America Book Reviews Samples For Students

1. What were conditions like for black people in the U.S. in the early 1960’s? From the textbook: What legal and societal mechanisms created and kept black people in these conditions?
Conditions for black people in the United States during the early 1960’s where bleak, they faced social, economic and educational discrimination. These forms of discrimination, created by an informal but controlling white male elite political governing consortium reached back into the anti-bellum tradition. These mechanisms kept black people in these conditions by allowing entrenched areas or the country to remain severely segregated. Even when Brown vs. Continue reading...

Introduction

Elaine Kamarck seeks to explain the bureaucratic approaches in keeping with the information age economy. This argument, although it seems illogical, stems from the assertions that have risen from political leaders that suggest that the government in modern days has shifted from being the necessary solution to becoming a problem. Such statements will not be taken lightly by citizens who look up to the government to provide solutions to the many problems they face. One man who is against such an opinion is Kamarck. Largely, Kamarck supports the endeavors that the government takes in order to make the citizens Continue reading...

The Irish Way

Analysis of Chapters
The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett describes the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. The author of the book has structured it in a very interesting manner. To show the various interactions of the Irish immigrants, the book has been subdivided into sections namely, The Parish, The Street, The Stage, The Workplace, The Nation and The Machine. This essay however focus on two of three sections that is, The Workplace, The Stage and The Nation as well as the introductory part Continue reading...

Summary of the highlights of the subject covered by the book

The book George Washington in the American Revolution by James Thomas Flexner is a book that covers the period of the revolutionary war in the United States of America. The book captures the key moments of George Washington; from the time of his selection as the commander of Continental Army to the moment he resigned and handed over his sword to the American Congress in the year 1783. The author covers that period and places much focus on the personal experience of George Washington in the army, while at the same time dwelling a little on the revolution in Continue reading...

Who need to be considered as the primary cause of racism in the United States? Does having a black president mean the US is already free or clear of racial issues; that things have already changed especially in the field of how the justice system is implicated? Michelle Alexander’s written work The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, explicates the truth behind the supposed color blinded justice system in the US. Relatively, she notes of the expectations that were given attention to by the American people and by the world as the new president [ Continue reading...

Revolution, Revival and Religious Conflict in Sandinista Nicaragua by Calvin L. Smith

In his book, Smith brings out the rise of the Sandinistas. The course of their rise is along the emblements of social, economic and political spheres. In this regard, the rise was envisaged in the year nineteen seventy nine. It is significant to denote that, the war was facilitated by religion on a great extent. The protestant believers are believed to have significantly supported ambitions of the Sandinistas. In essence, this followed a schism along religious lines in the United States of America. Proactively, the Sandinistas were anti-Christian. In the same cordial relationship between the Protestants and the Evangelicals, Continue reading...

“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” is a memoir of Frederick Douglas. Douglas was an African American who born as a slave and spent his early life in slavery. Douglas, in his memoir, describes his own life, experiences, sufferings and life of other slaves in a very realistic manner. This narrative was published in 1845 and has been revised several times due to its popularity. This paper proposes to discuss Frederick Douglass and analyses his memoir and several other related aspects.
Frederick Douglas talks about his date of birth and about his parents in First Continue reading...

Elizabeth Clerk-Lewis in her book narrates the experiences and lives of African American in Washington and how women worked for wealthy white families. This writer has given detailed and reliable information regarding the African American racism, since a grandmother was part of the great migration of the African American, and she could give an oral history regarding the migration. This has enabled her to publish a book with first-hand information that is not biased. Over the last few decades, the essential meaning of gender and sex had been transformed to mean something different apart from its actual meaning. Racial Continue reading...

The Second World War has been regarded as the Good War for many reasons, and many have defended the participation of the United States in it as morally and rationally justified. This justification is based on the belief that Germany and Japan were threatening the power balance of the world and would have posed an impending danger to America and the rest of the free world if they were not stopped.
The book was written in 1972, in a time where the United States had waged many other wars, and the public had started to question the stand taken Continue reading...

Book review (The Quiet American Dream)

Ethnic Stereotypes: Americans vs. Europeans.
Greene in his Quiet American Dream is vivid about the disparity between the Americans and the British in terms of their conduct. In this case, Pyle is one character that is used by Greene to establish the unruly conduct of the Americans. They are expressed to be untimely. That is; they are not time observant. On the other hand, they are different from the British people who are stern and concerned about what they do. For instance, Fowler, who represents the British, states that he, is not willing to wait upon a policeman to Continue reading...

