A Documentary History of the United States

A Documentary History stitches together historical documents, speeches and essays with brief (and largely liberal) comments from the author. Every few documents, a page or two is dedicated to setting the frame of the times, explaining why the following pieces were selected and providing the briefest historical context.

I'm sure this book is more fun to read if you lean left - the author's comments generally reflect a liberal point of view on the social history assembled. However, the reminder that the full and original texts of our history are readily available and immediately accessible to (English speaking) readers, is powerful.

I wish my High School American history teacher had thrown out the Houghton Mifflin and simply handed us copies of this book, instead. Both the method of learning and considering history and the details derived from the study would have been better served.