The American Yawp Vol. II: Since 1877

Reviewed by Michael Ridge, Lecturer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 11/19/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text covers all the conventional areas and ideas for the second half of the American History II course. There is, however, no index or glossary. I have in the past directed students to the index of my assigned textbooks, so its absence could potentially cause minor problems for students studying for a test or trying to complete an assignment.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I did not notice any errors or inaccuracies and the authors provide a balanced approach to American history.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is up-to-date and uses a standard approach to telling the story of American history. Updates will be relatively easy to implement in future revisions.

Clarity rating: 4

The text is written in clear prose that will be easily accessible to a general undergraduate student population. There were a couple of instances that I thought a revision could make things clearer. For instance, on page 164, when writing about the post-World War I situation, the authors state, “Radicals bellowed.” That is a verb that many undergraduates would have to look up to understand its meaning.
Another example is on page 346 when the others state, “Looking to incentivize peace talks, Nixon pursued a “madman strategy” of attacking communist supply lines across Laos and Cambodia, hoping to convince the North Vietnamese that he would do anything to stop the war.” That paragraph does not adequately explain the “madman strategy” or the expansion of the war to Laos and Cambodia.

Consistency rating: 5

Given the number of contributors and editors, the textbook shows an excellent consistency in terms of its terminology, framework, and narrative voice.

Modularity rating: 5

Each chapter is well-organized with sub-headings and should be easy to reorganize with as necessary.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The textbook is organized in a standard chronological fashion similar to traditional textbooks and how most History II courses are organized.
The only potential exception is that there no chapter on Reconstruction in Volume II. While it is understandable since the textbook starts at 1877, many History II courses, including my own, begin in 1865.

Interface rating: 5

I did not notice any interface problems with the online edition. The textbook features text and black and white pictures, all of which appear perfectly on the screen. Associated with Stanford University Press, the textbook is professionally done.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is well-written and edited. I did not notice any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I did not notice anything in the text which could be considered culturally insensitive or offensive. The writers successfully incorporated diverse voices and experiences throughout the textbook. For instance, I appreciated the sections on “Women and Imperialism” in Chapter 19.

Comments

I would recommend this textbook and its companion reader, to instructors looking for an alternative to traditional for-profit textbooks for their American history introductory courses.

Reviewed by Francesca Morgan, Associate Professor, Northeastern Illinois University on 5/5/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

I did not find an index or glossary. Neither was needed. But I found punctilious citations and helpful lists for further reading, for each chapter. Yes, the coverage in each chapter was comprehensive and had plenty of newer subject matter and methods as well as older ones.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found a few small errors detectable only to the field's insiders, such as Tanton, MA, instead of Taunton, MA. But the authors of American Yawp invite readers to contact them about errors. This matter does not interfere in any way with the broader matter of fact. While no text can be free of bias, the text stresses newer approaches and corrects older and harmful biases. It is accurate in all the important ways and it contains what the educated layperson should know.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Yes, the authors of this textbook strove hard against the fallacy that "history ends with me" and instead portrayed each large historical matter as ever open to revisionist perspectives. The text also invited students to link history to the present, thus reinforcing history's relevance to readers. This is an ideal and important quality in an introductory text.

Clarity rating: 5

Yes, the writing is simultaneously clear and sophisticated. The writers also understand the value of concision, which is a very important matter in an introductory text. Extraneous details and examples would otherwise put off the reader. The text also enhances its accessibility through the use of visuals, namely photographs and a few short films. These materials also reinforced the text's readability.

Consistency rating: 5

Yes, I never found matters of inconsistency that would interfere with reading.

Modularity rating: 5

Yes, the modularity is a strong quality of this textbook. Brief, clearly written chapters lend themselves to weekly modules, in a 15-17 week semester, meaning 1-2 chapters per week. But chapters can stand alone when necessary.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Yes, each chapter is organized in the same way: prose with headings and linked citations, followed by lists of further readings and primary source collections made up of short historical documents from the time, and visuals. These primary source collections were crucial to our class meetings. While on Zoom I used breakout groups and encouraged students in each of them to choose 3 primary sources (including visuals) in each chapter to discuss.

