rating:
Summary: The Spirit is willing but some documents are weak
Review: I thought this was a wonderful collection of primary sources that really encouraged the further learning of History. Bailey does such a nice job with this book.

Rating:
Summary: I read it and took notes on it
Review: I thought this was a wonderful collection of primary sources that really encouraged the further learning of History. Bailey does such a nice job with this book.