American History in 50 Events (History by Country Timeline #1) by Henry Freeman

American History in 50 Events (History by Country Timeline #1) Reviews

• 
  Sumit RK

  This book attempts to give you a summary of the nearly 500 years of known U.S. history. From the first English settlement in US to Obama as President, selecting just 50 events from the US history is difficult but the book does a fair enough job.

  The books covers the most well-known events in US History. Like:
  - The First permanent English settlement in the United States at Jamestown
  - The Declaration of Independence 1776
  - US Civil War
  - The Great depression & The New Deal
  - U.S. involvement in World War I & II
  - Cold War & Vietnam War
  - The Moon landings
  
  Also the lesser known events like:
  - Bill of Rights
  - War of 1812 with Britain
  - Spanish American War
  
  It also has interesting trivia like Viking settlement at Newfoundland or George Washington being the only US president to win 100% of the electoral votes.
  

  Surprisingly there are many key omissions like Lewis and Clark Expedition, The California Gold Rush, Texas Revolution, The US expansion to the ‘Wild West’, JFK Assassination, Nixon & Watergate. Other key events like World War II & Civil Rights movements get insufficient coverage. It’s surprising considering Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company and Andrew Carnegie's Steel Company both get an entry (significant maybe, but not bigger than any of above events)

  The scope of this book is huge & a short book could hardly do it justice. I feel many key events were missed that should have made the cut. Having said that, considering the length it’s still a decent attempt. Hopefully, it will inspire readers to read more about the US History.

  
   
• 
  Racheli Zusiman

  סיכום ממוקד של ההיסטוריה של ארה"ב ואירועים מרכזיים שקרו בתולדותיה. מעניין ומרתק ומהווה התחלה טובה לקריאה נרחבת יותר על התקופות השונות.
• 
  Thom Swennes

  When the word “American” is used to describe a people or nation, that country is the United States. No other country, in either the northern or southern hemispheres of the Americas, would presume such a title. With this in mind, I think the author could have used different events to fill in his list of fifty. In the history of any country, there is a multitude of events and people that change the course of history. How much is changed and its importance to future generations is open for discussion and debate.
  This short history provides the reader with a lightning fast, bird’s eye view of fifty events that helped shape the United States into the world power it is today. With the exception of slavery and the racial unrest in the 60’s and 70’s, events that would shed a negative light on the United States have been omitted. Although these events are nothing to be proud of, they are nevertheless vital in the formation of the nation we know today; and never forgotten.
  
  The scope of this book is huge. Because of this, a book of 54 pages could hardly do it justice. I think that the author bit off far more than he could chew in writing this book in these confined parameters. For this reason, I give it a three-star rating. It does expose a few bare bones that could serve as inspiration for further study.
  
• 
  Susan

  Refreshing my mind on US history... liked it!
• 
  William Bahr

  I found this to be a fairly good, short enumeration of turning points in American History. I even learned about one I had not known about before:
  
  Page 5: “1639 - The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is Signed…laid the basis for governing the new settlements. The Fundamental Orders was based on many of the ideas that would later make their way into the Constitution of the United States—ideas such as self-government via elections conducted by secret ballot. Many historians view the Fundamental Orders as the first written constitution in America, and it had the same spirit of independence as the Constitution written 150 years later.”
  
  If the author ever updates his book, I would recommend he take into account:
  
  Page 1: “via a land bridge called Beringia”: recent research shows that migration from Asia to North America also likely occurred by individuals hugging land-bound ice over water in small boats.
  
  Page 2: “San Salvador” (site of Columbus’ first landing): It’s an island SE of Nassau in the Bahamas.
  
  Page 23: “…while places like Cold Harbor and Cowpens became known for the pointless slaughter that took place” there [during the Civil War].” Cowpens is known for its American victory during the Revolutionary War. I can find no mention of pointless slaughter happening there at any time.
  
  Page 49: “…began a series of highly risky lending practices, including giving out mortgage loans that far exceeded the recipient’s ability to repay—just like what had happened before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Beyond that, many investors began taking on assets that were toxic (i.e., they no longer held value due to changes in the market).” This is a very simplistic and perhaps inadequate description of what happened during the Great Recession. Completely omitted is any mention/description made of the contrived financial vehicles (assets) causing the toxicity, eg derivatives.
  
  This all said, as a fellow author, I enjoyed the book and found it very worthwhile.
  