Interface rating: 5

I found no such issues in either volume of the textbook (a total of 30 chapters).

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no such mistakes. The writing is a model for clear and straightforward writing.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Yes, inclusivity is a major strength of this textbook. On this matter, American Yawp does better than many paper/commercial textbooks in the same field. (I have been teaching US history survey courses since 1998 and I have used 4-5 different textbooks before adopting American Yawp in 2020.)

Comments

I used Vol I in the early America survey, through 1877, and Vol II in the modern and recent U.S. survey, 1877 to the present. Each volume was as strong as the other, in all the qualities I described. I recommend American Yawp often to colleagues, notably on social media (historians' groups).

Reviewed by Mark Benbow, Associate professor, Marymount University on 2/25/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The American Yalp is thorough in most respects, although it is often a bit weak on people of color.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

This is the area where the American Yawp really falls down. On the whole, it's fairly accurate, but I caught enough sloppy errors (listed below) to make me hesitant to use it. Even worse, many of these errors were pointed out back in 2019 but were not corrected as of February 2021. I tried leaving comments but after my first comment (on William Jennings Bryan) I found that this function no longer worked for me. Given that some of the errors I noticed were pointed out by others two years ago, this makes me wonder about the authors' attention to making corrections. Please note that I paid special attention to chapters 16-20 (The Gilded Age through WWI) as these chapters over-lap my own area(s) of expertise. This list is not comprehensive and I did not include errors that others noticed that I did not.

Chapter 16: Capital and Labor
Paragraphs 8-11; Jumps from the 1877 railway strikes to Henry Ford's assembly lines and then back to the 1880s.
Paragraph 56: William Jennings Bryan was a member of the US House of Representatives, not the Nebraska legislature.

Chapter 17: Conquering the West
Where is the discussion of African-Americans? Aside from a brief mention of Buffalo soldiers and black cowboys (mentioned in passing) they are missing. At least mention Exodusters.

Chapter 18 Life in Industrial America
Paragraph 21: Needs a short definition of Push and pull factors in immigration.
Paragraph 23: Says William Riordon published “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” in 1930, but then lists the date as 1905 in the citation. Paragraph needs a brief discussion of “Patronage” for context.

Chapter 19: American Empire
Very brief discussion of the Spanish-American War. Given the importance of the war in the development of American imperialism it’s worth more than one paragraph.
Paragraph 21: Fails to disclose that the cause of the Maine’s explosion was an accident. And the Maine sank in a shallow harbor, not the “ocean.”
Paragraph 24: The caption refers to Hawaii and the Canal Zone as having been Spanish possessions.
Paragraph 25: Deals with the takeover of Hawaii in a single sentence.
Paragraph 39: Roosevelt exerted control over Puerto Rico? I thought that was McKinley. And Panama's revolution was in 1903, not 1901.
No discussion of African-Americans and imperialism except for a brief mention of Ida Wells.

Chapter 20: The Progressive Era
Paragraph 7: The women who made it to the rooftop in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire made it to the next building., It was the women trapped in the 8th and 9th floors that jumped. (And this section relies on an outdated source).
The whole chapter relies on some outdated sources, including Richard Hofstadter and Gabriel Kolko.

