Product Description

Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the Major Problems in American History series introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War incorporates new research expands its coverage of the experiences of average soldiers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172161 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 540 pages

About the Author
Robert J. McMahon received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1977 and was professor of History at the University of Florida before moving to Ohio State University. He specializes in United States diplomatic history. He is the author of Colonialism and Cold War: The United States and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence (1981) and The Cold War on the Periphery: The United States, India, and Pakistan (1994). He is also the co-editor of the Problems in American Civilization book The Origins of the Cold War, which entered its fourth edition in 1999.

Thomas G. Paterson, professor emeritus of history at the University of Connecticut, graduated from the University of New Hampshire (B.A., 1963) and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., 1968). He is the author of Soviet-American Confrontation (1973), Meeting the Communist Threat (1988), On Every Front (1992), Contesting Castro (1994), America Ascendant (with J. Garry Clifford, 1995), and A People and a Nation (with Mary Beth Norton et al., 2001). Tom is also the editor of Cold War Critics (1971), Kennedy's Quest for Victory (1989), Imperial Surge (with Stephen G. Rabe, 1992), The Origins of the Cold War (with Robert McMahon, 1999), Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations (with Michael J. Hogan, 2004), and Major Problems in American Foreign Relations (with Dennis Merrill, 2010). With Bruce Jentleson, he served as senior editor for the Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations (1997). A microfilm edition of The United States and Castro's Cuba, 1950s–1970s: The Paterson Collection appeared in 1999. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of American History and Diplomatic History. A recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, he has directed National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars for College Teachers. In 2000 the New England History Teachers Association recognized his excellence in teaching and mentoring with the Kidger Award. Besides visits to many American campuses, Tom has lectured in Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, and Venezuela. He is a past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, which in 2008 honored him with the Laura and Norman Graebner Award for "lifetime achievement" in scholarship, service, and teaching. A native of Oregon, Tom is now informally associated with Southern Oregon University.

Customer Reviews

Lessons learned
As the book title and "a reader" suggests this is a book with tons and tons of essays on the Vietnam War. These essays cover just about everything that was political or social or anything else about the war. It has topics on Kennedy, Johnson, Eisenhower, Nixon, My Lai, The Tet Offensive, discrimination, the domestic homefront, etc. This book provided a great wealth of sources for a research paper that I had to do. However, unless you are really into the Vietnam War, or that era, this book may be a little dry some times. It does provide a lot of good information, such as facts and figures, but it is just a bunch of peoples, the scholars who wrote the essays, opinions; as well as some Vietnam Vets accounts of the war itself, coming home, etc.

I am giving it four out of five because of the dryness that sometimes occurs. Yet, it does remain a really good source for material, if one has to do research or just has general curiosity. Of course, by the end of the book, the reader will begin to see the lessons learned from Vietnam.

A good, although sometimes boring look at the Vietnam War
This book has a lot of good information in it. Through the essays you gain a deep understanding of some of the events that influenced the course of the war that other books cover only slightly or omit all together.

There are a couple HORRIBLE essays that seem to drag for a long long time. Each chapter concludes with 2 essays that either have differing points of view or cover different aspects of the chapter in more detail.

The blessing of this book is that it has a lot of information that comes directly from the Vietnamese, including some translations of South Vietnamese army members as they consider their defeat and flee Saigon after the North takes it over.

Over all, I like this book. At least one of the essays in the very beginning is bad enough that I almost put the book down and didn't pick it back up, but once you get past that, you are in for a good read!

a look into the war that America lost
This book id a seris of documents that examines the war. It gives the reader alot of insight into how decisons were made and the consequnces of these decisons. it a well rounded look into the war and its aftermath. The book deals with America involvment with the French until the fall of Saigion and the aftermath of the war. The section that deal with the North Vietnamese and there thoughts and roles are particlar strong. a few weak essay hold the book back from a five star rating. Highly recomended