Offering an abbreviated, accessible, and lively narrative history of the United States, this erudite volume contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, and development of the American nation and its institutions. Robert V. Remini explores the arrival and migration of Native Americans; the discovery of the New World by Europeans and the establishment of colonies; the causes of the American Revolution; the founding of a republic under the Constitution; the struggle over slavery, which led to the Civil War; Reconstruction and the rise of big business; the emergence of the United States as a world power; the descent into the Great Depression; the global conflicts of the twentieth century; and the outbreak of terrorism here and abroad.
In addition, Remini explains the reasons for the nation's unique and enduring strengths, its artistic and cultural accomplishments, its genius in developing new products to sell to the world, and its abiding commitment to individual freedoms.
How do you cover all of U.S. history in around 10 hours? Oliver Wyman adopts a brisk, breathless style for Remini's primer. Remini crams a lot of facts into his brief history. Although Wyman provides meaningful inflection as he narrates, there's hardly any new material or insight. Wyman's narration is lively, and he delivers a lot of information as clearly as possible. Given the fast pace, though, listeners aren't likely to retain much. Recent events get more coverage--as well as Wyman's impressions of figures like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The history takes listeners up to the beginning of 2008, and the looming recession. History buffs are likely to crave more specialized books. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
Robert V. Remini, professor emeritus of history and research professor emeritus of humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the historian of the United States House of Representatives. Winner of the National Book Award for the third volume of his study of Andrew Jackson, he has also written biographies of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, and Joseph Smith, in addition to many other books. He lives in Wilmette, Illinois.