Chapter 21: World War I & Its Aftermath
Paragraph 8: gets the name of the Austro-Hungarian Empire wrong, using “Austrian” instead. Also ignores the role of the Serbian Black Hand in the discussion of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination.
Paragraph 14: They were not German arms, although it was a German ship. And Diaz fled in 1911.
Paragraph 32-33: That’s it on black troops? Many did see combat after being “loaned’ to the French.
Paragraph 52: Wilson was not the first president to travel overseas (Taft went to the canal zone as did TR) but he was the first to travel to Europe and to leave the US for an extended period.
Paragraph 57: Senator Lodge’s opponents blocked the treaty in the Senate? I think they meant his supporters, or “Lodge’s opposition blocked”
Paragraph 61: Overemphasizes the role of anti Communism in Wilson’s policy, although this is a contentious point among historians.
Overall: No maps, and no good photos of the trenches.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Because of the nature of the text with the ability to update it, I have no doubt that it will remain relevant. Updated interpretations should be relatively easy to insert without disrupting the flow of the test.

Clarity rating: 5

The Amerian Yawp is well-written and compares favorably with texts from established publishers. Some students may find it dry (as if American history could be dry!), but the text flows nicely and the authors are good about finding details that illustrate their points.

Consistency rating: 5

There are no issues with the text's consistency or its use of terminology.

Modularity rating: 3

The chapters are easy to assign as individual sections, but I was not impressed with how easily individual subsections could be divided. That may just be my own bias showing, as I rarely assigned parts of texts smaller than individual chapters.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Well organized and fits the breakdown most history texts take. My only real complaint is that the Vietnam War is not its own, separate chapter. That's how I prefer to teach it and I wish The American Yawp was organized that way.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is very well done. It did waste a bit of paper printing because the size of the photographs meant that they got their own separate pages, but that may be my printer set up. On the whole, I found it easy to read online.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No errors that I saw, but I'm not the best editor myself.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

It's fine but there were spots where I thought it could include more details and could better integrate peoples of color into the wider narrative. However, it did a better job than many of the published textbooks I looked at. For example, Chapter 21 on The First World War barely mentions the Great Migration and barely touches on black veterans including the Harlem Hellfighters.

Comments

The American Yawp includes a very well-thought-out selection of illustrations. Their choices of cartoons to illustrate points is especially good. Unfortunately, it lacks sufficient maps. For example, the chapter of the First World War lacks a single one.

Reviewed by Robert Harrison, Instructor of History, Linn-Benton Community College on 7/16/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This book presents a fairly traditional survey of American history since the 1870s, with coverage of every major economic, political, military, and social movement. However, more emphasis is given to economic history than is necessary, and too little attention is given to race and popular culture, especially to Mexican-American and Asian-American history. While a fairly traditional review of African American history is provided, with all the names and events which we would expect to find, more stories of people of color, especially women, were needed. Police brutality toward African Americans, systemic racism in housing, education, and the criminal justice system also needs to be expanded. Too many stories and images are of white men--these men are doubtless important, but the stories of women of color need to receive more attention. The book adheres too closely to a traditional canon of economic and political events which has been revised. I suggest a more bottom-up approach, less of the "great man" approach. Description of military events also needs modest expansion--the account of Pearl Harbor and Normandy are simply too short. Perhaps more importantly, more attention should be paid to the contrast between what America promises and what it delivers--while this theme is present in the book, it's not really embraced. The notion of American myth receives only glancing notice, while it really should be at the heart of any study of our past.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found the book to be quite accurate in its depiction of events, though some events, like Women's Suffrage, and gun violence in the West, needed more treatment. The only statements which I question in terms of accuracy are the point that there was a "half hearted recovery from the Great Recession" under Obama. I think many historians and economists would question that characterization. Also, describing Jerry Falwell as a "wildly popular TV evangelist" seems a bit over the top. More importantly, the treatment of Malcolm X needs to be more nuanced; the emphasis on his embrace of violence needs modification. I found that the description of the Reagan Revolution was too rosy in terms of its economic impact, and there wasn't enough on the deception and misinformation provided by the Bush administration in the justification of the Iraq War of 2003. Does this amount to a conservative bias? I'm not sure, but I would just alert instructors to this possibility.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

