The Oxford History of the American People by Samuel Eliot Morison

The Oxford History of the American People Reviews

• 
  Julio Pino

  "America is a mistake---a gigantic mistake".---Sigmund Freud, on his one and only visit to the United States
  
  Studies have shown that recommending a history book to Americans is right up there with "Of course I'll still respect you in the morning" and "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" for friendly advice. Nevertheless, I am going to try. Samuel Eliot Morison (that's Admiral Morison to you, since he served with distinction during World War II) has written the best one volume critical study of American history from pre-colonial times to the Era of Nixon, around the time the Admiral retired. A crusty old sailor and curmudgeon, Adm. Morison felt no fear in rendering Zeus-like judgments on every topic in American history. Some sample nuggets: "The remarkable thing about the American Revolution is not that the Americans won but that it took them so long to do it, given the advantages they enjoyed over the British, fighting 3,000 miles from home". On the War of 1812: "The American plan of war, which called for the invasion of Canada, was stupid". How about the election of 1876, which produced His Fraudelency, Rutherford B. Hayes? "There is no longer any doubt this election was stolen". Morison has his heroes, particularly Washington and Lincoln, but his zingers on his fellow Americans would make Gore Vidal proud. He sees no march of progress in American history, only victory and folly just like any other nation. He is sadly weak on Native American and Hispanic contributions to U.S. history, and much more substantial on Black history, from slavery to the Civil War to the Civil rights movement. A splendid writer who you would assume would tilt much farther to the right. Caveat: Be careful which edition you purchase. Some stop at the Kennedy administration, the later ones at the moon landing.
• 
  Wanda

  It was a nice summary, but it has no footnotes and no bibliography, which is really frustrating. Morison often cites intriguing data but doesn't tell you where he got it. For example he gives a fascinating, if grim, run down of lynching statistics, but provides no hint of where this information came from. Ditto with the economics of slavery--which really explained what a money-maker the cotton/slave racket was for the big plantation owner--but where did that information come from?
  Also, the book should have ended with the FDR administration because after that it reads like journalism and personal opinion as he counts down to 1964 and publication. Truman was a genius, Eisenhower was a doofus, Kennedy was the second coming.... Blah, blah. He heaps praise on Robert MacNamara, the man who created windrows of corpses in southeast Asia; Morison praised him because he didn't know, of course, what the future would bring. He should have stuck to writing history and when he couldn't do that any more, he should have stopped.
  Still and all, I enjoyed reading the book. One surprise for me was how nasty the British were to us throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and only began to make nice to us after we were more powerful economically than they were, and the Germans were beginning to scare the royal crap out of them. They were really nasty little weasels during the Civil War. We shoulda taken Canada in revenge! But why we didn't--and what we did do--was quite amazing.
  Speaking of Canada, Morison throws in a nice parallel history of Canada as he recounts American history. I enjoyed that quite a lot, as I knew absolutely nothing of Canadian history. Now I know about the attempted Canadian revolt against Britain in 1837, which the British forcibly put down, hanging the revolutionaries, and about how we threatened war over Skagway.
  But the Canadian revolt sketch reveals a weakness in Morison's presentation: He relates it almost as a joke incident, dismissing it as somewhat ridiculous. That's in stark contrast to the serious, professional way Frederick Jackson Turner provides information about it in The United States, 1830–1850: The Nation and Its Sections, which I checked to get more information about this incident. Morison, it seems, is not so much a historian as a raconteur who happens to know a lot about American history.
  Morison also sketches in Mexican history, too, though not as thoroughly, which was also interesting, and though I already was familiar with Mexican history, he related anecdotes about personalities that were both interesting and enlightening.
  One thing that grates on contemporary sensibilities is Morison's constantly referring to American Indians as "redskins." But one of the good things about reading old books like this one is that you get a flavor for how people thought in those days: "Coloreds," "redskins," "John Chinaman".... This from an educated, clearly liberal, east coast establishment type.
  I have to say I got a better feel for the Franklin Roosevelt administration from Morison's chapters on it than I did from Leuchtenburg's Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, perhaps because Morison pulled out the highlights and made them relevant in the context of the entire national story.
  I've got quite a few passages high-lighted and starred, even some post-it note markers scattered throughout the 1,122 pages of body text, and that tells me the book was worth the reading.
  Why did i read it? I bought it at a library sale. Its next stop would have been the shredder, and I couldn't let that happen.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Mike Adamchuk

  This refers to Volume 1. A readable social, political and economic history of the United States and its people. It covers the period from prehistory to 1789. So far (January, 2020), I haven't read Volumes 2 or 3.
• 
  Erik Graff

  Samuel Eliot Morison is primarily known as a naval historian and this expertise is reflected in the real excitement he exudes during discussions of naval affairs. He is also, though I have no evidence for this but the relevant portions of this text itself, an expert as regards horsemanship.
  
  The Oxford History of the American People is both a political and a social history. Available in either the original one volume edition or a current three-volume one, the book ranges from the earliest voyages of discovery until just after the assassination of President Kennedy. While most of the study is excellent, I felt that the quality fell off as he approached contemporary times. Unlike many historians, Morison is not adverse to second-guessing the politicians. Throughout, he gives his opinions of the qualities and judgements of the presidents and their major advisors.
  
  Canadian readers may be pleased to note that a running history of our northern neighbor is presented as well.
• 
  Amy Edwards

  I like this book as a reference and an additional resource for US history. It is very helpful to have a pre-Howard Zinn history around.
• 
  Eric

  Read so many times that the cover is about to fall off! Easy read, synopsis of american history.
• 
  Heather

  This is a 1000+ page volume which covers everything from the Origin of Man to John F. Kennedy so it contains a ton of information. It's not a book I would sit down and read but it's a great reference.
• 
  Zack Whitley

  Enjoyed all 1100 pages of this book. It's amazing that one person can write so much about such a broad topic as this. But he did! And did it well. This is American history, warts and all.
  
  What do I take from this book? Mostly, that things don't change: political strife and disagreement is omnipresent in American history and most presidents are mediocre at best. Even those times in history when there is a clear right and wrong that everyone can or should see, many people don't see it! How could anyone fight for the Confederacy? How could people be isolationist in the face of Nazi aggression? How did people idealize the Soviet Union? But they did. Dupes are everywhere. It's a lesson for me today: as bad as things seem in the world right now, as selfish as most Americans seem - they have been just as bad in the past.
  
  I wondered, after reading this, was Donald Trump the worst president in American history? One of the worst, certainly, but there have been others just as corrupt and just as treasonous. And as for the great, Morison clearly ranks the Roosevelts, Lincoln and Washington as the best, an opinion still more or less shared by historians today - I believe.
  
  Some reviewers feel that this book is dated. Certainly some of the terms he uses are outdated, but his judgements are sound. Morison is no racist. He sympathizes with minorities and sees injustice when it happens. He also sees the good in America - the benefits that have accrued to so many of its citizens and the positive influence it can have in a world usually ruled by mighty dictators to the detriment of its population. All in all, this is a book full of hope.
• 
  Avis Black

  Available at the Internet Archive:
  
  https://archive.org/details/oxfordhis...
• 
  Jeff

  Just finished up re-reading the sections on pre-revolutionary history. Terrific. Great book that should be on your shelves. Easy to pick up just a section
• 
  Bob

  Excellent. Used volume 3 to review for a diplomatic exam.