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| Authors: David S. Kidder, Noah D. Oppenheim
Publisher: Modern Times
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $16.32
You Save: $7.68 (32%)
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 4831
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 1594867445
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781594867446
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Impress and dazzle your friends! April 21, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Devote five minutes a day to this book, and in one year you'll be able to dazzle - or annoy - your friends with your newfound knowledge about America's past. The Intellectual Devotional: American History is sliced 365 ways and delivered to you in fun-size chunks, one page at a time. It covers seven categories, one for each day of the week.
On each page is a one paragraph summary followed by several paragraphs of detail, followed by two or three footnote-looking trivia nuggets. This reader's digest of U.S. history keeps it brief and interesting.
On Mondays, we learn about Politics and Leadership, from Washington delivering the shortest inaugural address on record to John F. Kennedy winning the Pulitzer Prize.
Tuesdays bring the subject of War and Peace, where we learn tidbits like John Adams, America's second president, serving as the defense attorney to the commander of the British troops following the Boston Massacre. And that two percent of the U.S. population died during the Civil War. Two percent! That's like nine million people at today's prices.
The topic for Wednesdays is Rights and Reform. We follow America's journey living up to its philosophical promise, briefly exploring subjects such as the Great Awakenings and multiple civil rights movements.
On Thursdays, we get down to Business, or the history of it and its impact on the American economy through discoveries of natural resources and advances in technology from the Cotton Gin to the Gold Rush to the Internet.
Friday's theme is Building America, where we learn about the history of building, as well as destroying, America's infrastructure. How did barbed wire get started? Whose idea was that? When did Yankee stadium open, and when do they plan to tear it down? Did Mrs. O'Leary's cow kick over that kerosene lamp? Who knew infrastructure could be so fascinating?
Which brings us to Saturdays and Literature. Edgar Allan Poe. Hemingway. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Did you know that Harriet Beecher-Stowe and Mark Twain were next-door neighbors?
On Sundays, you can enjoy educational entries on the Arts. Do you know from which novel's character Starbuck's gets its name? Which 1990 movie is a remake of Casablanca? How many times has Lisa Marie Presley been married?
The Intellectual Devotional: American History is presented in a way that's entertaining, accessible and easily digestible. You can pick it up and put it down for as little or as long as you like. You can jump to the end and read it backwards, or open it up to a random page and start reading. It's like 365 little Ken Burns documentaries crammed into the convenience of a portable reader.
And why aren't more books adorned with a handy built-in red ribbon bookmark?
Reviewed by Margaret Andrews for Curled Up With A Good Book
 The font is too small November 5, 2007
8 out of 24 found this review helpful
tryied using a magnifying glass but that only works soo long...
I'm returning it to amazon...
 Great memory jogger February 10, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you are a history buff, don't get this. It may seem over simplified. I think this book is great for a high school or college student. It does however makes for great reading on the toilet because the dailies are very short.
Very Sloppy July 27, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the most sloppily edited book I've ever read. Did it even have a proofreader? Page after page suffers errors in dates and basic facts.
Here is a very typical error in the discussion of the Battle of Antietam in 1862. "Nearly 100,000 soldiers participated in the battle--a force of greater size than the entire army that had fought the American Revolution seventy years earlier." So the Revolutionary War was being fought in 1798?
Seriously, this kind of simple error is all over the place. The previous volume had its own errors (there was an article about Mormon prophet Joseph Smith with a random photograph attached claiming to be him), but this one is terrible. And this is just the stuff I know. I hate to think how many errors there are in total because you have to assume that any fact-checking was equally slipshod.
Interesting and Timely! October 16, 2007
4 out of 13 found this review helpful
The five star rating does not do this book justice! The information is presented in an interesting and easy-to-digest way. With the upcoming election season, it is essential reading. To truly gauge where we are moving in the future I think it is incredibly important that we understand our past. This book will help put many at ease when it comes to conversations in 2008!
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