Journeying through American History
Aug 2nd, 2007 by learningumbrella
I set as one of my “Mommy School” goals to improve my understanding of American History. I started off with a book I’d heard was good, The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. It is good, and it got me going with a righteous anger against Andrew Jackson for his policies and behavior toward the Native Americans.
So, I set that book to the side and got a book just about Jackson: Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars. This biography starts with what is known about Jackson’s childhood and follows him through his years of fighting on the frontier and establishing himself as a soldier, a general, and a politician. The author did a pretty good job of showing the full and complicated picture of his personality and how he was influenced by his background and circumstances, so I now can’t really “hate” him - but I still don’t like him. I got bored with the book after I’d read about the Creek wars and before he got ready to invade Florida, so I decided to mix it up and move on to some fiction.
The book I’m currently reading is 1812: Rivers of War, which is a “alternative” history fiction. It starts out with the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend, which I read about in the Jackson bio. The battle is followed faithfully, and I loved spotting the factual bits stuck in throughout. From here, the history is going to be warped into an alternative path where the Native Americans band together and come out on top of the situation. It’s a page turner, so I’ll be done soon.
One of the main characters is Sam Houston, so now I’m curious about him. I’ve put a biography on hold, and another historical fiction about the Texas Revolution.
And this is the twisting, interest-led path I’m taking through American History. I’m sure I’ll get back to my main “text”, the People’s History, soon, and maybe make it a few chapters before something comes up that sends me off on another reading tangent. I’m looking forward to going over some of this stuff with my sister this year, when she also studies American History. Maybe we’ll do an American History book club.
Oh my, we are so alike in how we read and learn! I do the same thing. We watched the movie “300″ on Tuesday, so of course I was online reading more about hte Battle of Thermopolae and Spartans the next day, and digging out my copy of Heroditus to read his version. When I tried to share it with DH at dinner, he looked at me like I was deranged…”Can’t you ever just enjoy a movie?”
Thanks for the posts…I noted the books. I have Zinn’s, and use it to throw a spark into things even in our homeschool now that the kids are older. We will be doing American History in 2008-9, and I am already deciding that we need to spend at least two months on Native Americans, because they are so ignored, yet so vital.
I really liked The People’s History, but it confused me as a main text. I ended up wishing I had the basic wrong education the book seems to be arguing against. A favorite of mine, and now my partners’ and his sons’, is Don’t Know Much About History. (Don’t Know Much About American History is not anywhere near as good.) It’s a narrative, and an exciting one at that.