This is where the book needs to most revision, in my opinion. The writers need to connect past events much more to themes which have emerged over the last year, especially a sweeping reevaluation of racism in America, which I think represents a turning point. It is understandable that with events unfolding so rapidly, historical surveys like this seem behind the times. But that can be remedied, not only in the "recent history" chapter, but throughout the book. I suggest a periodic feature which makes these ties more explicit, perhaps near the end of each chapter. The story of American told in this text seems rather remote from our rapid pace of change. We need the foundation which the book provides, but the idealistic notion of the "American yamp" seems oddly out of tune for our times. I love Whitman, but is he the best choice for an all embracing metaphor of the American experience? Not any longer.

Clarity rating: 5

I found the text very clear; descriptions are straightforward, jargon is avoided, events move smoothly. This is a great strength of the book, in my view.

Consistency rating: 5

Given the book's focus on economic and political history, there is consistency; that focus is carried forward through the entire work. The organization of the book is also quite consistent, though I felt that some chapter headings needed re-working, especially "The Affluent Society" and "The Recent Past".

Modularity rating: 4

The book provides easy to digest sections of text for students, who will not be overwhelmed by the length of sub sections. I think the flow of text needs to be broken up and enhanced further, however, with "Past and Present Connections" sections or special biographical features, or both.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization of chapters is pretty traditional, and for the most part, they work well. However, the chapter on the 1960's is unwieldy and awkward. Too much is crammed into this chapter. The modern Civil Rights movement should be a separate chapter, and so should the Vietnam War. The text I use presents both events in this way, with better results for students, in my view.

Interface rating: 5

The book does a very good job of presenting images and charts in a way which blend seamlessly into the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical problems with the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The featured movers and shakers of American history in the book are familiar and important, but they need to be pushed a bit to the side to include the voices of more women, more Indigenous people and other Americans of color, more immigrants (some of whose stories are a badly needed balance to the "titans of industry" narrative, more poets and artists--in short, more diverse backgrounds.

Comments

While volume 2 of "The American Yawp" provides a traditional introduction modern American history, it needs some work to truly speak to our students in a time of promising and rapid change.

Reviewed by Erin Redihan, Visiting Lecturer, Worcester State University on 6/2/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Overall, I think this is a very useful textbook for a survey course. The level of detail is quite strong throughout the book, though it skews a bit towards the pre-World War II era. Coverage of the Great Depression (particularly how it occurred) is a bit sparse, as is that on the Korean War and Watergate, but those gaps can be filled in class. Meanwhile the depth of information on the Franklin Roosevelt administration is excellent.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Textbook is factually accurate. The information offered is complete and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I think this book will stand the test of time. Other than adding to (and eventually beyond) the last chapter on recent America, I doubt that this book will require much in the way of revision.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is very approachable, even for non-majors. It is very well-written and the people discussed are those who I would talk about in class, which gives some continuity between the lecture and the reading and helps to reinforce what to focus on when studying.

Consistency rating: 5

The book follows a set pattern in terms of how each chapter is framed and its dedication to looking at specific cultural groups as events and policies have impacted these demographics. The writing style is very uniform too. It reads as a singular narrative rather than several contributing voices, which is nice, particularly if one is assigned to read parts of several chapters for a single assignment.

Modularity rating: 5

I think the division of each chapter is well done. The sections are broken up logically and they are long enough to be meaningful without being too lengthy and daunting for a non-major to read in a single sitting. The amount of information in each section is well balanced and the images are distributed evenly too, helping to break up the text, with the exception of the Cold War chapter (25), which could probably be divided into two chapters so that more attention could be afforded to the Korean War.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Overall, I think the chapters are arranged logically and the conclusion at the end of each is extremely useful for reviewing what one has learned. The book is substantial without becoming overly dense. The one exception is the chapter on empire (19), which jumps around a bit too much chronologically. I'm not sure I would have put immigration in that chapter either. On the other hand, the Progressive chapter (20) is excellent. It covers the wide-ranging movement very well, with both depth and breath, without becoming overwhelming.

