The American Reader: Words That Moved a Nation

My daughter needed this for school. I got looking through it, and started reading. It’s an awesome collection of readings. You can randomly choose one and think about it for a few days, and then select another. Good way to revisit primary source material and enhance understanding of concepts.

This anthology is a great way to get students inspired by some of our great thinkers and doers in their own words. The commentary gives context that might inspire additional curiosity about our nation's history and the people who helped mold it.

"The American Reader" is an excellent collection of writings in chronological order, beginning with those of our Founders and showing vignettes of philosophies and important events in the life of our country in a way that can be easily enjoyed in order as a book, showing our evolving history, or for short periods of time, easily taken up and put down, without losing any of the value of the collection. It is interesting from both a literary and an historical point of view, and I am enjoying it thoroughly!

We gave an earlier edition of this book to a former intern of ours from Beijing, China. He's learned more from this one book than the average American seems to know about our great country these days, at least according to many surveys we've seen. We wish more Americans would buy and read this book. It is full of amazing insights into our country's cultural heritage that come direct and unfiltered from a highly diverse group of first-hand participants in our country's most pivotal events and movements.

Bought it for my APUSH class, we only need to read about 25 documents in this, ive read almost all of them

This title of this book is quite misleading. A better title would have been, "Writings that Promoted the Growth of Statist Ideology in America." There are smattering of poems and songs that all Americans have loved and cherished, pre-civil war entries, but selection of political writings of the post Civil War period are mostly Democrats, and the cultural entries are typically songs and anthems that inspired the New Left in America. Democrats and socialists will love this book because it will inspire and reenforce their world view. Everyone else will easily note the literary hole that is left out, the writings that inspired true American exceptionalism.

Thanks, this was exactly what was described and all. Perfect transactions are always the best ones to have and I thank you.

Required reading for my son's class...