“Chain Her by One Foot: The Subjection of Women in Seventeenth-Century New France” exhaustively exposes how the advent of the Europeans disrupted the feminine roles, responsibilities and way of life in the native America. The author, Karen Anderson, who has served the government and the people of Scotland at different capacities, as the commissioner of Royal Fine arts, chair of Architecture and Design and founding partner of Anderson Bell Christie is the convener of the Saltire Housing Design Award Panel. Her eloquence in communication and professionalism in architecture has enabled her handle several community based projects that specifically involve Continue reading...

Book Review: How Race Survived U.S. History
Roediger (2012) in his book “How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon” presents a good analysis of U.S. history to the readers. The book is considered as one of the best works, performed in the field of American history. Roediger is history professor at University of Illinois, and has a great understanding of the subject which is clearly reflected in the book. The book presents a detailed analysis of race related issues that were prevailing during the past. This paper presents an analysis of the book Continue reading...

How Race Survived U.S. History
How Race Survived U.S. History
David R. Roediger, history professor at the University of Illinois, delves deep in his book, “How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon” in order to investigate how the race was created around 1600 and was kept breathing to the present day America. Roediger recalls how the idea of race used to exist during the significant moments of American history. Racism travelled from American Revolution through the American civil war and to the modern status of United States of America.
Roediger defines the race Continue reading...

How Race Survived U.S. History
The book, “How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon” is a highly acclaimed book, authored by David R. Roediger, who teaches history at the University of Illinois. The author, in his book, examines the issue of race in a broader manner and presents a very good analysis before the readers. This paper intends to discuss the above named book and further presents a succinct analysis of the book.
Roediger explores the issue of race and examines how race was created deliberately in order to ensure the dominance of Continue reading...

Racism remains one of the most difficult topics that have generated a heated debate in the United States. In fact, the United States has experienced issues aligned with racism since a long time ago. Rodgers’ book, “How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon” offers a substantive review on various issues regarding racism. To be precise, the first three chapters of Roediger’s books over an overview of how the idea of racism has been reinvented over time in the United States history. The United States has experienced several historical events such as the Continue reading...

Introduction

The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett is a masterpiece written to describe the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. Widespread insecurity, callous English colonizers and the ghost of great famine still lingering on and on in their lives, made this ethnic group be convinced that home was longer a home anymore. They descended in United States of America in large numbers. James R. Barrett in his book notes that these people were the first group of immigrants to settle in America. According to him, Continue reading...

Edmund Morris is best renowned as a biographies’ writer; especially for writing the biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, the United States’ Presidents. He acquired his early tutoring in Kenya. Afterwards, he went to South Africa to attend the Rhodes University. Later, he moved to London and became an advertising copywriter. In 1968, he migrated to the USA. "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” is a classic non-fiction historical account of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and stands out as one of the best biographies of the contemporary times. In 1980, the mentioned biography won the Pulitzer Prize and Continue reading...

Angola is a country found in West Africa. During the 15th century, the Portuguese established contacts with the inhabitants of the North Western part of the country mostly the Mbundu and the Imbangala who actively engaged in slave trade. Their activities in slave trade had great impact in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The black legend refers to an anti- Spanish propaganda which was commenced by the Italian and Protestant writers in the 16th century. It was in opposition of Spain’s brutality and aggression toward rebels in its properties both in America and Europe.
Dona Marina was an Indian Continue reading...

The dialectical relationship between love and material objects is complex. In the United States of America different elements in culture often take opposing sides: some, like most spiritual organizations, favoring the former, and others, like the capitalistic worldview, favoring the latter. O. Henry was one of this country’s most famous turn-of-the-nineteenth-century writers, who constantly incorporated its culture into his texts; “The Gift of the Magi”, one of his most famous and important short stories, deals with this dichotomy. Using many of O. Henry’s staples, it rests on irony to construct a bittersweet tale where love ends up Continue reading...

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(Book Review)
Rochester, New York is renowned for being the hub for the religious revival that thrived in the early 19th century in the United States of America and changed the society greatly. Due to the mentioned historical reinforcement and stimulation, the United States of America turned out to be the world’s most militantly Protestant country. It also had a great effect on a majority of other antebellum reform movements in the North. In particular, it affected the movements that were meant for the slavery abolition and temperance. Nevertheless, even though a lot of historians Continue reading...

Book Review: “First to Fight: An inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps.”
The book “First to Fight: An inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps.” was written by Marine General Victor "Brute" Krulak. In this book, he offers an enthralling and spellbinding insider narrative of the marines of the United States of America. He has written about the fights of US Marines on and off the front line as well as their astonishing esprit de corps. He lets his readers to have a closely look at the experiences that Marine had experienced during World War II. He has Continue reading...

