The Claremont Review of Books, Volume V, Number 1, Winter 2004.

Policy Review, No. 113, October & November, 2005.

I found these essays noteworthy:

• How Eminent Domain Ran Amok by Carla T. Main


• The Overpraised American by Christine Rosen [a review/reappraisal of Christopher Lasch's prescient book The Culture of Narcissism (1979)]

Michael Grant.
The History of Ancient Israel.
London: Phoenix Paperback / Orion Books, Ltd., 1997.
(Originally published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Ltd., 1984.)

Book information: Amazon.com.

I found this short book very instructive on the origins and development of Judaism and Israel through the first century A.D.; and, since a primary source for much of this history is the Hebrew Bible, a good introduction to the Bible as well. One could also look upon this book as an introductory religious and political history of the Near East from about 2000 B.C. through 70 A.D. I look forward to reading The Oxford History of the Biblical World.

Wilfred M. McClay.
A Student's Guide to U.S. History.
Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2000.
(Series: ISI Guides to the Major Disciplines)

Book information: publisher, Amazon.com.

A very insightful and useful guide. The author begins with a much needed general discussion of history and historical consciousness or awareness. The major portion of the book is taken up by discussions of some of the major themes in the study of U.S. History: America and Europe, Capitalism, The City, Equality, Founding, Frontier, Immigration, Liberty, Nation and Federation, Nature, Pluralism, Redeemer Nation, Religion, Revolution, Self-Making, The South. McClay gives helpful references to books on all these themes. He closes with a list of canonical works in American history & literature.

John Lukacs.
A Student's Guide to the Study of History.
Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2000.
(Series: ISI Guides to the Major Disciplines)

Book information: publisher, Amazon.com.

This is a very brief booklet.

Selected articles and essays about John Lukacs:

• The anti-populist: Traditionalist historian John Lukacs laments the direction of conservatism in America by Jeet Heer, a review of Lukacs' most recent book, Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred.


• John Lukacs and Understanding History by Robert Cheeks, a very brief notice (I can't call it a book review) on an anthology of Lukacs' writings, Remembered Past: On History, Historians, and Historical Knowledge; A Reader. Amazon.com link


• History in a Democratic Age: A Conversation with John Lukacs and NEH Chairman Bruce Cole.


• BrothersJudd.com review of Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred.

Joyce Appleby.
Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000 (paperback edition 2001).

Book information: publisher, Amazon.com.

This book is not the kind of descriptive social history that one finds in Jack Larkin's The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790 - 1840. The author based her work upon the autobiographies of individuals born during the period 1776 - 1800. However, as reviewers at Amazon.com have noted, the author indulges in vast generalizations on the basis of this sampling of anecdotal autobiographical materials. She makes claims for significant changes in social behavior which she presents as characteristic of this period; many of these changes seem more like the usual inter-generational conflicts that have occurred throughout history, that are repeated with each generation, and are not necessarially particular to the United States. The author sees the United States in the early Nineteenth Century through the prisms of simple dichotomies: male vs. female, young vs. old, black vs. white, property (land and/or capital) vs. labor, free vs. slave, patriarchy vs. feminism, North vs. South. The author seems to deliberately underappreciate/avoid/ignore the large sub-structure of existing society that underlie the light froth of innovation that occurred during the period she considers. I keep refering to the author because I find that the book is more about the author's interpretations rather than a description of early Nineteenth Century American society. Of course the book is well written and informative, with abundant references to primary and secondary sources. However, I think one should look elsewhere for a history of American society during the early Nineteenth Century.

Jack Larkin.
The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790 - 1840.
New York: HarperPerennial / Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1989.
(Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1988.)

An introductory social history of the early American republic. The author was associated with Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts.

Morris S. Schwartz.
Morrie: In His Own Words.
New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks / Dell Publishing / Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1996.
(Previously published: Letting Go: Morrie's Reflections on Living While Dying. New York: Walker & Company, 1996.)

Book information: Amazon.com.

Colin McEvedy.
The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History.
Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1992.

Book information: Amazon.com.

McEvedy has prepared similar atlases for other periods:

• The New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, 2003.


• The Penguin Atlas of Modern History (To 1815), 1972.


• The New Penguin Atlas of Recent History, 2003.

David Gelernter.
Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber.
New York: The Free Press (A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), 1997.

Book information at Amazon.com.