Interface rating: 4

What struck me about the PDF version is how clear the images are. The photos are quite vivid, as is the text on the screen. It is a bit tedious to locate chapters within the book. It would be helpful to have the page numbers in the Table of Contents match up with the page numbers of the PDF, but this is a relatively minor flaw.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This is extremely well-written, without any noticeable errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I think the book does an excellent job providing a multifaceted view of American history. It is the best survey text I've seen yet in terms of covering Native American viewpoints and affairs, particularly in the early chapters. Its discussion of women's history is fairly thorough too. I think the sections covering African Americans and US government policy (particularly in World War I and in reference to the New Deal) are very well done too.

Comments

Overall, this is a very good textbook that compares favorably with those currently available for purchase. I appreciate that there are multiple formats (PDF and black and white print copy) and I look forward to using the American Yawp in my survey courses this fall.

Reviewed by Amanda Beyer-Purvis, Affiliate Faculty, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 2/13/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The American Yawp, Vol II covers a vast amount of ground in a length that is digestible and readable for introductory course audiences. It strikes a good balance between overarching themes and detailed and direct historical moments that bring the subject alive for readers. For a foundations course, typically "U.S. History Since 1877," this would provide a good textbook base that could be supplemented by more focus detailed readings from the instructor. It is light on text containing primary source "first person narratives" and could benefit from bolding key terms throughout the text and perhaps including hyperlinks to a glossary that can help students identify key concepts and unfamiliar terms. I could not find an index, but perhaps it was simply not an intuitive find on my part.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate and uses reliable and tested sources from known historians in the field. The text takes a very un-biased approach and let's events speak for themselves without putting a spin on how students should interpret them. The text is engaging and brings students through a historical narrative in an engaging way that helps them make connections between events and historical trends without editorializing how the reader should process the events presented. There are missed opportunities to include some references to differing theories within the field and how that effects scholarly understanding of the historical narrative, but the material itself is accurate and comprehensive.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Some of the sources used are older, but they are well known and respected source material in the history field. The chapter arrangement follows closely with the way subjects in the "U.S. History Since 1877" courses are typically arranged. This would make the text easy to integrate into current course structures without disrupting most instructors current organization. Unless these courses are undergoing curriculum reform within the department, this text should stay relevant for most instructors for the long term. The updates that would need to occur would likely have to do with new interpretive lenses that come to the field. This is where introducing some references to differing theories in the field could be beneficial. That would make material easily update-able through touching on historiographical shifts without having to change the chapters in any comprehensive way.

Clarity rating: 4

The text is written very well and does not use obscure or "insider" language. This is important for accessibility for students being introduced to the material and perfect for 101 level course. There are moments where the text is introducing a new term (e.g. Gilded Age) where they slowly bring in the context and features of the era until finally one has a picture of why the era might be termed as it is. The text could benefit from being more explicit upfront about these terms by providing direct definitions before moving into the greater context and perhaps bolding or italicizing them to emphasize their importance as historical terms and concepts.

Consistency rating: 5

The text does a great job with internal consistency, both narratively and organizationally. Readers will find an identical structure from chapter to chapter and consistent language used throughout.

Modularity rating: 5

This text would work well with a modular course model that takes sections individually. The flow from chapter to chapter sometimes feels abrupt, but this may be intentional to allow flexibility and re-arrangement of topics so that courses can be individualized. Subtitled sections within each chapter are also very nicely self-contained and could be pulled out to create specialized topics if an instructor desires, such as "Native American" historical narrative or "American Capitalism" historical narratives. Instructors could benefit from these even more if hyperlinks were added for subheading within chapters.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

As mentioned in the comment on consistence, the organization of the text is excellent. Readers will find an identical structure from chapter to chapter and consistent language used throughout. Additionally, the chapter arrangement follows closely with the way subjects in the "U.S. History Since 1877" courses are typically arranged. This would make the text easy to integrate into current course structures without disrupting most instructors current organization.