Florence’s Prayer

Part two of Florence’s prayer concentrates on her past and briefly focuses on John’s perspective in the present. Florence attends Gabriel’s church for the first time and still express her dislike for him same way he disliked John. This is because she flashed back her mother’s advice only to bow for Jesus and not any other person hence she would rather go to hell than bow down. She lives in trepidation after receiving messages of her death and prepares her house because her death is imminent.
When the memory of Florence’s past re-surfaces, she Continue reading...

Graham Greene’s novel, The Quiet American explores themes such as love, politics, ideals and engagement through the characters both major and minor. The three major characters in the novel, Pyle, Fowler and Phuong are in a way representative of their countries at that time. The way each looks at the other brings out the basic conflict between them.
Pyle stands for everything that is the idealistic New America, heroic, nosey with a savior mentality that wants to usher in democracy in countries that do not really welcome it. Fowler, the ageing journalist is a character that is symptomatic Continue reading...

The Civil Rights Movement

The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975:
A Brief History with Documents by Van Gosse
Hannah Wilson
In the 1960s, America underwent a monumental change, and everything changed in terms of its culture, status of specific population categories, domestic and foreign policies, and many other aspects under the large-scale, massive, and irreversible influence of the New Left movements. The 1960s were obviously a highly revolutionary period in the US history, mainly due to the rise of many fundamental social movements such as feminists, civil rights protectors, anti-Vietnam war pacifists, and voting rights. For example, Gosse (2005) noted that “in Continue reading...

1. I read Akira Vol. 1 by writer and illustrated Katsuhiro Otomo. I borrowed a copy of the version published by Dark Horse Comics in 2000. The series was first published, however, during the 1980s in Japan.
2. I selected this specific issue because it introduces the readers to the interesting world created by Otomo. When I started reading Akira, the story immediately grabbed my attention because of intriguing story and the interesting characters. Moreover, the idea of a post-apocalyptic Japan was both stimulating and daunting.
3. Otomo worked on Akira. What I like best about the illustrations is Continue reading...

“The Jungle” is a novel by Upton Sinclair, an American Socialist with the intention to address the plight of meat packers in the hands of the beef trust. The setting of the novel is in Chicago; a town where Upton traveled while he was just twenty-six years old with the grand vision to help in sensitizing and pushing for better working conditions of the meat workers. The meat industry seemed to weave together all the misfortunes experienced by all other workers in the American society in the early 1900s.
Upton's novel The Jungle was first published in 1906 and Continue reading...

In the recent past, fast food industry has infiltrated into the lives of many American people. The fast food industry has spread all through the US following the customers to wherever they are. Fast foods are now served almost everywhere: in schools, universities, airports zoos, stadiums and many other places. In a book by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, it is explained how the fast food industry is ruling the lives of many American people. It further points that the industry has turned the American heterogeneous society into a homogeneous one headed to disaster. Eric Schlosser’s compelling evidence Continue reading...

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

The book, “Nickel and Dime” by Gary Soto is once again proof that the author knows how to weave seemingly pointless stories together in order to prove something greater. The novel is a highlight reel of America’s consumerist tendencies, pack mentality, and how we force those we believe do not belong to the sidelines even when they so desperately want to be a part of what we are building. Many of the characters included in the novel appear to be criminals on the surface, desperate for what may not be theirs for the taking. Society paints them in Continue reading...

Introduction

Research shows that the concerns of sexual stereotypes ends up associated with class and racial differentials in America. There is a need to consider the influences of race and the social status of families on the level of communication about sexuality between teenagers and their parents. The research by Elliot reported in the book entitled “Not My Kid: What Parents Believe about the Sex Lives of their Teenagers” cuts across different races under varying social status. Elliot reveals how different classes of individual from varying races perceive sexuality and works towards passing the underlying stereotypes to their children. Statistics Continue reading...

The New Jim Crow is a book written by Michelle Alexander that gives a brief history of the past caste systems that have troubled African-Americans and suggests that currently there is a different caste system. Michelle Alexander is a highly educated civil lawyer, legal scholar, and advocate. The author clearly advocates that today’s caste system is created by the American criminal justice system by aiming black men and imprisoning them. In her book, Michelle debates the legal systems that appear to be doing their work perfectly well. However, according to the author, it is evident that these legal Continue reading...

