The American Century

by Harold Evans

Book Overview

For the first time in paperback comes the acclaimed and nationally bestselling story of America from 1889 to 1989. A riveting, panoramic sweep of the forces of the last century that shaped America. A... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679410708
• ISBN13: 9780679410706
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 736 Pages
• Weight: 5.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 9.3" x 11.5"

Customer Reviews

The best Christmas gift I've ever gotten...

You don't really need to read "The American Century" in any particular order. It's the perfect book to play "history roulette" with; on a lazy Sunday when you're sitting by your coffee table, open it at random and you can learn about, say, the 1954 US-supported coup in Guatemala, or the "Accidental Empire" the U.S. amassed after the Spanish-American War, or the struggles between John D. Rockefeller's companies and unionizing miners, or the race riots that gutted Detroit in 1967. Or, better yet, skip the coffee table and put a copy atop your toilet tank--while it's a great living room book, it's an even better bathroom book. Not only can you read it in any order, you can read a lot or a little without feeling short-changed, and you will invariably feel better for having done so. When nature calls, this book will make you look forward to answering. Even better than its structure, though, is its author's clear and easy prose style, and even better than that is his general refusal to write an ideological tome like, say, Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States." Harold Evans doesn't buy all the conventional wisdom of the left or the right. When writing about the labor movement, for instance, he shows the excesses and the violence of the "company goon" days of the early 1900s, but he also looks favorably on Reagan's decision to fire striking air traffic controllers in 1981. Or when looking at anti-communism in the 1950s, he decries the excesses of McCarthyism but also says that Nixon was fair in his prosecution of Alger Hiss, and that Julius Rosenberg (cause celebre of the American Left) was, in fact, a Soviet spy. Evans intersperses the book with great little character sketches about the Presidents who served during these years. F.D.R and T.R., Wilson and Nixon: all come to life with brief vignettes and quotes describing their personalities and their various paths to power. It's not a perfect book--Evans buys too many of the standard journalistic mantras about, say, the Reagan tax cuts, and his coverage of corporate America slacks towards the end of the book, and he completely neglects to mention the Challenger explosion, one of the landmark events of the 1980s. But it is a great book, an intellectual swimming pool of sorts--you can hop in for a quick dip or dive in for hours of mental exercise. If you're anything like me, you'll find yourself reading and re-reading it, getting a great overview of a century of American successes and excesses--and enjoying yourself all the while.

An excellent book that should be read

Don't let the "coffee book table" size or look of the book fool you; "The American Century" is a very well written and very well thought out book. Its central thesis: Through political, economic, and social changes, the promise of American democracy (along with freedom, equality, and justice) slowly became a reality for all Americans.Some criticisms leveled at this book are quite off the mark. One reader slammed Evans for imposing his own views and opinions on the past and thus committing a "cardinal sin." Ridiculous. No history is free of judgement or opinions. Whether it is in an overt statement or how the facts are presented, history is never impartial or neutral. Another criticism is that the book is a product of leftist revisionism. Perhaps, but a closer reading reveals otherwise. Evans, for instance, claimed that Ronald Reagan was "no racist" despite the fact he opened his 1980 campaign in the Deep South in the town where the three civil rights workers were murdered. He was also quite easy on Richard Nixon, describing his handling of the Alger Hiss case as "fair" and dismissing any notions that Watergate was part of some Oliver Stone-esqe conspiracy that somehow involved JFK's assassination.The pictures alone make this book a good buy. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a solid grounding in American history but would like to get a different perspective.

Wonderful book for home educators

This is a real tour-de-force in terms of the extensive material it covers with wonderful text and pictures. I had the opportunity to personally interview the author, Harold Evans, for our website. Despite its incredible volume and depth, it is accessible to the reader because it is written almost as if it were a series of magazine articles taking you through 100 years of US history. For many of our readers on the homeschoolzone, each of the bite-size pieces would make a wonderful jumping off point for a discussion or a research report for their children. I would strongly recommend this book not only for your children, but for yourself. As the author put it, "This is History for Browsers," and I most certainly agree with that and am continuing to pick the book up and browse.

Much better than Jenning's book

While Jenning's "The Century" book has some interesting stories, it's written like a script for a news report, i.e. uninformative sound bites. In contrast, "The American Century" is much better written, and has its own set of insights not covered in Jenning's book. They may complement each other, but if you must have one, this book is much better.

The finest assessment of America over the last 100 years.

This is a book that every American must have as a reference in their home. It is fast interesting reading that covers many relevant topics from our rich history. Anyone interested in history and America's impact on the rest of the world should read this book. This book should be made mandatory reading for all American history courses. If only more people could write in the crisp accurate style of Mr. Evans! Well done.