America Alive - Hardcover

Karl, Jean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399220135 ISBN 13: 9780399220135

Publisher: Philomel, 1994

Synopsis

Traces the history of the United States from the first settlers to the early 1990s

About this title

Reviews

Grade 4-6-In her forword, Karl admits that "a book this short cannot tell all that has happened" between the years when man first reached the North American continent to the present. America Alive is an "outline" and "I hope...a balanced view, though necessarily a selective one." The end product is a readable presentation, but not a very informative one. Names and dates move by rapidly and there is little room for the whys and wherefores that would breathe life into the story being told. There are other problems as well. If Sutter's Mill were really west of San Francisco, the 49ers would have needed scuba gear. American participation in World War I gets muddled; we are described as fighting the "Allies" (the Central Powers are not mentioned). And while Karl decries the injustices suffered by Native Americans and African Americans throughout history, she also writes that "Americans were angry...over Pearl Harbor; they placed some Japanese Americans in internment camps and turned to doing what was necessary to win." After FDR's death, "Harry S. Truman, a clothing salesman from Missouri...led the nation," a description that is rather misleading in terms of the man's real qualifications for the job. Schoenherr's dark-toned, static illustrations add nothing to the text; although captioned, many are still ambiguous. One, labeled "lying on the field of battle at [the Civil] war's end," looks more like a boy lying in a meadow; in another, Andrew Johnson looks positively vicious. A personal look at American history is a lofty goal, but this effort falls short. There's just not enough substance to it.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"This is a history of the United States, but it is not a complete history," writes Karl in the foreword to this breathless romp, which travels from prehistoric times right on up through the 1990s. Indeed, the author synthesizes a great deal of information, and relays it in even, almost conversational tones. On the other hand, her inevitably brief discussions can verge on the superficial; and the focus switches between the general and the specific in necessarily subjective fashion. For example, a few sentences about the Bicentennial ("This made everyone feel good about themselves and the nation") precedes a paragraph about the Carter administration and the growth of multinational corporations ("This was nice for the world.... But it sometimes meant the loss of jobs for people in the United States"). Many will forgive Karl these lapses, however, because of the text's vigor and overall balance. She instills pride in the nation's accomplishments, but she does not gloss over injustices, scandals and controversies. The art is disappointingly static and the tones muddy, but it is plentiful, with at least two illustrations on every spread: historical figures and prototypical characters (e.g., "Flapper") stand frozen in the margins, while the various vignettes are far too broadly rendered to illuminate the particular events they are meant to depict. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Philomel
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399220135
• ISBN 13: 9780399220135
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 120