Interface rating: 5

The interface of this textbook is very easy to use and contains large, gorgeous, and relevant images for each topic and sub topic that will interest the reader. Navigation from chapter to chapter and from the table of contents is very intuitive to use. Though again, the addition of key term markers or a glossary might be beneficial, as well as an index so students could easily find topics throughout the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical or spelling errors

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Though never editorializing, the textbook does a great job of organizing material to create a picture of how historical events and trends impacted diverse American populations. The text makes a point of touching on how, in each historical period, Native populations, immigrant populations, lower socio-economic populations, as well as aristocratic classes were experiencing events differently. This creates a fuller picture of the American story, a crucial component to good readings for introductory history classes.

Comments

There are some aspects to this textbook that are unlike traditional texts that may require some supplemental material from instructors. For example, there are no maps included in any of the images, so the movement of peoples, population shifts, and wartime deployments traditionally included in history textbooks to show the geographical contexts and scale of historical events would need to be supplemented by instructors, if desired. As mentioned above, the textbook itself does not highlight important terms and does not include reflection or "knowledge testing" questions that are typically in textbooks, so again, that would need to be added/highlighted by the instructor, if desired. But overall, the textbook is comprehensive and hits on the important events and themes that introductory courses use and does so in an engaging and concise way.

Reviewed by Geoffrey Pollick, Assistant Professor, Radford University on 1/31/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

As an historical survey authored by a large body of contributors, this second volume of _The American Yawp_ applies a wide perspective to the chronology it addresses. As observed by reviewers of Volume I, the text’s polyvocal authorship aids the breadth of its subject matter while limiting its depth of characterization. This is no deficiency. The text’s narrative swiftness allows for greater topical inclusion, appropriate for the survey genre, and the footnotes and reference lists included with each chapter connect readers to deeper trajectories of scholarship. All principal subject matter of traditional U.S. history surveys appears, and some topics not commonly addressed also receive coverage. Inclusion of the chapter “The Recent Past” draws the volume’s broad narrative into the present and establishes connections between concerns that are contemporary with readers and the habits of mind instilled through historical research and interpretation. Volume II of _The American Yawp_ continues to prove useful in the standard U.S. history survey course as well as providing entry points into more specialized historiographies.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The volume presents an accurate accounting of its subject matter and avoids bias while adopting a definite perspective. Emphasizing an inclusive topical frame, the text attempts to balance its subject matter by presenting a composite of various interpretations.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Chapters generally rely on a reasonable consensus of recent scholarship and the HTML-format version of the text allows for submission of precise feedback at the level of individual paragraphs. Editors have proven responsive to feedback, providing annual summaries of changes to the text since 2016, and consistently expanding a range of supplementary resources. The editors link to primary sources for each chapter and to a robust selection of teaching aids.

Clarity rating: 5

Pitched to an introductory audience, the volume’s prose avoids tedious or burdensome expression. The authors introduce students to the craft of historical interpretation by modeling techniques rather than through oblique explanation.

Consistency rating: 5

Chapters are edited across the volume to present a consistent voice. The text proves highly readable and remains coherent throughout but avoids stylistic monotony.

Modularity rating: 5

Divided between fifteen chapters, the volume easily maps onto a traditional semester academic calendar. Individual chapters retain internal consistency that allows for rearrangement in a thematically driven approach or to alter the volume’s presentation of chronology.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The use of chapter editors to organize material from teams of contributors lends a consistent frame to the overall text and a consistent narrative voice to each chapter. The collectivity of chapters speaks in a productive plurality of voices and coherently articulates the volume’s broad, shared themes as well as the progression between its many topics.

