Larry SchweikartA Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to America's Age of Entitlement, Revised Edition

The truth about about our wonderful country! I am so tired of those revisionist 'history' books. If you are interested in learning about how the USA was really founded you might want to read this book.

Ordered this to read on deployment and was just the ticket. As with all histories, readability is paramount especially for a book of this length. Not only is this content refreshing compared to the leftist books these days, but it is also highly readable and never seems to bore and get too bogged down in minutia like some history books.

I highly recommend this book, but I'm submitting a three-star review based on the book's very weak and undisciplined finish. I thought the first two-thirds of the book provided a well-documented and well-thought-out presentation of America's regional differences and the history behind those differences. It was truly enlightening, even for an historian like myself. When writing the last third, however, the author clearly lost his objective discipline. Whereas the first two-thirds were well-reasoned and well-supported, the last third devolved into stereotypes and generalities, and contained more than a few downright errors, particularly concerning the modern Deep South and Greater Appalachia. I am an unapologetic Left Coaster with clear leanings toward activist Yankeeism, but even I was able to see Mr. Woodard's clear bias in the last third of the book. I found myself cringing more than a few times at the outright inaccuracies contained in his presentation of the modern South. I could list at least a half-dozen factual errors in his presentation concerning the practice and influence of Evangelical Christianity in the Bible Belt, for instance, but would rather not bog down this review with nit-picking. It would be great if Mr. Woodard could write a revised edition where he would exercise the same historical discipline in the last third of the book that he did for the first two-thirds. Such a presentation would truly be worthy of five stars. I still feel that this book is very much worth reading, but readers should approach the last third with a skeptical eye.

I am enjoying this book very much, written well, lots of information, not boring. Would be a great book for homeschoolers.

I am no historian and, like most (I believe), have barely read history since high school.However, I have read this book 4x and take away something different every time that I read this.This is an excellent account of the American experience, to date. It has opened my interests in so many different areas of American history that I am overwhelmed with books to read. It is true that if you don't know the mistakes of the past, they will be repeated over and again. Look at today.We are in a frenzy to "re-invent" this great country without understanding what made this country great in the first place.It's the IDEAS and undergirding beliefs of the founding fathers that made this country the bastion of excellence and the goal for those who seek to come here.Unfortunately, through misrepresentation and outright dishonest narratives of history that we are stuck in a muck of nonsense on what it takes to be an American.I,for one, have reconciled with previous errors of this country because I have seen its efforts to reconcile with the rest of the people.People need to read (not skim) history and, maybe, then they will realize how incredibly fortunate they are to be on this soil.Maybe then, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, will make sense to those who hate where they are from and maybe they'll be ready to concede that it doesn't get better anywhere else.

The publisher has declared A Patriot’s History of the United States as “the definitive conservative history” stating on the back cover that the authors, Professors Schweikart and Allen, “set out to correct the doctrinaire biases that have distorted the way America’s past is taught.” That may be, but in so doing the authors have introduced their own biases.This is especially true for the book’s treatment of President Franklin Roosevelt declaring that the New Deal “must be considered a failure,” that “Roosevelt and his staff were becoming habitual bullies, pitting Americans against one another,” and even writing off John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as just “another application of leeches or a dose of castor oil masquerading as social commentary.” Yet, from 1933 through 1940 real GDP grew an average of 6.3 percent annually, a record unbroken except during World War II. Similarly, non-farm employment grew 4.0 percent annually; no post-war president has exceeded 2.5 percent. And although Roosevelt certainly made many enemies, Americans reelected Roosevelt in 1936, at the height of the New Deal, with a near-record 60.2 percent of the popular vote.Similarly, President Carter is given short shrift as a “failed president.” Although the authors write that “Reagan benefited greatly from momentum already begun under Carter,” Carter is given a scant seven pages in the 867-page book. Yet Carter deregulated transportation and energy, fathered the energy conservation movement, cut capital gains taxes from 39.9 percent to 28 percent, brokered the Egypt-Israel peace agreement, and appointed Fed Chairman Paul Volker who, after draconian measures, had tamed inflation by 1983.These faults are not unique. History is always distorted when written from a political perspective. But most readers can hopefully overlook the authors’ own biases and find A Patriot’s History of the United States to be a comprehensive and worthwhile contribution to the history of our great country.

Great way to increase your knowledge and what's going on in this world

Great book

Die beste Buch was ich über Amerikanischen Geschichte gelesen habe. Als Amerikaner wünsche ich das ich dieses Buch im der Schule gehabt hat.

My first book on US history. This is not a boring read, just grab it.