A Short History of the United States: From the Arrival of Native American Tribes to the Obama Presidency

In A Short History of the United States, National Book Award winner Robert V. Remini offers a much-needed, concise history of our country. This accessible and lively volume contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, and development of the American nation and its institutions, including the arrival and migration of Native Americans, the founding of a republic under the Constitution, the emergence of the United States as a world power, the outbreak of terrorism here and abroad, the Obama presidency, and everything in between.

Customer Reviews:

An overview of American History

By mrliteral - August 13, 2009

Robert Remini is a great history writer, having written the definitive biographies of not only Andrew Jackson but Daniel Webster and Henry Clay as well. Although his expertise is with the Jacksonian era, he is well-versed in the rest of U.S. history as well, something that was demonstrated in his history of the House of Representatives. Now, he uses his broader field of knowledge again with A Short History of the United States.

Consider all the volumes of books on the Civil War alone, with even many focusing on a single battle. It's obvious that there is a lot to say about American History, and to capture it all in less than 350 pages of text isn't easy. Of course, this means glossing over a lot of things, but Remini does a good job at capturing many of the key points.

Everything you probably remember from your high school History class is here, from the original Indian settlers to Columbus, the Pilgrims, the Revolution, the Civil War, WWI, the Great... read more

In History, It's The Little Things That Count

By Gray M. Pedersen - January 4, 2010

Oh dear: I bought Remini's book yesterday with some anticipation. As a high school teacher of U. S. history, I have, for many years, pursued the Holy Grail: the Ideal American History Survey Text. I would love to give my students a comprehensive, modern, and accurate book that is enjoyable to read. There are some good texts out there, but one always hopes that somebody, somewhere will come out a refreshing and new version of the survey that will engage student readers in an intelligent way. So I wondered, would Remini's short history do the trick?
Alas, the book disappointed in just the first couple of pages. The style was smooth and readable, but factual errors appeared almost from start. What editor could not catch Remini's mistaken description of the astrolabe, used by early seagoing explorers, as a device to "determine the longitude of their ships at sea," when it was only used for finding latitude? (seagoing exploration and commerce were woefully limited by navigators'... read more

A History of Congress

By JKHero "JKHero" - March 23, 2009

The author is apparently the official historian of the U.S. House of Representatives - and it shows. Although wars and inventions and such are reported, this book is primarily a history of the U.S. government with an emphasis on Congress. As the book progresses, time moves slower and the final 100 pages cover just 1941-2008. Also, Remini becomes more harshly critical of presidents from LBJ on, which adds to the length of later chapters. // Maps, which are normally helpful in history books, are small-scale in this book, and some are poorly placed. A map of "1803-1807 Western Explorations" is placed before the Declaration of Independence. The 1810 map is placed three pages before the 1800 map. // A few misconceptions common to high school texts are included: The Hessians were sleeping off a Christmas celebration when attacked at Trenton, an unlikely 4,000 Cherokee died on the Trail of Tears, and giving Panama ownership and control of the Panama Canal was a "success" in foreign... read more