 | GenghisTheHun (179)
11/19/2007 | I am sorry that I have not rated this book before. Johnson is an Englishman, but, horror of horrors, he actually LIKES the American people and writes with a factual and even hand. He is probably in the top five of great historians alive today.
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 | dutchman (0)
04/29/2002 | In his book, History of the American People, Paul Johnson retains his status as the greatest historian still active in modern times.This is a man who truly loves his work, as well as his subject, the American People. It is truly refreshing to read a history of our country which isn't weighted down with the usual revisionism most of our academic historians employ.Instead the reader is treated to clear and concise treatment of our historical events with Johnson's incisive commentary. This is a Brit who really knows how to write, and who treats our country with respect when we've earned it! Oh, and about the few fact mistakes related by another reviewer, he gets a pass from me on that charge by giving you his home address so he can revise future editions if he was in error -- talk about academic integrity! When was the last time you saw that type of humility from a major author.By the way, if you haven't read his earlier book, Modern Times, don't miss it: it's a keeper!
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Ruby (16)
02/27/2000 | I was absorbed in all 976 pgs when this came out. Its great to read a history by someone who understands and LOVES America (from the UK of course). There's some poor fact-checking here (my brother spotted multiple errors on Gettysburg of all things), but then he's far above most historians in appreciating the real causes of the Great Depression; demystifying the over-rated trinity of FDR, Kennedy and Wilson; and appreciating the spectacular increase in human well-being over the past 300 years not as an inevitability but the product of hard work and genius from American entrepreneurs and laborers. Well worth reading.
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