The Other Struggle for Equal Schools

The book The Other Struggle for Equal Schools: Mexican Americans during the Civil Rights Era by Ruben Donato provides a additional source to a rather scanty amount of literature available dedicated for the understanding of the educational experiences of racial and ethnic minorities such as the Mexican Americans. The title itself is a strong point that is meant to emphasize the idea that prejudice and desegregation are not only limited to that of the African Americans but also extends to the Mexican Americans. Donato used the historical experiences of the African Americans as his point of comparison in establishing Continue reading...

Rightly named by the author, James Grant, his book “Forgotten Depression 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself” is about the economic depression that America faced in the years 1920 and 1921. Touted by a few as equally bad or worse than the great recession of 2007-09, however, this depression of 1921 had managed to swivel away on its own, paving way to a roaring economy of the twenties in America. The author asks the economists and the policy-makers to follow on the similar lines of non-intervention at the times of crisis/recession or depression, thus reducing the extent of damage Continue reading...

Summary of Chapter 3-7 of American Crucible

American Crucible by Gary Gerstle stems from the racialism and ethnicity. This was after Roosevelt led his riders to victory in a war between America and Spain he boasted a lot about Americans been strengthened by war and years later would still inspire the Americans. The objective of this paper is to analyze the book from chapter 3 to chapter seven focusing on the key points and arguments of the author.

Chapter 3

In chapter 3 Gary tries to focus on the boundaries of the nation, 1917 to 1929. Roosevelt’s dream in this chapter is coming true in a battle Continue reading...

“The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness, and Hope,” written by the famous journalist Claudia Kolker after inspired from her immigrant friends in the United States is one of the unique literary works. The book gives a description of various traditions and customs followed by the immigrants and their families dwelling in the United States. Most of the customs followed by the immigrants are unknown to several Americans; however, Kolker feels that the traditions of the immigrants make the Americans understand the reason for happiness and health of the immigrants and their Continue reading...

The popular belief that American independence was fought for economic reasons, such as unfair taxation without representation, has sometimes been challenged by historians. In his book, The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States, Gordon S. Wood defies this view and proposes that the revolution was based on principles such as freedom, republicanism and equality.
According to philosopher Isaiah Berlin, writers can be divided into two categories, those who know about many things, and those who decide to fixate on a single subject. Gordon S. Wood says he belongs to the second kind as his Continue reading...

1) How the story of Jackson Barnett is a story about the denial of Indian rights.Jackson Barnett was a Native American, who made a lot of unexpected fortune from oil that was found on his land (Thorne P. 4). The control of his wealth was violently contested by the Oklahoma state, the Baptist Church, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and even his guardian among others. His case came to national attention as a classic example of India’s Bureau of Affairs mismanagement of Indian property. Contest over Barnett’s fortune lasted about two decades and made the Congress come Continue reading...

Koreans during their rich history, unfortunately, many times had to uphold their independence from the enemy invasions and friendly embrace of powerful neighbors. Korean War, which was the first open conflict between USSR and America, was a bloody conflict that for a long time concealed terrible crimes against humanity. We will raise the pages of the Korean War, see it preconditions and consequences. The paper’s main argument is to examine the historical elements of the book The Guest, written by Hwang Sok-yong, and to analyze the conditions of the Sinchon Massacre. We will discuss Hwang’s description of Continue reading...

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. By Michelle Alexander (New York, The New Press, 2012) 1- 289 pp. Reviewed by (Name), November, 3, 2014>

Introduction

Michelle Alexander is a celebrated civil rights advocate who has been an active participant in the anti- racial profiling campaign in the United States. Born in 1967, Alexander has been persistently advocating reforms in the US criminal justice system. As a law professor and a writer, her name is hugely synonymous to the struggle for racial justice in the United States and has been fighting the war on racial segregation Continue reading...

Immigrants represent a worthy proportion of the population in the United States. The immigrants took part in the First World War when the United States entered it in 1917. It was quite subtle that one out of the five soldiers belongs to the immigrants who sacrifice themselves to serve the nation. In the book, The Long Way Home, David Laskin represents the heroic character of dozen immigrant men. These men were born in Europe who got emigrated to the United States in search of faith and liberty, and ended up fighting with American armed forces in The Great War. Continue reading...

The Immigrant Advantage: What Rest of America can learn from the fresh Immigrants.'

Cultures for Longer and Happier lives
Inspired by her culturally diverse life in Houston, award winning journalist and author Claudia Kolker investigates the attitudes and traditions towards education, hard work and health that have been imported into the United States by immigrants from different nations. She addresses the fact that natives to the United States have so much to learn from foreigners and that they should not be viewed form only an outsider point of view but should instead be embraced for the diversity they introduce to America. She argues that it is meaningless to fuss over their exploding Continue reading...