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    U.S. History

    Reviewed by Leah Hagedorn, Professor of History, Tidewater Community College on 8/15/17

    Comprehensiveness rating: 2

    This promising textbook would benefit from greater comprehensiveness and greater depth. The book is easily searchable. In considering the text for community college use, at least twenty percent of community college students have disabilities and it would have been wonderful if the authors had incorporated more disability history into the text. Too, the book needs more intellectual history, with fuller coverage of republicanism, for example. More attention to the history of the development of technologies would broaden the appeal of this text to twenty-first century students.

    Content Accuracy rating: 4

    I hope that in subsequent revisions the authors will do more with American isolationism.

    Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

    This text appears easily updateable.

    Clarity rating: 4

    This text is clearly written, although some word choices (for example, "tripwire") will be unfamiliar to twenty-first century students.

    Consistency rating: 5

    The text is internally consistent.

    Modularity rating: 5

    The modularity will be helpful to those who need small reading units.

    Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

    The text is clearly organized.

    Interface rating: 1

    The interface needs improvement for accessibility; the free versions need variable line spacing and enlargeable fonts (features that the free PDF didn't offer).

    Grammatical Errors rating: 5

    The book is clearly written.

    Cultural Relevance rating: 2

    The text needs greater coverage of people with disabilities as historical actors and more attention to the experiences of members of immigrant groups.

    Comments

    This work, particularly if revised, has the potential to replace many U.S. survey texts. It needs more people; the text seems to offer a bird's eye view of U.S. history. It would be wonderful to have more accounts of individuals whose experiences embody historical movements and moments. The linked resources are well-chosen but marginalize digital divide students.

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