Product Description

Whether it's standing on the podium in Seneca Falls with the Suffragettes or riding on the first subway car beneath New York City in 1907, the books in Joy Hakim's A History of US series weave together exciting stories that bring American history to life. Readers may want to start with War, Terrible War, the tragic and bloody account of the Civil War that has been hailed by critics as magnificent. Or All the People, brought fully up-to-date in this new edition with a thoughtful and engaging examination of our world after September 11th. No matter which book they read, young people will never think of American history as boring again. Joy Hakim's single, clear voice offers continuity and narrative drama as she shares with a young audience her love of and fascination with the people of the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #542914 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-07
• Number of items: 10
• Binding: Paperback
• 2000 pages

From Parents' Choice®
The ten volumes of History of US create an added dimension to United States history from pre-colonial times to present day. In each volume chapters are well organized chronologically. Illustrations from the period, dates, key historical figures and geographical development of the country are included. Hakim adds to American History studies by including material that illustrates daily life, social attitudes, contemporary concerns and dilemmas, political climate and trivia. Using sidebars Hakim raises questions to stimulate an analysis of how the facts presented as they relate to various aspects of history. An index, a timeline and definitions are available for each volume. A 1999 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Winner. (Eileen Kuhl, Parents' Choice®)

David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of John Adams
"A big breath of fresh air and the best possible news for the youngsters who get to read these books."

Review

"A thorough and accurate narrative of our nation's history."--The Philadelphia Inquirer
"This is not your run-of-the-mill U.S. history. It has vivid, fluid writing, extensive use of historical documents, and personal voice--lots of it.... [The] series doesn't just toss out a string of names and dates--it tells stories with facts in them."--The Washington Post
"A refreshing exception in the otherwise bleak textbook scene.... A former schoolteacher and journalist, Hakim was appalled by the dullness of the textbooks she saw and decided she could do a better job herself.... While virtually all the other textbooks are written by committees in as neutral a tone as possible,... Hakim tried to make storytelling central to her work."--Alexander Stille in The New York Review of Books
"Hakim has accomplished the seemingly impossible in producing this well-researched and beautifully presented revision of her overview of our nation.... The 11 compact volumes in the History of Us series are packed with photographs, graphs, maps, and other illustrations.... Hakim's writing style is easily accessible by middle-school students yet sophisticated enough to engage the interest of older students as well. Her research is thorough.... Give these titles to students who think history is dull and boring!"--VOYA
"One of the best nonfiction series of the decade just got better.... Hakim fine-tunes her uniquely lively account of our country's history with new feature essays and updated surveys of late 20th-century science and culture. The final volume contains all or major portions of over 90 significant primary documents.... The pages have been redesigned for more visual appeal, but the previous edition's wide margins, with their plethora of well-placed definitions, comments, and quotations, remain. Volumes 1-10 end with a time line and an annotated bibliography; each one is packed with the large-scale movements and events that provide a framework for history, as well as the personalities, anecdotes, wild coincidences, and vivid detail that bring that history to life.... Impossible to put down... Belong[s] in every reference collection."--School Library Journal
"The books are very well written, presenting history more as story than the recitation of facts."--Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual
"The liveliest, most realistic, most well-received American history series ever written for children."--Los Angeles Times
"For kids who think United States history is merely sleep-inducing, author Joy Hakim offers an antidote."--Publishers Weekly
"Merits every accolade, starting with the most personal: I couldn't put it down."--Washington Post Book World
"The best American history written for young people that I have ever seen."--David Herbert Donald, Harvard University

Customer Reviews

Author states Opinions as Fact
I am amazed that this type of drivel is actually used in school districts. There are countless factual errors in these books, many of which have been stated and well known for some time. Why has the author not addressed them?

For example, in drawing parallels between the old world and the new world in Making Thirteen Colonies, Ms. Hakim states that ancient Athens was a republic (it was not).

Then: "For the next seven and a half centuries most of Spain was ruled by Muslims (the Spaniards called them Moors)." This is grossly factually incorrect. Yet the author continues along this line of reasoning for several pages.

The author claims that Moors had invented sailing ships while Europe used oared ships until the 15th century - this is completely and utterly false.

The author claims that during American colonial times there were no democracies, only "Kings and emperors." Not true; Britain had a parliament, Venice, Genoa the United Provinces of Netherlands had republics. In First Americans Hakim suggests that our concept of a democratic republic came from the Iroquois nations, but this does not have any historical support.

Also in First Americans Hakim states: "Do you notice that the Chinese seem to have thought of a lot of things before Europeans did? The Chinese were weaving silk and making beautiful artifacts when most Europeans were living in caves and wearing animal skins." Quite a nice sentiment, but factually inaccurate. There is evidence of weaving intricate patterns by Europeans several millenia prior to the development of silk weaving in Asia.

Hakim describes biblical stories of Abraham and Moses, reports them as historical events, and even then gets important details of these stories wrong!

Hakim has questionable credentials to be writing history text books: She has a Master's degree in Education but no degrees in history. Her training is as a public school teacher, not as a historian. Her lack of scholarship is evident in her texts - our kids should not be subjected to this misinformation or lack of critical thinking.

Joy Hakim may be an interesting person and perhaps she was an engaging teacher, however she seems to have fallen into the trap of many in her second career as a journalist: Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. She should leave writing history text books to those who actually research and report history!

Never put one of her books in front of your kids unless it is to showcase an example of biased writing and unsupported scholarship.

Passing off personal bias as history
I have been reading "A History of Us: The Making of Thirteen Colonies" with my son for his class and I have found myself explaining to him the religious and historical inaccuracies this so called scholar passes off as history. It's troubling enough to me that I have to explain religious history (not the history of religion)within the context of a so called historical textbook. It's even worse that her Biblical references such as the founding of Israel by Abraham or the founding of Islam by Ishmaile, to name just two, are wrong. How this text got past proofreaders is beyond me, and the fact that it did is shameful. If you're looking for a good historical reference for kids look elsewhere.

Grizzly Mama gives 2 thumbs up.
I am a product of the American public school system. US History, for me, was nasty, boring, dry - nothing but dates to remember long enough to get through the test. It wasn't until I married a man who adores history that I began to see a different view of it. It was all in the presentation! This set of books is a breath of fresh air. My 10 year old daughter and I have enjoyed reading through them this past year. I plan on using them when my 6 y/old is ready. I highly recommend.