The American Yawp Vol. II: Since 1877
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.
I did not notice any errors or inaccuracies and the authors provide a balanced approach to American history.
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.
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.
Given the number of contributors and editors, the textbook shows an excellent consistency in terms of its terminology, framework, and narrative voice.
Each chapter is well-organized with sub-headings and should be easy to reorganize with as necessary.
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.
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.
The text is well-written and edited. I did not notice any grammatical errors.
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.
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.