American History, Combined Edition: 1492 - Present

Great book if you like history!

Thomas S. Kidd breaks everything down into simple sections. I really liked this because a chaotic history wasn’t made any harder to understand. It was made much easier to grasp things kind of one at a time.

I found the book informative and objective. It is not a one-sided book.

I bought this book as an option for homeschooling my high schooler with Ambleside Online. As a former American History teacher, to say that I am "picky" about the types of history books my kids read is an understatement. Kidd's writing reflects a balanced view of the religious and historical forces in the founding and early colonial period- not falling into common tropes or hobby horses as those eras seem to inspire among Christians and non-Christians alike. This book may not be the best choice for a teacher who wants to present the view of the US as a religious monolith (e.g., "all the Founding Fathers were Christians"). Also, most (nearly all?) history texts have sidebars, callouts, and other visual disruptions on the printed page- this does not! There are carefully selected pictures, but no "eye candy". The focus is on the *text*, and good for building long-form reading skills. The book includes events through the election of 2016. While we have only worked through the first few chapters this year (I've skimmed the rest), I can heartily recommend it as an excellent source and look forward to using it for many years.

This book does read like a text book, but a great one. Kidd chunks out important subjects through chapters and through sub chapters it a nice way that keep things moving and interesting. its a long one, and it took me about 2 months (reading 15 min to an hour a day) to read it cover to cover. Some people wont like this book as it has a ton of unbiased religious discussion, but I'm not actively religious and I found it fascinating. This country truly was founded on some religious footing, and it's necessary to accept that in order to truly understand American history. Also, this book is unbiased in nature. Some will be upset that it isn't rooted in American Exceptionalism, but it's not like it makes you sad to be an American. Quite the opposite actually, as you learn about all the progress we've made as a country. It's a time frame by time frame description of what actually happened, bad or good, and that is what Americans should strive to have knowledge of.

Good book.

My goal for 2025 was to learn (or re-learn) more throughout this year and in the future. I am 62 and have forgotten much of what I learned in school. Lol I chose American History as my first subject to start out and narrowed it down to this book. It’s straight forward, doesn’t seem to have an agenda and focuses on the events without too many dates to shuffle through. It does have some dates and timelines but not so much as to overload. So far I am liking this book and have even learned a lot that I never knew, and renewed what I already knew. I would recommend.

All teachers should teach from this text. This is a great book.