A Patriot's History of the United States of America

A Patriot’s History of the United States of America, written by Larry Schweikart, covers the history of the United States from its discovery by Columbus in 1492, up until around 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit. This well-researched and footnoted book gives an overview of history that is rarely covered so extensively in other books. Even if you think you remember quite a bit from American history class in high school, this book will probably bring up points that you either never knew or no longer remember.

What You’ll Find

Although this book is about America, the book begins with Europe. It is difficult to understand Columbus’s voyage without taking a look at Marco Polo and Vasco de Gama. Columbus’s voyage didn’t happen in a vacuum; Schweikart does an excellent job of tying in the events of Europe to the discovery of America. Similarly, the author briefly discusses the Aztecs, even though they lived in South America; although the Spanish were not innocent in their conquering in South America, the Aztecs and other South American natives were not the peaceful people that some history books make them out to be. Throughout the book, the author tries to fairly portray both the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the story.

The Patriot’s History of the United States covers all the major figures of history, as well as some that are lesser known, but nevertheless, important. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin’s contributions, but so are the contributions of people like Queen Liliuokalani and Mike Fink. Many of the players in the last part of the book are more familiar to us, like Colin Powell and Sadaam Hussein, because their names were all over the news in our lifetime.

The book discusses every major period of American history. It covers the colonial period, Revolutionary War, the forming of the nation, western expansion, Civil War, reconstruction, the modern wars of the 20th century, and the history of the United States that many of the book’s readers would have lived through. It tries to take an honest look at each event; some of Andrew Jackson’s actions are not viewed with rosy glasses, neither are some of the American’s actions towards the Native Americans. The honesty helps you learn things that you may not have seen in school, where the textbooks sometimes go out of their way to paint the United States in an overly-patriotic way.

Structure of the Book

Each chapter of A Patriot’s History of the United States of America is laid out in a similar format, with a short introduction, a timeline, and then the remainder of the chapter, broken up into manageable sections. This style makes the book easy to read; the layout also makes it easy to look up specific events. Although there is an index in the back of the book, if you cannot remember the name of a specific person or event, the index will not be of use. If you wanted to look up a rebellion that happened in Virginia in the late 1600s, but couldn’t remember that it was called Bacon’s Rebellion, this format is quite useful.

Throughout the chapters, there are extra sections that will answer questions that don’t really fit into the overall narrative of the story. These sections ask questions like “Did Columbus Kill Most of the Indians?” or “Daniel Boone, Civilizer or Misanthrope?” Schweikart lists his sources after these sections, in case you want to read more about the subject.

At the end of the book, there are 69 pages of notes. As I read the book, I found myself turning to the notes when the author mentioned a fact or a conclusion that is new to me. Schweikart uses books, original sources, magazine articles, and reputable web sites to come to his conclusions.

If you are looking for a book that can give you an overview of American history that ties it into what came before and looks forward to the future, A Patriot’s History of the United States of America is well worth a look.

A Patriot's History of the United States of America