• 
  The Conch

  It is always awesome to get knowledge so short and sweet way. They are calling themselves civilized when just before 200 years US fought civil war to keep slavery alive. Even in 1960 Rosa Park incident proved deep racial cleavage in US society.
• 
  Ivette

  Una lectura rápida e interesante. Pondría algunos acontecimientos diferentes pero me ha gustado muchísimo.
• 
  Lloyd Kerns

  A good way to recall past history lessons, as well as feel my age when things in my lifetime are regarded as huge moments in history.
• 
  Omar Taufik

  The United States of America is the world major power and has been so for the past several decades. Choosing 50 major events from it's detailed and exciting history and fitting it for an hour's read of around 50+ pages is not an easy task.
  In general, the book is well written and gives the reader a very good idea of the main events that shaped the United States.
  Starting with the first prehistoric migrations from Siberia and then the famous Columbus exploration voyage in 1492. A Viking exploration preceding the Columbus Discovery by several centuries is mentioned which might not be well known to many readers.
  The book starts to pickup pace with the early English 1600s colonies taking us to gradual evolution of new country and nation in the late 1700s after a bitter struggle with the British Empire. This I believe might be the yoke and essential section of the book.
  Into the 19th century civil war breaks out after several decades of dispute related to the subject of slavery. After the civil war, the country goes through the process of Reconstruction followed by remarkable advances in various technological and industrial fields ending the century as a recognized world power.
  The book then takes us through the 20th century with it's major stations from the two world wars and the great depression and the Cold war. The book ends with the election of Obama in the year 2008 after covering the gulf war, the 911 attacks and then the 2007 great recession.
  The book could be very useful for a beginner in American history having each event as a bullet point for further reading and research.
  But I do wish the author would have shed light on events related to West and it's gradual entry into the United States. Also, the war with Mexico and the Texas issue I believe was missed out.
  I also wish the author would have elaborated more when writing about the twentieth century events especially having the country transformed into The World Power by the end of it.
  Nevertheless, this was a fine book and read which I would recommend to beginners in the subject and readers wishing to refresh their knowledge about it.
• 
  Jacques Coulardeau

  It’s fascinating to reduce the history of what we understand to be the USA under the word American in such a skimpy sketch. It is giving a very general idea and it should open up some doors for your curiosity to expand the matter and your search for more everywhere you can think of.
  
  It starts with the Beringia migration from Siberia over not a land-bridge to Alaska but an ice-bridge to Alaska and then down at a moment at the end of the Ice Age when such a corridor appeared in the ice cap. That was 15,500 years ago. That’s the migration that is behind the Clovis theory that the Americas were colonized by these people coming from Siberia from the north to the south.
  
  Be cautious about it since the archaeological search in Monte Verde in Chile has already reached 18,500 years ago, and it is far from being finished. That is 3,000 years before the Beringia migration. That brings in a second migration from the South Pacific, in continuation with the migration from South East Asia to Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia New Zealand and then Polynesia. This southern migration then went up as far as Mesoamerica and are the ancestors of the Incas, the Aztecs, the Mayas, and all these building civilizations. This southern migration must have met the northern migration at some point. The question of the origin of the Amazonian Indians in South America is open since these are no builders. Are they descendants of the southern or the northern migrations?
  
  Note it is the descendants of the southern migration who invented the Maya writing system, whereas the northern migration did not have any writing system. These two migrations explain a lot better the great differences between the two zones and yet they have a lot of common myths in their mythologies. The two zones have also some social common points though the differences are important, particularly the sun and blood rituals in the south. I guess DNA should start being worked upon to identify the two migrations and how far each one reached.
  
  But nowadays (and that is rather recent) the two migrations are a feasible and scientifically accepted theory and we can start comparing the various peoples in their myths, their religious rituals, their languages too and eventually their writing or codifying systems, with their DNA as an accurate exploring tool.
  
  To concentrate on the English colonization is a good thing from the US point of view but it is also not exactly entirely objective. Florida, Texas, what is today New Mexico and some other areas there plus of course California were colonized by the Spaniards and we must not forget the vast Louisiana of the French from Quebec to Louisiana covering the whole valleys and plains of the Mississippi and the Missouri. This heritage is essential since the French and Spanish Catholic churches insisted on the rights of the slaves as Christians and as subjects of their kings with for one example the insistence on having them christened and married and for them to have one day of marital life every week even if husband and wife did not belong to the same plantation. It is called Code Noir on the French side and Inquisition on the Spanish side. On the English side the masters could do what they wanted with their slaves, including kill them, feed them to their dogs or their pigs. On the French and Spanish side, the masters could only exploit their work but they had to respect the Catholic rules and the rights the slaves had as Christians and they had to respect the royal rights they had as subjects. This produced a three tiered society on the Catholic side and the one-drop of blood theory on the White Anglo Saxon Protestant side.
  
  This is essential for US history. The constitution did not even consider the case of slaves and when the Declaration of Independence said “all men are born equal” it meant only free men, so no women and no non-free men. This will survive till the Civil War in this divided house the USA were then. When amendments 13 and 14 were passed it just turned within a few years the slaves into poor sharecroppers under the violent command of the Ku Klux Klan, seasoned by the Uncle-Tom-Jim-Crow everyday practice, governed by segregation and discrimination and the US Supreme Court ruling them “equal but separate.”
  
  To remain on this line we could and should explore how desegregation and civil rights were conquered in the 1950s and 1960s.
  
