American History for Middle School

This year I found a new history book to add to our collection.

I love history books that tell the story and explain reasons behind decisions. In the past I have discussed several history spine books. Books that give an overview of a time period which can spark deeper interest into historical topics and help kids to put more in-depth history studies into context. The majority of the books I have found provide overviews of world history, such as the well-known series Story of the World. Since we were studying American History this year, I was looking for something different.

That's when I discovered The Landmark History of the American People. There are two volumes separating American history around the time of the Civil War. The first is from Plymouth to the West and the second is from Appomattox to the Moon. Since we already studied Early American History, we only read volume 2.

The chapters did a good job at explaining causes and effects and discussed subjects that are often overlooked by other books. For example, the book had a sizable section covering mail order catalogs such as Sears and Roebuck, their reasons for coming into existence and how their being affected people. Since reading the book, my son has been asking a lot of questions on topics such as World War II. Yes! Finally he is curious about history.