Interface rating: 4

The text can be accessed at no cost in an HTML format that includes hyperlinked chapters and references; as a PDF document without hyperlinked apparatus; or in print, available from Stanford University Press for a list price of 25 USD. Page layouts are clear in all formats, pairing text with a judicious and substantial selection of images that is impressive for an open-access resource. Addition of hyperlinked chapters and references would improve the PDF document, and addition of an index to all formats would benefit readers.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The volume’s prose is edited to a very high standard and remains essentially free of grammatical error, exhibiting both accuracy and clarity.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

_The American Yawp_ demonstrates excellence in inclusive historical scholarship. Under a theme of Whitman’s poetic self-song, the pair of volumes empowers students to own history by imagining themselves into the work of historiography. Framed through a common preface, the volumes speak together not only about the content and interpretations of the U.S. past, but about the significance of crafting history as a means of achieving self-understanding. As the text attends to “both chorus and cacophony together” in narrating U.S. history, it likewise merges the polyphony of recent scholarship into concise symphonic interpretations. The editors and contributors position attention to context and contingency not only in a historicist drive for recollection of the past, but in their well-judged presentism. As the contributors frame the production of history, contexts of the present guide interest in the past, and present contexts will give way to other future interests, just as interpreters now ask questions that differ from previous readings. In all, Volume II of _The American Yawp_ delivers a highly approachable yet substantial synopsis of recent historical scholarship on U.S. history since the 1870s, and incorporates a broad selection of perspectives and experiences in its narration.

Reviewed by Jason Sampson, Professor, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on 1/6/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Volume II of The American Yawp is a comprehensive survey of the second half of the American History series. It is organized both chronologically and thematically and in easily digestible format, though the focus on chronology leads to some themes being broken up into multiple chapters. It covers all of the generally expected topics for an American survey course, from the rise of Big Business and Organized Labor, American Imperialism, Progressivism, World Wars and the Crisis of Capitalism, as well as the Cold War and beyond. Though the material is comprehensive, the lack of an index or glossary is a major oversight, especially considering the thematic divisions mentioned previously.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content covered is accurate with little noticeable bias. The text does a solid job of presenting conflicting viewpoints, highlighting both the tragic and triumphant aspects of the past. Though this approach might not please those who prefer to read the hagiographies of great men, it is one that is inline with the mainstream approach to American history today.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The text is up to date, and the division of chapters should make it easy to update. A summary of recent updates done for 2019-2020 is available at the top of the table of contents, making it easy for readers to assess. Each chapter provides not just a list of footnotes, but also suggested readings that combine a selection of classic works and the most recent scholarship.

Clarity rating: 3

The text is free of jargon, making it readable and easily accessible to the average college student. However, there is one significant drawback in clarity in this book: each chapter consists of only text and images. The book is severely lacking in maps, timelines, charts, or other visual. All of these types of visuals are key to understanding history and their lack of inclusion here will require any instructor who adopts this book to provide their own.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent throughout each chapter, indicative of the high quality of editing to bring consistency to the work of more than 300 contributors.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is very modular and easy to break up. Each chapter consists of multiple subsections that can easily be assigned individually. Whatever your teaching style, you should be able to assign entire chapters or individual sections to meet your learning outcomes.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The textbook is organized both chronologically and thematically and easily navigable through links in the table of contents. Each chapter is similarly organized thematically and chronologically with subheadings.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is easy to use and navigate. All chapters and subsection are easy to find through navigable hypertext links.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were no glaring grammatical errors that would have detracted from the overall presentation.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book does a good job of presenting diverse cultural viewpoints on the American experience. If anything, the text may frustrate old-school historians by spending as much time on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s views on female domesticity as it does on Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire. The primary sources included at the end of each chapter are similarly diverse, expressing the viewpoints of women, the indigenous population, immigrants, and people of color.

Comments

Overall this is an excellent example of the best work in open source textbooks. The minor flaws in the text can be addressed with supplemental items from any instructor who adopts, allowing them to customize the experience for their students and save them a great deal of money in the process.