  But you should also explore the place and role of American Indians or Native Americans. There too the heritage of the colonization and their being locked up in reservations is still haunting the USA. And if you explore these questions you may then understand why the election of Barack Obama is such a turning point in American history. It brings African Americans a lot closer to equality and to full liberation including from their Post Traumatic Slavery Stress Syndrome. It brings American Indians to full recognition and integration after the reparations were paid to the reservations. And it revealed in 2012 that Latinos, in spite of most of them being white, were not part of the white population, voted for Obama and reelected him. This Latino heritage is essential to understand the USA today. It is not so much a question of ethnic origin as a question of were you part of the colonizing process of North America or were you part of the colonized peoples with a strong Post Traumatic Colonial Stress Syndrome.
  
  In other words this fast panorama over US history should open your eyes to several questions that need be explored in more detail. It should sharpen your appetite for historical facts and whet your curiosity for more “mysteries,” like the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther Kink Jr., and Robert Kennedy, how the Vietnam war was not ended but lost and a few other facts of the last fifty years. What about Cuba and Iran for example?
  
  So jump into the stream and let yourselves be carried by the current into all kinds of fascinating realities.
  
  Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
  
• 
  John Deardurff

  A brief history indeed. A great primer that condenses the whole of United States history into 50 events. This is great for anyone who wants to scratch the surface of the topic to be conversational on the topic, but not wanting to go in-depth. I mainly read this to level set how these books were written and look forward to reading additional books in the History by Country series on regions I am not as familiar. My only main issue is that it should be title United States history as there are other countries in both North and South America.
• 
  wordsandblankspaces

  History wonderfully summarized
  
  I really enjoyed this quick read and highly recommend it to lovers of history. I think there were a couple of typos but nothing major. One complaint..where was JFK? I realize not every president could make it into this and the Kennedys are probably a whole set of encyclopedias worth of writing but would have been nice to have something said about his time in office.
• 
  Dawn

  It is exactly what the book says American History in 50 Events! As a person who studies history, I found it to be a quick read! I also found a few mistakes that, only a history buff would have noticed. In the whole, however, this is a great book for reluctant history readers or others who want to learn more about the United States of America and need a book that will start them on their journey, without making them feel self conscious!
• 
  Artur

  A good way to freshen up the general succession of major events of US history in an hour or so. Otherwise, not really worth it, especially if you don't know the history beforehand due to 2 reasons:
  1) Some events are described in a hardly unbiased manner and may present a distorted perception of their causes and effects.
  2) The attempt to trim down every even to one page led to some really important details getting cut out and thus causing the event to seem an empty shell of itself.
• 
  Youssef Omar

  This "short read" was decent. The author mentions a lot of pivotal events in US history succinctly but usefully. However, due to the intended scope of the book, it appeared that various events were addressed haphazardly, thereby hurting the reader experience. Every event in this book could've been a book (or multiple) on its own. All in all, definitely worth the time for someone who wants to have a quick summary of US history before taking on some more voluminous works on the same subject.
• 
  Mary

  Interesting glimpse into history
  
  Whether you are looking for a quick refresher course in American history, or want to learn important events from history I recommend this book. Each section is brief, but gives sufficient details so that the reader can learn facts that are valuable to better understand our country's rich history.
• 
  Denisa

  Ok for a small book
  
  It’s ok for a small book. I would have liked more information like what were the first 13 states or what did the map of America look like in the 17th-18th century and stuff like that. But still I’d recommend it. A lot of history is covered, there just isn’t too much detail.
• 
  Walter

  American History in 50 Events
  
  I enjoyed this little book. It was able to take very complex and expansive events and narrowed them down to understandable occurrences. Of course, one could argue that numerous events were not included, but nevertheless, I recommend reading this book.
  
  WLM
  S.C.
• 
  Aaron

  This is a good book. I love American history and it is a cool concept to sum it up in 50 events, but I did find a couple incorrect facts and I feel there were important events that got left out, also the author tends to show his political views later on in the book, which I feel you should avoid when presenting history (but that is just my opinion).
• 
  Nihal Lele

  Just as promised, background history on the American history.
  
  The only problem was that the description of the wars were not given in proper manner. I thought the book will atleast contain the background knowledge on the wars such as Cold War, Vietnam War, and the war of 1812.
  However, it didn't give the information. That was a disappointing part.
• 
  David Griffin

  A Quick And Dirty History of America
  
  This book is kind of like a Cliffs Note on American history. By hitting on integral events gives you a sense of the development of the United States. It's quick and easy to read. And, hopefully, it will encourage you to do a little more research on your own.
• 
  Marshall D. Whitaker

  Wide Left At The End
  
  This is a great summary of events. Fair and balanced throughout. Then for no reason at all they misstated the facts of the Obama presidency. However, one page in this work does not make it a bad read. Highly recommend.
• 
  Ed Barton

  Quick Synopsis
  
  This is a quick synopsis os 10,000 years of history - concentrated on 1612-2008. While it covers a lot of time, and you might disagree with the choice of events, it is a good summary of major historical events and issues.
• 
  Heidi

  I loved the details in the book without it dragging on and on. .
  
  I know many details were skipped over since it is a brief history. I did wonder why the Dutch settlers never mentioned.