A History of US
These are books intended to encourage reading and writing as they teach subject matter. They are multidisciplinary. Start by reading a chapter, perhaps in a read aloud. Then discuss, have your child tell you what they've learned. Assign writing and ask them to keep a journal of what they've learned.Turn those students into historians. That means asking them to choose a subject or person from the book you're reading, do some research on the web or at the library, and then write something: a paper, their own newspaper or journal , a play.
Book One: The First Americans (Prehistory-1600) Thousands of years ago, long before Christopher Columbus set sail, wandering tribes of hunters make their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They don't know it, but they have discovered a New World. The First Americans tells the story of Native Americans from Alaska to Patagonia. It also tells the story of explorers like Leif Eriksson, Columbus, Cortes and others.
Book Two: Making Thirteen Colonies (1600-1740) The American continent, long isolated from the rest of the world, has been rediscovered. This time by Europeans. Some come in search of freedom, some come with the hope of riches. They sometimes bring Africans, in chains. As to the Native Americans, they face disease and competition from these newcomers. Meet Pocahontas and John Smith in Jamestown. Join William Penn and the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Sit with the judges at the Salem witch trials. Hike over the mountains with Daniel Boone. And read what Ben Franklin has to say in Poor Richard's Almanack. The dynamic interaction of all these diverse peoples will create a new kind of nation, one based on the idea that all people deserve equal treatment. Getting that fairness doctrine to work won't be easy.
Book Three: From Colonies to Country (1735-1791) It really didn't make sense for a nation far across the ocean to control the fate of people living on the American continent. Many realized that, but Tom Paine put it into words. This book, perhaps the key book in the whole series, tells the story of the American Revolution. Lots of nations have had revolutions, but few have handled the rebuilding process as well. A group of "founders" realized that it wouldn't be easy for people to run their own government, so they designed a remarkable constitution. Nothing like it had ever been written before. Its ideas would change the whole world.
Book Four: The New Nation (1789-1850) Beginning with George Washington's inauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation tells of Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France for four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812 sometimes called the "Revolutionary War, Part II," Tecumseh's effort to form an Indian confederacy, the growth of Southern plantations, the beginning of the abolitionist movement, and the Trail of Tears. These dramatic events and more are woven into a tale that just happens to be true. It's a History of Us.
Book Five: Liberty for All? (1820-1860) Henry David Thoreau said, "Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free." Lots of Americans agreed. The 19th century was an exuberant time in the United States and many were on the move. Liberty For All tells of mountain men, railroad builders, whalers, gold rush hopefuls, and farmers, as well as of poets and painters. Read of westward migration, the California Gold Rush, war with Mexico, the Oregon boundary conflict, and Texas and the Alamo. For Americans everywhere there was a gnawing question: How, in the land where "all men are created equal," could there be slaves?
Book Six: War, Terrible War (1855-1865) takes us into the Civil War, from the battle of Manassas to the battle of Gettysburg and on to the South's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Follow soldiers in blue and gray as they endure long marches, freezing winter camps, and awful battles fought on American soil. Abolitionists, slave owners, and ordinary Americans listen to the debates over slavery and states rights. Meet Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Jefferson Davis, soldiers on both sides, slave owners, abolitionists, average citizens, and others. This is the story of a people affected by the horrors of a war where brother sometimes fought brother.
Book Seven: Reconstructing America (1865-1890) looks at life after the Civil War in the newly re-United States. Railroad tycoons are roaring across the country. New cities are springing up, and a new and different American West comes into being: a land of farmers, ranchers, miners, and city dwellers. Immigration is changing the mix of Americans; mostly the newcomers work hard and achieve. Some rare individuals make their mark: P.T.Barnum entertains. Rascally Boss Tweed steals from his constituents. Thomas Edison lights the world. Carry Nation wields a hatchet in her battle against alcoholism. And Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois have different ideas on how the newly freed African Americans should behave.
Book Eight: An Age of Extremes (1880-1917) For the captains of industry (sometimes called Robber Barons)--men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford--the Gilded Age is a time of big money. Technology booms with the new trains, telephones, electric lights, harvesters, vacuum cleaners, and more. But for millions of immigrant workers, it is a time of hardship––workers , including children, often toil 12 to 14 hours a day sometimes under dangerous conditions. In An Age of Extremes, you'll meet Mother Jones, Ida Tarbell, Big Bill Haywood, Sam Gompers,Theodore Roosevelt and others. You'll also watch the United States step onto the world stage as it enters the bloody battlefields of Europe in World War I.
Book Nine: War, Peace, and All That Jazz (1918-1945) From woman's suffrage to Babe Ruth's home runs, from Louis Armstrong's jazz to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four presidential terms, from the finale of one world war to the dramatic close of the second, War, Peace, And All That Jazz presents the story of some of the most exciting years in U.S. history. With the end of World War I, many Americans decide to live it up, go to silent flicks, drive cars, and cheer their favorite baseball teams. When Depression strikes the good times dampen--jobs are hard to find, farmers are in trouble, and racism won't seem to go away. Along comes President F.D.R., who promises a New Deal, gives Americans hope, and then sees the nation through the horrors and victories of World War II.
Book Ten: All the People (Since 1945) the last volume in the series, has been brought up to date with coverage of the election of Barack Obama, along with some thoughts on its significance. The book, a new fourth edition, has been completely redesigned with a bold contemporary look; Readers will encounter both famous and little-known Americans (Joe McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama's mother), historical events (the Vietnam War, the first man on the moon, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), and major cultural movements (Civil Rights, 1960s counterculture, feminism). A chapter on the 21st century financial crisis explains the basics of investment banking. This is a book meant to provoke discussion and thought among readers of all ages.
PBS Webseries, Freedom: A History of US: The series explores the birth and growth of freedom in America over the centuries, as well as, the tensions, conflicts, and triumphs that it has sparked. The teacher/student website is filled with teaching learning researching materials.
